Read and Parse Emails using VB
in [Visual Basic]
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From: Mayayana on 29 Mar 2010 19:44 | I need to be able to extract "Name, Addr, Phone, etc" info from these emails | and build a Prospect file using my VB program. | | The companies that send us groups of Prospect by email could probably just | as easily send us a file, but that still leaves the need to read and process | Prospect setup for individuals that send us emails. When I say "Us" I really | mean my customers that I do processing for. | | Of the solutions suggested above, which do you think would do the best job | for this application? | Your first post said that you had the parsing taken care of. I was assuming that downloading the email was the part you're working on. I guess that's a matter of taste. If it were me I'd write the code to do it dependency-free. If you don't want to do that and you can find a free component that works, then why not use that? Personally I would *never* resort to reading the RFC docs. They're very technical and poorly written, in the sense that the US tax code is poorly written. It might be accurate, but there's no excuse for making things so hard to understand. If you write it from scratch you should be able to find samples that will make it fairly easy. The trick is in finding out all the particulars of how to carry out the conversation with the server. In terms of parsing, I'm assuming that you've got recognizable string. In other words, that you can just search for markers like "Shipping Address:".
From: Dennis Rose on 29 Mar 2010 19:54 Downloading the email is what I need to know how to do. I can handle the rest OK. I guess I am really asking if anyone can recommend a free dll that does this or a code example that does this. "Mayayana" wrote: > | I need to be able to extract "Name, Addr, Phone, etc" info from these > emails > | and build a Prospect file using my VB program. > | > | The companies that send us groups of Prospect by email could probably just > | as easily send us a file, but that still leaves the need to read and > process > | Prospect setup for individuals that send us emails. When I say "Us" I > really > | mean my customers that I do processing for. > | > | Of the solutions suggested above, which do you think would do the best job > | for this application? > | > > Your first post said that you had the parsing taken > care of. I was assuming that downloading the email > was the part you're working on. > > I guess that's a matter of taste. If it were me I'd write > the code to do it dependency-free. If you don't want to > do that and you can find a free component that works, > then why not use that? > > Personally I would *never* resort to reading the RFC > docs. They're very technical and poorly written, in the > sense that the US tax code is poorly written. It might be > accurate, but there's no excuse for making things so > hard to understand. If you write it from scratch you should > be able to find samples that will make it fairly easy. The > trick is in finding out all the particulars of how to carry > out the conversation with the server. > > In terms of parsing, I'm assuming that you've got recognizable > string. In other words, that you can just search for markers > like "Shipping Address:". > > > > . >
From: Nobody on 30 Mar 2010 00:30 "Dennis Rose" <DennisRose(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:BC61F1A8-BE49-4227-8DEF-508C5A0E0F28(a)microsoft.com... > The "Orders" are actually "Prospective customers" asking for info on a > product. We get prospect inquiries from individuals and also "Groups of > Inquiry Prospects" sent to us from other companies, all at the same email > address. > > I need to be able to extract "Name, Addr, Phone, etc" info from these > emails > and build a Prospect file using my VB program. > > The companies that send us groups of Prospect by email could probably just > as easily send us a file, but that still leaves the need to read and > process > Prospect setup for individuals that send us emails. When I say "Us" I > really > mean my customers that I do processing for. > > Of the solutions suggested above, which do you think would do the best job > for this application? The best solution in my opinion is web based. You setup form(s), and they fill them in and the information is saved into a database(and optionally send alert email). In case of ASP, the DB can be MS Access MDB file that you can download later. Another option is to extract the information from the DB without downloading it by creating another ASP script that exports the data and display them as text. This is similar to showing search results, like eBay search result, which can be easily parsed using VB. See this article for how this is done: How do I page through a recordset? http://databases.aspfaq.com/database/how-do-i-page-through-a-recordset.html You can make it password based, and/or IP based. Example: Dim ip, sPassword ' IP of the client requesting the page ip = request.servervariables("REMOTE_ADDR") sPassword = request.form("Password") If sPassword = "abc" And ip Like "123.45.67.*" Then ' Display the information response.write ("Access granted.<BR>") End If You access the page via VB6 by using any of the many methods that download a web page. The URL would be like this: http://www.mysite.com/GetFormData.asp?Password=abc Obviously, the password would be sent on the clear because this is GET method. If you use POST method, submitted data are not part of the URL, but the password is still sent in the clear unless you use HTTPS.
From: Mayayana on 30 Mar 2010 12:14
| Downloading the email is what I need to know how to do. I can handle the | rest OK. I guess I am really asking if anyone can recommend a free dll that | does this or a code example that does this. | Here's an interesting one: http://www.ericphelps.com/pop3/index.htm It's a compiled program, plus VB source code. And there are links to a couple of other options near the bottom. But I'm just looking at Google. I haven't tried the code. There's also something here that looks like it might be an adaptation of VBIP code: http://blog.open-design.be/2009/01/03/visual-basic-class-pop3-without-ocx-pure-api/ Also, what about Jim Mack's suggestion of the free Socket Wrench? I checked that out myself, but I'm not sure. First, the download link requires superfluous script. (One has to wonder about people who can't even code a webpage properly.) Then the download is very big, about 5.5 MB. And it's some sort of program installer, rather than just an OCX with docs. Also, the licensing terms described on their webpage were ambiguous. (And I'm not going to install 5-6MB of who-knows-what nonsense to find out what the actual EULA says. :) At any rate, it looks like your guess is as good as anyone else's at this point. No one seems to have a favorite. |