Reading `.msg` files

OutlookMessage is the session type: open it over a file path or a stream, read what you need through the conveniences or the raw property surface, and dispose it when done. The session owns the compound-file container and, unless you opt out with leaveOpen, the source stream.

Open a message and read the common fields

using Bodu.Formats.Outlook;

using var message = OutlookMessage.OpenRead("invoice.msg");

Console.WriteLine(message.Subject);
Console.WriteLine(message.SenderName);
Console.WriteLine(message.SenderEmailAddress);
Console.WriteLine(message.SentTime);
Console.WriteLine(message.BodyText);

Every convenience is nullable and returns null when the message does not carry the underlying property - real-world messages omit fields freely.

Sniff before opening

IsMsgFile checks that a stream is an OLE2 compound file whose root carries the message property stream, restoring the stream position afterwards. The conventional root class identifier is not required - real-world writers frequently omit it.

using Bodu.Formats.Outlook;

using FileStream stream = File.OpenRead("maybe-a-message.bin");
if (OutlookMessage.IsMsgFile(stream))
{
    using var message = OutlookMessage.OpenRead(stream, leaveOpen: true);
    Console.WriteLine(message.Subject);
}

Recipients and attachments

Recipients and attachments are materialized lazily from their indexed child storages, in index order.

using Bodu.Formats.Outlook;

using var message = OutlookMessage.OpenRead("invoice.msg");

foreach (OutlookRecipient recipient in message.Recipients)
    Console.WriteLine($"{recipient.RecipientType}: {recipient.DisplayName} <{recipient.EmailAddress}>");

foreach (OutlookAttachment attachment in message.Attachments)
{
    if (attachment.Method == OutlookAttachmentMethod.ByValue)
    {
        using Stream content = attachment.OpenContentStream();
        using FileStream target = File.Create(attachment.FileName ?? "attachment.bin");
        content.CopyTo(target);
    }
    else if (attachment.Method == OutlookAttachmentMethod.EmbeddedMessage)
    {
        OutlookMessage nested = attachment.OpenMessage();
        Console.WriteLine($"attached message: {nested.Subject}");
    }
}

A nested message shares the root session's container and named-property mapping: disposing it is a no-op, and it becomes unusable for container-backed reads once the root session is disposed.

Bodies

Three body conveniences cover the forms a message stores:

BodyText - the plain-text PidTagBody.
BodyHtml - the PidTagHtml payload, decoded through the message's internet code page.
BodyRtf - the PidTagRtfCompressed payload, decompressed per MS-OXRTFCP. Set DecompressRtf to false to suppress the decompression; the raw payload stays reachable through the property collection.

Validation levels

Open accepts OutlookMessageReaderOptions, whose ValidationLevel reuses the container's CompoundValidationLevel:

Compatible (default) - malformed properties are omitted and decoding continues; the tolerance real-world messages need.
Strict - structural problems (a missing value stream, a misaligned property stream, inconsistent recipient/attachment counts) throw OutlookMsgFormatException.

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