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Attach file in LotusScript to MIME mail

Jens Bruntt
By
Published: 24 Mar 2005

How can I attach a file in LotusScript to a MIME mail I am creating in LotusScript?

The basic code, downloaded from the Web, I am using in my tests is as follows:

 'Declare Variables
 Dim s As New NotesSession
 Dim db As NotesDatabase
 Dim body As NotesMIMEEntity
 Dim stream As NotesStream
 Dim host As String
 
 Set db = s.CurrentDatabase
 
 s.ConvertMIME = False ' Do not convert MIME to rich text  Set stream = 
s.CreateStream
 
 'Begin creating the message doc to send  Dim message As New NotesDocument 
(db)  message.Form="memo"
 
 Set body = message.CreateMIMEEntity
 
 'Basic profile of email
 message.Subject = "Sample HTML email via MIME"
 message.SendTo = "ammujica"  
  
 ' Open the HTML (Title doesn't matter since it doesn't appear anywhere)  Call 
stream.WriteText ("<html><head><title>Sample HTML email via 
MIME</title>")
 
 ' BEGIN: Inline Stylesheet
 Call stream.WriteText (|
 <style type="text/css">
 <!--
 .text, td, tr, p, br, body {
 COLOR: #666666;
 FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
 FONT-SIZE: 12px;
 }
 a {
 font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
 color: #663399;
 FONT-WEIGHT: bold;
 text-decoration: none;
}
 -->
 </style>
|)
 ' END: Inline Stylesheet
 
 Call stream.WriteText ({</head>})
 Call stream.WriteText ({<body text="#666666" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" 
leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">})
 
 ' BEGIN: HTML body
 Call stream.WriteText ({
 <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" 
bgcolor="#FFFFFF">  </table>
})
 '
'  HTML body
 '
 Call stream.WriteText ({</body></html>})
 
  Call body.SetContentFromText (stream, "text/html;charset=iso-8859-1", 
ENC_NONE) 
  
 'Send the email
 Call message.Send (False)  
 
 s.ConvertMIME = True ' Restore conversion

View member feedback to this Ask the Expert Q&A.

I have modified your sample code. It now works including sending a word file as an attachment at the bottom of the text.

  'Declare Variables
 Dim s As New NotesSession
 Dim db As NotesDatabase
 Dim body As NotesMIMEEntity,
 bodyChild As NotesMimeEntity
 Dim header As NotesMIMEHeader
 Dim stream As NotesStream
 Dim host As String
 Dim message As NotesDocument
 
 Set db = s.CurrentDatabase
 
 s.ConvertMIME = False 
' Do not convert MIME to rich text  Set stream = 
s.CreateStream
 
 Set message = db.CreateDocument
 message.Form = "memo"
 
 Set body = message.CreateMIMEEntity
 
 message.Subject = "Sample HTML email via MIME"
 
 message.SendTo = "some@mailaddress"  
 
 Set stream = s.CreateStream()
 ' Open the HTML 
(Title doesn't matter since it doesn't appear 
anywhere)   Call stream.WriteText 
("<html><head><title>Sample 
HTML email via MIME</title>")
 
 ' BEGIN: Inline Stylesheet
 Call stream.WriteText (|
 <style type="text/css">
 <!--
 .text, td, tr, p, br, body {
 COLOR: #666666;
 FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
 FONT-SIZE: 12px;
 }
 a {
 font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
 color: #663399;
 FONT-WEIGHT: bold;
 text-decoration: none;
}
 -->
 </style>
|)
 ' END: Inline Stylesheet
 
 Call stream.WriteText ({</head>})
 Call stream.WriteText 
({<body text="#666666" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" 
leftmargin="0" topmargin="0"
 marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">})
 
 ' BEGIN: HTML body
 Call stream.WriteText ({
 <table width="100%" border="1" 
cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" 
bgcolor="#FFFFFF">Some 
text here in the table</table>
})
 
 Call Stream.WriteText
({some text outiside the table<br>})
 Call stream.WriteText
 ({</body></html>})
 
'Child mime entity which is going to 
contain the HTML which we put in the 
stream 
 Set bodyChild = body.CreateChildEntity()
 Call bodyChild.SetContentFromText 
(stream, "text/html;charset=iso-8859-
1", ENC_NONE)  
 Call stream.Close
 Call stream.Truncate
'Committing the stream to the child mime entity - done
 
'A new child mime entity to hold a file attachment
 Set bodyChild = body.CreateChildEntity()
 Set header = bodyChild.createHeader("Content-Type")
 Call header.setHeaderVal("multipart/mixed")
 
 Set header = 
bodyChild.createHeader("Content-Disposition")
 Call header.setHeaderVal
("attachment; filename=01-2005.doc") '01-
2005.doc should be replaced with 
the file name of the file you need to attach
 
 Set header = bodyChild.createHeader("Content-ID")
 Call header.setHeaderVal("01-2005.doc") 
'01-2005.doc should be 
replaced with the file name 
of the file you need to attach
 
 
 Set stream = s.CreateStream()
 If Not stream.Open
("c:\temp\01-2005.doc", _
 "binary") Then
  Print "Open failed"
 End If
 If stream.Bytes = 0 Then
  Print "File has no content"
 End If
 Call bodyChild.SetContentFromBytes
(stream, "application/msword", 
ENC_IDENTITY_BINARY)
%REM
 |
application/msword needs to match
 the file type that you are embedding. 
Examples:
image/gif
application/msword
application/pdf
application/zip
%END REM
 
 
 'Send the email
 Call message.Send (False)  
 
 s.ConvertMIME = True ' Restore conversion

 

MEMBER FEEDBACK TO THIS ASK THE EXPERT Q&A:

Thanks for the really useful article about how to create a MIME-message with attachments! However, when implementing this, I noticed that the attachment names got truncated at certain characters (space, round bracers) and that very long attachment names had their name abruptly cut of at character 78. This is due to the fact that the attachment names should be surrounded by quotes.

The following code:

Set header = 
bodyChild.createHeader("Content-Disposition") 
Call header.setHeaderVal
("attachment; filename=01-2005.doc") 

Set header = bodyChild.createHeader("Content-ID") 
Call header.setHeaderVal("01-2005.doc")

Should be:

Set header = bodyChild.createHeader("Content-Disposition") 
Call header.setHeaderValAndParams
( |attachment; filename="01-2005.doc"| ) 

Set header = bodyChild.createHeader("Content-ID") 
Call header.setHeaderVal( |"01-2005.doc"| )

I have two questions.

1. Why is "Content-ID" used, because when sending an e-mail with Outlook Express it is not generated? Is this header really necessary?

2. Is it possible to disable "folding" the MIME headers? Long lines now always have a linebreak at the 78th character, meaning that long attachment names get chopped off. The linebreak is translated into a space in the resulting attachment name.

—Rainer K.

******************************************

As to the suggestion to change the code, I agree. It looks like the suggested change would be a somewhat better solution. Then there are the questions, and to be honest, I dont have any good answers. My experience with MIME is limited.

For the first question: As far as I remember, the Content-ID needs to be there in order to make sure that the attachment gets attached properly in the Lotus Notes document. I am pretty sure that leaving it out gave me some kind of problem.

As for the second question, my answer is simply: Not as far as I know.

—Jens Bruntt

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