Working with MAPI Properties

Accessing and Setting Outlook MAPI Property

The MapiProperty class represents a MAPI property, which contains:

  • Name: a string that represents the name property.
  • Tag: a long type value that represents the tag property.
  • Data: a byte array which represents the data property.

Get MAPI Properties Using Property Tags

To get MAPI properties:

  1. Create an instance of MapiMessage by loading from files or stream.
  2. Get the MapiProperty from MapiMessage.Properties by MapiPropertyTag keys.

The following code snippet shows you how to get MAPI property using the MAPI property tag.

// The path to the File directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_Outlook();
            
 // Load from file
MapiMessage msg = MapiMessage.FromFile(dataDir + @"message.msg");

string subject;

// Access the MapiPropertyTag.PR_SUBJECT property
MapiProperty prop = msg.Properties[MapiPropertyTag.PR_SUBJECT];

// If the property is not found, check the MapiPropertyTag.PR_SUBJECT_W (which is a Unicode peer of the MapiPropertyTag.PR_SUBJECT)
if (prop == null)
{
    prop = msg.Properties[MapiPropertyTag.PR_SUBJECT_W];
}

// Still not found
if (prop == null)
{
    Console.WriteLine("No property found!");
    return;
}

// Get the property data as string
subject = prop.GetString();

Console.WriteLine("Subject:" + subject);
// Read internet code page property
prop = msg.Properties[MapiPropertyTag.PR_INTERNET_CPID];
if (prop != null)
{
    Console.WriteLine("CodePage:" + prop.GetLong());
}

Set MAPI Properties

The following code snippet shows you how to set MAPI properties.

// The path to the File directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_Outlook();

// Create a sample Message
MapiMessage mapiMsg = new MapiMessage("user1@gmail.com", "user2@gmail.com", "This is subject", "This is body");

// Set multiple properties
mapiMsg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(MapiPropertyTag.PR_SENDER_ADDRTYPE_W, Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes("EX")));
MapiRecipient recipientTo = mapiMsg.Recipients[0];
MapiProperty propAddressType = new MapiProperty(MapiPropertyTag.PR_RECEIVED_BY_ADDRTYPE_W, Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("MYFAX"));
recipientTo.SetProperty(propAddressType);
string faxAddress = "My Fax User@/FN=fax#/VN=voice#/CO=My Company/CI=Local";
MapiProperty propEmailAddress = new MapiProperty(MapiPropertyTag.PR_RECEIVED_BY_EMAIL_ADDRESS_W, Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(faxAddress));
recipientTo.SetProperty(propEmailAddress);
mapiMsg.SetMessageFlags(MapiMessageFlags.MSGFLAG_UNSENT | MapiMessageFlags.MSGFLAG_FROMME);
mapiMsg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(MapiPropertyTag.PR_RTF_IN_SYNC, BitConverter.GetBytes((long)1)));

// Set DateTime property
MapiProperty modificationTime = new MapiProperty(MapiPropertyTag.PR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME, ConvertDateTime(new DateTime(2013, 9, 11)));
mapiMsg.SetProperty(modificationTime);
mapiMsg.Save(dataDir + "MapiProp_out.msg");

where the definition of the ConvertDateTime method is as follows:

private static byte[] ConvertDateTime(DateTime t)
{
    long filetime = t.ToFileTime();
    byte[] d = new byte[8];
    d[0] = (byte)(filetime & 0xFF);
    d[1] = (byte)((filetime & 0xFF00) >> 8);
    d[2] = (byte)((filetime & 0xFF0000) >> 16);
    d[3] = (byte)((filetime & 0xFF000000) >> 24);
    d[4] = (byte)((filetime & 0xFF00000000) >> 32);
    d[5] = (byte)((filetime & 0xFF0000000000) >> 40);
    d[6] = (byte)((filetime & 0xFF000000000000) >> 48);
    d[7] = (byte)(((ulong)filetime & 0xFF00000000000000) >> 56);
    return d;
}

Additional Properties

The following code snippet shows you how to set additional MAPI properties.

MapiMessage msg = new MapiMessage("sender@test.com", "recipient@test.com", "subj", "Body of test msg");

// PT_MV_FLOAT, PT_MV_R4, mv.float
IList<object> values = new List<object>();
values.Add((float)1);
values.Add((float)2);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901004, values));

// PT_MV_DOUBLE, PT_MV_R8
values = new List<object>();
values.Add((double)1);
values.Add((double)2);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901005, values));

// PT_MV_CURRENCY, mv.fixed.14.4
values = new List<object>();
values.Add((decimal)123.34);
values.Add((decimal)289.45);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901006, values));

// PT_MV_APPTIME
values = new List<object>();
values.Add(30456.34);
values.Add(40655.45);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901007, values));

// PT_MV_I8, PT_MV_LONGLONG
values = new List<object>();
values.Add((long)30456);
values.Add((long)40655);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901014, values));

// PT_MV_CLSID, mv.uuid
values = new List<object>();
values.Add(Guid.NewGuid());
values.Add(Guid.NewGuid());
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901048, values));

