Similar to this question,
Open Specific MailItem in Outlook from C# , In a C# VSTO application I'm trying to open an email in a new outlook window/inspector using the method GetFolderFromID and passing it's EntryID and StoreID.
Full code below:
Outlook.Application myApp = new Outlook.ApplicationClass();
Outlook.NameSpace mapiNameSpace = myApp.GetNamespace("MAPI");
Outlook.MAPIFolder mySentBox = mapiNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderSentMail);
Outlook.MailItem myMail = ((Outlook.MailItem)mySentBox.Items[1]);
string guid = myMail.EntryID;
string folderStoreID = mySentBox.StoreID;
Outlook.MailItem getItem = (Outlook.MailItem)mapiNameSpace.GetItemFromID(guid, folderStoreID);
getItem.Display();
The below code only opens up the requested email in a new window when the email is already selected within outlook.
getItem.Display();
If not selected, the following error returns.
System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComException: 'A dialog box is open. Close it and try again'.
I've also attempted adding a new inspector & activating/displaying the email object via it with no success.
Kind regards
The error simply means a dialog box is open. Make sure there are no modal windows displayed and make sure you ever call MailItem.Display(true) to display items modally.
I am trying to develop an add-in for Outlook. In that I want remove attachment when a new mail is received.
So I call my function on the NewMailEx event. It is working fine. In that function I try to find unread mails in the Outlook inbox. From those I remove the attachments.
My problem is: when I open Outlook, the first mail I received is not showing in the inbox (not in outlook c# code), so I can't remove the attachment from that mail.
From the second mail (after the first mail), I can get the received mail, so I can remove the attachments.
Whenever I close and reopen Outlook, the first mail I receive gives this problem.
At the first mail received there is no unread mail.
private void Application_NewMailEx(object Item)
{
string senderEmailid = string.Empty;
outlookNameSpace = this.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI");
Outlook.Application myApp = new Outlook.Application();
Outlook.NameSpace mapiNameSpace = myApp.GetNamespace("MAPI");
Outlook.MAPIFolder myInbox = mapiNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
Outlook.Attachments attachments;
int test = myInbox.Items.Count;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Recipients recipients = ((Outlook.MailItem)myInbox.Items[test]).Recipients;
Outlook.Items unreadItems = myInbox.Items.Restrict("[Unread]=true");
if (unreadItems.Count > 0)
{
foreach (Outlook.MailItem mail in unreadItems)
{
Outlook.Recipient recip;
Outlook.ExchangeUser exUser;
string sAddress;
if (mail.SenderEmailType.ToLower() == "ex")
{
recip = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI").CreateRecipient(mail.SenderEmailAddress);
exUser = recip.AddressEntry.GetExchangeUser();
sAddress = exUser.PrimarySmtpAddress;
}
else
{
sAddress = mail.SenderEmailAddress.Replace("'", "");
}
string[] emailAddressPart = sAddress.Split('#');
string strSenderDomain = emailAddressPart[1];
if (lstDomain.Any(item => item.Contains(strSenderDomain)))
{
attachments = mail.Attachments;
int nAttachmentCount = mail.Attachments.Count;
if (nAttachmentCount > 0)
{
int j = nAttachmentCount;
for (int i = 1; i <= nAttachmentCount; i++)
{
mail.Attachments[j].Delete();
j--;
}
}
}
}
}
}
The NewMailEx event of the Application class is not the best place for searching unread emails. This event fires once for every received item that is processed by Microsoft Outlook. The item can be one of several different item types, for example, MailItem, MeetingItem, or SharingItem. The EntryIDsCollection string contains the Entry ID that corresponds to that item. The alternative way is to handle the ItemAdd event of the Items class.
Instead, you can wait until Outlook finishes synchronizing items and run your code for searching unread emails. The SyncEnd event of the SyncObject class is fired immediately after Microsoft Outlook finishes synchronizing a user’s folders using the specified Send/Receive group.
Also you may consider handling the Startup or MAPILogonComplete events. But they are fired before the synchronization is completed. Consider using a timer to run the procedure a bit after Outlook is started.
