Reading Outlook .msg file using Python

[John Henry]

On Oct 11, 3:56 am, Tim Golden <m... at timgolden.me.uk> wrote:
> On 10/10/2010 22:51, John Henry wrote:
>
> > I have a need to read .msg files exported from Outlook.  Google search
> > came out with a few very old posts about the topic but nothing really
> > useful.  The email module in Python is no help - everything comes back
> > blank and it can't even see if there are attachments.  Did find a Java
> > library to do the job and I suppose when push come to shove, I would
> > have to learn Jython and see if it can invoke the Java library.  But
> > before I do that, can somebody point me to a Python/COM solution?
>
> > I don't need to gain access to Exchange or Outlook.  I just need to
> > read the .msg file and extract information + attachments from it.
>
> .msg files are Compound Documents -- a file format which obviously
> seemed like a jolly good idea at the time, but which frustrates
> me every time I have to do anything with it :)
>
> Hopefully this code snippet will get you going. The idea is to open
> the compound document using the Structured Storage API. That gives
> you an IStorage-ish object which you can then convert to an IMessage-ish
> object with the convenience function OpenIMsgOnIStg. At that point you
> enter the marvellous world of Extended MAPI. The get_body_from_stream
> function does a Q&D job of pulling the body text out. You can get
> attachments as well: look at the PyIMessage docs, but come back if
> you need help with that:
>
> <code>
> import os, sys
>
> from win32com.mapi import mapi, mapitags
> from win32com.shell import shell, shellcon
> from win32com.storagecon import *
> import pythoncom
>
> def get_body_from_stream (message):
>    CHUNK_SIZE = 10000
>    stream = message.OpenProperty (mapitags.PR_BODY,
> pythoncom.IID_IStream, 0, 0)
>    text = ""
>    while True:
>      bytes = stream.read (CHUNK_SIZE)
>      if bytes:
>        text += bytes
>      else:
>        break
>    return text.decode ("utf16")
>
> def main (filepath):
>    mapi.MAPIInitialize ((mapi.MAPI_INIT_VERSION, 0))
>    storage_flags = STGM_DIRECT | STGM_READ | STGM_SHARE_EXCLUSIVE
>    storage = pythoncom.StgOpenStorage (filepath, None, storage_flags,
> None, 0)
>    mapi_session = mapi.OpenIMsgSession ()
>    message = mapi.OpenIMsgOnIStg (mapi_session, None, storage, None, 0,
> mapi.MAPI_UNICODE)
>    print get_body_from_stream (message)
>
> if __name__ == '__main__':
>    main (*sys.argv[1:])
>
> </code>
>
> TJG

Thank you for your reply.

I am trying your code but when it get to the line:

>    mapi.MAPIInitialize ((mapi.MAPI_INIT_VERSION, 0))

I got the error message:

Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client
cannot fulfill the messsage requrest.  Please run Microsoft
Outlook ... client.

I have Outlook (not Express - Outlook 2002) running and I did set it
to be the default mail client.  Does MAPI works with Exchange only?
(And why do I need MAPI to read the file?)

Regards,