Use an Outlook message file (msg) as a template

Question

I wonder if it's possible with the .net framework or Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook to load an email message (*.msg), do a search and replace and send it from C#.

It's all happening on the server so Outlook cannot be installed.

What I've tried

the Redemption library but somehow it loses the images inlined in the template and can't figure out to remedy this

Using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

    Application objOutlook = new Application();
    objOutlook.CreateItemFromTemplate("c:\temp\..",)

But it expects as it second parameter an outlook folder, I can't give it a file path where it will save to

I'm thinking to switch to regular txt files instead of C# but maybe someone did this already

Update 1

This is the redemption code I tried. The problem is that the formatting and image (of a signature is not preserved)

using Interop.Redemption;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Replace(@"mailnonunicode.msg");
            Replace(@"mailunicode.msg");
            Replace(@"mailtemplate.oft");
        }

        static void Replace(string cTestharnessKmailMsg)
        {
            RDOSession rdoSession = new RDOSession();
            RDOMail messageFromMsgFile = rdoSession.GetMessageFromMsgFile(cTestharnessKmailMsg);

            messageFromMsgFile.Body = messageFromMsgFile.Body.Replace("abc",
                                                                      "xyz");
            messageFromMsgFile.Save();
        }
    }
}

Update 2 / Solution

If you want to preserve the formatting, you need to work with HTMLBody or RTFBody properties, not with the plain text Body.

Dmitry Streblechenko Dmitry Streblechenko · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-08T16:46:24

What is your existing Redemption code?

If the message needs to be sent, it must be created in one of the Outlook folders - a standalone MSG file cannot be sent.

Use an Outlook message file (msg) as a template

1 Answers