mspiess's avatar
mspiess
Copper Contributor
Jun 29, 2022
Status:
New

Allow .msg file export through JS add-in API in Outlook-Desktop

I'd like to create an add-in which create a .msg file of an email and sends it to a remote server for archival purposes.
Outlook already can create .msg files through the "Save as..." dialog but this functionality is not exposed to the Office API.

I could access all relevant information through the API and create an .eml file for example (or use EWS/graph-API for that), but I'd prefer to leverage the existing outlook functionality.

 

I suggest a method "getMsgFileAsync( options: Office.AsyncContextOptions, callback?: (asyncResult: Office.AsyncResult<ArrayBuffer>) => void): void" on the "Office.context.mailbox.item" object.

As far as permissions go, "ItemRead" should suffice.

Office Add-ins development

17 Comments

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  • rajesh2030's avatar
    rajesh2030
    Copper Contributor
    Mar 27, 2024

    Hi Rich-E

    As you have mentioned i have used the same code that is working fine in Read Mode, but my requirement is to save the mail in compose mode also, i am new to Outlook Add in any help will be great for me

     

  • Jim_Neill's avatar
    Jim_Neill
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 15, 2024

    I completely agree. We had that ability in old vba, you would think they wouldn't jsut completely kill functionality.

  • TorbenRiis's avatar
    TorbenRiis
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 08, 2024

    From an Enterprise Archive's perspective it would be fantastic to be able to retrieve the original MSG as it is instead of creating a new EML based on data from the API. 

  • Rich-E's avatar
    Rich-E
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 22, 2023

    Philbewan Fantastic! Looks like it's only available on Windows at the moment. Wonder how long it will take to exit Preview...

  • Jim_Neill's avatar
    Jim_Neill
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 12, 2023

    Huge help, and very kind of you to share. Will give this some testing and hopefully will fit my needs for replacing an old VBA solution. 

  • Rich-E's avatar
    Rich-E
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 12, 2023

    Alrighty Jim_Neill Philbewan here you go:
    https://gist.github.com/DevDuck/db4e7e5903d5d3d2d49a238871da4311

     

    Call it this way:

    try {
  await getEmailContentAsync({}, async (asyncResult: Office.AsyncResult<string>) => {
    if (asyncResult.status != Office.AsyncResultStatus.Succeeded) {
      // handle error
      return;
    }

    let content = asyncResult.value;

    // upload file
    // Buffer.from(content, "utf8");
  };
}
catch (err) {
  // handle exception
}

     

    It's a bit messy but should work. Please let me know if you have any issues with it. I know of one sporadic issue with the Mail app opening the files but Outlook seems to open them fine.

  • Rich-E's avatar
    Rich-E
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 11, 2023

    just took a look at the code--it's not the prettiest thing right now :xd:


    give me some time to clean it up before i shove it somewhere!