MS Exchange API for PL/SQL

As mentioned in my earlier post, I've been working on a PL/SQL wrapper for the Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS) API. The code is now ready for an initial release!

Features

Using this pure PL/SQL package, you will be able not just to search for and retrieve emails and download attachments, but you will also be able to create emails and upload attachments to existing emails. You can move emails between folders, and delete emails. You can read and create calendar items. You can get the email addresses of the people in a distribution (mailing) list, and more.

Prerequisites

• You need access to an Exchange server, obviously! I've done my testing against an Exchange 2010 server, but should also work against Exchange 2007.
• If the Exchange server uses HTTPS, then you need to add the server's SSL certificate to an Oracle Wallet. See this page for step-by-step instructions.

Usage

The API should be fairly self-explanatory. The only thing you need to do is to call the INIT procedure at least once per session (but remember that in Apex, each page view is a new session, so place the initialization code in a before-header process or a page 0 process).


begin
  ms_ews_util_pkg.init('https://thycompany.com/ews/Exchange.asmx', 'domain\user.name', 'your_password', 'file:c:\path\to\Oracle\wallet\folder\on\db\server', 'wallet_password');
end;

Note also that there are two varieties of most functions: One pipelined function intended for use from plain SQL, and a twin function suffixed with "AS_LIST" that returns a list intended for use with PL/SQL code.

Code Examples

-- resolve names


declare
  l_names ms_ews_util_pkg.t_resolution_list;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_names := ms_ews_util_pkg.resolve_names_as_list('john');
  for i in 1 .. l_names.count loop
    debug_pkg.printf('name %1, name = %2, email = %3', i, l_names(i).mailbox.name, l_names(i).mailbox.email_address);
  end loop;
end;




-- resolve names (via SQL)


select *
from table(ms_ews_util_pkg.resolve_names ('john'))




-- expand distribution list


declare
  l_names ms_ews_util_pkg.t_dl_expansion_list;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_names := ms_ews_util_pkg.expand_public_dl_as_list('some_mailing_list@your.company');
  for i in 1 .. l_names.count loop
    debug_pkg.printf('name %1, name = %2, email = %3', i, l_names(i).name, l_names(i).email_address);
  end loop;
end;




-- get folder


declare
  l_folder ms_ews_util_pkg.t_folder;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_folder := ms_ews_util_pkg.get_folder (ms_ews_util_pkg.g_folder_id_inbox);
  debug_pkg.printf('folder id = %1, display name = %2', l_folder.folder_id, l_folder.display_name);
  debug_pkg.printf('total count = %1', l_folder.total_count);
  debug_pkg.printf('child folder count = %1', l_folder.child_folder_count);
  debug_pkg.printf('unread count = %1', l_folder.unread_count);
end;




-- find up to 3 items in specified folder


declare
  l_items ms_ews_util_pkg.t_item_list;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_items := ms_ews_util_pkg.find_items_as_list('inbox', p_max_rows => 3);
  for i in 1 .. l_items.count loop
    debug_pkg.printf('item %1, subject = %2', i, l_items(i).subject);
  end loop;
end;




-- get items in predefined folder


select *
from table(ms_ews_util_pkg.find_folders('inbox'))




-- get items in predefined folder, and search subject


select *
from table(ms_ews_util_pkg.find_items('inbox', 'the search term'))




-- get items in user-defined folder


select *
from table(ms_ews_util_pkg.find_items('the_folder_id'))




-- get items in user-defined folder, by name


select *
from table(ms_ews_util_pkg.find_items(
             ms_ews_util_pkg.get_folder_id_by_name('Some Folder Name', 'inbox')
            )
          )




-- get item (email message)


declare
  l_item ms_ews_util_pkg.t_item;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_item := ms_ews_util_pkg.get_item ('the_item_id', p_include_mime_content => true);
  debug_pkg.printf('item %1, subject = %2', l_item.item_id, l_item.subject);
  debug_pkg.printf('body = %1', substr(l_item.body,1,2000));
  debug_pkg.printf('length of MIME content = %1', length(l_item.mime_content));
end;




