Send formatted HTML table created using rmarkdown over Outlook from R

Question

I have the following well formatted table created using rmarkdown and saved as table.rmd file.

library(RDCOMClient)
kable(mtcars[1:5, 1:6]) %>%
  kable_styling(bootstrap_options = c("striped", "hover", "condensed"), 
                full_width = T, 
                position = "left", 
                font_size = 13,
                fixed_thead = list(enabled = T, background = "#c5d9f1")) %>% 
  column_spec(1, bold = T, border_right = T) %>%
  column_spec(2, width = "5cm", background = "yellow") %>% 
  row_spec(4:5, bold = T, color = "white", background = "grey")

Now, I want to use the following code to send this file/table over the outlook as an email body, while retaining the original formatting of the table.

rmarkdown::render("table.Rmd", "html_document")

OutApp <- COMCreate("Outlook.Application")
outMail = OutApp$CreateItem(0)
outMail[["To"]] = "email@abc.com"
outMail[["subject"]] = paste0("Report ", Sys.Date() - 1)

df_html <- read table.html as html so that the df_html gets correctly displayed as well formatted html table. 

outMail[["HTMLBody"]] = df_html

outMail$Send()

How should I do that? My belief is if I can read the table.html as html itself in R, I can do this. So, if that's correct, how can I create the df_html that I can assign to outMail[["HTMLBody"]] to hopefully make it work?

Answer 1

I have been able to do it with the following code:

library(RDCOMClient)
library(kableExtra)

send_email <- function(vec_to = "",
                       vec_cc = "",
                       vec_bcc = "",
                       char_subject = "",
                       char_body = "",
                       char_htmlbody = "",
                       vec_attachments = "") {
  
  Outlook <- RDCOMClient::COMCreate("Outlook.Application")
  Email <- Outlook$CreateItem(0)
  Email[["to"]] <- vec_to
  Email[["cc"]] <- vec_cc
  Email[["bcc"]] <- vec_bcc
  Email[["subject"]] <- char_subject
  
  if (char_body != "" && char_htmlbody != "") {
    stop("Error")
  }
  
  if (char_htmlbody == "") {
    Email[["body"]] <- char_body
  } else {
    Email[["htmlbody"]] <- char_htmlbody
  }
  
  if (vec_attachments[1] != "") {
    for (i in seq_along(vec_attachments)) {
      Email[["attachments"]]$Add(vec_attachments[i])
    }
  }
  
  Email$Send()
}

html_Table <- (kable(mtcars[1 : 5, 1 : 6]) %>% kable_styling(bootstrap_options = c("striped", "hover", "condensed"), 
                                               full_width = TRUE, position = "left", font_size = 13,
                                               fixed_thead = list(enabled = TRUE, background = "#c5d9f1"))
                                           %>% column_spec(1, bold = TRUE, border_right = TRUE) 
                                           %>% column_spec(2, width = "5cm", background = "yellow")
                                           %>% row_spec(4 : 5, bold = TRUE, color = "white", background = "grey"))

html_Table <- html_Table[[1]]

send_email(vec_to = "emmanuel.hamel.1@ulaval.ca", vec_cc = "", vec_bcc = "",
           char_subject = "", char_body = "", char_htmlbody = html_Table,
           vec_attachments = "")