Question

ShellExecute() allows me to perform simple shell tasks, allowing the system to take care of opening or printing files. I want to take a similar approach to sending an email attachment programmatically.

I don’t want to manipulate Outlook directly, since I don’t want to assume which email client the user uses by default. I don’t want to send the email directly, as I want the user to have the opportunity to write the email body using their preferred client. Thus, I really want to accomplish exactly what Windows Explorer does when I right click a file and select Send To -> Mail Recipient.

I’m looking for a C++ solution.

Answer 1

This is my MAPI solution:

#include <tchar.h> #include <windows.h> #include <mapi.h> #include <mapix.h>  int _tmain( int argc, wchar_t *argv[] ) {     HMODULE hMapiModule = LoadLibrary( _T( 'mapi32.dll' ) );      if ( hMapiModule != NULL )     {         LPMAPIINITIALIZE lpfnMAPIInitialize = NULL;         LPMAPIUNINITIALIZE lpfnMAPIUninitialize = NULL;         LPMAPILOGONEX lpfnMAPILogonEx = NULL;         LPMAPISENDDOCUMENTS lpfnMAPISendDocuments = NULL;         LPMAPISESSION lplhSession = NULL;          lpfnMAPIInitialize = (LPMAPIINITIALIZE)GetProcAddress( hMapiModule, 'MAPIInitialize' );         lpfnMAPIUninitialize = (LPMAPIUNINITIALIZE)GetProcAddress( hMapiModule, 'MAPIUninitialize' );         lpfnMAPILogonEx = (LPMAPILOGONEX)GetProcAddress( hMapiModule, 'MAPILogonEx' );         lpfnMAPISendDocuments = (LPMAPISENDDOCUMENTS)GetProcAddress( hMapiModule, 'MAPISendDocuments' );          if ( lpfnMAPIInitialize && lpfnMAPIUninitialize && lpfnMAPILogonEx && lpfnMAPISendDocuments )         {             HRESULT hr = (*lpfnMAPIInitialize)( NULL );              if ( SUCCEEDED( hr ) )             {                 hr = (*lpfnMAPILogonEx)( 0, NULL, NULL, MAPI_EXTENDED | MAPI_USE_DEFAULT, &lplhSession );                  if ( SUCCEEDED( hr ) )                 {                     // this opens the email client with 'C:\attachment.txt' as an attachment                     hr = (*lpfnMAPISendDocuments)( 0, ';', 'C:\\attachment.txt', NULL, NULL );                      if ( SUCCEEDED( hr ) )                     {                         hr = lplhSession->Logoff( 0, 0, 0 );                         hr = lplhSession->Release();                         lplhSession = NULL;                     }                 }             }              (*lpfnMAPIUninitialize)();         }          FreeLibrary( hMapiModule );     }      return 0; }