1. Home
  2. EAGetMail POP3/IMAP4 Component
  3. KB
  4. VB6
  5. Parse winmail.dat (TNEF/MAPI) in VB 6.0

Tutorial Index

Parse winmail.dat (TNEF/MAPI) in VB 6.0

In previous section, I introduced how to verify digital signature and decrypt email. In this section, I will introduce how to parse winmail.dat (TNEF stream) in VB 6.0.

Introduction

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. To parse winmail.dat (TNEF stream) file, we should use ParseTNEF method.

Note

Remarks: All of examples in this section are based on first section: A simple VB 6.0 project. To compile and run the following example codes successfully, please click here to learn how to create the test project and add reference to your project.

[VB 6.0 Example - Parse winmail.dat (TNEF stream)]

The following example codes demonstrate how to parse MAPI winmail.dat.

Note

To get the full sample projects, please refer to Samples section.

Option Explicit

Const CRYPT_MACHINE_KEYSET = 32
Const CRYPT_USER_KEYSET = 4096
Const CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER = 65536
Const CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_LOCAL_MACHINE = 131072

Private Sub ParseEmail(ByVal emlFile As String)
    Dim oMail As New EAGetMailObjLib.Mail
    oMail.LicenseCode = "TryIt"

On Error GoTo ErrorHandle
    oMail.LoadFile emlFile, False

    If oMail.IsEncrypted Then
        ' This email is encrypted, we decrypt it by user default certificate.
        ' You can also use specified certificate like this
        ' Dim oCert As New EAGetMailObjLib.Certificate
        ' oCert.LoadFromFile "c:\test.pfx", "pfxpassword", CRYPT_USER_KEYSET
        ' Set oMail = oMail.Decrypt(oCert)
        Set oMail = oMail.Decrypt(Nothing)
    End If

    If oMail.IsSigned Then
        ' This email is digital signed.
        Dim oCert As EAGetMailObjLib.Certificate
        Set oCert = oMail.VerifySignature
        MsgBox "This email contains a valid digital signature."
        ' You can add the certificate to your certificate storage like this
        ' oCert.AddToStore CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER, "addressbook"
        ' Then you can use send the encrypted email back to this sender.
    End If

    ' Parse email sender
    MsgBox "From: " & oMail.From.Address

    Dim addressList As EAGetMailObjLib.AddressCollection
    Dim i As Long
    Dim addr As EAGetMailObjLib.MailAddress

    ' Parse email to recipients
    Set addressList = oMail.ToList
    For i = 0 To addressList.Count - 1
        Set addr = addressList.Item(i)
        MsgBox "To: " & addr.Address
    Next

    ' Parse email cc
    Set addressList = oMail.CcList
    For i = 0 To addressList.Count - 1
        Set addr = addressList.Item(i)
        MsgBox "Cc: " & addr.Address
    Next

    ' Parse email subject
    MsgBox "Subject: " & oMail.Subject

    ' Parse email text body
    MsgBox "Text body: " & oMail.TextBody

    ' Parse email HTML body
    MsgBox "Html body: " & oMail.HtmlBody


    ' Parse attachments
    Dim atts As EAGetMailObjLib.AttachmentCollection
    Dim att As EAGetMailObjLib.Attachment

    Set atts = oMail.AttachmentList
    For i = 0 To atts.Count - 1
        Set att = atts.Item(i)
        MsgBox "Attachment: " & att.name

        ' This attachment is in OUTLOOK RTF format(TNEF), decode it here.
        If LCase(att.name) = "winmail.dat" Then
            Dim tatts
            Dim x As Integer
            tatts = oMail.ParseTNEF(att.Content, True)
            For x = LBound(tatts) To UBound(tatts)
                Dim tatt As EAGetMailObjLib.Attachment
                Set tatt = tatts(x)
                MsgBox "winmail.dat: " & tatt.name
            Next
        End If
    Next

    Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
    MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim curpath As String
    Dim mailbox As String
    Dim oTools As New EAGetMailObjLib.Tools

    ' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
    ' to save the email retrieved.
    curpath = App.Path
    mailbox = curpath & "\inbox"
    oTools.CreateFolder mailbox

    Dim files
    Dim i As Long

    ' Get all *.eml files in specified folder and parse it one by one.
    files = oTools.GetFiles(mailbox & "\*.eml")
    For i = LBound(files) To UBound(files)
        ParseEmail files(i)
    Next

    Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
    MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub

Parse TNEF (winmail.dat) by DecodeTNEF method

In EAGetMail 4.5, a new method named DecodeTNEF is introduced. It is easier to parse TNEF attachment. Please have a look at the following example codes:

Option Explicit

Const CRYPT_MACHINE_KEYSET = 32
Const CRYPT_USER_KEYSET = 4096
Const CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER = 65536
Const CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_LOCAL_MACHINE = 131072

Private Sub ParseEmail(ByVal emlFile As String)
    Dim oMail As New EAGetMailObjLib.Mail
    oMail.LicenseCode = "TryIt"

On Error GoTo ErrorHandle
    oMail.LoadFile emlFile, False

    If oMail.IsEncrypted Then
        ' This email is encrypted, we decrypt it by user default certificate.
        ' You can also use specified certificate like this
        ' Dim oCert As New EAGetMailObjLib.Certificate
        ' oCert.LoadFromFile "c:\test.pfx", "pfxpassword", CRYPT_USER_KEYSET
        ' Set oMail = oMail.Decrypt(oCert)
        Set oMail = oMail.Decrypt(Nothing)
    End If

    If oMail.IsSigned Then
        ' This email is digital signed.
        Dim oCert As EAGetMailObjLib.Certificate
        Set oCert = oMail.VerifySignature
        MsgBox "This email contains a valid digital signature."
        ' You can add the certificate to your certificate storage like this
        ' oCert.AddToStore CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER, "addressbook"
        ' Then you can use send the encrypted email back to this sender.
    End If

    ' Decode winmail.dat (TNEF) automatically'
    oMail.DecodeTNEF

    ' Parse email sender
    MsgBox "From: " & oMail.From.Address

    Dim addressList As EAGetMailObjLib.AddressCollection
    Dim i As Long
    Dim addr As EAGetMailObjLib.MailAddress

    ' Parse email to recipients
    Set addressList = oMail.ToList
    For i = 0 To addressList.Count - 1
        Set addr = addressList.Item(i)
        MsgBox "To: " & addr.Address
    Next

    ' Parse email cc
    Set addressList = oMail.CcList
    For i = 0 To addressList.Count - 1
        Set addr = addressList.Item(i)
        MsgBox "Cc: " & addr.Address
    Next

    ' Parse email subject
    MsgBox "Subject: " & oMail.Subject

    ' Parse email text body
    MsgBox "Text body: " & oMail.TextBody

    ' Parse email HTML body
    MsgBox "Html body: " & oMail.HtmlBody

    ' Parse attachments
    Dim atts As EAGetMailObjLib.AttachmentCollection
    Dim att As EAGetMailObjLib.Attachment

    Set atts = oMail.AttachmentList
    For i = 0 To atts.Count - 1
        Set att = atts.Item(i)
        MsgBox "Attachment: " & att.name
        ' Save attachment to local file.
        att.SaveAs App.Path & "\inbox\" & att.name, true
    Next

    Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
    MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim curpath As String
    Dim mailbox As String
    Dim oTools As New EAGetMailObjLib.Tools

    ' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
    ' to save the email retrieved.
    curpath = App.Path
    mailbox = curpath & "\inbox"
    oTools.CreateFolder mailbox

    Dim files
    Dim i As Long

    ' Get all *.eml files in specified folder and parse it one by one.
    files = oTools.GetFiles(mailbox & "\*.eml")
    For i = LBound(files) To UBound(files)
        ParseEmail files(i)
    Next

    Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
    MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub

Next Section

At next section I will introduce how to convert email to HTML page and display it in Web browser.

Appendix

Comments

If you have any comments or questions about above example codes, please click here to add your comments.

See Also