Managed C++/CLI - Convert email to HTML

The following C++/CLI codes demonstrate how to convert email to a HTML page and display it using Web browser Control.

After the email was converted to HTML page, you can browse it with web browser. You can get everything in the HTML page such as From, To, Cc, Subject, Date, Attachments and Embedded images.

Installation

Before you can use the following sample codes, you should download the EAGetMail Installer and install it on your machine at first. Full sample projects are included in this installer.

Install from NuGet

You can also install the run-time assembly by NuGet. Run the following command in the NuGet Package Manager Console:

Install-Package EAGetMail

Note

If you install it by NuGet, no sample projects are installed, only .NET assembly is installed.

Add reference

To use EAGetMail POP3 & IMAP Component in your project, the first step is “Add reference of EAGetMail to your project”. Please create or open your project with Visual Studio, then go to menu -> Project -> Add Reference -> .NET -> Browse..., and select Installation path\Lib\[netversion]\EAGetMail.dll, click Open-> OK, the reference will be added to the project, you can start to use it to retrieve email and parse email in your project.

add reference in c#/vb.net/managed c++/cli

.NET assembly

Because EAGetMail has separate builds for .Net Framework, please refer to the following table and choose the correct dll.

Separate builds of run-time assembly for .Net Framework 2.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6.1, 4.7.2, 4.8.1, .NET 6.0, NET 7.0, .NET 8.0, .NET Standard 2.0 and .Net Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5.

File .NET Framework Version
Lib\net20\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Framework 2.0
It requires .NET Framework 2.0, 3.5 or later version.
Lib\net40\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Framework 4.0
It requires .NET Framework 4.0 or later version.
Lib\net45\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Framework 4.5
It requires .NET Framework 4.5 or later version.
Lib\net461\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Framework 4.6.1
It requires .NET Framework 4.6.1 or later version.
Lib\net472\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Framework 4.7.2
It requires .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later version.
Lib\net481\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Framework 4.8.1
It requires .NET Framework 4.8.1 or later version.
Lib\net6.0\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET 6.0
It requires .NET 6.0 or later version.
Lib\net7.0\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET 7.0
It requires .NET 7.0 or later version.
Lib\net8.0\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET 8.0
It requires .NET 8.0 or later version.
Lib\netstandard2.0\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Standard 2.0
It requires .NET Standard 2.0 or later version.
Lib\net20-cf\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Compact Framework 2.0
It requires .NET Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5 or later version.
Lib\net35-cf\EAGetMail.dll Built with .NET Compact Framework 3.5
It requires .NET Compact Framework 3.5 or later version.

Managed C++/CLI - Parse and convert email to HTML - example

The following example codes demonstrate converting email to HTML page. In order to run it correctly, please change email server, user, password, folder, file name value to yours.

Note

To get full sample projects, please download and install EAGetMail on your machine.

#include "stdafx.h"

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Text;
using namespace System::Text::RegularExpressions;
using namespace System::Collections;
using namespace System::IO;
using namespace EAGetMail; //add EAGetMail namespace

String^ _FormatHtmlTag(String ^src)
{
    src = src->Replace(">", ">");
    src = src->Replace("<", "&lt;");
    return src;
}

// We generate a html + attachment folder for every email, once the html is create,
// next time we don't need to parse the email again.
void _GenerateHtmlForEmail(String ^emlFile, String ^htmlFile, String ^attachmentFolder)
{
    Mail ^oMail = gcnew Mail("TryIt");
    oMail->Load(emlFile, false);

    if (oMail->IsEncrypted)
    {
        try
        {
            // This email is encrypted, we decrypt it by user default certificate.
            // you can also use specified certificate like this
            // Certificate ^oCert = gcnew Certificate();
            // oCert->Load("c:\\test.pfx", "pfxpassword",
            //      Certificate::CertificateKeyLocation::CRYPT_USER_KEYSET);
            // oMail = oMail->Decrypt( oCert );
            oMail = oMail->Decrypt(nullptr);
        }
        catch (Exception ^ep)
        {
            Console::WriteLine(ep->Message);
            oMail->Load(emlFile, false);
        }
    }

    if (oMail->IsSigned)
    {
        try
        {
            // This email is digital signed.
            EAGetMail::Certificate ^cert = oMail->VerifySignature();
            Console::WriteLine("This email contains a valid digital signature.");

