The problem is that OE has no COM server, and the Simple-MAPI support is in C++.
Command Line
There is an easy way from the Windows command line:
C:>"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn" /mailurl:mailto:"name%40example.com?cc=cc1%40example.com&bcc=bcc1@example.com&subject=The%20Subject%20Line&body=The%20first%20paragraph.%0A%0AThe%20second%20paragraph.%0A%0AThanks%2C%0AName
This launches OE with a single argument. That argument is a mailto: URL. The URL includes to:, cc:, bcc:, subject:, and the body.
"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn"launches OE/mailurl:mailto:"defines the mailto: URL. The quote(") is required on the command line, though not in the python version.name%40example.com?is the To: line. The To: line ends with the question-mark (?)cc=cc1%40example.com&the rest of the fields are defined (cc=) and separated with the ampersand (&).- Don't use spaces or commas or returns - just text.
space %20 , %2C return %0A @ %40
- I have not figured out a way to include more than one e-mail address on each line.
- Files cannot be attached using this method.
Python
Since OE does not have any COM or other programmatic way to do it, we will fall back on subprocess, and have Python simply create a mailto: URL and use the command line.
This simple Python3 script creates a pre-filled Outlook Express window using subprocess:
import subprocess
# The header and body
to = "name1%40example.com"
cc = "cc1%40example.com" # or leave blank: cc = ""
bcc = "bcc1%40example.com" # or leave blank: bcc = ""
subject = "The%20Subject"
body = "The%20first%20paragraph.%0A%0AThe%20second%20paragraph.%0A%0AThanks%2C%0AName"
oe = "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn"
mailto_url = ('/mailurl:mailto:' + to + '?' + # No lone quote (") after colon (:)
'cc=' + cc + '&' +
'bcc=' + bcc + '&' +
'subject=' + subject + '&' +
'body=' + body ) # No ending ampersand (&)
subprocess.call([oe, mailto_url])
