Search code examples
routlookhtml-emailxtablerdcomclient

Send email from outlook by including dataframe as table in R

I have a dataframe as shown below. I am then converting the dataframe into an html table.

# Use RDCOMClient to send email from outlook
library(RDCOMClient)
# Use xtable to convert dataframe into html table
library(xtable)

# Create dataframe
df <- as.data.frame(mtcars[1:3,1:3])

# Create HTML object
df_html <- xtable(df)

Now, I am sending an email from outlook using the wonderful solution given in the email thread Sending email in R via outlook

## init com api
OutApp <- COMCreate("Outlook.Application")
## create an email 
outMail = OutApp$CreateItem(0)
## configure  email parameter 
outMail[["To"]] = "dest@dest.com"
outMail[["subject"]] = "some subject"
outMail[["body"]] = df_html
## send it                     
outMail$Send()

For the body of my email, I want the data frame df which I want to attach as a html table. When I execute the above code, I get the below error message.

Error in `[[<-`(`*tmp*`, "body", value = list(mpg = c(21, 21, 22.8), cyl = c(6,  : 
  Can't attach the RDCOMServer package needed to create a generic COM object
In addition: Warning message:
In library(package, lib.loc = lib.loc, character.only = TRUE, logical.return = TRUE,  :
  there is no package called ‘RDCOMServer’

When I change the line outMail[["body"]] = df_html to outMail[["body"]] = paste0(df_html), I get the email but the output does not come as a table. It comes as shown below in my outlook.

c(21, 21, 22.8), c(6, 6, 4), c(160, 160, 108)

I want this to be a table. How can i achieve this? Thanks!

Solution

  • I finally found a solution to pasting a dataframe as an HTML table in Microsoft outlook. This is using the xtable package. Part of the solution credit goes to @lukeA from here - How to show an excel worksheet in outlook body by R

    Below is the solution.

    library(RDCOMClient)
library(xtable)

x <- head(mtcars)
y <- print(xtable(x), type="html", print.results=FALSE)

body <- paste0("<html>", y, "</html>")

OutApp <- COMCreate("Outlook.Application")
outMail = OutApp$CreateItem(0)
outMail[["To"]] = "test@test.com"
outMail[["subject"]] = "TEST EMAIL"
outMail[["HTMLbody"]] = body
outMail$Send()

    This is how the output looks like in Microsoft outlook.

    Screenshot from Microsoft Outlook