Can I extract an attachment from an Outlook .msg file from Alteryx?

I am sent an outlook .msg file that contains an attachment within it (not the attachment itself), which I have automatically forwarded to Box Sync. Is there anyway that the Alteryx workflow can open the .msg file and extract the attachment to use as my data source?

Thanks!

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ivoller

I think that the answer is almost certainly yes but will depend on the environment.

If you have Outlook available on your system then one approach is to write VB Script that uses the application objects and methods to extract attachments to a file.

Phyllis

@ivoller wrote:
I think that the answer is almost certainly yes but will depend on the environment.
If you have Outlook available on your system then one approach is to write VB Script that uses the application objects and methods to extract attachments to a file.

I would like to avoid this if possible as multiple people will be using the workflow who do not have access to the email within Outlook and only on Box. Thanks!

Treyson

Here are two great articles that should help get you started. If you need any help beyond this, please let us know!

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works-Blog/Outlook-Input-tool-Created-with-the-Alteryx-SDK/ba-p/72242

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Knowledge-Base/Reading-Outlook-Emails-and-Email-attachments-with-Alteryx/ta-p/17807

Phyllis

@Treyson wrote:
Here are two great articles that should help get you started. If you need any help beyond this, please let us know!
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works-Blog/Outlook-Input-tool-Created-with-the-Alteryx-SDK/ba-p/72242
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Knowledge-Base/Reading-Outlook-Emails-and-Email-attachments-with-Alteryx/ta-p/17807

I had already read these but I'm understanding that these are if you are running the workflow which extracts the attachment from Outlook itself, correct? I'd like to share the workflow with other users who hopefully can pull this .msg from Box and have Alteryx extract the attachment within. I understand this is a really weird situation.

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Treyson

Okay so you actually have the .msg file, which I would imagine is in some shared location, and you want to go in and extract the file within the .MSG file? Can I ask why it would be done that way?

I think it can be done. Let me play around and I will see what I can do.

Treyson

So I also found this one, not sure if you had read it yet. It says that Alteryx cannot natively read .msg files. Which I tried to do and failed.

This route uses access to pull information from the MSG but is unable to pull the attachment.

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Data-Sources/Is-there-a-way-to-convert-an-e-mail-pst-file-to-a-csv-or-text/td-p/14158

mhayashi

Same end for me.

leotalley

You asked a good question, if I give suggestions from my personal technical experience, Try Softaken MSG Attachment Remover Application is an Extract of an attachment from an MSG File without installing Outlook.

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