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

npm install outlook-email-parser
# or
yarn add outlook-email-parser
# or
pnpm add outlook-email-parser

Usage

Basic Usage

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);

Parse MSG Files

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);

Parse EML Files

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);

Working with Attachments

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);
  }
}

Parser Options

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

parseEmail(buffer, fileName, options?)

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<ParseResult>

parseMsgBuffer(buffer, options?)

Parse an MSG file buffer.

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

Returns: ParsedEmail

parseEmlBuffer(buffer, options?)

Parse an EML file buffer.

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

Returns: Promise<ParsedEmail>

isValidMsgFile(buffer)

Check if a buffer is a valid MSG file.

Returns: boolean

isValidEmlFile(buffer)

Check if a buffer looks like a valid EML file.

Returns: boolean

Types

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