Managing Message Files with Aspose.Email.Outlook

Converting MSG to MIME message

Aspose.Email API provides the capability of converting MSG files to MIME messages using the toMailMessage method.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
MapiMessage msg = new MapiMessage(
                            "sender@test.com",
                            "recipient1@test.com; recipient2@test.com",
                            "Test Subject",
                            "This is a body of message.");
MailConversionOptions options = new MailConversionOptions();
options.setConvertAsTnef(true);
MailMessage mail = msg.toMailMessage(options);

Reading and Writing Outlook Template File (.OFT)

Outlook templates are very useful when you want to send a similar email message again and again. Instead of preparing the message from scratch each time, first, prepare the message in Outlook and save it as an Outlook Template (OFT). After that, whenever you need to send the message, you can create it from the template, saving time writing the same text in the body or the subject line, setting formatting and so on. Aspose.Email’s MailMessage class can be used to load and read an Outlook template (OFT) file. Once the Outlook template is loaded in an instance of the MailMessage class, you can update the sender, recipient, body, subject and other properties. After updating the properties:

  • Send the email using the SmtpClient class or
  • Save the message as MSG and do further updates/validation using Microsoft Outlook.

In the code samples below, we:

  1. Load the template using the MailMessage class.
  2. Update some of the properties.
  3. Save the message in MSG format.

The following code snippet shows you how to load the OFT file, updating the message and saving it in MSG format.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

// Load the Outlook template (OFT) file in MailMessage's instance
MailMessage message = MailMessage.load(dataDir + "sample.oft", new MsgLoadOptions());

// Set the sender and recipients information
String senderDisplayName = "John";
String senderEmailAddress = "john@abc.com";
String recipientDisplayName = "William";
String recipientEmailAddress = "william@xzy.com";

message.setSender(new MailAddress(senderEmailAddress, senderDisplayName));
message.getTo().addMailAddress(new MailAddress(recipientEmailAddress, recipientDisplayName));
message.setHtmlBody(message.getHtmlBody().replace("DisplayName", "<b>" + recipientDisplayName + "</b>"));

// Set the name, location and time in email body
String meetingLocation = "<u>" + "Hall 1, Convention Center, New York, USA" + "</u>";
String meetingTime = "<u>" + "Monday, June 28, 2010" + "</u>";
message.setHtmlBody(message.getHtmlBody().replace("MeetingPlace", meetingLocation));
message.setHtmlBody(message.getHtmlBody().replace("MeetingTime", meetingTime));

// Save the message in MSG format and open in Office Outlook
MapiMessage mapimessage = MapiMessage.fromMailMessage(message);
mapimessage.setMessageFlags(MapiMessageFlags.MSGFLAG_UNSENT);
mapimessage.save(dataDir + "ReadAndWritingOutlookTemplateFile_out.msg");

Saving Outlook MSG file as Template

The following code snippet shows you how to save the outlook MSG file as a template.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

try (MapiMessage mapi = new MapiMessage("test@from.to", "test@to.to", "template subject", "Template body")) {
    mapi.saveAsTemplate(dataDir + "mapiToOft.msg");
}

Managing Digitally Signed Messages

Aspose.Email implements the complete S/MIME email object algorithm. This gives the API complete power to preserve digital signatures while converting messages between formats.

Preserving Signature when Converting from EML to MSG

Aspose.Email preserves the digital signature when converting from EML to MSG. The following code snippet shows you how to converting from EML to MSG.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

// Load mail message
MailMessage message = MailMessage.load(dataDir + "Message.eml", new EmlLoadOptions());
// Save as MSG
message.save(dataDir + "ConvertEMLToMSG_out.msg", SaveOptions.getDefaultMsgUnicode());

Converting S/MIME Messages from MSG to EML

Aspose.Email preserves the digital signature when converting from MSG to EML as shown in the following code snippet.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

MailMessage msg = MailMessage.load(dataDir + "message.eml");
MapiMessage mapi = MapiMessage.fromMailMessage(msg, new MapiConversionOptions(OutlookMessageFormat.Unicode));
// Save File to disk
mapi.save(dataDir + "ConvertMIMEMessagesFromMSGToEML_out.msg");

Setting Color Category for Outlook MSG Files

A color category marks an email message for some kind of importance or category. Microsoft Outlook lets users assign color categories to differentiate emails. To handle the color category, use the FollowUpManager. It contains functions such as addCategory, removeCategory, clearCategories and getCategories.

  • addCategory takes MapiMessage and the color category string, for example, “Purple Category” or “Red Category” as arguments.
  • removeCategory takes MapiMessage and the color category string to be removed from the message.
  • clearCategories is used to remove all the color categories from the message.
  • getCategories is used to retrieve all the color categories from a particular message.

