Delphi ActiveX

Add a Related File to an HTML Email

Demonstrates the Chilkat Email.AddRelatedFile method, which adds the contents of a local file as a related MIME resource and returns the generated Content-ID. The returned value is the bare Content-ID — no angle brackets and no cid: prefix — so if it returns CID-123@example, the HTML reference is cid:CID-123@example. Because the Content-ID is generated by the call, this example adds the image first, then builds the HTML body in a StringBuilder — using a placeholder in the <img> tag that is replaced with the returned Content-ID — and passes the result to SetHtmlBody.

Background: To embed an image so it displays inside an HTML email (rather than being downloaded from a web server), you add it as a "related" part and reference it from the HTML with a cid: URL that matches the part's Content-ID. Since Chilkat assigns that ID when you add the file, the natural order is: add the related file, capture the returned ID, then build the <img src="cid:..."> reference from it. A StringBuilder makes assembling and updating the HTML convenient.

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var
email: TChilkatEmail;
cid: WideString;
sbHtml: TChilkatStringBuilder;
numReplaced: Integer;

begin
//  Demonstrates the AddRelatedFile method, which adds a local file as a related MIME
//  resource (such as an image displayed by an HTML body) and returns the generated
//  Content-ID.  The HTML references the item using cid:<Content-ID>.

email := TChilkatEmail.Create(Self);
email.Subject := 'Email with a related image';

//  Add the image file as a related item first.  The return value is the bare Content-ID
//  (no angle brackets and no "cid:" prefix).
cid := email.AddRelatedFile('qa_data/images/logo.png');
if (email.LastMethodSuccess = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(email.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

//  Build the HTML body in a StringBuilder, using a placeholder where the image's
//  Content-ID will go.
sbHtml := TChilkatStringBuilder.Create(Self);
sbHtml.Append('<html><body><img src="cid:PLACEHOLDER_CID"/></body></html>');

//  Replace the placeholder with the actual Content-ID returned by AddRelatedFile.
numReplaced := sbHtml.Replace('PLACEHOLDER_CID',cid);

//  Set the HTML body from the StringBuilder result.
email.SetHtmlBody(sbHtml.GetAsString());

Memo1.Lines.Add('Related Content-ID = ' + cid);
Memo1.Lines.Add('NumRelatedItems = ' + IntToStr(email.NumRelatedItems));

//  Note: The path "qa_data/images/logo.png" is a relative local filesystem path,
//  relative to the current working directory of the running application.