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

[Stbzzz]

Any chance on a comment on this one?

Is this possible or is it something that the Office API will never look to support?

Thanks!

[sznorbert1107]

I am also interested in this topic.

It would be a great feature to have because it would make it so much easier to create an EML and send to a 3rd party server. We always struggle implementing this, because we must support this on every platform and there are lot of code challanges on different platforms.

Also it would be great to have this possibility on compose sidebar as well while composing an email.

Thanks!

[Jim_Neill]

This ability is critical to our workflow and with the new version of Outlook killing off VSTO and VBA add-in options there is no other way that I've found to accomplish what we've been doing for decades. Please consider adding this capability prior to release of the "New Outlook". 

[Lafric655]

I need this feature as soon as possible !

[Dan_Riemann]

Me to !

[Rich-E]

A native API would be fantastic! If you can't wait, as mentioned by OP, a workaround is to implement the EML format yourself (which is really just an IMF text file). It was a bit annoying, but doable (and totally worth it!)...

1. item.getAllInternetHeadersAsync()
2. extract MIME boundary from headers to separate messages below
3. item.body.getAsync(Office.CoercionType.Html) & base64 encode
4. item.body.getAsync(Office.CoercionType.Text) & base64 encode
5. iterate through item.attachments & item.getAttachmentContentAsync()
6. upload file

[Jim_Neill]

@Rich-E do you have a working example of this somewhere for reference? 

[Philbewan]

@Rich-E, save us!  

[Rich-E]

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

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

[Rich-E]

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.

[Jim_Neill]

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. 

[Philbewan]

Thank you, @Rich-E - you have been a great help!

[Philbewan]

It looks like Microsoft has added an Outlook Javascript API preview method for generating a .eml file here:
office.messageread

[Rich-E]

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

[TorbenRiis]

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. 

[Jim_Neill]

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

[rajesh2030]

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