Outlook 2010 email to Web page, including images

Question

I can paste an Outlook email message into a Web page using the following code.

VBA

Sub HTMLClipboard()
  Dim M As MailItem, Buf As MSForms.DataObject
  Set M = ActiveExplorer().Selection.Item(1)
  Set Buf = New MSForms.DataObject
  Buf.SetText M.HTMLBody
  Buf.PutInClipboard
End Sub

HTML

<div id="Data"></div>
<textarea id="TA"></textarea>

jQuery

$(document).on('paste', function(e) {
  $('#TA').focus();
  setTimeout(function() {
    $('#Data')
      .html($('#TA').val());
  });
});

This works great unless there's an image in the HTMLBody. In that situation, I get a broken image src like this:

<img width=596 height=381
 id="Picture_x0020_1" 
 src="cid:image001.png@01D07855.C2524830"
>

Is there a way to encode image data within the VBA function, preferably as a Data URI?

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:28

1

src="cid:image001.png@01D07855.C2524830"

Such source string indicates a hidden attachment with the PR_ATTACH_CONTENT_ID (DASL name - "http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x3712001E") property set to the image001.png@01D07855.C2524830 value. You can find the image using the Attachments property of Outlook items.

See How to add an embedded image to an HTML message in Outlook 2010 for more information.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:28

Community

1
1

answered Apr 17 '15 at 13:55

Eugene Astafiev

47,483
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Learning that embedded image data is in the Attachments collection is a big help, thanks. I wonder if I could open the file, convert it to a Data URI, and replace the src attribute with that Data URI? – Rick Hitchcock Apr 17 '15 at 14:07
You can save it on the disk and then upload it on any web server. – Eugene Astafiev Apr 17 '15 at 14:26
Thanks, but I'm hoping to embed the image within the HTML instead of as a separate file. Once on the Web page, it will be saved to a database. – Rick Hitchcock Apr 17 '15 at 14:29
1

If you can save the image to disk, you can base-64 encode it, and use it in a data URI as the source for an `` https://css-tricks.com/data-uris/ – Tim Williams Apr 17 '15 at 16:47
I think Rick knows what to do after saving the attachment. – Eugene Astafiev Apr 17 '15 at 16:58

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Came up with a solution, and thanks to Eugene for pointing me towards the Attachments collection. (I didn't know it included embedded images.)

Sub HTMLClipboard()
  Dim M As MailItem, Buf As MSForms.DataObject
  Set M = ActiveExplorer().Selection.Item(1)
  Set Buf = New MSForms.DataObject

  b = M.HTMLBody

  Dim i As Integer
  For i = 1 To M.Attachments.Count
    fn = M.Attachments.Item(i).PropertyAccessor.GetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x3712001E")
    If fn > "" Then
      M.Attachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile "d:\temp"
      base64 = EncodeFile("d:\temp")
      b = Replace(b, "cid:" & fn, "data:image/png;base64," & base64)
    End If
  Next
  Buf.SetText b
  Buf.PutInClipboard
End Sub

This code:

Iterates through the Attachments collection looking for embedded images.
Saves the image to a temporary file.
Converts the image binary data to base64 using the EncodeFile function found here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8134022/3903374
Replaces each image's src attribute with the base64 encoding, which turns it into a Data URI.

I'd be interested in a method that avoids creating a temporary file.

I can now run the macro in Outlook and paste onto my Web page, with image data being embedded in the HTML itself.

Outlook 2010 email to Web page, including images

2 Answers2