Search Email History Web Part

The following template will allow you to quickly pull a list of sent and received emails for a particular address directly from SharePoint pages.

  • Step 1: Ensure the RSSBus Web Part is installed.
  • Step 2: Install the IAMP Connector.
  • Step 3: Find the host name and IP address of your IMAP mail serve. Also, make sure you know the user name and password to authenticate the server (This is the same information entered into Outlook when configuring your mail server).
  • Step 4: Add the RSSBus WebPart to your page by pasting the following template into its source editor. Click "Apply". 
    <rsb:check attr="_request.email">
  <rsb:import lib="RSSBus.ImapOps" />
  <div id="myemails" style="height:15em;overflow:auto">

    <!-- set the search criteria to get emails to and from email address over the past x months -->
    <rsb:set attr="sentsince" value="[sentsince | date() | dateadd('Month', '[months]') | todate('dd-MMM-yyyy') ]" />
    <!-- this search criteria format is the standard defined in the IMAPv4 RFC -->
    <rsb:set attr="searchcriteria" value="SENTSINCE [sentsince] OR FROM [query] TO [query]" />

    <!-- search for matching emails -->
    <rsb:set attr="uidmode" value="TRUE" />
    <rsb:call op="imapSearch">
      <rsb:first>
        <div style="overflow:auto">
          <table width="100%">
            <tr>
              <th style="background-color:LightGrey; white-space:nowrap">From</th>                              
              <th style="background-color:LightGrey; white-space:nowrap">Subject</th>                        
              <th style="background-color:LightGrey; white-space:nowrap">Date</th>                            
              <th style="background-color:LightGrey; white-space:nowrap">Size</th>                                
            </tr>        
      </rsb:first>
      
      <!-- usually, the first part of an email will be plain text -->      
      <rsb:set attr="part.id" value="1" />

      <!-- for multi-part emails, find the best (text/html) part for display -->
      <rsb:notnull attr="part:contenttype">
        <rsb:enum attr="part:contenttype">
            <rsb:set attr="contenttype" value="part:contenttype#[_index]" />
            <rsb:equals attr="contenttype" value="text/html">
            <rsb:set attr="part.id" value="[_index]" />
            </rsb:equals>
        </rsb:enum>
      </rsb:notnull>
      
            <tr>
             <td style="white-space:nowrap">[imap:fromname]</td>
             <td style="white-space:nowrap">
               <a href="?msgnumber=[imap:id]&partid=[part.id]&email=[query]">[imap:subject | truncate('55')]</a>
             </td>
             <td style="white-space:nowrap">[imap:date]</td>  
             <td style="white-space:nowrap">[imap:size]</td>
           </tr>
    
      <rsb:last>
         </table>
       </div>  
      </rsb:last>
    </rsb:call>
  </div>

  <!-- if a specific message number has been clicked on, display its text/html or 1st part -->
  <rsb:check attr="_request.msgnumber">
    <div id="myemailsnippet" style="height:30em;overflow:auto">
      <rsb:call op="imapGetPart?id=[_request.msgnumber]&partid=[_request.partid]">
        <div id="headers" style="height:50px">
          <table width="100%" style="background-color:LightGrey">
            <tr>
              <td width="75px">From:</td>
              <td><a href="mailto:[imap:fromemail | htmlencode]">[imap:fromname]</a></td>
            </tr>
            <tr><td width="75px">Date:</td><td>[imap:date]</td></tr>
            <tr><td width="75px">Subject:</td><td>[imap:subject]</td></tr>
            <tr />   
          </table>
        </div>
        <div id="body" style="overflow:auto">
          [imap:content | Replace('0A','<br>','true')]
        </div>
      </rsb:call>
    </div>
  </rsb:check>

</rsb:check>

<script>
function clearDiv(div) {
    var mydiv = document.getElementById(div); 
    mydiv.innerHTML = "";
}
</script>
  • Step 5: Specify your IMAP server and authentication credentials. If you clicked "Apply" in the source editor, you should now see a new property appear in the properties editor of the Web Part in your browser. Under "Web Part Inputs", you will see "server", "email", "password", and "mailbox" inputs. These inputs need to be populated with the values corresponding to your IMAP server, mailbox name (e.g. "Inbox"), and account credentials. Optionally, you can change the "months" and "sortcriteria" inputs to alter the output generated. By default, this Web Part will display messages to and from a specified email address in the past 6 months (the "months" input property) and then sort them by reverse-date (most recent first � the "sortcriteria" input).

After you have set these inputs appropriately, click "Apply" in the properties window and the page will reload. Enter an email address in the search box and click "Search". The emails sent to or from that email address will be displayed inside the Web Part. Click on any one of those messages to load a plain text or HTMML view of the email.

As always, you can customize the HTML in the template, or leave it as is.

Advanced Tip: Note the "sortcriteria" input expects a sort order formatted according to the IMAP Sort RFC (RFC 5256). Other common sort criteria are ARRIVAL, DATE, CC, FROM, SUBJECT, TO, SIZE. Any of those criteria can be preceded with REVERSE as shown in the example. Similarly, the search criteria specified inside the template itself can also be modified in the format specified in the IMAPv4 RFC (Section 6.4.4 in RFC 3501).