You can read about possible ways of handling incoming emails in the following series of articles:
Outlook NewMail event unleashed: the challenge (NewMail, NewMailEx, ItemAdd)
Outlook NewMail event: solution options
Outlook NewMail event and Extended MAPI: C# example
Outlook NewMail unleashed: writing a working solution (C# example)
Also I'd recommend breaking the chain of calls and delaclaring each property or method call on a separate line of code. Use System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject to release an Outlook object when you have finished using it. This is particularly important if your add-in attempts to enumerate more than 256 Outlook items in a collection that is stored on a Microsoft Exchange Server. If you do not release these objects in a timely manner, you can reach the limit imposed by Exchange on the maximum number of items opened at any one time. Then set a variable to Nothing in Visual Basic (null in C#) to release the reference to the object. Read more about that in the Systematically Releasing Objects article in MSDN.
There is nothing you can do about that. From the documentation on NewMailEx:
Also, the event will fire only if Outlook is running. In other words, it will not fire for the new items that are received in the Inbox when Outlook was not open.
That means you have to manually call your method to walk down all the unread emails when opening Outlook.
I have user myuser that logged in in windows and I open the program with otheruser.
I need that then I open new mail in outlook it will open it with myuser. The code that I'm using is:
Outlook.Application App = new Outlook.Application();
Outlook._MailItem MailItem = (Outlook._MailItem)App.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olMailItem);
MailItem.To = BossName.Text;
MailItem.CC = ClientName.Text;
MailItem.Display(true);
Start your application in the context of the desired user, or
you may use Impersonation:
WindowsIdentity.Impersonate Method
Be sure that outlook doesn't run in your session already. Outlook can only run once in a session - so it's not possible to logon with different Outlook-MAPI-Sessions in one Windows-Session at the same time. You Always have to reopen outlook.
Multible Outlook-Profiles
Another way is to configure multible Outlook profiles and start outlook via .net and pass the Profilename. But this can be a little bit tricky, because you always have to check if outlook isnt already running in a different profilecontext - because the Profile-Parameter will be ignored if outlook has already been opened.
class Sample
{
Outlook.Application GetApplicationObject()
{
Outlook.Application application = null;
// Check whether there is an Outlook process running.
if (Process.GetProcessesByName("OUTLOOK").Count() > 0)
{
// If so, use the GetActiveObject method to obtain the process and cast it to an Application object. Or close Outlook to open a new instance with a desired profile
application = Marshal.GetActiveObject("Outlook.Application") as Outlook.Application;
//!! Check if the application is using the right profile - close & reopen if necessary
}
else
{
// If not, create a new instance of Outlook and log on to the default profile.;
application = new Outlook.Application();
Outlook.NameSpace nameSpace = application.GetNamespace("MAPI");
nameSpace.Logon("profilename", "", Missing.Value, Missing.Value);
nameSpace = null;
}
// Return the Outlook Application object.
return application;
}
}
If possible use EWS
Another approach would be to use EWS-API (Exchange WebServices-API) but this presupposes to have an Exchange or Office365 account. And is only usefull if you want to deal with outlook-items in the background (.Display() is not possible)
If you are using an Exchange-Account (Office365) i would prefer to do it that way...
Get started with EWS Managed API client applications
I am using Outlook.Application and Outlook.MailItem object for opening Outlook in my C# desktop application. My outlook doesn't display attachments although when I send the mail to myself, I receive mail with attachments. But it is not showing before sending mail (when outlook is open). I am using Outlook 2007. Below is my code:
Outlook.Application oApp = new Outlook.Application();
Outlook.NameSpace oNS = oApp.GetNamespace("mapi");
// Log on by using a dialog box to choose the profile.
oNS.Logon(Missing.Value, Missing.Value, true, true);
// Create a new mail item.
Outlook.MailItem oMsg = (Outlook.MailItem)oApp.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olMailItem);
......
//Check if we need to add attachments
if (_files.Count > 0)
{
foreach (string attachment in _files)
{
oMsg.Attachments.Add(attachment,Outlook.OlAttachmentType.olByValue,null,null);
}
}
oMsg.Save();
oMsg.Display(false);
Of course, Type.Missing is used to omit the parameter and use the default value in COM add-ins.
