outlook-email-parser

Parse Microsoft Outlook email files (MSG, EML, OFT) with full support for attachments, embedded images, and various character encodings.

Features

- 📧 Parse MSG files (Microsoft Outlook Message format)
- 📨 Parse EML files (Standard email format)
- 📎 Extract attachments with content
- 🖼️ Support for embedded images (CID references)
- 🌍 Multi-language support (Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, etc.)
- 📝 Extract both HTML and plain text content
- 🔧 Zero external binary dependencies

Installation

``bash
npm install outlook-email-parser


or

yarn add outlook-email-parser

or

pnpm add outlook-email-parser
`

Usage

$3

`typescript
import { parseEmail } from 'outlook-email-parser';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

// Parse any supported email file
const buffer = readFileSync('email.msg');
const result = await parseEmail(buffer, 'email.msg');

console.log(result.data.subject);
console.log(result.data.from);
console.log(result.data.to);
console.log(result.data.htmlContent);
console.log(result.data.attachments);
`

$3

`typescript
import { parseMsgBuffer } from 'outlook-email-parser';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

const buffer = readFileSync('message.msg');
const email = parseMsgBuffer(buffer);

console.log(email.subject);
console.log(email.from.name, email.from.email);
console.log(email.textContent);
`

$3

`typescript
import { parseEmlBuffer } from 'outlook-email-parser';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

const buffer = readFileSync('message.eml');
const email = await parseEmlBuffer(buffer);

console.log(email.subject);
console.log(email.htmlContent);
`

$3

`typescript
import { parseEmail } from 'outlook-email-parser';
import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'fs';

const buffer = readFileSync('email.msg');
const result = await parseEmail(buffer, 'email.msg');

for (const attachment of result.data.attachments) {
console.log(Attachment: ${attachment.filename} (${attachment.size} bytes));

// Save attachment to disk
if (attachment.content) {
const data = Buffer.from(attachment.content, 'base64');
writeFileSync(attachment.filename, data);
}
}
`

$3

`typescript
import { parseEmail } from 'outlook-email-parser';

const result = await parseEmail(buffer, 'email.msg', {
// Include attachment content (base64). Default: true
includeAttachmentContent: true,

// Maximum attachment size to include content (bytes). Default: 10MB
maxAttachmentSize: 10 1024 1024,
});
`

API Reference

$3

Parse an email file with automatic format detection.

- buffer: Buffer - The file content
- fileName: string - The filename (used for format detection)
- options: ParserOptions - Optional parser configuration

Returns: Promise

$3

Parse an MSG file buffer.

- buffer: Buffer - The MSG file content
- options: ParserOptions - Optional parser configuration

Returns: ParsedEmail

$3

Parse an EML file buffer.

- buffer: Buffer - The EML file content
- options: ParserOptions - Optional parser configuration

Returns: Promise

$3

Check if a buffer is a valid MSG file.

Returns: boolean

$3

Check if a buffer looks like a valid EML file.

Returns: boolean

Types

`typescript
interface ParsedEmail {
subject: string;
from: EmailAddress;
to?: string;
cc?: string;
bcc?: string;
replyTo?: string;
sentDate?: string;
receivedDate?: string;
priority?: number;
importance?: number;
textContent?: string;
htmlContent?: string;
attachments: EmailAttachment[];
}

interface EmailAddress {
name?: string;
email?: string;
}

interface EmailAttachment {
filename: string;
size: number;
contentId?: string;
content?: string; // base64 encoded
mimeType?: string;
}

interface ParserOptions {
includeAttachmentContent?: boolean;
maxAttachmentSize?: number;
}
`

Supported Formats

| Format | Extension | Description |
|--------|-----------|-------------|
| MSG | .msg | Microsoft Outlook Message |
| OFT | .oft | Microsoft Outlook Template |
| EML | .eml` | Standard email format (RFC 822) |

Character Encoding Support

The parser automatically detects and handles various character encodings:

- UTF-8
- UTF-16LE/BE
- Windows-1252 (Western European)
- Windows-1258 (Vietnamese)
- ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1)
- And many more via iconv-lite

License

MIT