Rust OneNote® File Parser

A parser for Microsoft OneNote® files implemented in Rust.

The project supports reading OneNote files in the FSSHTTP packaging format ([MS-ONESTORE] 2.3 and [MS-ONESTORE] 2.8) as used by OneDrive and the modern OneNote apps. Feature contributions are welcome, but otherwise the project focuses on bugfixes and compatibility.

In addition to the publicly documented contents, this project also allows reading ink/handwriting content. Math/equation content is not supported (due to being very undocumented).¹

_{¹ If you have reliable documentation or samples, contributions are welcome.}

Goals

• Read OneNote notebooks and sections obtained via OneDrive download
• Provide a Rust API for inspecting notebook, section, and page data
• Support HTML conversion via the one2html project

Non-Goals

• The ability to write OneNote files
• Support for legacy OneNote 2016 desktop files

Usage

Add the dependency to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
onenote_parser = "1.1"

use onenote_parser::Parser;
use std::path::Path;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut parser = Parser::new();
    // .onetoc2 file from a OneDrive download (FSSHTTP packaging format)
    let notebook = parser.parse_notebook(Path::new("My Notebook.onetoc2"))?;
    println!("sections: {}", notebook.entries().len());
    Ok(())
}

Backtraces

Enable the backtrace feature to capture a std::backtrace::Backtrace on parser errors. This can help pinpoint where a parsing failure originated and is exposed through std::error::Error::backtrace().

[dependencies]
onenote_parser = { version = "1.1", features = ["backtrace"] }

Stability

The API is considered stable and will not change without a major version bump. Releases follow semantic versioning.

Architecture

The code organization and architecture follows the OneNote file format which is built from several layers of encodings:

• fsshttpb/: This implements the FSSHTTP binary packaging format as specified in [MS-FSSHTTPB]: Binary Requests for File Synchronization via SOAP Protocol. This is the lowest level of the file format and specifies how objects and their relationships are encoded (and decoded) from a binary stream (in our case a file).
• onestore/: This implements the OneStore format as specified in [MS-ONESTORE]: OneNote Revision Store File Format which describes how a OneNote revision store file (also called OneStore) containing all OneNote objects is stored in a FSSHTTP binary packaging file. This also includes the file header ([MS-ONESTORE] 2.8) and then how the OneNote revision store is built from the FSSHTTP objects and revisions ([MS-ONESTORE] 2.7).
• one/: This implements the OneNote file format as specified in [MS-ONE]: OneNote File Format. This specifies how objects in a OneNote file are parsed from a OneStore revision file.
• onenote/: This finally implements an API that provides access to the data stored in a OneNote file. It parses the FSSHTTPB data, the revision store data and then constructs the objects contained by the OneNote file. This includes resolving all references, e.g. looking up pages' paragraphs.

Related Resources

• [MS-ONESTORE]: OneNote Revision Store File Format
• [MS-ONE]: OneNote File Format
• [MS-FSSHTTPB]: Binary Requests for File Synchronization via SOAP Protocol
• LibMsON: A work in progress OneNote® revision store file parser in C++
• FSSHTTP - parser tools for protocol FSSHTTP/B/D: A FSSHTTPB data parser

Disclaimer

This project is neither related to nor endorsed by Microsoft in any way. The author does not have any affiliation with Microsoft.