Programming with Thunderbird

Reading MBOX files

Mozilla Thunderbird is an open-source, cross-platform email client, developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It stores emails in its own file structure, managing messages indices and subfolders through proprietary file formats. Aspose.Email can work with Thunderbird mail storage structures. The MboxrdStorageReader class lets developers read messages from Mozilla Thunderbird mail storage file. This article shows how to read the messages from Thunderbird email storage:

  1. Open the Thunderbird storage file in FileStream.
  2. Create an instance of the MboxrdStorageReader class and pass the above stream to the constructor.
  3. Call ReadNextMessage() to get the first message.
  4. Use the same ReadNextMessage() in a while loop to read all the messages.
  5. Close all the streams.

The following code snippet shows you how to read all the messages from a Thunderbird mail storage.

// The path to the File directory.
var dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_Thunderbird();

// Open the storage file with FileStream
var stream = new FileStream(dataDir + "ExampleMbox.mbox", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
// Create an instance of the MboxrdStorageReader class and pass the stream
var reader = new MboxrdStorageReader(stream, false);
// Start reading messages
var message = reader.ReadNextMessage();

// Read all messages in a loop
while (message != null)
{
    // Manipulate message - show contents
    Console.WriteLine("Subject: " + message.Subject);
    // Save this message in EML or MSG format
    message.Save(message.Subject + ".eml", SaveOptions.DefaultEml);
    message.Save(message.Subject + ".msg", SaveOptions.DefaultMsgUnicode);

    // Get the next message
    message = reader.ReadNextMessage();
}

// Close the streams
reader.Dispose();
stream.Close();

Retrieving message properties

MboxMessageInfo class contains the following properties to retrieve information about a message:

  • DateTime Date - Gets the date of message
  • MailAddress From - Gets the from address
  • string Subject - Gets the message subject
  • MailAddressCollection To - Gets the address collection that contains the recipients of message
  • MailAddressCollection CC - Gets the address collection that contains CC recipients
  • MailAddressCollection Bcc - Gets the address collection that contains BCC recipients of message

Code sample

MboxStorageReader reader = MboxStorageReader.CreateReader(fileName, new MboxLoadOptions());

foreach (var mboxMessageInfo in reader.EnumerateMessageInfo())
{
    Console.Writeline($"Subject: {mboxMessageInfo.Subject}");
    Console.Writeline($"Date: {mboxMessageInfo.Date}");
    Console.Writeline($"From: {mboxMessageInfo.From}");
    Console.Writeline($"To: {mboxMessageInfo.To}");
    Console.Writeline($"CC: {mboxMessageInfo.CC}");
    Console.Writeline($"Bcc: {mboxMessageInfo.Bcc}");
}

Extract Messages from MBOX by Identifiers

The MboxStorageReader class includes the EnumerateMessageInfo() method, which enables you to iterate through each message in an MBOX file. By using this method, it becomes possible to extract individual messages without the need to traverse the entire storage repeatedly. This improves performance and reduces processing time.

The MboxMessageInfo class provides the EntryId property, which provides access to unique identifiers for each message in the MBOX file. This identifier can be stored in a database or used as a reference to quickly find and extract specific messages when needed.

The ExtractMessage(string id) method in the MboxStorageReader class enables developers to extract messages based on their unique EntryId. With the ExtractMessage(string id) method, you can leverage the stored EntryId to retrieve the corresponding message and perform additional operations with it.

The following code sample demonstrates how to extract messages from an MBOX file using identifiers:

MboxStorageReader reader = MboxStorageReader.CreateReader("my.mbox", new MboxLoadOptions());

foreach (MboxMessageInfo msgInfo in reader.EnumerateMessageInfo())
{
    MailMessage eml = reader.ExtractMessage(msgInfo.EntryId, new EmlLoadOptions());
}

Configuring the load options when reading messages from MBOX

The following features will allow you to specify various options related to loading and processing messages:

  • MailStorageConverter.MboxMessageOptions property - Gets or sets email load options when parsing an Mbox storage.

  • MboxrdStorageReader.ReadNextMessage(EmlLoadOptions options) method - EmlLoadOptions parameter specifies options when reading message from Mbox storage.

Code sample

var reader = new MboxrdStorageReader(fileName, new MboxLoadOptions());
// Read messages preserving tnef attachments.
var eml = reader.ReadNextMessage(new EmlLoadOptions {PreserveTnefAttachments = true});
MailStorageConverter.MboxMessageOptions(new EmlLoadOptions {PreserveTnefAttachments = true});
// Convert messages from mbox to pst preserving tnef attachments.
var pst = MailStorageConverter.mboxToPst("Input.mbox", "Output.pst");

Setting Preferred Text Encoding when Loading Mbox Files for Reading

Encoding option is available for MboxrdStorageReader class. This provides additional options for loading the mbox file and ensures that messages with the encoded content will be correctly read and processed.. The following code snippet shows how you can set text encoding that satisfies your needs:

var reader = new MboxrdStorageReader("sample.mbox", new MboxLoadOptions() { PreferredTextEncoding = Encoding.UTF8});
var message = reader.ReadNextMessage();

Getting Total Number of Messages from MBox File

The MboxrdStorageReader class provides the capability to read the number of items available in an MBox file. This can be used to develop applications for showing the progress of activity while processing such a file.

// The path to the File directory.
var dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_Thunderbird();

using (var stream = new FileStream(dataDir + "ExampleMbox.mbox", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
using (var reader = new MboxrdStorageReader(stream, false))
{
    Console.WriteLine("Total number of messages in Mbox file: " + reader.GetTotalItemsCount());
}

Get Current Message Size

using (var stream = new FileStream(dataDir + "ExampleMbox.mbox", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
using (var reader = new MboxrdStorageReader(stream, false))
{
    MailMessage msg;
    while ((msg = reader.ReadNextMessage()) != null)
    {
        long currentDataSize = reader.CurrentDataSize;

        msg.Dispose();
    }
}

Converting MBOX to PST Preserving or Removing a Signature

To remove the signature from a file during the process of conversion, set the MboxToPstConversionOptions.RemoveSignature property to true.

The following code sample shows how to utilize this property:

var pstDataStream = new MemoryStream();
var personalStorage = PersonalStorage.Create(pstDataStream, FileFormatVersion.Unicode);
MailStorageConverter.MboxToPst(new MboxrdStorageReader(new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read), new MboxLoadOptions()),
personalStorage,
    "Inbox",
new MboxToPstConversionOptions() { RemoveSignature = true });

Writing MBOX files

The MboxrdStorageWriter class provides the facility to write new messages to Thunderbird mail storage file. To write messages:

  1. Open the Thunderbird storage file in FileStream.
  2. Create an instance of the MboxrdStorageWriter class and pass the above stream to the constructor.
  3. Prepare a new message using the MailMessage class.
  4. Call the WriteMessage() method and pass the above MailMessage instance to add the message to Thunderbird storage.
  5. Close all streams.

The following code snippet shows you how to write messages to Thunderbird mail storage.

// Open the storage file with FileStream
var stream = new FileStream(dataDir + "ExampleMbox.mbox", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Write);

// Initialize MboxStorageWriter and pass the above stream to it
var writer = new MboxrdStorageWriter(stream, false);
// Prepare a new message using the MailMessage class
var message = new MailMessage("from@domain.com", "to@domain.com", Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), "added from Aspose.Email");
message.IsDraft = false;
// Add this message to storage
writer.WriteMessage(message);
// Close all related streams
writer.Dispose();
stream.Close();
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