Extract attachments from Emails Leave feedback
To extract attachments from emails GetContainer method is used. This method returns the collection of ContainerItem objects.
Email Attachment can contain the following metadata:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| content-type | The MIME type of the attachment content |
These metadata refer to a container element itself, not a document.
Here are the steps to extract an email text from email attachments:
- Instantiate Parser object for the initial document;
- Call GetContainer method and obtain collection of ContainerItem objects;
- Check if collection isn’t null (container extraction is supported for the document);
- Iterate through the collection and get container item names, sizes and obtain content.
The following example shows how to extract a text from email attachments:
// Create an instance of Parser class
using(Parser parser = new Parser(filePath))
{
// Extract attachments from the container
IEnumerable<ContainerItem> attachments = parser.GetContainer();
// Check if container extraction is supported
if(attachments == null)
{
Console.WriteLine("Container extraction isn't supported");
}
// Iterate over attachments
foreach(ContainerItem item in attachments)
{
// Print the file path
Console.WriteLine(item.FilePath);
// Print metadata
foreach (MetadataItem metadata in item.Metadata)
{
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}: {1}", metadata.Name, metadata.Value));
}
try
{
// Create Parser object for the email content
using (Parser attachmentParser = item.OpenParser())
{
// Extract an email text
using (TextReader reader = attachmentParser.GetText())
{
Console.WriteLine(reader == null ? "No text" : reader.ReadToEnd());
}
}
}
catch (UnsupportedDocumentFormatException)
{
Console.WriteLine("Isn't supported.");
}
}
}
To detect if image attachment is inline ‘disposition’ metadata is used. If it’s present, it can take ‘inline’ or ‘attachment’ values.
The following example shows how to detect inline attachments:
// Create an instance of Parser class
using(Parser parser = new Parser(filePath))
{
// Extract attachments from the container
IEnumerable<ContainerItem> attachments = parser.GetContainer();
// Check if container extraction is supported
if(attachments == null)
{
Console.WriteLine("Container extraction isn't supported");
}
// Iterate over attachments
foreach(ContainerItem item in attachments)
{
// Check metadata for 'disposition' item
if(item.GetMetadataValue("disposition") == "inline") {
// If it's 'inline' then print the file path
Console.WriteLine(item.FilePath);
}
}
}
You may easily run the code above and see the feature in action in our GitHub examples:
Along with full featured .NET library we provide simple, but powerful free Apps.
You are welcome to parse documents and extract data from PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, Emails and more with our free online Free Online Document Parser App.
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