Java Requires Chilkat v11.0.0+

Download and Save Email Attachments (POP3)

See more POP3 Examples

Downloads emails from a POP3 mailbox and saves all attachments. Chilkat2 Java

import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.ChilkatException;
import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.Email;
import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.EmailBundle;
import com.chilkatsoft.chilkat2.MailMan;

public class ChilkatExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // 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.
        MailMan mailman = new MailMan();

        // Set the POP3 server's hostname
        mailman.setMailHost("pop.yourserver.com");

        // Set the POP3 login/password.
        mailman.setPopUsername("***");
        mailman.setPopPassword("***");

        // Copy the all email from the user's POP3 mailbox
        // into a bundle object.  The email remains on the server.
        // FetchAll 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..
        EmailBundle bundle = new EmailBundle();
        boolean keepOnServer = true;
        boolean headersOnly = false;
        // Irrelevent because we are NOT downloading headers-only
        int numBodyLines = 0;
        try {
            mailman.fetchAll(keepOnServer, headersOnly, numBodyLines, bundle);
        } catch (ChilkatException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getLastErrorText());
            return;
        }

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

        Email email = new Email();
        int bundleIndex = 0;
        int numMessages = bundle.getMessageCount();

        while (bundleIndex < numMessages) {
            bundle.emailAt(bundleIndex, email);

            // Save all attachments to the specified directory.
            // The directory is automatically created if it does not yet exist.
            try {
                email.saveAllAttachments(dirPath);

                // 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.setOverwriteExisting(false);
                email.saveAllAttachments(dirPath);
            } catch (ChilkatException e) {
                System.out.println(e.getLastErrorText());
                return;
            }

            int numAttachments = email.getNumAttachments();
            int attachIndex = 0;
            while (attachIndex < numAttachments) {
                // If the attachment filename was changed to prevent overwriting,
                // GetAttachmentFilename will return the new filename.
                System.out.println(email.getAttachmentFilename(attachIndex));
                attachIndex = attachIndex + 1;
            }

            // Attachments can also be saved individually.
            attachIndex = 0;
            while (attachIndex < numAttachments) {
                System.out.println("Original Filename: " + email.getAttachmentFilename(attachIndex));
                try {
                    email.saveAttachedFile(attachIndex, dirPath);
                } catch (ChilkatException e) {
                    System.out.println(e.getLastErrorText());
                    return;
                }

                // 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.out.println("Saved Filename: " + email.getAttachmentFilename(attachIndex));
                attachIndex = attachIndex + 1;
            }

            bundleIndex = bundleIndex + 1;
        }
    }
}