(Xojo Plugin) Download and Save Email Attachments (POP3)

See more POP3 Examples

Downloads emails from a POP3 mailbox and saves all attachments.

Chilkat Xojo Plugin Download Xojo Plugin for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and ARM, ARM64

// This example assumes the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
// See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

// The mailman object is used for receiving (POP3) 
// and sending (SMTP) email.
Dim mailman As New Chilkat.MailMan

// Set the POP3 server's hostname
mailman.MailHost = "pop.yourserver.com"

// Set the POP3 login/password.
mailman.PopUsername = "***"
mailman.PopPassword = "***"

// Copy the all email from the user's POP3 mailbox 
// into a bundle object.  The email remains on the server.
// CopyMail is a reasonable choice for POP3 maildrops that don't have too many
// emails. For larger mail drops, one might download emails one at a time..
Dim bundle As Chilkat.EmailBundle
bundle = mailman.CopyMail()
If (mailman.LastMethodSuccess <> True) Then
    System.DebugLog(mailman.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If

// The directory path can be relative or absolute.
// This shows a Windows style directory path.  On other operating systems, the path
// would be different..
Dim dirPath As String
dirPath = "c:/myAttachments"

Dim success As Boolean
Dim bundleIndex As Int32
bundleIndex = 0
Dim numMessages As Int32
numMessages = bundle.MessageCount
Dim email As Chilkat.Email
While (bundleIndex < numMessages)
    email = bundle.GetEmail(bundleIndex)

    // Save all attachments to the specified directory.
    // The directory is automatically created if it does not yet exist.
    success = email.SaveAllAttachments(dirPath)
    If (success <> True) Then
        System.DebugLog(email.LastErrorText)
        Return
    End If

    // The OverwriteExisting property controls whether already-existing files
    // are automatically overwritten.  By default, it is set to True so that existing
    // files will be overwritten.

    // Setting OverwriteExisting = False will cause the attachment-saving methods to generate
    // unique filenames if a file with the same name already exists.  The actual filename(s)
    // saved will be present by calling GetAttachmentFilename for each attachment *after*
    // saving.
    // For example...
    email.OverwriteExisting = False
    success = email.SaveAllAttachments(dirPath)
    If (success <> True) Then
        System.DebugLog(email.LastErrorText)
        Return
    End If

    Dim numAttachments As Int32
    numAttachments = email.NumAttachments
    Dim attachIndex As Int32
    attachIndex = 0
    While (attachIndex < numAttachments)
        // If the attachment filename was changed to prevent overwriting,
        // GetAttachmentFilename will return the new filename.
        System.DebugLog(email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        attachIndex = attachIndex + 1
    Wend

    // Attachments can also be saved individually.
    attachIndex = 0
    While (attachIndex < numAttachments)

        System.DebugLog("Original Filename: " + email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        success = email.SaveAttachedFile(attachIndex,dirPath)
        If (success <> True) Then
            System.DebugLog(email.LastErrorText)
            Return
        End If

        // If OverwriteExisting = True, the saved filename will always equal the original filename,
        // unless there are characters present in the filename that are not allowed by Windows,
        // such as * ? < > | etc.  In those cases the illegal characters are either removed or replaced
        // with underscore characters to allow the file to be saved.
        System.DebugLog("Saved Filename: " + email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        attachIndex = attachIndex + 1
    Wend

    bundleIndex = bundleIndex + 1
Wend