Saving only the REAL attachments of an Outlook MailItem

Question

I'm currently developing an Outlook Addin which saves MailItems and Attachments in my MSSQL Database.

I got a method where I save the MailItem with all it's attachments. But if I save all attachments the embedded images in the MailItem are also saved.

Does anyone know how to save all real attachments?? I mean like the attachments in the picture below:

and not the embbeded images that are in the mail body.

Here is the code that I use to loop through all attachments of a MailItem and then save it:

foreach (Outlook.Attachment att in mailItem.Attachments)
{
      try
      {
          att.SaveAsFile(Path.GetTempPath() + att.FileName);

          var fi = new FileInfo(Path.GetTempPath() + att.FileName);

          //Saving attachment to DB
          var attachment = Attachment.NieuwAttachment(att.FileName, SelectedMap.DossierNr.ToString( CultureInfo.InvariantCulture), -1, Convert.ToInt32(SelectedMap.Tag), fi);
          if (!Attachment.InlezenAttachment(attachment)) continue;

          OutlookCategories.AddAttachmentCategory(mailItem);
      }
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
          var dmsEx = new DmsException("Er is een fout opgetreden bij het opslaan van een bijlage.", ex.Message, ex);
          ExceptionLogger.LogError(dmsEx);
      }
 }

Thanks!

----------- EDIT ------------

I also posted this question on the Microsoft TechNet and I just received an answer to the question (See link below)

Outlook 2007 & 2010: Save all attachments except the embedded attachments C#

----------- EDIT ------------

My problem is still not fixed, the help I got from Microsoft is useless.. So Please I really need this to be fixed!

Musty

Where's the code that you have now? – Mudra

Answer 1

Use this code answered here :

if (mailItem.Attachments.Count > 0)
        {
            // get attachments
            foreach (Attachment attachment in mailItem.Attachments)
            {
                var flags = attachment.PropertyAccessor.GetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x37140003");

                //To ignore embedded attachments -
                if (flags != 4)
                {
                    // As per present understanding - If rtF mail attachment comes here - and the embeded image is treated as attachment then Type value is 6 and ignore it
                    if ((int)attachment.Type != 6)
                    {

                        MailAttachment mailAttachment = new MailAttachment { Name = attachment.FileName };
                        mail.Attachments.Add(mailAttachment);
                    }

                }

            }
        }

Supererogation

Answer 2

Depends on how you define 'real' or 'proper' attachments. I'm going to assume you want to disregard all images that are embedded in the email. These are also attachments but are referenced in the actual body of the html email.

See this answer for an explanation on how attachments are embedded. The key is to disregard attachments that have a Content-ID value that is referenced by an image tag within the body of the email itself.

Carmelinacarmelita

Okay, I got the part where you said: Disregard attachments that have a Content-ID, but in C# and the OOM there is no Content-ID on an attachment object... So it makes it kinda hard... – Musty

That's a great point! Is there no way to get access to the raw email itself? – Carmelinacarmelita

The only way to access the raw email is by converting it to mhtml, and the dig into the mhtml file but then the attachments (the attachments that I need) are disposed.... So in short, I don't think there is a way to access the raw mail without loosing my attachments, or by using the .msg file itself... – Musty

You cannot simply disregard all attachments that have the Content-ID MIME header set - e.g. Lotus Notes sets that header for all attachments. You really need to load the HTML body and check if any messages reference the attachments either by contents id, file name, or location. – Glamorize

i am also facing the same problem.please suggest me a solution – Niggle

Answer 3

This worked for me:

var test = attachments[i].PropertyAccessor.GetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x3712001E");
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)test))
{
       //attachment
}
else
{
       //embedded image
}

Rosenblatt

I tried this. This did not work for me. It recognizes even the real attachments as embedded. – Genteel