Zip an Email's Attachments into One File

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Demonstrates the Chilkat Email.ZipAttachments method, which replaces all of an email's attachments with a single Zip file attachment having the specified filename. The original attachments are removed and packed into the Zip. This example adds two attachments and zips them into one.

Background: Bundling multiple attachments into a single .zip keeps a message tidy, compresses the payload, and works around recipients or gateways that limit the number of attachments. Note that the filename here (files.zip) names the attachment inside the message — it is not a path on disk. The reverse operation is UnzipAttachments.

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bool success = false;

//  Demonstrates the ZipAttachments method, which replaces all of an email's attachments
//  with a single Zip file attachment having the specified filename.  The original
//  attachments are removed and packed into the Zip.

Chilkat.Email email = new Chilkat.Email();
email.Subject = "Zip the attachments";

email.AddStringAttachment("a.txt","first attachment");
email.AddStringAttachment("b.txt","second attachment");
Debug.WriteLine("NumAttachments before = " + Convert.ToString(email.NumAttachments));

//  Replace all attachments with a single Zip attachment named "files.zip".
success = email.ZipAttachments("files.zip");
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

Debug.WriteLine("NumAttachments after = " + Convert.ToString(email.NumAttachments));