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--

Downloads for Windows/Linux and Install Instructions

require 'rubygems'
require 'chilkat'

mime = Chilkat::CkMime.new()

success = mime.UnlockComponent("Anything for 30-day trial.")
if (success == false)
    print mime.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

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

success = mime.LoadMimeFile("sampleMime2.txt")
if (success == false)
    print mime.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

#  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.

# part2 is a CkMime
part2 = mime.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.
filename = part2.getHeaderFieldAttribute("Content-Disposition","filename")
print "Filename: " + filename + "\n";

#  Because the "filename" is so often accessed, it is also available
#  by accessing the "Filename" property:
print "Filename: " + part2.filename() + "\n";

#  The disposition (without attributes) which in this case
#  is the string "attachment" is accessed via the Disposition property:
print "Disposition: " + part2.disposition() + "\n";

#  To get the full value of the Content-Disposition header field,
#  call GetHeaderField.
print "Content-Disposition: " + part2.getHeaderField("Content-Disposition") + "\n";

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

#  To get the "name", call GetHeaderFieldAttribute
name = part2.getHeaderFieldAttribute("Content-Type","name")
print "Content-Type name: " + name + "\n";

#  Because the "name" is so often accessed, it is also available
#  by accessing the "Name" property:
print "Content-Type name: " + part2.name() + "\n";

#  The content-type without attributes is available in the
#  ContentType property:
print "Content-Type: " + part2.contentType() + "\n";

#  To get the full value of the Content-Type header field,
#  call GetHeaderField.
print "Content-Type: " + part2.getHeaderField("Content-Type") + "\n";

#  -------------------------------
#  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:
print "Content-Transfer-Encoding: " + part2.encoding() + "\n";
print "Content-Transfer-Encoding: " + part2.getHeaderField("Content-Transfer-Encoding") + "\n";

print "Finished." + "\n"