Problem reading attached PDF files

Question

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Hello.
At my work, we use JavaMail (version 1.4.1) in server
programs, processing mails with attached files from customers. Mostly it is
TIFF images, but it can also be PDF
files, and the attached files are extracted and saved for further processing.
Sometimes, we have a problem, reading attached PDF
files. The files get saved, but is of size 0 bytes. If I forward it, however,
using an Outlook client, the forwarded item can be read by our JavaMail program, and files saved OK.
I have tried to forward it using JavaMail, but I cannot
compose the mail parts, that fails, however - of the same reasons: I cannot
read the them in:-)
It looks like it's when the mail is send from a Mac.
Anyway, the part to read is of content type "APPLICATION/APPLEFILE" whereas when it's forwarded, it's content
type is "APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM"
The way, I read the part, is to check if the part is an
instance of an InputStream, and then saving into a byte array, like this:
h5. Object
obj = part.getContent();
if (obj instanceof
InputStream) {
InputStream
inStream = part.getInputStream();
byte[]
buffer = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE];
int
bytesRead;
BufferedOutputStream
outBufStream = new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(attFileName));
while
((bytesRead = inStream.read(buffer)) != -1)
outBufStream.write(buffer,
0, bytesRead);
inStream.close();
h5. outBufStream.close();
Problem
is that .read() method always returns -1 when content type Is APPLICATION/APPLEFILE,
so a file of 0 bytes are created.
Interesting is perhaps, that debugging shows me that the
part instance of the InputStream actually is a
com.sun.mail.util.BASE64DecoderStream when it fails, and a
com.sun.mail.util.QPDecoderStream
when it works OK.
So I have this idea, that I's a certain type of decoder
stream we're missing? We use Java 1.6.0 update 10 and JavaMail 1.4.1. and since
we use java 1.6 we use the JAF framework from that one, I guess?
Hope you guys can help?
Thanks in advance, Per Jensen
[email protected]

Answer 1

We have two (MS Exchange) servers (from trace log):
Microsoft Exchange IMAP4rev1-server version 5.5.2650.23
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 IMAP4rev1 server version 6.5.7226.0
- the first one is the one, we're using here, but I have tried on the other, newer version too, and it didn't help either.
But I've found out a couple of interesting things:
1: Debugging shows me, that the part instance of the InputStream actually is a com.sun.mail.util.BASE64DecoderStream when it fails, and if I forward the mail via Outlook as described earlier, and it can be read OK, the part is a com.sun.mail.util.QPDecoderStream instance.
2: I can save the WHOLE message to a file, using message.getInputStream(), and when I opens the file I can find the individual attachments - as well as the bodytext, if any - as they are separated with the disposition, mimetype and filename fields, showed as plain text. And the attachments are showed as blocks of characters; I guess it's the ascii character representation of the bytes. Here's a snippet, note the first two sentences. They seemes to be added, somehow, when I dump the message to file(?):
<START OF DUMPED FILE>
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
------_=_NextPart_000_01C9A8A2.19479FE4
Content-Type: text/plain;
     charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
(The body text here)
------_=_NextPart_000_01C9A8A2.19479FE4
Content-Type: application/applefile;
     name="first_attachment.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
     filename="first_attachment.pdf"
AAUWAAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAIAAAASgAAABAAAAAJAAAAWgAAACAAAAADAAAA
egAAABAAAAABAAAAigAAI6IAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAA1NzE2NSBCTkhhdWcucGRmJVBERi0xLjMKJbe+raoKMSAwIG9iago8PAovVHlwZSAv
Q2F0YWxvZwovUGFnZXMgMiAwIFIKPj4KZW5kb2JqCjIgMCBvYmoKPDwKL1R5cGUgL1BhZ2VzCi9L
aWRzIFsgNCAwIFIgXQovQ291bnQgMQo+PgplbmRvYmoKMyAwIG9iago8PAovUHJvZHVjZXIgKEhh
...(and so on)
DMgMDAwMDAgbg0KMDAwMDAwNTM1NSAwMDAwMCBuDQowMDAwMDA2NTA5IDAwMDAwIG4NCjAwMDAw
MDc2NjUgMDAwMDAgbg0KdHJhaWxlcgo8PAovUm9vdCAxIDAgUgovSW5mbyAzIDAgUgovU2l6ZSAx
MQo+PgpzdGFydHhyZWYKODgyNAolJUVPRgo=
------_=_NextPart_000_01C9A8A2.19479FE4
Content-Type: application/applefile;
     name="second_attachment.pdf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment;
     filename="second_attachment.pdf"
AAUWAAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAIAAAASgAAABAAAAAJAAAAWgAAACAAAAADAAAA
egAAABAAAAABAAAAigAAI9wAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAA1NzE4MSBCTkhhdWcucGRmJVBERi0xLjMKJbe+raoKMSAwIG9iago8PAovVHlwZSAv
Q2F0YWxvZwovUGFnZXMgMiAwIFIKPj4KZW5kb2JqCjIgMCBvYmoKPDwKL1R5cGUgL1BhZ2VzCi9L
...(and so on)
<END OF DUMPED FILE>I understand that it's base64 encoded and must be decoded, and I have tried to copy/paste the blocks separately, run them through the com.sun.mail.util.BASE64DecoderStream, and saving them as PDF files, which works fine(!).
As the solution seems to be painfull: Parse the mail to find where the attachments starts and stops and saving them as files, I hope you guys can send me on the right track?
PS: The trace log when dumping the file shows everything OK, I think. Here's a bit of the log at the end of dumping the message:
(...)MTUgMDAwMDAgbg0KMDAwMDAwNTg2NyAwMDAwMCBuDQowMDAwMDA3MDIxIDAwMDAwIG4NCjAwMDAw
MDgxNzcgMDAwMDAgbg0KdHJhaWxlcgo8PAovUm9vdCAxIDAgUgovSW5mbyAzIDAgUgovU2l6ZSAx
MQo+PgpzdGFydHhyZWYKOTMzNgolJUVPRgo=
------_=_NextPart_000_01C9A8A2.19479FE4--
A10 OK FETCH fuldført.
A11 FETCH 1 (BODY[TEXT]<40336.16384>)
* 1 FETCH (BODY[TEXT]<40336> {0}
20/03-09 15:18:21,445 3 Done, writing bytes to ByteArrayOutputStream. Size: 40336 bytes (..common.mail.MailUtil.dumpMessageToFile.dumpMessageToFile)
20/03-09 15:18:21,445 3 Done, writing ByteArrayOutputStream to file. (..common.mail.MailUtil.dumpMessageToFile.dumpMessageToFile)
A11 OK FETCH fuldført.