Email Listener: Supported Incoming Email Content Types

Body

All email messages have or should have a content-type header field which will determine how that email is handled.  The Email Listener is not a true, full service email client and is therefore not as flexible and forgiving as email clients [such as Notes & Outlook] in handling the full range of email formats.  The purpose of this article is to set the expectations for what content-types the listener will process.  Note that the content-type type attribute of an email is distinct from character set which denotes how text for various languages is encoded.

Single Part Content

     text/plain     The email message body is composed using basic text.
            
    text/html   The email message body is composed of text formatted in hyper-text mark-up language (HTML).

Multiple Part Content

    multipart/mixed      The mail is constructed to have a body which is either text/plain or text/html and may have one or more attachments.
    
    multipart/alternative   The mail is constructed to have have both a text/plain and an text/html version of the same body and may have one or more attachments.  In the case of the body, the listener only recognizes the text/plain body part.

Content Not Supported
    
Single part emails that have a content-type other than text/plain or text/html are not supported.

                    Examples: application/*, audio/*, image/*, video/*, etc.

While some email clients may recognize these as attachments, as stated, the listener is not a true, full service email client. 

To send an attachment into the Email Listener, it must be as the attachment part of a multiple part email message.

An Aside About Properties

There are two System Properties related to email content processing.  The are mxe.email.content.type and mxe.email.charset .  These properties only impact outgoing emails and have no bearing on incoming emails.

See Also

For plain text handling message bodies that are written to a rich text field, please see: A Maximo Scripting Solution to a Plain Text Problem