MIME::Parser - Can't save binary attachment - perl

Question

I am using Perl to read messages, look for and save attachments. Attachments will always be binary pdf documents and there will never be more than one attachment. I need to read the subject, check for and save an attachment (if exists) an copy message to a folder for temporary storage.
The reading, printing, copying functions all work. I've tried a lot of different scenarios with MIME::Parser (I have MIME::Tools installed) but either get a blank file or file with 1 or 2 characters. I'd also like to know how to determine / set the file extension rather than just blindly rename to .pdf.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::IMAP::Simple::SSL;
use Email::Simple;
use MIME::Parser;
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
$server = new Net::IMAP::Simple::SSL('xxx');
$server->login('xxx','xxx');
my $folder='inbox';
my ($unseen, $recent, $total) = $server->status($folder);
my $newm = $server->select('INBOX');
my $tmp=($total-9); #limit for testing
my $outputdir = "./temp";
my $parser = new MIME::Parser;
$parser->output_dir($outputdir);
for (my $i = $tmp; $i <= $total; $i++) {
if ($server->seen($i)) {
print "Message #$i has been seen before...<br />";
} else {
my $es=Email::Simple->new(join '', #{$server->top($i)});
print $es->header('Subject')." on ";
print $es->header('Date')."<br />";
print "You've just seen message #$i<br />" if $server->see($i)."<br />";
$msg = $server->get($i);
$parser->parse_data($msg);
$server->copy($i,'dump');
}
}
$server->quit();
exit;
Error
parse_data: wrong argument ref type: Net::IMAP::Simple::_message at mailextract.pl line x

Answer 1

Don't know why you're using two different parsers...
my $entity = $parser->parse_data($message);
my $from = $entity->head->get('From');
my $subject = $entity->head->get('Subject');
my $timestamp = $entity->head->get('Date');
for my $part ($entity->parts()) {
if ( $part->mime_type eq 'application/pdf' ) { ### Few different types in use, see what your
### messages get sent with
my $filename = $part->bodyhandle->path;
...
### Do whatever
}
}
Edit: And your error is happening because you're not feeding through the correct thing to be parsed, a Net::IMAP::Simple::_message instead of:
parse_data DATA
Instance method. Parse a MIME message that's already in core. This internally creates an "in memory" filehandle on a Perl scalar value
using PerlIO
You may supply the DATA in any of a number of ways...
A scalar which holds the message. A reference to this scalar will be used internally.
A ref to a scalar which holds the message. This reference will be used internally.
DEPRECATED
A ref to an array of scalars. The array is internally concatenated into a temporary string, and a reference to the new
string is used internally.
It is much more efficient to pass in a scalar reference, so please consider refactoring your code to use that interface instead.
If you absolutely MUST pass an array, you may be better off using
IO::ScalarArray in the calling code to generate a filehandle, and
passing that filehandle to parse()
Try $parser->parse($server->getfh($i));

Answer 2

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::IMAP::Simple::SSL;
use MIME::Parser;
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
$server = new Net::IMAP::Simple::SSL('xxx');
$server->login('xxx','xxx');
my $newm=0;
$newm = $server->select('INBOX');
if ($newm==0) {
$server->quit();
print "No New Messages.";
exit;
}
my $outputdir = "./temp";
my $parser = new MIME::Parser;
$parser->output_dir($outputdir);
for (my $i = 1; $i <= $newm; $i++) {
my $entity = $parser->parse($server->getfh($i));
my $from = $entity->head->get('From');
my $subject = $entity->head->get('Subject');
my $timestamp = $entity->head->get('Date');
print "#$i $from / $subject / $timestamp<br />";
for my $part ($entity->parts()) {
print " / ".$part->mime_type;
if ( $part->mime_type eq 'application/octet-stream' || $part->mime_type eq 'application/pdf' ) {
my $filename = $part->bodyhandle->path;
print " / $filename";
}
print "<br />";
}
$server->copy($i,'dump');
$server->delete($i);
}
$server->quit();