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 existing email messages 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 + "
 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("[email protected]");
    }
    //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("[email protected]");
    //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);