Cannot Access Attachment Data From Embedded Attachment

Question

I am writing a VB.NET windows forms application, I need to read the binary data in all attachments for a given message. I have a Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MailItem object that contains the mail Item with the attachments. I get an error when I try to save the attachment to a file using Attachment.SaveAsFile if the attachment is embedded.

 

Dim Att as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Attachment

For Each Att in MyMailItem.Attachments

    Att.SaveAsFile("c:\test\" & Att.FileName)

Next

 

The aboce code seems to work fine for any file attached to the MailItem, However if I insert a picture in the e-mail body the Att.SaveAsFile returns the error System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80004005): Cannot save the attachment. Cannot add the attachment; no data source was provided.
   at Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Attachment.SaveAsFile(String Path)

 

Answer 1

I can't duplicate the problem here. What's the value of Att.FileName for the attachment in question? Does it duplicate the name of a file already in the target location? 

Answer 2

Sue,

The target location is a empty directory so it cannot be a duplicate, the value of Att.FileName is image003.jpg,

Here is the code I am using

In a windows form command button click event

       Dim ol As New OutlookInterface

        ol.ToAddress = "[e-mail]"
        ol.Subject = "Test Subject"
        ol.Body = "Test Body"
        ol.BodyIsHTML = False
        ol.ShowSendMailDialog()
        If Not ol.MailSent Then Exit Sub

In a seperate class

Imports System.Diagnostics
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

Public Class OutlookInterface
    Private Shared OutlookApplication As Outlook.Application
    Private WithEvents MyMailItem As Outlook.MailItem
    Public ToAddress As String
    Public FromAddress As String
    Public Subject As String
    Public Body As String
    Public BodyHTML As String
    Public BodyIsHTML As Boolean
    Public MailSent As Boolean = False

    Private Sub Mail_Send(ByRef Cancel As Boolean) Handles MyMailItem.Send

        Try
            ToAddress = MyMailItem.To
            Subject = MyMailItem.Subject
            Select Case MyMailItem.BodyFormat
                Case Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatPlain
                    BodyIsHTML = False
                Case Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatHTML
                    BodyIsHTML = True
                Case Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatRichText
                    BodyIsHTML = True
                Case Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatUnspecified
                    BodyIsHTML = False
            End Select
            Body = MyMailItem.Body
            BodyHTML = MyMailItem.HTMLBody
            Dim Att As Outlook.Attachment
            For Each Att In MyMailItem.Attachments
                Debug.Print("Attachment Index=" & Att.Index)
                Debug.Print("Attachment FileName=" & Att.FileName)
                Debug.Print("Attachment DisplayName=" & Att.DisplayName)
                Debug.Print("Attachment PathName=" & Att.PathName)
                Try
                    Att.SaveAsFile("c:\test\" & Att.FileName)
                Catch ex As Exception
                    MsgBox("Error Saving Attachment ex=" & ex.ToString)
                End Try

            Next
            MailSent = True
            Debug.Print("Mail Sent!")
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("Outlook Interface Error @ Mail_Send Ex=" & ex.ToString )
        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub Mail_Close(ByRef Cancel As Boolean) Handles MyMailItem.Close
        Debug.Print("Mail Close!")
    End Sub

    Private Shared Function LogOnOutlook() As Boolean
        Try
            'Check if there is an Outlook process running.
            If Process.GetProcessesByName("OUTLOOK").Count() > 0 Then

                ' If so, use the GetActiveObject method to obtain the process and cast it to an Application object.
                OutlookApplication = DirectCast(Marshal.GetActiveObject("Outlook.Application"), Outlook.Application)
            Else

                ' If not, create a new instance of Outlook and log on to the default profile.
                OutlookApplication = New Outlook.Application()
                Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace = OutlookApplication.GetNamespace("MAPI")
                ns.Logon("", "", Missing.Value, Missing.Value)
                ns = Nothing
            End If

            ' Return the Outlook Application object.
            Return True
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("Outlook Interface Error @ LogOnOutlook ex=" & ex.ToString)
            Return False
        End Try

    End Function

    Public Function ShowSendMailDialog() As Boolean

        If OutlookApplication Is Nothing Then
            If Not LogOnOutlook() Then Return False
        End If

        Try
            ' Create a new MailItem and set the To, Subject and Body properties.
            MyMailItem = DirectCast(OutlookApplication.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olMailItem), Outlook.MailItem)
            MyMailItem.To = ToAddress
            MyMailItem.Subject = Subject
            If BodyIsHTML Then
                MyMailItem.BodyFormat = Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatHTML
                MyMailItem.HTMLBody = BodyHTML
            Else
                MyMailItem.BodyFormat = Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatPlain
                MyMailItem.Body = Body
            End If
            MyMailItem.Display(True)
            Return MailSent
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("Outlook Interface Error @ ShowSendMailDialog ex=" & ex.ToString )
            Return False
        End Try

    End Function

End Class

When you click on the windows form button, a new mail item window is shown, change the mail format to HTML then insert a picture into the body then click send

Answer 3

The problem may be that you're messing with the attachments during the Send event. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Not the programming logic, but the business or productivity goal? Knowing that may help us give you ideas on a more reliable approach. 