            // You can add the certificate to your certificate storage like this
            // cert->AddToStore(
            // Certificate::CertificateStoreLocation::CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER,
            //      "addressbook" );
            // then you can use send the encrypted email back to this sender.
        }
        catch (Exception ^ep)
        {
            Console::WriteLine(ep->Message);
        }
    }

    // Decode winmail.dat (TNEF) and RTF body (convert RTF to HTML) automatically
    oMail->DecodeTNEF();

    String ^html = oMail->HtmlBody;
    StringBuilder ^hdr = gcnew StringBuilder();

    hdr->Append("<font face=\"Courier New,Arial\" size=2>");
    hdr->Append(String::Format("<b>From:</b> {0}<br>",
        _FormatHtmlTag(oMail->From->ToString())));

    array<MailAddress^>^  addrs = oMail->To;
    int count = addrs->Length;
    if (count > 0)
    {
        hdr->Append("<b>To:</b> ");
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            hdr->Append(_FormatHtmlTag(addrs[i]->ToString()));
            if (i < count - 1)
            {
                hdr->Append(";");
            }
        }
        hdr->Append("<br>");
    }

    addrs = oMail->Cc;

    count = addrs->Length;
    if (count > 0)
    {
        hdr->Append("<b>Cc:</b> ");
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            hdr->Append(_FormatHtmlTag(addrs[i]->ToString()));
            if (i < count - 1)
            {
                hdr->Append(";");
            }
        }
        hdr->Append("<br>");
    }

    hdr->Append(String::Format("<b>Subject:</b>{0}<br>\r\n",
        _FormatHtmlTag(oMail->Subject)));

    array<Attachment^>^ atts = oMail->Attachments;
    count = atts->Length;
    if (count > 0)
    {
        if (!Directory::Exists(attachmentFolder))
            Directory::CreateDirectory(attachmentFolder);

        hdr->Append("<b>Attachments:</b>");
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
        {
            Attachment ^att = atts[i];

            String ^attname = String::Format("{0}\\{1}", attachmentFolder, att->Name);
            att->SaveAs(attname, true);
            hdr->Append(String::Format("<a href=\"{0}\" target=\"_blank\">{1}</a> ",
                attname, att->Name));
            String^ simage = "image/";
            if (att->ContentID->Length > 0)
            {
                // Show embedded image.
                html = html->Replace(String::Format("cid:{0}", att->ContentID), attname);
            }
            else if (String::Compare(att->ContentType, 0,
                "image/", 0, simage->Length, true) == 0)
            {
                // show attached image.
                html = String::Concat(html,
                    String::Format("<hr><img src=\"{0}\">", attname));
            }
        }
    }

    Regex ^reg = gcnew Regex("(<meta[^>]*charset[ \t]*=[ \t\"]*)([^<> \r\n\"]*)",
        (RegexOptions)(RegexOptions::Multiline | RegexOptions::IgnoreCase));
    html = reg->Replace(html, "$1utf-8");
    if (!reg->IsMatch(html))
    {
        hdr->Insert(0,
            "<meta HTTP-EQUIV=\"Content-Type\" Content=\"text-html; charset=utf-8\">");
    }

    html = html->Insert(0, "<hr>");
    html = html->Insert(0, hdr->ToString());

    FileStream ^fs = gcnew FileStream(htmlFile,
        FileMode::Create, FileAccess::Write, FileShare::None);

    array<unsigned char>^ data = System::Text::UTF8Encoding::UTF8->GetBytes(html);
    fs->Write(data, 0, data->Length);
    fs->Close();
}

void ConvertMailToHtml(String ^fileName)
{
    try
    {
        int pos = fileName->LastIndexOf(".");
        String ^attachmentFolder = fileName->Substring(0, pos);
        String ^htmlFile = fileName->Substring(0, pos) + ".htm";

        if (!File::Exists(htmlFile))
        {
            // We haven't generate the html for this email, generate it now.
            _GenerateHtmlForEmail(fileName, htmlFile, attachmentFolder);
        }

        Console::WriteLine("Please open {0} to browse your email",
            htmlFile);
    }
    catch (Exception ^ep)
    {
        Console::WriteLine(ep->Message);
    }
}

int main(array<System::String ^> ^args)
{
    //convert specified email file to HTML
    ConvertMailToHtml("c:\\my folder\\test.eml");

    return 0;
}

Appendix

Comments

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