// PT_MV_SHORT, PT_MV_I2, mv.i2
values = new List<object>();
values.Add((short)1);
values.Add((short)2);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901002, values));

// PT_MV_SYSTIME
values = new List<object>();
values.Add(DateTime.Now);
values.Add(DateTime.Now);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901040, values));

// PT_MV_BOOLEAN
values = new List<object>();
values.Add(true);
values.Add(false);
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x2390100b, values));

// PT_MV_BINARY
values = new List<object>();
values.Add(Guid.NewGuid().ToByteArray());
values.Add(new byte[]{1,2,4,5,6,7,5,4,3,5,6,7,8,6,4,3,4,5,6,7,8,6,5,4,3,7,8,9,0,2,3,4,});
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x23901102, values));

// PT_NULL
msg.SetProperty(new MapiProperty(0x67400001, new byte[1]));
MapiMessage message = new MapiMessage("sender@test.com", "recipient@test.com", "subj", "Body of test msg");

// PT_MV_LONG
values = new List<object>();
values.Add((int)4);
MapiProperty property = new MapiProperty(message.NamedPropertyMapping.GetNextAvailablePropertyId(MapiPropertyType.PT_MV_LONG), values);
message.NamedPropertyMapping.AddNamedPropertyMapping(property, 0x00008028, new Guid("00062004-0000-0000-C000-000000000046"));
message.SetProperty(property);

// OR you can set the custom property (with the custom name)
message = new MapiMessage("sender@test.com", "recipient@test.com", "subj", "Body of test msg");
values = new List<object>();
values.Add((int)4);
property = new MapiProperty(message.NamedPropertyMapping.GetNextAvailablePropertyId(MapiPropertyType.PT_MV_LONG), values);
message.AddCustomProperty(property, "customProperty");

//PT_FLOAT
//Please note that you need explicit cast to float value for this to work
float floatValue = (float)123.456;
MapiMessage newMsg = new MapiMessage();
long floatTag = newMsg.NamedPropertyMapping.GetNextAvailablePropertyId(MapiPropertyType.PT_FLOAT);
Guid guid = Guid.NewGuid();
MapiProperty newMapiProperty = new MapiProperty(floatTag, BitConverter.GetBytes(floatValue));
newMsg.NamedPropertyMapping.AddNamedPropertyMapping(newMapiProperty, 12, guid);
newMsg.SetProperty(newMapiProperty);

Read Named MAPI Properties from MSG Files

The following code snippet shows you how to read named MAPI properties from the MSG file.

// The path to the File directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_Outlook();

// Load from file
MapiMessage message = MapiMessage.FromFile(dataDir + @"message.msg");

// Get all named MAPI properties
MapiPropertyCollection properties = message.NamedProperties;
// Read all properties in foreach loop
foreach (MapiNamedProperty mapiNamedProp in properties.Values)
{
    // Read any specific property
    switch (mapiNamedProp.NameId)
    {
        case "TEST":
            Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", mapiNamedProp.NameId, mapiNamedProp.GetString());
            break;
        case "MYPROP":
            Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", mapiNamedProp.NameId, mapiNamedProp.GetString());
            break;
        default: break;
    }
}

Read Named MAPI Properties from Attachments

Aspose.Email also allows you to traverse through the properties of a MapiAttachment and search for a named property, in a way similar to the example above, for MapiMessage. The following code snippet shows you how to search for a named property through the attachment property collection.

private static string GetCustomAttachmentGuid(string dataDir)
{
    // Load from file
    MailMessage mail = MailMessage.Load(dataDir + "outputAttachments.msg");

    var mapi = MapiMessage.FromMailMessage(mail);

    foreach (MapiNamedProperty namedProperty in mapi.Attachments[0].NamedProperties.Values)
    {
        if (string.Compare(namedProperty.NameId, "CustomAttGuid", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
        {
            return namedProperty.GetString();
        }
    }

    return string.Empty;
}

Remove Properties from MSGs and Attachments

The following code snippet shows you how to remove properties from MSGs and attachments.

// The path to the File directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_Outlook();

MapiMessage mapi = new MapiMessage("from@domain.com", "to@domain.com", "subject", "body");
mapi.SetBodyContent("<html><body><h1>This is the body content</h1></body></html>", BodyContentType.Html);
MapiMessage attachment = MapiMessage.FromFile(dataDir + @"message.msg");
mapi.Attachments.Add("Outlook2 Test subject.msg", attachment);
Console.WriteLine("Before removal = " + mapi.Attachments[mapi.Attachments.Count - 1].Properties.Count);

mapi.Attachments[mapi.Attachments.Count - 1].RemoveProperty(923467779);// Delete any one property
Console.WriteLine("After removal = " + mapi.Attachments[mapi.Attachments.Count - 1].Properties.Count);
mapi.Save(@"EMAIL_589265.msg");

MapiMessage mapi2 = MapiMessage.FromFile(@"EMAIL_589265.msg");
Console.WriteLine("Reloaded = " + mapi2.Attachments[mapi2.Attachments.Count - 1].Properties.Count);
Managing Follow-Up and Due Dates for Outlook MSG Files Managing Message Attachments