Java Mail: Only one part of the message is retrieved / Parsing error / Badly formatted mail

Question

Hello all :) I'm having troubles parsing mails from a pop3 server. In the end I want to get the attachements. The mails are multiparts, but so far I only managed to get a small part of the mail.

Here is the original email, as read by outlook (+one file attached):

ID-G1619161

P.S. : This is an automated email.
 Write back to blah@blah.com

Post-scriptum :

This message is confidential. [...]

Here is some code:

inbox.open(Folder.READ_ONLY);
Message[] messages = inbox.getMessages();

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

    Message message = messages[i];
    System.out.println("message : " + message);
    System.out.println("***");
    IOUtils.copy(message.getInputStream(),System.out);
    System.out.println("***");              
    System.out.println("message.getContentType : " + message.getContentType());
    Multipart multiPart = (Multipart) message.getContent();
    System.out.println("multiPart : " + multiPart);
    int numberOfParts = multiPart.getCount();  // line A
}

This prints:

message : org.apache.geronimo.javamail.store.pop3.message.POP3Message@79f6f296
***

P.S. : This is an automated email.***
message.getContentType : multipart/mixed; boundary="qMm9M+Fa2AknHoGS"
multiPart : javax.mail.internet.MimeMultipart@bc92535

And throws on line A (multiPart.getCount!):

javax.mail.MessagingException: Unexpected response:  Write back to blah@blah.com

My take on this is the message is formatted in a weird way that is not recognised by javax.mail, because getCount is trying to read the rest of the mail.

I can even get the whole message! (Trying to do this at: IOUtils.copy(message.getInputStream(),System.out);)

How would you debug this? Also, if you know a way to get the whole mail as a string (attachements included), I'd be very glad you share it. I'm prepared to parse this by hand.

Best regards

Answer 1

JavaMail debugging tips are here.

You can get the entire message text using the Message.writeTo method. Write it to a FileOutputStream or a ByteArrayOutputStream.

You might have better luck using the JavaMail reference implementation instead of the Geronimo(?) version you're using.