Question

Creating a .msg file without a reference to Outlook

Asked by: emoreau

Hi

Do you know a way of creating a .msg file without referencing (or creating a late-bound reference to) Outlook? VB.Net or C# code would be good.

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Asked On
2008-05-12 at 09:47:12ID23395132
Tags

file

,

msg

,

outlook

,

creating

,

without

Topics

Microsoft Visual Basic.Net

,

.NET Framework 2.x

,

C# Programming Language

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: jaime_olivaresPosted on 2008-05-12 at 11:31:19ID: 21549400

.msg files are extremely complex and ugly. Look at:
http://www.fileformat.info/format/outlookmsg/

if you want to do by yourself, you will have to learn all .msg internals.

 

by: emoreauPosted on 2008-05-12 at 11:46:47ID: 21549508

I have already seen that. I was expecting that somebody already wrapped this into a class!

 

by: athapaPosted on 2008-05-13 at 03:12:53ID: 21553547

msg files are ole structured storage files (similar to doc, xls, ppt, etc up to 2003 version). You can reverse engineer the whole binary format or just use some of the ole structed storage libraries.
Here is one I've used in the past.
http://www.mvps.org/emorcillo/en/code/grl/storage.shtml

I just found that someone has already done even more with that library. Check out this codeproject.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/MsgReader.aspx

-Athapa

 

by: emoreauPosted on 2008-05-13 at 04:50:35ID: 21554038

athapa, both link only provide read feature. I need to write!

 

by: jaime_olivaresPosted on 2008-05-13 at 13:56:28ID: 21559209

I think you won't find too much about reading/writing this format (as with Word, Excel, etc), because it is a closed standard, usually licenced to 3rd party companies for a big amount, and there is a clear alternative as using a ready made wrapper provided by MS.

 

by: athapaPosted on 2008-05-14 at 03:34:29ID: 21562626

Can you use MAPI? If you can then you could use MAPI without installing the whole Outlook. (You'd need some mapi dlls, CDO, or to make that easier use Redemption or RDO).

 

by: emoreauPosted on 2008-05-14 at 04:36:53ID: 21562993

Apparently, nothing exist to fully fill my needs (create a .msg file without a reference to Outlook).

I finally decided to use Outlook in late-bound mode.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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