Change modified date on msg file

[strychtur]

Hi all,

I have a vbscript that renames msg files to Sender - Subject. What I am looking to do is change the modified date of the msg file to be the received date of the email. The thing is I could swear the following code was doing this last week. Upon double checking this week the name was changing but not the modified date. Any help would be great as this is my first vbscript.

On Error Resume Next
 
Dim olkApp, olkMessage, objFSO, objFile, varFile, varNewFileName
Set olkApp = GetObject(,"Outlook.Application")
If TypeName(olkApp) <> "Application" Then
    Set olkApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
End If
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
For Each varFile In WScript.Arguments
    Set olkMessage = olkApp.CreateItemFromTemplate(varFile)
    varNewFileName = ReplaceIllegalCharacters(olkMessage.SenderName & "-" & olkMessage.Subject) & ".msg"   
     Set objFile = objFSO.GetFile(varFile)      
     objFile.Name = varNewFileName
    ModFileDT varNewFileName,olkMessage.ReceivedTime 
Next
Set objFile = Nothing
Set objFSO = Nothing
Set olkMessage = Nothing
Set olkApp = Nothing
WScript.Quit
 
Function ReplaceIllegalCharacters(strSubject)
    Dim strBuffer
    strBuffer = Replace(strSubject, ":", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "\", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "/", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "?", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, Chr(34), "'")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "|", "")
    ReplaceIllegalCharacters = strBuffer
End Function 
 
Sub ModFileDT  (strFileName, DateTime)
    Dim objShell, objFolder    
    Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
    objFolder.Items.Item(strFileName).ModifyDate = DateTime
End Sub

Cheers
Strychtur

[Killer42]

Just at a glance, it looks to me as though you might be missing a line that sets objFolder to the folder, in the ModFileDT routine.

[strychtur]

Just at a glance, it looks to me as though you might be missing a line that sets objFolder to the folder, in the ModFileDT routine.

Sorry,
But I'm not sure I follow. Could you explain please?

[Killer42]

Sorry,
But I'm not sure I follow. Could you explain please?

Well, you define objShell and objFolder. Then you set objShell to point to a new Shell object. Then you start to work with properties of objFolder, but objFolder is just sort of an "empty" object pointer, isn't it? It hasn't been set to anything.

(I've always been a bit vague on working with objects, so I may be completely wrong. It just looks odd.)

[strychtur]

Well, you define objShell and objFolder. Then you set objShell to point to a new Shell object. Then you start to work with properties of objFolder, but objFolder is just sort of an "empty" object pointer, isn't it? It hasn't been set to anything.

(I've always been a bit vague on working with objects, so I may be completely wrong. It just looks odd.)

Ok how about this then?

' VBScript source code
On Error Resume Next
 
Dim olkApp, olkMessage, objFSO, objFile, varFile, varNewFileName, Dir
 
Set olkApp = GetObject(,"Outlook.Application")
 
If TypeName(olkApp) <> "Application" Then
    Set olkApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
End If
 
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 
For Each varFile In WScript.Arguments
    Set olkMessage = olkApp.CreateItemFromTemplate(varFile)
    varNewFileName = ReplaceIllegalCharacters(olkMessage.SenderName & "-" & olkMessage.Subject) & ".msg"   
    Set objFile = objFSO.GetFile(varFile)      
    objFile.Name = varNewFileName   
  Call ModFileDT (objFile.Drive,  objFile.Name, olkMessage.ReceivedTime)
 
Next
 
Set objFile = Nothing
Set objFSO = Nothing
Set olkMessage = Nothing
Set olkApp = Nothing
WScript.Quit
 
Function ReplaceIllegalCharacters(strSubject)
    Dim strBuffer
    strBuffer = Replace(strSubject, ":", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "\", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "/", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "?", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, Chr(34), "'")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "|", "")
    ReplaceIllegalCharacters = strBuffer
End Function 
 
 
Function ModFileDT(strDir, strFileName, DateTime)
    Dim objShell, objFolder
    Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
    Set objFolder = objShell.NameSpace(strDir)
    objFolder.Items.Item(strFileName).ModifyDate = DateTime
End function

Cheers
Strychtur

[Killer42]

Ok how about this then? ...

