Outlook Web Access New Mail Notification

Outlook Web Access is a great way to access email, but sometimes new mail notifications get missed or lost under other web browser windows.  The fact that OWA runs in a simple web browser is both a blessing and a curse.  But as an Outlook Web Access user, are you tired of always having to open a web browser, go the OWA page and supply credentials (sometimes MORE than once if you mistype) just to check if you have any new messages?  Sure, you can leave your web browser open, but if you're like me, hunting for that OWA Browser window among the sea of other browsers you have open is yet another task in itself.  And what if you accidentally close that window?  I think you get my drift.

Taking care not to close the Outlook Web Access web browser window was something I was able to work with most of the time.  But another problem I started noticing was that new mail notifications started popping UNDER my other working windows.  So now, I pretty much had to remember to manually check for new mail.  A solution had to be available. I wanted Outlook Web Access to behave more like the full Outlook mail client.  A careful search through Google with various criteria turned up some example code from Microsoft's Exchange Server Resource Kit (I think it was for Exchange Server 2000).  The sample code was very basic; just a proof of concept.  After concluding that MS's example code was all that was out there, I decided to take the plunge and write my own new mail notifier.

The Solution

OWA Notify is a work in progress and is a personal "pet" project.  I started working on this program in my spare time starting sometime around May 2005.  Spare time consists of weekends -- weekends that aren't occupied by friends visiting from out of town, going out of town to visit friends, productive weekends and generally non-lazy weekends.  That said, OWANotify.exe competes for my attention with other interests of mine.  I'm pretty satisfied with the current result, but will continue to improve and add more features to it as I can.

Current Features

• OWA Notify is a system tray Outlook mail icon for Outlook Web Access users
• Checks your Exchange account for new mail via the WebDAV protocol
• Works with NTLM or Forms Based Authentication
• Upon initial connection, popup shows count of unread and total items
• Upon new mail arrival, popup shows From and Subject
  • Click popup title to open OWA
  • Click Subject to open the message directly
  • Two buttons are also available on the popup - reply and delete. Click accordingly.
• Double-click system tray icon to open OWA in a browser window with clutter bars removed
• Right-Click context menu similar to Google's Gmail Notifier
• Can run multiple instances and specify custom config files with: OWANotify -c k:\myconfig.xml
• A "Tag" feature allows you to tag the system tray icons so you know which account is being monitored on mouseover.
• Popup options allow customization of popup speed and how long it stays on screen.

Need

• Double-click system tray icon to launch OWA in default web browser. Done 5/23/2005
•     -If browser is IE, will auto-login. (via InternetExplorer.Application object) Done 5/23/2005
•     -Find out if Firefox auto-login possible. On Hold.  Firefox can only load "Basic" OWA Client, which offers a poor OWA experience anyway.
• Upon new mail notification, click on notification to view inbox, resets sys tray icon and fades out popup Done 5/23/2005
• Improve tray icon behavior logic for detecting unread and new items. Done 5/23/2005
• Command option to specify config file (e.g.: OWANotify.exe -c k:\myconfig.xml) Done 6/5/2005
• Include version number on About Page Done 6/5/2005
• Save Password checkbox. Right now it assumes you want to save. Done 6/11/2005
• Reply, Delete and View Message directly from Notification popup. Done 6/11/2005
• Improve "Tag" rendering on notification popups. (Tags get their own line now) Done 6/11/2005
• Popup options allow customization of popup speed and how long it stays on screen Done 6/27/2005
• Option to start OWANotify automatically Done 7/24/2005
• Options to delete permanently or to Deleted Items, also optional delete confirmation Done 7/24/2005

Want

• Calendar Reminder popups
• Add sub-menus to Tray Icon Popup to Compose New Mail, Calendar Item.... Any other requests?
• Optional Sound
• Allow user to set OWA as Default Mail Client (handle mailto: links) and Windows SendTo - Mail Recipient
• Option to remove Icon from system tray if no unread mail
• I'm running out of "Wants"...  Want to request a feature? Email me: envador@envador.com