See here for the OE API's, such as they a
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms709546.aspx

There are also some dll's at www.nektra.com that I haven't tried.

As Michael indicated you can use my OEX program as well
(www.oehelp.com/OEX/) to extract the messages and their components.

steve

"Chris Shearer Cooper" wrote in message
...
My (C++ MFC) program needs to be able to scan all email messages found in
Outlook and/or Outlook Express and provide the user with information about
them. I need to know, for each email message, basic information like
date/time, sender, text, subject, and then I need access to any
attachments. I will not be sending any messages, receiving any messages,
scanning the contact list, etc.

I've seen a lot of different ways for programs to communicate with Outlook
and Outlook Express (MAPI, Extended MAPI, etc.) but nothing that really
summarizes which approaches work for which versions of Outlook and Outlook
Express, and which version of Windows. For example, I've seen web pages
that recommend Extended MAPI to avoid triggering security prompts, but (1)
I don't think I'm doing anything that would trigger a security prompt, and
(2) I don't know if (for example) early versions of Outlook Express
running on Windows 98SE even had Extended MAPI.

This is going to run on retail customers personal computers, so I can't
assume they will have Exchange running.

Does anyone have suggestions ...
(1) which approach (MAPI, Extended MAPI, etc.) would allow me the limited
amount of information I need to access, and support the greatest range of
versions of Outlook and Outlook Express and also versions of Windows
(without installing additional DLLs)
(2) a library (commercial or free) that handles a lot of the grunt work
for me?

Thanks!
Chris