up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I asked this question on StackOverflow and never really got a decent reply! So I thought I would chance my arm on here...

I have an application that heavily relys on the information in the email being in plaintext. Reason for this is because it will match specific patterns in the mail body i.e. Keyword=Value. If the body of the email is in HTML then as you can see....this is most likely going to pickup things like CSS properties etc

I want my users to be able to send the emails from any format i.e. as HTML/Plain Text, however, I want to be able to convert the mail to plaintext when it arrives in the exchange server.

This has to be on the exchange server NOT in Outlook

Is this possible?

link|improve this question
67% accept rate
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

If your application is getting mail from a specific mailbox using POP3 or IMAP, you can configure the mailbox's POP3/IMAP settings so that Exchange serves plain text only, regardless of the format of messages in the mailbox.

I haven't worked on Exchange 2003 in quite a while, nor do I have access to a 2003 server, so I can't give you the exact place to look, but if you view the mailbox properties using AD Users & Computers on the Exchange server, it shouldn't be too hard to spot.

Update: after a bit of searching, I managed to find the location of the setting I was thinking of.

On your Exchange Server, open AD Users & Computers, it should be under Start/All Programs/Microsoft Exchange.

  • Find the relevant mailbox used by your application and open it's properties page.
  • Select the "Exchange Features" tab.
  • On the tab you should see a "Protocols" section (example).
  • If you click on IMAP4 and then Properties, you should be able to force plain text there.

I have done this in the the past with an app that polled a mailbox using POP3 so I know for a fact it works. I'm 99.9% sure the exact same option is available for IMAP4.

link|improve this answer
Hi, I am connecting to IMAP and I have tried all the settings possible on the exchange server i.e. only allow plain text. However, It doesn't seem to work I am still getting HTML in the body. – James Aug 24 '09 at 21:13
Ah ok I was doing this settings from the Exchange System Manager. I will give it a try, thanks! – James Aug 25 '09 at 7:47
Hi I tried this and the body is still in HTML. Do I need to reboot the server before the changes take effect? – James Aug 25 '09 at 11:36
I just did some research about that settings and I think that only restricts that account to sending emails as plain text, not converting them as they come in :( – James Aug 25 '09 at 12:37
POP3 and IMAP are not related to sending mail, those settings are definitely for controlling the format/s for receiving mail. – Graeme Donaldson Nov 6 '09 at 14:15
feedback
up vote 0 down vote accepted

I decided to use the HtmlAgilityPack and manually parse the email body. I couldn't seem to find an exhange server solution.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.