📧 Outlook Automation with Python

This project automates the process of fetching, categorizing, and organizing Outlook emails using the Microsoft Graph API. It supports handling attachments, managing mail folders, and applying categories — ideal for teams dealing with alert-based or operational email workflows.

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📂 Project Structure

File	Purpose
ms_graph.py	Handles authentication and connection to Microsoft Graph API.
outlook.py	Contains reusable functions to interact with Outlook API.
pre_alert.py	The main automation script that processes and sorts emails.
Other files	Practice or test files (can be ignored).

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⚙️ How pre_alert.py Works

The pre_alert.py script is the core automation engine that performs the entire workflow — from token generation to downloading attachments and moving emails into specific folders.

🔄 Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Token Initialization

   • Uses ms_graph.py to authenticate and retrieve an access token from Microsoft Graph API.

2. Check Last Processed Time

   • Checks for a last_outlook_check_time.txt file:
     • If found: reads the time and adds 1 second to avoid overlap.
     • If not found: defaults to 2 days ago from the current time.
   • This ensures only new emails are fetched.

3. Fetch and Filter Emails

   • Retrieves emails from the inbox after the defined time.
   • Filters only those matching a predefined Pre-Alert criteria.

4. Prepare Mail Folders

   • Ensures the following folders exist in Outlook:
     • PreAlert
     • No Attachment
     • Query
   • If missing, the script creates them automatically.

5. Process Emails

   For each filtered email:

   • 📩 From specific sender ([email protected]):
     • Add Yellow category.
     • Move to Query folder.
   • 📎 With attachment:
     • Download attachments to:

       ./downloaded/<subject>_<received_time>/
       

     • Add Orange category.
     • Move to PreAlert folder.
   • ❗ Without attachment (but marked as Pre-Alert):
     • Add Orange and Yellow categories.
     • Move to No Attachment folder.

6. Update Last Checked Time

   • Writes the latest processed email's timestamp to last_outlook_check_time.txt.

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🗂 Folder Logic Summary

Folder Name	When Used	Assigned Categories
PreAlert	Email has valid attachments	🟠 Orange
No Attachment	Email is Pre-Alert but missing attachments	🟠 Orange, 🟡 Yellow
Query	Needs human intervention or specific user	🟡 Yellow

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🚀 Features

• ✅ Automatically fetches new emails using time-based filtering
• ✅ Detects and downloads attachments to organized local folders
• ✅ Assigns Outlook categories for easy filtering
• ✅ Moves emails into relevant Outlook folders
• ✅ Auto-creates folders if they don’t exist
• ✅ Fully integrated with Microsoft Graph API

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🔐 Prerequisites

• Python 3.7+
• Microsoft 365 account with API access
• Microsoft Graph API permissions (Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send, etc.)

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📦 Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/ShivPatel031/Outlook_Automation.git
   cd Outlook_Automation
   

🧠 Future Improvements

✅ Add multithreading to speed up processing (planned)

📁 Add support for other folder types (optional)

📊 Dashboard/summary of processed emails