The following example performs the tasks as given below:

  1. Add a color category.
  2. Add another color category.
  3. Retrieve the list of all categories.
  4. Remove all categories.
// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

MapiMessage msg = MapiMessage.fromFile(dataDir + "message.msg");

// Add Two category
FollowUpManager.addCategory(msg, "Purple Category");
FollowUpManager.addCategory(msg, "Red Category");

// Retrieve the list of available categories
IList categories = FollowUpManager.getCategories(msg);

// Remove the specified category and then Clear all categories
FollowUpManager.removeCategory(msg, "Red Category");
FollowUpManager.clearCategories(msg);

Accessing Follow Up Information form MSG file

Aspose.Email API provides the capability to access the follow-up information from a sent or received message. It can retrieve the Read, Delivery Read Receipt and vote results information from a message file.

Retrieving Read and Delivery Receipt Information

The following code snippet shows you how to retrieve read and delivery receipt information.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

MapiMessage msg = MapiMessage.fromFile(dataDir + "message.msg");
for (MapiRecipient recipient : msg.getRecipients()) {
    System.out.println("Recipient: " + recipient.getDisplayName());

    // Get the PR_RECIPIENT_TRACKSTATUS_TIME_DELIVERY property
    System.out.println("Delivery time: " + recipient.getProperties().get_Item(MapiPropertyTag.PR_RECIPIENT_TRACKSTATUS_TIME_DELIVERY).getDateTime());

    // Get the PR_RECIPIENT_TRACKSTATUS_TIME_READ property
    System.out.println("Read time" + recipient.getProperties().get_Item(MapiPropertyTag.PR_RECIPIENT_TRACKSTATUS_TIME_READ).getDateTime());
}

Creating Forward and Reply Messages

Aspose.Email API provides the capability of creating and formatting the forward and reply messages. The ReplyMessageBuilder and ForwardMessageBuilder classes of the API are used to create the Reply and Forward messages respectively. A Reply or Forward message can be specified to be created using any of the modes of OriginalMessageAdditionMode enum. This enum has the following values:

  • OriginalMessageAdditionMode.None - The original message is not included in the response message.
  • OriginalMessageAdditionMode.Attachment - The original message is included as attachment in the response message
  • OriginalMessageAdditionMode.Textpart - The original message is included as text in the body of response message

Creating Reply Message

The following code snippet shows you how to creating reply message.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

MapiMessage originalMsg = MapiMessage.fromFile(dataDir + "message1.msg");
ReplyMessageBuilder builder = new ReplyMessageBuilder();

// Set ReplyMessageBuilder Properties
builder.setReplyAll(true);
builder.setAdditionMode(OriginalMessageAdditionMode.Textpart);
builder.setResponseText(
        "<p><b>Dear Friend,</b></p> I want to do is introduce my co-author and co-teacher. <p><a href=\"www.google.com\">This is a first link</a></p><p><a href=\"www.google.com\">This is a second link</a></p>");

MapiMessage replyMsg = builder.buildResponse(originalMsg);
replyMsg.save(dataDir + "reply_out.msg");

Creating Forward Message

The following code snippet shows you how to create a forward message.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-email/Aspose.Email-for-Java
// The path to the File directory.
String dataDir = "outlook/";

MapiMessage originalMsg = MapiMessage.fromFile(dataDir + "message1.msg");
ForwardMessageBuilder builder = new ForwardMessageBuilder();
builder.setAdditionMode(OriginalMessageAdditionMode.Textpart);
MapiMessage forwardMsg = builder.buildResponse(originalMsg);
forwardMsg.save(dataDir + "forward_out.msg");

Preserve Empty Dates when Converting a Message

MapiConversionOptions.setPreserveEmptyDates(boolean) property indicating whether it is necessary to keep empty dates when converting a message. This API appears in Aspose.Email 21.5 The following code snippet shows you how to preserve empty dates.

MailMessage mailMessage = MailMessage.load("message.eml");
System.out.println(mailMessage.getDate()); // zero date
MapiConversionOptions mco = MapiConversionOptions.getUnicodeFormat();
// keep empty dates when converting a message
mco.setPreserveEmptyDates(true);
MapiMessage mapiMessage = MapiMessage.fromMailMessage(mailMessage, mco);
System.out.println(mapiMessage.getClientSubmitTime()); // zero date
// check zero date
if (mapiMessage.getClientSubmitTime().equals(JavaHelper.ZERO_DATE))
    System.out.println("ZERO DATE");
Loading, Viewing and Parsing MSG file Parsing Outlook Message Files