README.md

mailparser

mailparser is an asynchronous and non-blocking parser for node.js to parse mime encoded e-mail messages. Handles even large attachments with ease - attachments are parsed in chunks that can be saved into disk or sent to database while parsing (tested with 16MB attachments).

mailparser parses raw source of e-mail messages to convert mime-stream into a structured object.

No need to worry about charsets or decoding quoted-printable or base64 data, mailparser (with the help of node-iconv) does all of it for you. All the textual output from mailparser (subject line, addressee names, message body) is always UTF-8.

Requirements

You need to have node-iconv installed. Update mime.js to point to the correct location.

If node-iconv becomes a npm package, I'll make a package from mailparser too.

Usage

Create a new mailparser object

var mp = new MailParser();

Set up listener for different events

• Get mail headers as a structured object

  mp.on("header", function(headers){
      console.log(headers);
  });
  

• Get mail body as a structured object

  mp.on("body", function(body){
      console.log(body);
  });
  

• Get part of a binary attachment in the form of a Buffer

  mp.on("astream", function(id, buffer){
      console.log("attachment id" + id);
      console.log(buffer);
  });
  

• Attachment parsing completed

  mp.on("aend", function(id){
      console.log("attachment " + id + " finished");
  });
  

Feed the parser with data

mp.feed(part1_of_the_message);
mp.feed(part2_of_the_message);
mp.feed(part3_of_the_message);
...
mp.feed(partN_of_the_message);

Finish the feeding

mp.end();

Outcome

Parser returns the headers object with "header" event and it's structured like this

{ useMime: true
, contentType: 'multipart/alternative'
, charset: 'us-ascii'
, format: 'fixed'
, multipart: true
, mimeBoundary: 'Apple-Mail-2-1061547935'
, messageId: 'BAFE6D0E-AE53-4698-9072-AD1C9BF966AB@gmail.com'
, messageDate: 1286458909000
, contentTransferEncoding: '7bit'
, addressesFrom: 
   [ { address: 'andris.reinman@gmail.com'
     , name: 'Andris Reinman'
     }
   ]
, addressesReplyTo: []
, addressesTo: [ { address: 'andris@kreata.ee', name: false } ]
, addressesCc: []
, subject: 'Simple test message with special characters like  \u0161 and \u00f5'
, priority: 3
}

Message body is returned with the "body" event and is structured like this

{ bodyText: 'Mail message as plain text',
, bodyHTML: 'Mail message as HTML',
, bodyAlternate: ["list of additional text/* parts of the message"],
, attachments: ["list of attachments"]
}

Attachments are included full size in the body object if the attachments are textual. Binary attachments are sent to the client as a stream that can be saved into disk if needed (events "astream" and "aend"), only the attachment meta-data is included in the body object this way.

See test.js for an actual usage example (parses the source from mail.txt and outputs to console)

node test.js

You need to install node-iconv and update the path for it in mime.js before running the test!

NB!

Messages with attachments are typically formatted as nested multipart messages. This means that the bodyText and bodyHTML fields might be left blank. Search for an attachment with content-type multipart from the attachments array and use the bodyText and bodyHTML defined there instead.

LICENSE

BSD