CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javajakarta-mailemail-attachments
Richard Chase
Richard Chase

Reputation: 407

java getDisposition returns null on emails with attachments

SO i'm making a mail client for a homework assignment and one of the requirements is to handle incoming attachments. The first thing I want to do is just show if an email even has an attachment or not. I have a bunch of AWT lists that are side by side for From, Subject, Size, Date, Attachment.

For testing purposes, if the disposition returns null, i just put an x in the attachmentList. If its inline, it puts an i and for attachments it should show the filename. However, even on emails where there are attachments and looking at the headers in gmail webmail, which shows the content disposition as attachment (all lower case), the getDisposition of the email still returns null. I don't get why its not returning ATTACHMENT or attachment or something besides null. Here is the relevant code.

for (int i = 0; i < messages.length; i++) {

                Address[] froms = messages[i].getFrom();
                String email = froms == null ? null : ((InternetAddress) froms[0]).getAddress();
                fromList.add(email);
                subjectList.add(messages[i].getSubject());
                sizeList.add("" + messages[i].getSize());
                dateList.add(messages[i].getReceivedDate().toString());
                String disposition = messages[i].getDisposition();
                System.out.println("Disposition is " + disposition + ".");
                if (disposition == null) {
                    attachmentList.add("x");
                }
                else if ("INLINE".equalsIgnoreCase(disposition)) {
                    attachmentList.add("i");
                }
                else if ("ATTACHMENT".equalsIgnoreCase(disposition)) {
                    String fileName = messages[i].getFileName();
                    if (fileName != null) {
                        attachmentList.add("attachment " + fileName);
                    }
                }
            }

You'll notice that it prints "the disposition is..." which is another testing code and it always prints either null or INLINE. The particular email i'm looking at is about 700k and contains 2 attachments.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3731

Answers (1)

Bill Shannon
Bill Shannon

Reputation: 29971

Look at the raw MIME text of the message and make sure the Content-Disposition header is set as you expect.

Turn on JavaMail session debugging and examine the protocol trace in the debug output.

Are you using IMAP to read the message? If so, the IMAP server parses the message and returns the "disposition" information in the IMAP protocol message. The IMAP server may not be parsing the message correctly or may not be returning the disposition information correctly.

Upvotes: 1

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