Also I'd suggest breaking the chain of calls and declaring each property or method call on a separate line of code. It will allow to release each underlying COM object instantly.
Use System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject to release an Outlook object when you have finished using it. This is particularly important if your add-in attempts to enumerate more than 256 Outlook items in a collection that is stored on a Microsoft Exchange Server. If you do not release these objects in a timely manner, you can reach the limit imposed by Exchange on the maximum number of items opened at any one time. Then set a variable to Nothing in Visual Basic (null in C#) to release the reference to the object. You can read more about that in the Systematically Releasing Objects article in MSDN.
Is it possible to read a .PST file using C#? I would like to do this as a standalone application, not as an Outlook addin (if that is possible).
If have seen other SO questions similar to this mention MailNavigator but I am looking to do this programmatically in C#.
I have looked at the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook namespace but that appears to be just for Outlook addins. LibPST appears to be able to read PST files, but this is in C (sorry Joel, I didn't learn C before graduating).
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
EDIT:
Thank you all for the responses! I accepted Matthew Ruston's response as the answer because it ultimately led me to the code I was looking for. Here is a simple example of what I got to work (You will need to add a reference to Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook):
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
namespace PSTReader {
class Program {
static void Main () {
try {
IEnumerable<MailItem> mailItems = readPst(#"C:\temp\PST\Test.pst", "Test PST");
foreach (MailItem mailItem in mailItems) {
Console.WriteLine(mailItem.SenderName + " - " + mailItem.Subject);
}
} catch (System.Exception ex) {
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static IEnumerable<MailItem> readPst(string pstFilePath, string pstName) {
List<MailItem> mailItems = new List<MailItem>();
Application app = new Application();
NameSpace outlookNs = app.GetNamespace("MAPI");
// Add PST file (Outlook Data File) to Default Profile
outlookNs.AddStore(pstFilePath);
MAPIFolder rootFolder = outlookNs.Stores[pstName].GetRootFolder();
// Traverse through all folders in the PST file
// TODO: This is not recursive, refactor
Folders subFolders = rootFolder.Folders;
foreach (Folder folder in subFolders) {
Items items = folder.Items;
foreach (object item in items) {
if (item is MailItem) {
MailItem mailItem = item as MailItem;
mailItems.Add(mailItem);
}
}
}
// Remove PST file from Default Profile
outlookNs.RemoveStore(rootFolder);
return mailItems;
}
}
}
Note: This code assumes that Outlook is installed and already configured for the current user. It uses the Default Profile (you can edit the default profile by going to Mail in the Control Panel). One major improvement on this code would be to create a temporary profile to use instead of the Default, then destroy it once completed.
The Outlook Interop library is not just for addins. For example it could be used to write a console app that just reads all your Outlook Contacts. I am pretty sure that the standard Microsoft Outlook Interop library will let you read the mail - albeit it will probably throw a security prompt in Outlook that the user will have to click through.
EDITS: Actually implementing mail reading using Outlook Interop depends on what your definition of 'standalone' means. The Outlook Interop lib requires Outlook to be installed on the client machine in order to function.
// Dumps all email in Outlook to console window.