-- get item (calendar item)


declare
  l_item ms_ews_util_pkg.t_item;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_item := ms_ews_util_pkg.get_item ('the_item_id', p_body_type => 'Text', p_include_mime_content => true);
  debug_pkg.printf('item %1, class = %2, subject = %3', l_item.item_id, l_item.item_class, l_item.subject);
  debug_pkg.printf('body = %1', substr(l_item.body,1,2000));
  debug_pkg.printf('length of MIME content = %1', length(l_item.mime_content));
  debug_pkg.printf('start date = %1, location = %2, organizer = %3', l_item.start_date, l_item.location, l_item.organizer_mailbox_name);
end;




-- create calendar item


declare
  l_item ms_ews_util_pkg.t_item;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_item.subject := 'Appointment added via PL/SQL';
  l_item.body := 'Some text here...';
  l_item.start_date := sysdate + 1;
  l_item.end_date := sysdate + 2;
  l_item.item_id := ms_ews_util_pkg.create_calendar_item (l_item);
  debug_pkg.printf('created item with id = %1', l_item.item_id);
end;




-- create task item


declare
  l_item ms_ews_util_pkg.t_item;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_item.subject := 'Task added via PL/SQL';
  l_item.body := 'Some text here...';
  l_item.due_date := sysdate + 1;
  l_item.status := ms_ews_util_pkg.g_task_status_in_progress;
  l_item.item_id := ms_ews_util_pkg.create_task_item (l_item);
  debug_pkg.printf('created item with id = %1', l_item.item_id);
end;




-- create message item


declare
  l_item ms_ews_util_pkg.t_item;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_item.subject := 'Message added via PL/SQL';
  l_item.body := 'Some text here...';
  l_item.item_id := ms_ews_util_pkg.create_message_item (l_item, p_to_recipients => t_str_array('recipient1@some.company', 'recipient2@another.company'));
  debug_pkg.printf('created item with id = %1', l_item.item_id);
end;




-- update item
-- item id and change key can be retrieved with following query:
-- select item_id, change_key, subject, is_read from table(ms_ews_util_pkg.find_items('inbox'))


declare
  l_item_id varchar2(2000) := 'the_item_id';
  l_change_key varchar2(2000) := 'the_change_key';
begin
  ms_ews_util_pkg.update_item_is_read (l_item_id, l_change_key, p_is_read => true);
end;




-- get list of attachments


select *
from table(ms_ews_util_pkg.get_file_attachments('the_item_id'))




-- download and save 1 attachment


declare
  l_attachment ms_ews_util_pkg.t_file_attachment;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_attachment := ms_ews_util_pkg.get_file_attachment ('the_attachment_id');
  file_util_pkg.save_blob_to_file('DEVTEST_TEMP_DIR', l_attachment.name, l_attachment.content);
end;




-- create attachment (attach file to existing item/email)


declare
  l_attachment ms_ews_util_pkg.t_file_attachment;
begin
  debug_pkg.debug_on;
  l_attachment.item_id := 'the_item_id';
  l_attachment.name := 'Attachment added via PL/SQL';
  l_attachment.content := file_util_pkg.get_blob_from_file('DEVTEST_TEMP_DIR', 'some_file_such_as_a_nice_picture.jpg');
  l_attachment.attachment_id := ms_ews_util_pkg.create_file_attachment (l_attachment);
  debug_pkg.printf('created attachment with id = %1', l_attachment.attachment_id);
end;

Download

The MS_EWS_UTIL_PKG package is included in the Alexandria Utility Library for PL/SQL.

Known Issues

The CREATE_ITEM functions don't seem to return the ID of the created item (which do get created in Exchange). I think the issue is with the XML parsing of the returned results; I will look into this later.

Please report any bugs found via the issue list.