Delphi - Parse winmail.dat (TNEF)

The following delphi codes demonstrate how to parse MAPI winmail.dat in email.

When an Outlook user composes and sends a message using either Rich Text Format or HTML Format, Outlook automagically generates a file, winmail.dat, and attaches it to the end of the email. The winmail.dat contains the rich text body and original attachments. To parse winmail.dat (TNEF stream) file, we should use DecodeTNEF method.

Installation

Before you can use the following sample codes, you should download the EAGetMail Installer and install it on your machine at first. Full sample projects are included in this installer.

Add reference

To better demonstrate how to retrieve email and parse email, let’s create a Delphi Standard EXE project at first, then add a TButton on the Form, double-click this button. It is like this:

Delphi console project

To use EAGetMail ActiveX Object in your Delphi project, the first step is “Add Unit file of EAGetMail to your project”. Please go to C:\Program Files\EAGetMail\Include\delphi or C:\Program Files (x86)\EAGetMail\Include\delphi folder, find EAGetMailObjLib_TLB.pas, and then copy this file to your project folder.

// include EAGetMailObjLib_TLB unit to your Delphi Project
unit Unit1;

interface

uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
Dialogs, EAGetMailObjLib_TLB, StdCtrls;

Then you can start to use it in your Delphi Project.

You can also create EAGetMailObjLib_TLB.pas manually by Delphi like this:

  • Delphi 7 or eariler version

    First of all, create a standard delphi project: select menu Project -> Import Type Library, checked EAGetMail ActiveX Object and click Create Unit. Then include EAGetMailObjLib_TLB in your project.

    add reference in Delphi
  • Delphi XE or later version

    First of all, create a standard delphi project: select menu Component -> Import component... -> Import a type library -> checked EAGetMail ActiveX Object, have Generate Component Wrapper checked and click “Create Unit”. Then include EAGetMailObjLib_TLB in your project.

Delphi - Parse winmail.dat (TNEF) - example

The following example codes demonstrate parsing winmail.dat - TNEF stream.

In order to run it correctly, please change email server, user, password, folder, file name value to yours.

Note

To get full sample projects, please download and install EAGetMail on your machine.

unit Unit1;

interface

uses
    Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
    Dialogs, StdCtrls, EAGetMailObjLib_TLB;

type
    TForm1 = class(TForm)
        Button1: TButton;
        procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
    private
        { Private declarations }
        procedure ParseEmail(fileName: WideString);
    public
        { Public declarations }
    end;

const
    CRYPT_MACHINE_KEYSET = 32;
    CRYPT_USER_KEYSET = 4096;
    CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER = 65536;
    CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_LOCAL_MACHINE = 131072;

var
    Form1: TForm1;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TForm1.ParseEmail(fileName: WideString);
Var
    oMail: TMail;
    i: Integer;

    addrs: IAddressCollection;
    addr: IMailAddress;

    atts: IAttachmentCollection;
    att: IAttachment;

    oCert: TCertificate;
    oSignerCert: ICertificate;
begin
    oMail := TMail.Create(Application);
    oMail.LicenseCode := 'TryIt';
    oMail.LoadFile(fileName, false);

    if oMail.IsEncrypted then
        try
            // this email is encrypted, decrypt it by default user certificate
            oMail.ConnectTo(oMail.Decrypt(nil));
            // You can also use specified certificate like this
            // oCert := TCertificate.Create(Application);
            // oCert.LoadFromFile('c:\test.pfx', 'pfxpassword', CRYPT_USER_KEYSET);
            // oMail.Load(oMail.Decrypt(oCert.DefaultInterface).Content);
        except
            on ep: exception do
                ShowMessage('Decrypt Error: ' + ep.Message);
        end;

    if oMail.IsSigned then
        try
            // this email is digital signed, verify signature
            oSignerCert := oMail.VerifySignature();
            ShowMessage('This email contains a valid digital signature.');

            // You can add the certificate to your certificate storage like this
            // oSignerCert.AddToStore(CERT_SYSTEM_STORE_CURRENT_USER,
            // 'addressbook');
            // Then you can use send the encrypted email back to this sender.
        except
            on ep: Exception do
                ShowMessage('Verify signature Error: ' + ep.Message);
        end;

    // Decode winmail.dat (TNEF) automatically
    oMail.DecodeTNEF();

    // Parse email sender
    ShowMessage('From: ' + oMail.From.Address);

    // Parse email to recipients
    addrs := oMail.ToList;
    for i := 0 To addrs.Count - 1 do
    begin
        addr := addrs.Item[i];
        ShowMessage('To: ' + addr.Address);
    End;

    // Parse email cc recipients
    addrs := oMail.CcList;
    for i := 0 To addrs.Count - 1 do
        begin
            addr := addrs.Item[i];
            ShowMessage('Cc: ' + addr.Address);
        end;

    // Parse email subject
    ShowMessage('Subject: ' + oMail.Subject);

    // Parse email text body
    ShowMessage('Text body: ' + oMail.TextBody);

    // Parse email HTML body
    ShowMessage('HTML body: ' + oMail.HtmlBody);

    // Parse attachment
    atts := oMail.AttachmentList;
    for i := 0 To atts.Count - 1 do
        begin
            att := atts.Item[i];
            ShowMessage(att.Name);
        end;

end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
    try
        ParseEmail('c:\test folder\test.eml');
    except
        on ep:Exception do
            ShowMessage('Error: ' + ep.Message);
    end;
end;

end.

32bit/x64 ActiveX DLL

Seperate builds of run-time dll for 32 and x64 platform

File Platform
Installation Path\Lib\native\x86\EAGetMailObj.dll 32 bit
Installation Path\Lib\native\x64\EAGetMailObj.dll 64 bit

Distribution

  • Standard EXE

    For VB6, C++, Delphi or other standard exe application, you can distribute EAGetMailObj.dll with your application to target machine without COM-registration and installer. To learn more detail, please have a look at Registration-free COM with Manifest File.

  • Script

    For ASP, VBScript, VBA, MS SQL Stored Procedure, you need to install EAGetMail on target machine by EAGetMail installer, both 32bit/x64 DLL are installed and registered.

Appendix

Comments

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