PHP ActiveX

Get an Attachment as a Text String

Demonstrates the Chilkat Email.GetAttachmentString method, which returns the Nth attachment's data as text. The first argument is the zero-based attachment index and the second is the charset used to interpret the attachment bytes. This example reads a text attachment as utf-8.

Background: Attachments are stored as bytes, so turning one back into a string requires knowing its charset — the rule for mapping bytes to characters. Supplying the correct charset (often utf-8) yields readable text; the wrong one produces garbled characters. This method is meant for text attachments such as .txt, .csv, or .xml; binary attachments should be handled as raw data instead.

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<?php

//  Demonstrates the GetAttachmentString method, which returns the Nth attachment's data as
//  text.  The first argument is the zero-based attachment index and the second is the charset used to interpret
//  the attachment bytes.

$email = new COM("Chilkat.Email");
$email->Subject = 'Attachment as text';

$email->AddStringAttachment('notes.txt','These are the notes stored in the attachment.');

//  Get the first attachment (index 0) as text, interpreting the bytes as utf-8.
$content = $email->getAttachmentString(0,'utf-8');
print 'Attachment 0 text: ' . $content . "\n";

?>