Extract emails from Outlook Storage

To extract emails from Outlook Storage GetContainer method is used. This method returns the collection of ContainerItem objects.

Outlook Storage item can contain the following metadata:

NameDescription
dateThe time and date at which the Outlook Storage item was last modified.
email-senderThe value of “sender” field.
email-toThe value of “to” field.
subjectThe value of “subject” field.

Outlook Storage container consists of email documents (msg files).

Here are the steps to extract an email text from Outlook Storage:

  • Instantiate Parser object for the initial document;
  • Call GetContainer method and obtain collection of ContainerItem objects;
  • Check if collection isn’t null (container extraction is supported for the document);
  • Iterate through the collection and get container item names, sizes and obtain content.

The following example shows how to extract a text from emails in Outlook Storage:

// Create an instance of Parser class
using(Parser parser = new Parser(filePath))
{
    // Extract attachments from the container
    IEnumerable<ContainerItem> attachments = parser.GetContainer();
    // Check if container extraction is supported
    if(attachments == null)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Container extraction isn't supported");
    }

    // Iterate over attachments
    foreach(ContainerItem item in attachments)
    {
		// Print the file path
		Console.WriteLine(item.FilePath);
        
        // Print metadata
        foreach (MetadataItem metadata in item.Metadata)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}: {1}", metadata.Name, metadata.Value));
        }

		try
        {
            // Create Parser object for the email content
            using (Parser attachmentParser = item.OpenParser())
            {
                // Extract an email text
                using (TextReader reader = attachmentParser.GetText())
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(reader == null ? "No text" : reader.ReadToEnd());
                }
            }
        }
        catch (UnsupportedDocumentFormatException)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Isn't supported.");
        }
	}
}

More resources

GitHub examples

You may easily run the code above and see the feature in action in our GitHub examples:

Free online document parser App

Along with full featured .NET library we provide simple, but powerful free Apps.

You are welcome to parse documents and extract data from PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, Emails and more with our free online Free Online Document Parser App.