Work with winmail.dat (TNEF Parser)


When an Outlook user composes and sends a message using either Rich Text Format or HTML Format, Outlook automagically generates a file, winmail.dat, and attaches it to the end of the email. The winmail.dat contains the rich text body and original attachments. EAGetMail provides the TNEF parser to decode the winmail.dat. With this feature, you application has the highly compatibility with the outlook email.

Example

[Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++] The following example demonstrates how to deal with the winmail.dat attachment. To get the full samples of EAGetMail, please refer to Samples section.

[Visual Basic 6.0]
Private Sub ParseTNEF()
On Error GoTo ErrorHandle
    Dim oMail As New EAGetMailObjLib.Mail
    Dim oTools As New EAGetMailObjLib.Tools
    
    oMail.LicenseCode = "TryIt"
    oMail.LoadFile "c:\test.eml", False
    Dim tempFolder As String
    tempFolder = "c:\temp"
    
    Dim i, Count
    Dim atts
    atts = oMail.Attachments
    i = LBound(atts)
    Count = UBound(atts)
    If (Count >= i) Then
        If Not oTools.ExistFile(tempFolder) Then
            oTools.CreateFolder (tempFolder)
        End If
        
        For i = LBound(atts) To Count
            Dim att As Attachment
            Set att = atts(i)
            'this attachment is in OUTLOOK RTF format, decode it here.
            If LCase(att.Name) = "winmail.dat" Then
                Dim tatts
                tatts = oMail.ParseTNEF(att.Content, True)
                For x = LBound(tatts) To UBound(tatts)
                        Dim tatt As Attachment
                        Set tatt = tatts(x)
                        Dim tattname As String
                        tattname = tempFolder & "\" & tatt.Name
                        tatt.SaveAs tattname, True
                Next
                
            Else
                Dim attname
                attname = tempFolder & "\" & att.Name
                att.SaveAs attname, True
            End If
        Next
    End If
    Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
    MsgBox Err.Description

End Sub

[Visual C++]
//if you do not use MFC, please add this line to support CString type.
#include <atlstr.h> 

#include "eagetmailobj.tlh"
using namespace EAGetMailObjLib;

void ParseTNEF()
{
    IMailPtr oMail = NULL;
    CString tempFolder = _T("c:\\temp");
    try
    {
        oMail.CreateInstance("EAGetMailObj.Mail");
        oMail->LicenseCode = _T("TryIt");
        oMail->LoadFile( _T("c:\\test.eml"), VARIANT_FALSE );

        LONG UBound = 0, LBound = 0;
        _variant_t atts = oMail->Attachments;
        SAFEARRAY *psa = atts.parray;
        SafeArrayGetLBound( psa, 1, &LBound );
        SafeArrayGetUBound( psa, 1, &UBound );

        
        INT count = UBound-LBound+1;

        ::CreateDirectory( tempFolder.GetString(), NULL );
        for( long i = LBound; i <= UBound; i++ )
        {
            _variant_t vtAtt;
            SafeArrayGetElement( psa, &i, &vtAtt );

            IAttachmentPtr pAtt;
            vtAtt.pdispVal->QueryInterface( __uuidof(IAttachment), (void**)&pAtt);

            CString name = (TCHAR*)pAtt->Name;
            //this attachment is in OUTLOOK RTF format, decode it here.
            if( name.CompareNoCase( _T("winmail.dat")) == 0 )
            {
                //this attachment is in OUTLOOK RTF format, decode it here.
                _variant_t tatts;
                try
                {
                    tatts = oMail->ParseTNEF( pAtt->Content, VARIANT_TRUE );
                }
                catch(_com_error &ep )
                {
                    MessageBox( NULL, (TCHAR*)ep.Description(), NULL, MB_OK );
                    continue;
                }

                long XLBound = 0, XUBound = 0;

                SAFEARRAY* tpsa = tatts.parray;
                SafeArrayGetLBound( tpsa, 1, &XLBound );
                SafeArrayGetUBound( tpsa, 1, &XUBound );
                for( long x = XLBound; x <= XUBound; x++ )
                {
                    _variant_t vttAtt;
                    SafeArrayGetElement( tpsa, &x, &vttAtt );
                    IAttachmentPtr ptAtt;
                    vttAtt.pdispVal->QueryInterface(__uuidof(IAttachment), (void**)&ptAtt);

                    CString tattname = tempFolder;
                    tattname.Append( _T("\\"));
                    tattname.Append((TCHAR*)ptAtt->Name );
                    ptAtt->SaveAs( tattname.GetString(), VARIANT_TRUE );

                }

                continue;
            }
            CString attname = tempFolder;
            attname.Append(_T("\\"));
            attname.Append((TCHAR*)pAtt->Name);
            pAtt->SaveAs( attname.GetString(), VARIANT_TRUE );
        }
    }
    catch( _com_error &ep )
    {
        MessageBox( NULL,  (TCHAR*)ep.Description(), _T("Error"), MB_OK );
    }

}

See Also

Using EAGetMail POP3 & IMAP4 ActiveX Object
User Authentication and SSL Connection
Digital Signature and E-mail Encryption/Decryption
Unique Identifier (UIDL) in POP3 and IMAP4 protocol
Parse Bounced Email (delivery-report)
EAGetMail ActiveX Object References
EAGetMail POP3 & IMAP4 Component Samples