RULE-BASED ACTIVATION

RULE-BASED ACTIVATION

Mail apps become available to users based on rules. The rules are defined in the manifest, and are checked when the item is opened. If the conditions in the rules are met, the app will be activated and become available for use.

The rule system is extremely rich. You can create multiple rules, and combine the rules with standard AND and OR operators to ensure your app only activates when necessary.

ACTIVATION RULE TYPES

Rule type	Notes
ItemIs	A rule that checks if the item type is a message or an appointment.
ItemHasRegularExpressionMatch	Allows you to define a regular expression (sometimes known as Perl Regular Expressions) to detect text inside of an email. You could use this to detect product codes or stock keeping units (SKU) to provide a link to information about that product.
ItemHasKnownEntity	A rule that looks for known entities such as addresses or dates. (See below for additional information
RuleCollection	A rule composed of multiple rules that are combined using AND or OR

WELL-KNOWN ENTITIES

Outlook is aware of several types of entities. An entity is a pattern of text that usually indicates a component such as street address or URL. When an entity is extracted, you can use the JavaScript API to obtain additonal information about the entity. For example, you can access the start and end time indicated by the text for a meeting suggestion. The table below demonstrates several of the entities available.

Entity type	Description	Example
Address	United States street address	1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 07722
EmailAddress	Email address	charrison@adventure-works.com
MeetingSuggestion	Text that often indicates a time, place, or other prompt for connecting with another person	Let's talk about this tomorrow morning
Contact	Name combined with additional information	Christopher Harrison 206-555-1212
Phone Number	United States telephone number	206-555-1212
TaskSuggestion	Text that is often used to request the recipient of an email perform a task	Can you run the report for me?
Url	Address to a web or network location	http://www.adventure-works.com