Evaluate Email with Indy 10 and DELPHI - delphi

Question

I use the following code to eval the msg. content (body / lines) of an E Mail msg received with the INDY 10 components
function LinesFromMsg(aMsg: TIdMessage): TStrings;
var
i: Integer;
begin
for i := 0 to aMsg.MessageParts.AttachmentCount-1 do
begin
if (amsg.MessageParts.Items[i].ContentType ='HTML') then
begin
if (amsg.MessageParts.Items[i] is Tidtext) then
Result := TidText(amsg.MessageParts.Items[i]).body;
end;
end;
end;
regarding this code I have 2 questions :
a) is this the correct way of finding the Tlines part in an arbitray mail message ?
( consider the advice shown at INDY 10 EMAIL MSG PARTS )
b) where can I find a tutorial of all the different Contenttype string values?

Answer 1

The correct ContentType value to look for is text/html. Use Indy's IsHeaderMediaType() function to check it, as the ContentType value may have additional attributes associated with it that your comparison needs to ignore.
You also need to take the TIdMessage.ContentType into account as well, as HTML emails may not be MIME encoded and thus not use the TIdMessage.MessageParts` collection at all.
And lastly, you loop needs to use the MessageParts.Count property instead of the MessageParts.AttachmentsCount property.
Try this:
function HTMLFromMsg(aMsg: TIdMessage): TStrings;
var
i: Integer;
Part: TIdMessagePart;
begin
Result := nil;
if IsHeaderMediaType(aMsg.ContentType, 'text/html') then
begin
Result := aMsg.Body;
Exit;
end;
for i := 0 to aMsg.MessageParts.Count-1 do
begin
Part := aMsg.MessageParts.Items[i];
if (Part is TIdText) and IsHeaderMediaType(Part.ContentType, 'text/html') then
begin
Result := TIdText(Part).Body;
Exit;
end;
end;
end;
With that said, this is technically not the correct way to handle MIME. Officially, a conforming reader is supposed to loop backwards through the MIME parts, as they are ordered from the simpliest form downwards towards the most complex form. So you loop backwards, taking MIME nesting into account, looking for the most complex form you support. Something more like this (untested):
procedure DisplayPlainText(Body: TStrings);
begin
// display plain text as needed...
end;
procedure DisplayHTML(Body: TStrings);
begin
// display html as needed...
end;
procedure DisplayMultiPartAlternative(aMsg: TIdMessage; aParentIndex, aLastIndex: Integer);
var
Part: TIdMessagePart;
i: Integer:
begin
for i := aLastIndex-1 downto aParentIndex+1 do
begin
Part := aMsg.MessageParts.Items[i];
if (Part.ParentPart = aParentIndex) and (Part is TIdText) then
begin
if IsHeaderMediaType(Part.ContentType, 'text/html') then
begin
DisplayHTML(TIdText(Part).Body);
Exit;
end;
if IsHeaderMediaType(Part.ContentType, 'text/plain') then
begin
DisplayPlainText(TIdText(Part).Body);
Exit;
end;
end;
end;
// nothing supported to display...
end;
procedure DisplayMultiPartMixed(aMsg: TIdMessage; aParentIndex, aLastIndex: Integer);
var
Part: TIdMessagePart;
i: Integer;
begin
for i := aLastIndex-1 downto aParentIndex+1 do
begin
Part := aMsg.MessageParts.Items[i];
if (Part.ParentPart = aParentIndex) and (Part is TIdText) then
begin
if IsHeaderMediaType(Part.ContentType, 'multipart/alternative') then
begin
DisplayMultiPartAlternative(aMsg, ParentPart.Index, aLastIndex);
Exit;
end;
if IsHeaderMediaType(ParentPart.ContentType, 'text/html') then
begin
DisplayHTML(TIdText(Part).Body);
Exit;
end;
if IsHeaderMediaType(Part.ContentType, 'text/plain') then
begin
DisplayPlainText(TIdText(Part).Body);
Exit;
end;
aLastIndex := i;
end;
end;
// nothing supported to display...
end;
procedure DisplayMsg(aMsg: TIdMessage);
var
ContentType: string;
begin
ContentType := ExtractHeaderMediaType(aMsg.ContentType);
case PosInStrArray(ContentType, ['multipart/mixed', 'multipart/alternative', 'text/html', 'text/plain'], False) of
0: begin
DisplayMultiPartAlternative(aMsg, -1, aMsg.MessageParts.Count);
Exit;
end;
1: begin
DisplayMultiPartMixed(aMsg, -1, aMsg.MessageParts.Count);
Exit;
end;
2: begin
DisplayHTML(aMsg.Body);
Exit;
end;
3: begin
DisplayPlainText(aMsg.Body);
Exit;
end;
else
// nothing supported to display...
end;
end;