Answer 4

Sue,

The goal here is to allow the user to send a e-mail message from our application, then we want to save a copy of the entire message including attachments in our database so that we can later display the message using a WebBrowser control and allow the user to retrieve the attachments.

The reason I am accessing the MailItem properties durring the Send Event is because after the MyMailItem.Display(True) returns, the mail item is no longer accessable and returns the error "The item has been noved or deleted."

Answer 5

I didn't notice you were displaying the Inspector modally. That's generally not recommended. 

The best point in the process for saving a copy of the entire message is after the item has been transmitted to the outbound server and arrives in the Sent Items folder. Complete information about the sender and transmission time and account won't be available until then. You might consider combining your current application with an Outlook add-in that can watch the Sent Items folder with the Folder.Items.ItemAdd event handler, as transmission may not occur until sometime after the user clicks Send. 

Answer 6

Hi,

I am writing to check the status of the issue on your side. Could you please let me know if the suggestion works for you or not? If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know. I will be more than happy to be of assistance.

 

Tim Li

MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum

If you have any feedback on our support, please contact [e-mail]

 

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Answer 7

Hi,

I am facing the exact same problem in C#.

My business requirement is that I need to encrypt my emails(any material/content/attachments etc.) before really sending to the destination. So having limitations, that I have to do the the work only at sending event time.

Also facing another problem, although I searched a lot, but did not find any solution, that I could not detect the attachment type, either it is regular attachment or embeded one. all attachments give Type property as olByValue. Is there any good way provided to find actual attachment type.

Looking for the solution or any workaround to get the task done.

Answer 8

ItemSend is the only event that suits your needs (beside providing your own button for sendign mail). Cancel sending, copy message, do your encryption and send your message. As for attachment type, you can check PrAttachFlags http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x37140003 and ContentId http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x3712001E using  PropertytAccessor

Answer 9

Thanks DamianD,

Sure, I am working on ItemSend event, but the problem is that I could encrypt the regular attachment files smoothly but unable to encrypt embedded attachments due to following problems:

1. I could not detect attachment type. (BTW the links you provided are seems not working. still in question?)
   
2. Even if I detect somehow, these attachments are not physically exists, so how could I encrypt these because for encryption I need Stream object loaded with attachment data)

Answer 10

ad 1. those are not links, they are ids that you provide in PropertyAccessor.Getproperty method, look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/bb207521(v=office.12).aspx

ad 2. if your plugin should encrypt _only_ attachments and leave mail body intact, then simply omit those embedded attachments, they are usually used for in-place pictures and such stuff, encrypting them would only break visual look of mail's body.

Answer 11

Thanks DamianD for quick support. I am getting following error, while trying attachment.PropertyAccessor.GetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x37140003")

The property "http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x37140003" is unknown or cannot be found.

while other property return empty string for attached files.

Secondly, I also need to encrypt the body content, simple html content is encrypted but embedded pictures are creating the problem. Yes rightly said that it is breaking the visual look of the mail's body but for targeted email it is compromised because security is top concern in my scenario.

Answer 12

you have to be prepared to catch exceptions for Getproperty, this is how it is. As for second part - if you need to enrypt everything, why don't you use builtin functionality in outlook for this? Outlook allows to create digitally signed and/or encrypted mails, provided you have target person certificate with public key imported into contacts or few other means. Is that acceptable for you? if not, thenb you should try to mimic standards as much as possible which means grabbing whole mail as is (attachments, body, everthing) and storing it into single encrypted attachments which you can decrypt on other side. Depending on your skills in programming, you can do it from MAPI level (copying MAPI properties/streams from enccypted attachment) or you can simply same whole mail as msg, encrypt it, create empty new mail, add recipients and subject and send that encrypted msg as attachment and on the other side reverse whole process, adding msg file to inbox.

Answer 13

Thanks a lot DamianD.

OK, properties are seems working in my scenario (with catching exceptions), but I suggests there should be some better reliable method for this purpose by Microsoft.

For some business requirements I have to follow my custom encryption methods and outlook built-in functionality does not fit in this scenario. Any how Your suggestion is quite practical that I have to mimic the standards and encrypt the whole message as single entity and then reverse the process for other side.

Thanks again for your support.