// Prompts user with warning that an application is attempting to read Outlook data.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
namespace OutlookEmail
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Outlook.Application app = new Outlook.Application();
Outlook.NameSpace outlookNs = app.GetNamespace("MAPI");
Outlook.MAPIFolder emailFolder = outlookNs.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
foreach (Outlook.MailItem item in emailFolder.Items)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.SenderEmailAddress + " " + item.Subject + "\n" + item.Body);
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
I went through and did the refactoring for subfolders
private static IEnumerable<MailItem> readPst(string pstFilePath, string pstName)
{
List<MailItem> mailItems = new List<MailItem>();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application();
NameSpace outlookNs = app.GetNamespace("MAPI");
// Add PST file (Outlook Data File) to Default Profile
outlookNs.AddStore(pstFilePath);
string storeInfo = null;
foreach (Store store in outlookNs.Stores)
{
storeInfo = store.DisplayName;
storeInfo = store.FilePath;
storeInfo = store.StoreID;
}
MAPIFolder rootFolder = outlookNs.Stores[pstName].GetRootFolder();
// Traverse through all folders in the PST file
Folders subFolders = rootFolder.Folders;
foreach (Folder folder in subFolders)
{
ExtractItems(mailItems, folder);
}
// Remove PST file from Default Profile
outlookNs.RemoveStore(rootFolder);
return mailItems;
}
private static void ExtractItems(List<MailItem> mailItems, Folder folder)
{
Items items = folder.Items;
int itemcount = items.Count;
foreach (object item in items)
{
if (item is MailItem)
{
MailItem mailItem = item as MailItem;
mailItems.Add(mailItem);
}
}
foreach (Folder subfolder in folder.Folders)
{
ExtractItems(mailItems, subfolder);
}
}
As already mentioned in one of your linked SO questions, I'd also recommend using the Redemption library. I'm using it in a commercial application for processing Outlook mails and performing various tasks with them. It's working flawlessly and prevents showing up the annoying security alerts. It would mean using COM Interop, but that shouldn't be a problem.
There's a library in that package called RDO which is replacing the CDO 1.21, which lets you access PST files directly. Then it's as easy as writing (VB6 code):
set Session = CreateObject("Redemption.RDOSession")
'open or create a PST store
set Store = Session.LogonPstStore("c:\temp\test.pst")
set Inbox = Store.GetDefaultFolder(6) 'olFolderInbox
MsgBox Inbox.Items.Count
You can use pstsdk.net: .NET port of PST File Format SDK library which is open source to read pst file without Outlook installed.
Try Pstxy.
It provide .Net API to read Outlook PST & OST file without need for Outlook installed.
It has a free version to extract mail content (text, html & rtf). The plus version support attachments, too.
For those mentioning that they don't see the Stores collection:
The Stores collection was added in Outlook 2007. So, if you're using an interop library created from an earlier version (in an attempt to be version independent - this is ver common) then this would be why you won't see the Stores collection.
Your only options to get the Stores are to do one of the following:
Use an interop library for Outlook 2007 (this means your code won't work for earlier versions of Outlook).
Enumerate all top level folders with Outlook object model, extract the StoreID of each folder, and then use CDO or MAPI interfaces to get more information about each store.
Enumerate the InfoStores collection of CDO session object, and then use the fields collection of InfoStore object in order to get more information about each store.
Or (the hardest way) use extended MAPI call (In C++): IMAPISession::GetMsgStoresTable.
We are going to use this, to provide a solution that doesn't rely on outlook.
http://www.independentsoft.de/pst/index.html
It is very expensive, but we hope that will lower development time and increase quality.
I found some resources directly from Microsoft which may be helpful for completing this task. A search on MSDN reveals the following.
How to use the Microsoft Outlook Object Library to retrieve a message from the Inbox by using Visual C#
How to use the Microsoft Outlook Object Library to retrieve an appointment by using Visual C#
Note that when you're adding a reference to Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook, the documentation insists that you do so via the .NET tab instead of the COM tab.
The MAPI API is what you are looking for. Unfortunately it is not available in .Net so I'm afraid you will have to resort to calling unmanaged code.
A quick Google reveals several wrappers available, maybe they work for you?
This might also be helpful: http://www.wischik.com/lu/programmer/mapi_utils.html
This .NET connector for Outlook might get you started.
Yes, with Independentsoft PST .NET is possible to read/export password protected and encrypted .pst file.
Really usefull code. If you have pst and store your messages in its root (without any directory), then you can use the following in method readPst:
MAPIFolder rootFolder = outlookNs.Stores[pstName].GetRootFolder();
Items items = rootFolder.Items;
foreach (object item in items)
{
if (item is MailItem)
{
MailItem mailItem = item as MailItem;
mailItems.Add(mailItem);
}
}
Yes you can use MS Access and then you either import your pst content or just link it (slow!).