Adobe ColdFusion 8

cfpop

Description

Retrieves or deletes e-mail messages from a POP mail server.

Category

Communications tags, Internet protocol tags

Syntax

<cfpop 
    server = "server name"
    action = "getHeaderOnly|getAll|delete"
    attachmentPath = "path"
    debug = "yes|no">
    generateUniqueFilenames = "yes|no"
    maxRows = "number"
    messageNumber = "number"
    name = "query name"
    password = "password"
    port = "port number"
    startRow = "number"
    timeout = "seconds"
    uid = "number"
    username = "user name">

Note: You can specify this tag's attributes in an attributeCollection attribute whose value is a structure. Specify the structure name in the attributeCollection attribute and use the tag's attribute names as structure keys.

See also

cfftp, cfhttp, cfldap, cfmail, cfmailparam, SetLocale; "Sending and Receiving E-Mail" in the ColdFusion Developer's Guide

History

ColdFusion MX 7.01: Added cids query variable.

ColdFusion MX 6.1:

  • Added support for multipart mail messages with Text and HTML parts.
  • Changed the attachment name separator: the TAB character is now the separator between attachment names in the attachments and attachmentfiles query fields if a message has multiple attachments. This behavior is identical to ColdFusion 5 and earlier versions.

ColdFusion MX: Changed the attachment name separator: the comma separates names in the attachments and attachmentfiles query fields if a message has multiple attachments.

Attributes

Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

server

Required

 

POP server identifier:

  • A host name, for example, "biff.upperlip.com".
  • An IP address, for example, "192.1.2.225".

action

Optional

getHeaderOnly

  • getHeaderOnly: returns message header information only
  • getAll: returns message header information, message text, and attachments if attachmentPath is specified
  • delete: deletes messages on POP server

attachmentPath

Optional

 

If action="getAll", specifies a directory in which to save any attachments. If the directory does not exist, ColdFusion creates it.

If you omit this attribute, ColdFusion does not save any attachments. If you specify a relative path, the path root is the ColdFusion temporary directory, which is returned by the GetTempDirectory function.

debug

Optional

no

  • yes: sends debugging output to standard output. By default, if the console window is unavailable on server configurations, ColdFusion sends output to cf_root/runtime/logs/coldfusion-out.log. On J2EE configurations, with JRun, the default location is jrun_home/logs/servername-out.log. Caution: If you set this option to Yes, ColdFusion writes detailed debugging information to the log, including all retrieved message contents, and can generate large logs quickly.
  • no: does not generate debugging output.

generateUniqueFilenames

Optional

no

  • yes: generate unique filenames for files attached to an e-mail message, to avoid naming conflicts when files are saved.
  • no

maxRows

Optional

Retrieves all available rows

Number of messages to return or delete, starting with the number in startRow. Ignored if messageNumber or uid is specified.

messageNumber

 

 

Message number or comma-separated list of message numbers to get or delete. Invalid message numbers are ignored.

Ignored if uid is specified.

name

Required if action = "getAll" or "getHeaderOnly"

 

Name for query object that contains the retrieved message information.

password

Optional

 

Password that corresponds to username.

port

Optional

110

POP port.

startRow

Optional

1

First row number to get or delete. Ignored if messageNumber or uid is specified.

timeout

Optional

60

Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for mail processing.

uid

 

 

UID or a comma-separated list of UIDs to get or delete. Invalid UIDs are ignored.

username

Optional

 

A user name.

Usage

The cfpop tag retrieves one or more mail messages from a POP server and populates a ColdFusion query object with the resulting messages, one message per row. Alternatively, it deletes one or more messages from the POP server.

Note: When the cfpop tag encounters malformed mail messages, it does not generate errors; instead, it returns empty fields.

To optimize performance, two retrieve options are available. Message header information is typically short, and therefore quick to transfer. Message text and attachments can be very long, and therefore take longer to process.

The cfpop query variables

The following table describes the variables that provide information about the query that is returned by cfpop:

Variable names

Description

queryname.recordCount

Number of records returned by query.

queryname.currentRow

Current row that cfoutput is processing.

queryname.columnList

List of column names in query.

queryname.UID

Unique identifier for the e-mail message file.

queryname.cids

Structure that contains key-value pairs. The keys are the names of image files that are embedded in the e-mail message; the values are their cids. You can use the cid to find the correct place of an image in an HTML e-mail message that the cfpop tag retrieves. If the e-mail message contains more than one embedded image, only the last embedded image is available.

Query message header and body columns

The following table lists the message header and body columns that are returned if action = "getHeaderOnly" or "getAll":

Column name

getHeaderOnly returns

getAll returns

queryname.date

yes

yes

queryname.from

yes

yes

queryname.messagenumber

yes

yes

queryname.messageid

yes

yes

queryname.replyto

yes

yes

queryname.subject

yes

yes

queryname.cc

yes

yes

queryname.to

yes

yes

queryname.body

no

yes

queryname.textBody

no

yes

queryname.HTMLBody

no

yes

queryname.header

yes

yes

queryname.attachments

no

yes

queryname.attachmentfiles

no

yes

If the mail message includes a part with a Content-Type of text/plain, the queryname.textBody column contains the part's message content. If the mail message includes a part with a Content-Type of text/HTML, the queryname.HTMLBody column contains the part's message content. If no Content-Type matches these types, the columns are empty. The queryname.Body column always contains the first message body found.

The queryname.attachments column contains a tab-separated list of all the attachment names. The queryname.attachmentfiles column contains a tab-separated list of the locations of the attachment files. Use the cffile tag to delete these temporary files when you have processed them.

To create a ColdFusion date/time object from the date-time string that is extracted from a mail message in the queryname.date column, use the following table:

Locale

How to create a ColdFusion date/time object from queryname.date

English (US)

Use the ParseDateTime function. If you specify the pop-conversion attribute, the function adjusts the date/time object to UTC.

Other

Extract the date part of string; pass it to the LSParseDateTime function.

Note: To set the default display format of date, time, number, and currency values, use the SetLocale function.

For more information on cfpop, see "Sending and Receiving E-Mail" in the ColdFusion Developer's Guide.

Example

<!--- This view-only example shows the use of cfpop. --->
<h3>cfpop Example</h3>
<p>cfpop lets you retrieve and manipulate mail in a POP3 mailbox. 
    This view-only example shows how to create one feature of 
    a mail client, to display the mail headers in a POP3 mailbox.
<p>To execute this, un-comment this code and run with a mail-enabled CF Server.
<!--- 
<cfif IsDefined("form.server")>
    <!--- Make sure server, username are not empty. --->
    <cfif form.server is not "" and form.username is not "">
        <cfpop server = "#form.popserver# " username = #form.username# password = #form.pwd#
        action = "getHeaderOnly" name = "GetHeaders ">
        <h3>Message Headers in Your Inbox</h3>
        <p>Number of Records: 
        <cfoutput>#GetHeaders.recordCount#</cfoutput></p>

        <ul>
            <cfoutput query = "GetHeaders">
            <li>Row: #currentRow#: From: #From# -- Subject: #Subject#
            </cfoutput>
        </ul>
    </cfif>
</cfif>

<form action = "cfpop.cfm " method = "post">
    <p>Enter your mail server:</p>
    <p><input type = "Text" name = "popserver"></p>
    <p>Enter your username:</p>
    <p><input type = "Text" name = "username"></p>
    <p>Enter your password:</p>
    <p><input type = "password" name = "pwd"></p>
    <p><input type = "Submit" name = "get message headers"></p>
</form> 
--->