Table of Contents

Bodu.Formats.Outlook guides

Recipe-style walk-throughs for the Outlook format readers: Bodu.Formats.Outlook, the shared MAPI value model, and Bodu.Formats.Outlook.Msg, the read-only reader for the Outlook message format (.msg / MS-OXMSG). A message is opened as a disposable session exposing every decoded MAPI property, the recipient and attachment tables, nested attached messages, named-property resolution, and the text, HTML, and compressed-RTF bodies.

A .msg file is an OLE2 compound file: the message's properties live in a __properties_version1.0 stream of fixed 16-byte records, variable-length values live in __substg1.0_ streams named by their property tag, and recipients and attachments are indexed child storages. The container is read by CompoundFile, on which the reader is built.

How the library works

OutlookMessage opens the container and eagerly decodes the root property stream, so the property surface is available without further I/O. Recipients, attachments, and the named-property mapping are materialized lazily on first access. Attachment payloads stream directly from the container, and an attached message opens recursively as a nested session sharing the root's container.

Both packages share the flattened Bodu.Formats.Outlook namespace: the value model - MapiPropertyTag, MapiProperty, the tag-addressed MapiPropertyCollection, and MapiNamedProperty - carries no container knowledge, so the .pst mail-store reader, Bodu.Formats.Outlook.Pst (over Bodu.IO.Pst; see the Bodu.IO.Pst introduction), shares it unchanged.

These guides cover the read path only - the reader never writes .msg files, emulates a MAPI session, or de-encapsulates RTF into HTML.

Namespace map

Namespace What lives here Guides
Bodu.Formats.Outlook The OutlookMessage and OutlookMailStore sessions with their folder/recipient/attachment/body surfaces, the two reader-options types, the shared MAPI value model, and the OutlookFormatException family. Reading .msg files · Reading .pst mail stores · Properties and named properties · Reader options and resource limits

Guides

  • Reading .msg files - opening a message from a path or stream, the scalar and body conveniences, recipients, attachments, and nested messages.
  • Reading .pst mail stores - opening a mail store, walking the folder hierarchy, message conveniences and bodies, recipients, attachments and embedded messages, store-wide named properties, and the two exception families.
  • Properties and named properties - the raw property surface, typed accessors, tags and wire types, and resolving named properties.
  • Reader options and resource limits - every option on both readers, what Strict changes, and what surfaces when a limit trips.