Outbook VBO stops working randomly - Object variable or With block variable not set -

[Venkata_Pranav_]

Did anyone else get this error while retrieving emails using Outlook VBO? It works occasionally, but gives out this error randomly.  Internal : Could not execute code stage because exception thrown by code stage: Object variable or With block variable not set.

[Venkata_Pranav_]

I realized this happens due to the subject line. The emails with subject lines containing (!) are giving this error. 

[Venkata_Pranav_]

My bad. Turns out having an unidentified character in the text file attachment causes this error. It's not due to subject line. I deleted that character and the bot gets emails using Outlook VBO. 

[THAKUR_RANVEERS]

Hi Pranav,
I am facing it too. Can you please elaborate what does it mean "unidentified character in the text file attachment causes this error"

In my case - there is no text file attachment at all. There is only one .xls attached. Pls guide. 
 
Best Regards, 
Ranveer

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THAKUR RANVEER SINGH
RPA DEVELOPER
Asia/Hyderabad
9849000203
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[MarkWilson]

Hi,

I'm experiencing this same problem. Has anyone found a solution? I don't find anything here or in a wider search on the Internet.

I'm using the Outlook VBO from Blue Prism 6.8 and Outlook 2019. I tested with Outlook 2012 and have the same problem with the same emails.

It seems that there is something in some emails that causes this problem. I have found 2 emails that cause the VBO to fail, but I see nothing obviously wrong with either. We must process emails as they come into us from the public. We can't do any processing to eliminate possible problematic character combinations, even if we could identify them.

Without knowing the details, it feels like this is a problem with the Outlook DLL that Blue Prism uses. My guess is that Outlook isn't able to handle malformed mails, or attachments, and this causes the crash. Blue Prism seems to use version 14 of the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook DLL. I tried pointing the Outlook VBO to version 15 that I find in C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook\15.0.0.0__71e9bce111e9429c. That didn't seem to help, and I can't verify that the VBO is even using this version or picking up version 14 in the folder where automate.exe resides. (We have a very locked-down environment so I can't copy the new DLL into the Blue Prism folder.)

Has anyone ever gotten the Outlook VBO to work reliable with 200+ emails a day coming from the general public?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Mark

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Mark Wilson
RPA Developer
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[EVIPUTI]

There is Outlook VBo extended , not sure if that helps ! https://community.blueprism.com/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=baa226f3-437e-4a3a-a8a2-cc753a767522

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Vipul Tiwari
Senior Process Simplification and Optimization Designer(Solutions Architect)
Fidelity International
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[MarkWilson]

Thanks for the tip Vipul.

It looks like Blue Prism only publishes the extended VBO on the digital exchange now. I don't find a version with the name in the link you provided, "MS Outlook Email VBO - Extended (Shared Mailbox)". The version published on DX and the version you link til have the same element ID: ec75c4f1-6276-470b-b23f-9a88eb7a0f96, so should be the same VBO.

I've started looking at the Agilify VBO, but I'm not sure we'll be able to get it past our security team since it has closed source DLLs included.

Regards,
Mark

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Mark Wilson
RPA Developer
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