Micrsoft Deprecation of Basic authentication in Exchange Online.

[NehaAkhade]

Microsoft has announced from Oct 1st 2022 they're removing the ability to use Basic authentication in Exchange Online for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), POP, IMAP, Remote PowerShell, Exchange Web Services (EWS), Offline Address Book (OAB), Outlook for Windows, and Mac. They're also disabling SMTP AUTH in all tenants in which it's not being used.

Wanted to understand will this impact  MS Outlook Email VBO functionality?

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Neha Akhade
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[ewilson]

Hi @NehaAkhade,

No, this shouldn't have any effect on the Outlook VBO as it's using the local Outlook instance. It doesn't actually connect directly to Exchange.

Cheers,
​

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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[NehaAkhade]

Thank you @ewilson for confirming.​

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Neha Akhade
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[AaronIngram]

Hi Eric, @ewilson

Thank you for communicating on this chain.  I am having an issue using the 'Real Email' code action on the 'Real Email' Tab in the Outlook EWS object.  I can confirm that I do not have any changes to my username/pw.  I am getting the following error when I run this:

"Internal : Could not execute code stage because exception thrown by code stage: The request failed. The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized."

I'm using this process to move emails to other folders in my outlook client.  Can't tell 100% whether the 'Outlook VBO' referred to is the same object, and there is a different reason this could be happening, or if Outlook EWS is affected, and I need to handle differently.

Tahnks!
Aaron Ingram

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Aaron Ingram
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[ewilson]

Hello @Aaron Ingram,

I'm not familiar with the Outlook EWS VBO​. Is this something that was created by your company? The Outlook VBO we're referring to above is the same Outlook VBO that ships with the Blue Prism software, the most recent version of which is available on the Digital Exchange.

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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[AaronIngram]

Hi @ewilson,

Thanks so much for quick reply!  I have an inherited system -- my guess is that potentially it's the VBO modified to work for EWS?  As I had no Outlook VBO package on my system.​

What I'm trying to restore functionality of is 1: move emails based on the subject, and 2: reads the most recent unread email's html from a specified folder.  (I've attached a screenshot of the inputs screen on Read Email to see if this rings a bell).  The only one I see that appears to reach the email body is Retrieve data from MSG and it asks for a MSGFilePath, which I don't know how to go about getting.  Is Outlook VBO the right object for doing these two things, or would you recommend a consultant to look at restoring this functionality?

Thanks,
Aaron Ingram

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Aaron Ingram
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[ewilson]

Hi @Aaron Ingram,
​
It's definitely not the standard Blue Prism VBO for Outlook. The fact that it asks for Username and Password as part of the input implies that it is using Basic Auth to connect via EWS (Exchange Webservices). Unfortunately, this will no longer work after Microsoft's change.

You have a few options:

1. If you want to continue using that VBO, you'll need to enhance it to support a different authentication mechanism (ex. OAuth2) for EWS.
2. You could switch to using the standard Outlook VBO, but that requires that you have Outlook installed locally on the runtime resources and the appropriate profile defined for the user account.
3. There is a different Outlook VBO available on the DX which uses Microsoft's Graph API. The benefit of this VBO is that it does not require that Outlook be installed locally. You can find out more about that VBO here.

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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[AaronIngram]

Hi @ewilson,

Just wanted to say thank you for your assistance in this.  It is helpful to know I have a bit of a custom built package.  I'll look into the GraphAPI and see if I can get this running.

Have a good one!
Aaron Ingram​

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Aaron Ingram
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