How to Load an Existing Email Message & Modify its Contents in Java Apps

This technical tip shows how to java developers can load and modify an existingemail message inside their java application using Aspose.Email Java API.  Aspose.Email API allows developer to load any existing email message and modify its contents before saving back to the disk. One notable point is to specify the MessageFormat while loading the email message from the disk. In addition, it is important to specify the correct MailMessageSaveType while saving the message back to disk.

The following sequence of steps lets you modify an existing email message:

·         Create an instance of the MailMessage class.

·         Load an existing message using the MailMessage class' load(), specifying the email' MessageFormat.

·         Get the subject using the getSubject() method, modify it and set it using the MailMessage class' setSubject() method.

·         Get the body using the getHtmlBody() method, modify it and set it using the MailMessage class' setHtmlBody() method.

·         Create an instance of the MailAddressCollection class.

·         Get recipients from the TO field into the MailAddressCollection object using the MailMessage class' getTo() method.

·         Add or remove recipients using the MailAddressCollection collection's add() and remove() methods.

·         Get recipients from the CC field into the MailAddressCollection object using the MailMessage class' getCC() method.

·         Add or remove recipients using the MailAddressCollection collection's add() and remove() methods.

·         Call the MailMessage class' save() method to save the file to disk in MSG format by specifying the correct MailMessageSaveType.

//Adding Attachments to a New Email Message

public static void main(String[] args)

{

    // Base folder for reading and writing files

    String strBaseFolder = "D:\\Data\\Aspose\\resources\\";

    //Initialize and Load an existing MSG file by specifying the MessageFormat

    MailMessage email = MailMessage.load(strBaseFolder + "anEmail.msg", MessageFormat.getMsg());

    //Initialize a String variable to get the Email Subject

    String subject = email.getSubject();

    //Append some more information to Subject

    subject = subject + " This text is added to the existing subject";

    //Set the Email Subject

    email.setSubject(subject);

    //Initialize a String variable to get the Email's HTML Body

    String body = email.getHtmlBody();

    //Apppend some more information to the Body variable

    body = body + "<br> This text is added to the existing body";

    //Set the Email Body

    email.setHtmlBody(body);

    //Initialize MailAddressCollection object

    MailAddressCollection contacts = new MailAddressCollection();

    //Retrieve Email's TO list

    contacts = email.getTo();

    //Check if TO list has some values

    if (contacts.size() > 0)

    {

        //Remove the first email address

        contacts.remove(0);

        //Add another email address to collection

        contacts.add("to1@domain.com");

    }

    //Set the collection as Email's TO list

    email.setTo(contacts);

    //Initialize MailAddressCollection

    contacts = new MailAddressCollection();

    //Retrieve Email's CC list

    contacts = email.getCC();

    //Add another email address to collection

    contacts.add("cc2@domain.com");

    //Set the collection as Email's CC list

    email.setCC(contacts);

    //Save the Email message to disk by specifying the MessageFormat

    email.save(strBaseFolder + "message.msg", MailMessageSaveType.getOutlookMessageFormat());

}

//Loading a Message with Load Options

//To load a message with specific load options, Aspose.Email provides the MessageLoadOptions class that can be used as follow:

MesageLoadOptions options = new MesageLoadOptions();

options.PrefferedTextEncoding = Encoding.getEncoding(1252);

options.setMessageFormat(MessageFormat.getMsg());

MailMessage eml = MailMessage.Load("EMAIL_497563\\test3.msg", options);