Not sure which section to post this in so this one will have to do!

I have an application that sends and reads emails. The client now wants me to BCC: all out going emails to an address I read and copy the emails into an archive. IE there will be an exact copy of every email sent held within the application.

I have no problem reading the emails and attachments, I have no problem adding files to a .ZIP archive and listing their contents for future use. What I am struggleing with is the format in which to "store" each message.

I know that outlook can store .msg format messages and that is a "self contained" message, but does it including attachments? can I create .msg messages with/without outlook on the archive server? is there a better format I could use?

My only other option is to store the plain text in a format I make up but I don't want to create something proprietory.

Any ideas? articles I should read?

Thanks.


Gary Williams