MsgReader - DLL

• Download MsgReader_Help_New.zip - 180.5 KB
• Download MsgReaderDLL_Project.zip - 167.0 KB
• Download MsgReaderDLL.zip - 14.3 KB - Old version (has some bugs)
• Download TestOfMsgReaderDll.zip - 115.0 KB

Introduction

The MsgReader.dll is able to read a Outlook msg-file without having MS Outlook installed. The library is able to read e.g. Subject, message body (also compressed RTF), saving attachments (no msg attachments), ...

It can be use by everybody for non-commercial projects.

Background

To read the OLE-Storage we used the Edanmo.OleStorage.dll. A lot of other codes was derived, ported, ... from code snips we found at the internet.

Using the code

The library was developed with C# and .NET 1.1. Just import it and build your application around. It might contain some failures because this is the first working version we "released". Tests was done with MS Outlook 2003.
For more details check out the MsgReader.chm which contains the whole documentation.

The following code shows a small example how to use the library:

(1) open the selected outlook msg-file

private void btnBrowse_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
  this.opnFile.ShowDialog();
  this.txtBoxFile.Text = this.opnFile.FileName;
}

(2) read the to, From, Subject and mail body (plain text & rtf-formated text) property from msg-file and display them

private void btnShow_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
  if (this.txtBoxFile.Text != "")
  {
    string[] AttachList;
    string Content = "";
    string path = this.txtBoxFile.Text;
    try
    {
      // First of all you have to create new object
      // the constructor has to take as a argument
      // path to file which we'd like to open
      Msg storage = new Msg(path);
                    
      this.txtBoxTo.Text = storage.GetToProperty();
      this.txtBoxFrom.Text = storage.GetFromProperty();
      this.txtBoxSub.Text = storage.GetSubjectProperty();
      this.txtBoxBody.Text = storage.GetBodyText();
                    
      storage.GetAttachmentList(out AttachList);
                    
      Content = storage.GetBodyRtfText();
      this.RTFBox.TextRTF = addAttachmentsToRTF(Content, AttachList);
      storage.Close();
    }
    catch
    {
      // can not open file
    }
  }
}

(3) this function is adding the windows file type icons of the attachments and the attachments name to the RTF-Body. Only in case the attachments was originally "attached" to a RTF or HTML body the icon will be displayed in the RTF-Body because in case of plain-text mails no attachments rendering position is defined !

private string addAttachmentsToRTF(string RTFBody, string[] attchList)
{
  int lastIndex = 0;
  WMETA8 wmeta8;
  String dummy;

  if (RTFBody.Length > 13) 
  {
    for (int i=0; i<attchList.Length; i++)
    {
      lastIndex = RTFBody.IndexOf("\\objattph\\'20", lastIndex);
      if (lastIndex > 0) 
      {
        RTFBody = RTFBody.Remove(lastIndex, 13);
        wmeta8 = new WMETA8(this.RTFBox.CreateGraphics());
        dummy = attchList[i];
        if (dummy.Length > 15) 
        {
          dummy = "<" + dummy.Substring(0,13) + "..>";
        }
        else 
        {
          dummy = " <" + dummy + ">";
        }
        RTFBody = RTFBody.Insert(lastIndex, (wmeta8.getRTFIcon(attchList[i]) + "{\\fs16 " + dummy +"}"));
      }
      else break;
    }
  }
            
  return RTFBody;
}

The complete Visual Studio project can be also downloaded (TestofMsgReaderDll.zip).

Points of Interest

More details, news, updates also regarding the MsgViewer-Application and the DLL can be found at msgviewer.blogspot.com

History

No History yet - there might be some updates in the future

12.7. - picture of the sample application added
17.7. - sorry for the delay - we had some trouble with the upload. Today I added the new DLL-Project (done with VS Studio .Net 2003) and the full library documentation