Parse MIME Header Fields

Demonstrates how to parse MIME header fields, including Content-Type, Content-Disposition, and Content-Transfer-Encoding.

This example uses a MIME test file located at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/testData/sampleMime2.txt. It contains the following MIME:

Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
 boundary="------------080707010302060306060800"

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--------------080707010302060306060800
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

This is the plain-text body.
--------------080707010302060306060800
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="starfish.gif"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Type: image/gif; name="starfish.gif"

R0lGODlhIAAgAPcAAP///+/v7/f39+/n5/fv7//39/fn597OzufW1tbGxs69vffe3u/W1salpZQQ
EIQYEJwQCJQYCJwYCM6clL2Ee5wpGIwhEK0YANatpdalnHMYCKUhCJQYAKUYAM6Ec5QhCJwhCPfW
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--------------080707010302060306060800--

Download Chilkat MIME ActiveX

LOCAL loMime
LOCAL lnSuccess
LOCAL loPart2
LOCAL lcFilename
LOCAL lcName

loMime = CreateObject('Chilkat.Mime')

lnSuccess = loMime.UnlockComponent("Anything for 30-day trial.")
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loMime.LastErrorText
    QUIT
ENDIF

*  Load the sampleMime2.txt file into the MIME object.
*  (This file is available at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/testData/sampleMime2.txt )

lnSuccess = loMime.LoadMimeFile("sampleMime2.txt")
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loMime.LastErrorText
    QUIT
ENDIF

*  The GIF image is the 2nd sub-part located directly under the
*  top-level MIME node.  Indexing begins at 0, therefore the 2nd
*  sub-part is at index 1.

loPart2 = loMime.GetPart(1)

*  -------------------------------
*  Content-Disposition
*  -------------------------------
*  In this example, the Content-Disposition header field
*  contains this value:
*  attachment; filename="starfish.gif"

*  To get the "filename", call GetHeaderFieldAttribute
*  Header field names and attribute names are case insensitive.

lcFilename = loPart2.GetHeaderFieldAttribute("Content-Disposition","filename")
? "Filename: " + lcFilename

*  Because the "filename" is so often accessed, it is also available
*  by accessing the "Filename" property:
? "Filename: " + loPart2.Filename

*  The disposition (without attributes) which in this case
*  is the string "attachment" is accessed via the Disposition property:
? "Disposition: " + loPart2.Disposition

*  To get the full value of the Content-Disposition header field,
*  call GetHeaderField.
? "Content-Disposition: " + loPart2.GetHeaderField("Content-Disposition")

*  -------------------------------
*  Content-Type
*  -------------------------------
*  In this example, the Content-Type header field
*  contains this value:
*  image/gif; name="starfish.gif"

*  To get the "name", call GetHeaderFieldAttribute

lcName = loPart2.GetHeaderFieldAttribute("Content-Type","name")
? "Content-Type name: " + lcName

*  Because the "name" is so often accessed, it is also available
*  by accessing the "Name" property:
? "Content-Type name: " + loPart2.Name

*  The content-type without attributes is available in the
*  ContentType property:
? "Content-Type: " + loPart2.ContentType

*  To get the full value of the Content-Type header field,
*  call GetHeaderField.
? "Content-Type: " + loPart2.GetHeaderField("Content-Type")

*  -------------------------------
*  Content-Transfer-Encoding
*  -------------------------------

*  The Encoding property contains the value of the
*  Content-Transfer-Encoding property.
*  Calling GetHeaderField("Content-Transfer-Encoding") is
*  equivalent to accessing the Encoding property:
? "Content-Transfer-Encoding: " + loPart2.Encoding
? "Content-Transfer-Encoding: " + loPart2.GetHeaderField("Content-Transfer-Encoding")

RELEASE loPart2

=MESSAGEBOX("Finished.")