Visual Basic 6.0

Fetch an IMAP Attachment into a BinData

Demonstrates the Chilkat Imap.FetchAttachmentBd method, which stores one attachment's bytes in a BinData object. The first argument is the Email, the second is the zero-based attachment index, and the third is the BinData, which is cleared before the operation. This example fetches the first attachment and prints its byte count.

Background: A BinData holds raw bytes, so it works for any attachment type — image, PDF, zip, and so on. From there you can save it, hash it, or hand it to another API expecting a byte buffer, all without touching the filesystem. Use the string/StringBuilder variants only when the attachment is known to be text.

Chilkat Visual Basic 6.0 Downloads

Download Chilkat for Visual Basic 6.0

Visual Basic 6.0

Dim success As Long
success = 0

'  Demonstrates the Imap.FetchAttachmentBd method, which downloads one attachment's bytes into
'  a BinData object.  The 1st argument is the Email, the 2nd is the zero-based attachment
'  index, and the 3rd is the BinData (which is cleared first).
'  
'  The message is fetched headers-only, then the attachment is downloaded on demand.

Dim imap As New ChilkatImap

imap.Ssl = 1
imap.Port = 993

success = imap.Connect("imap.example.com")
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

success = imap.Login("user@example.com","myPassword")
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

success = imap.SelectMailbox("Inbox")
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  Fetch only the message headers.  Attachment bodies are NOT downloaded, but the ckx-imap-*
'  metadata describing the attachments is present, so the attachment info methods still work.
Dim headersOnly As Long
headersOnly = 1
Dim useUid As Long
useUid = 0
Dim seqNum As Long
seqNum = 1
Dim email As New ChilkatEmail
success = imap.FetchEmail(headersOnly,seqNum,useUid,email)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Dim numAttach As Long
numAttach = imap.GetMailNumAttach(email)
If (numAttach > 0) Then
    '  Download just the first attachment's bytes from the server into a BinData.
    Dim bd As New ChilkatBinData
    success = imap.FetchAttachmentBd(email,0,bd)
    If (success = 0) Then
        Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
        Exit Sub
    End If

    Debug.Print "Attachment size: " & bd.NumBytes & " bytes"
End If

success = imap.Disconnect()
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If