Looks better. But does it work?

[Killer42]

One thing I don't quite get. Unless it's just for the purpose of keeping the Sub independent of the caller, why couldn't your Sub just use your existing File object, something like this...

Sub ModFileDT(DateTime)
  objFile.ModifyDate = DateTime
End Sub

(Note I changed it to a Sub, since it doesn't return anything.)

And given that it's now a single line of code, why use a Sub (or Function) at all? Why not just set the ModifyDate property in your code?

[strychtur]

One thing I don't quite get. Unless it's just for the purpose of keeping the Sub independent of the caller, why couldn't your Sub just use your existing File object, something like this...

Sub ModFileDT(DateTime)
  objFile.ModifyDate = DateTime
End Sub

(Note I changed it to a Sub, since it doesn't return anything.)

And given that it's now a single line of code, why use a Sub (or Function) at all? Why not just set the ModifyDate property in your code?

Becuase the the modified date has to be changed using the shell app. Your sub will not work without it. I guess I could add all of it ti the main part.

[Killer42]

Becuase the the modified date has to be changed using the shell app. Your sub will not work without it. I guess I could add all of it ti the main part.

Ah, I see. Just checked my details, and of course found that the File object's DateLastModified property is read-only. Bummer.

[Killer42]

Your latest version may have a problem in that you're passing the drive rather than the path to the ModifyDT routine.

I do wonder whether the ModifyDate property might be read-only. The documentation doesn't seem to make it clear, one way or the other. But the main thing I'd check is the exact values of strDir, strFileName and DateTime on entry to the Sub.

[strychtur]

Ok for the most part this works. I say for the most part because if you pass it a bunch of msg file, it will change most but not all.

'===================
' VBScript source code 
 
 
Dim olkApp, olkMessage, objFSO, objFile, varFile, varNewFileName
 
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
On Error Resume Next
Set olkApp = GetObject(,"Outlook.Application")
On Error GoTo 0
 
If TypeName(olkApp) <> "Application" Then
    Set olkApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
End If
 
For Each varFile In WScript.Arguments
      If LCase(objFSO.GetExtensionName(varFile)) = "msg" Then
            Set olkMessage = olkApp.CreateItemFromTemplate(varFile)    
            Set objFile = objFSO.GetFile(varFile)                   
            varNewFileName = ReplaceIllegalCharacters(olkMessage.SenderName & " - " & Replace(objFile.Name,".msg","")) & ".msg"
            objFile.Name = varNewFileName
        Call ModFileDT (objFile.ParentFolder,  objFile.Name, olkMessage.ReceivedTime)
      End If
Next
Set objFile = Nothing
Set objFSO = Nothing
Set olkMessage = Nothing
Set olkApp = Nothing
WScript.Quit
 
Function ReplaceIllegalCharacters(strSubject)
    Dim strBuffer
    strBuffer = Replace(strSubject, ":", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "\", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "/", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "?", "")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, Chr(34), "'")
    strBuffer = Replace(strBuffer, "|", "")
    ReplaceIllegalCharacters = strBuffer
End Function 
 
Sub ModFileDT(strDir, strFileName, DateTime)
    Dim objShell, objFolder, objFile
    Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
    Set objFolder = objShell.NameSpace(CStr(strDir))
    Set objFile =  objFolder.ParseName( CStr(strFileName) ) 
    objFile.ModifyDate= CStr(DateTime)
Set objShell = Nothing
Set objFolder = Nothing
Set objFile = Nothing
End Sub
'===================

I'm not sure how to debug the code. I tried using MS script debugger most I can't step through it.

[Killer42]

Good point. I have no idea how one would go about debugging a VB Script. The "some but not all files" problem sounds a but worrying. You'd expect it would either work or produce an error.

Some thoughts on possible bugs...

• Is it possible your On Error is bypassing a significant error? Can you try running without it to see what happens?
• Maybe a file was open at the time or something, and couldn't be renamed.
• When it "fails" does it change only the name, or only the time, or neither? Are you sure it's consistent in this?