EMLtoJSON ( emailText ; header )

Parses .EML formatted text to read header or body values, or return entire email as a JSON object

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Michael Kupietz - Show more from this author
Michael Kupietz FileMaker Consulting
https://michaelkupietz.com

Sample input:

EMLtoJSON ( [field containing text from an .eml file] ; "" )

Sample output:

{ "from": "john@smith.com",
"to" : "alice@vooyrn.com",
"subject" : "hello there",
"received" : [ "received header 1" , "received header 2" , "received header 3"],
"body" : "Hello there Alice, I am a spammer writing to fill your inbox with nonsense. Would you like to buy a left-handed veeblefetzer from me?" }

Function definition: (Copy & paste into FileMaker's Edit Custom Function window)

Let (
     eml = Substitute ( emailText ; Char ( 10 ) ; "¶" ) ;
     Case (
          //Body
          Header = "Body" ;
          Let (
               bodPos = Position ( EML & "¶¶" ; "¶¶" ; 1 ; 1 ) ;
               Right ( EML ; Length ( eml ) - bodPos - 2 )
          ) ;
          //Single Header
          Header≠ "" ;
          Let (
               [
                    bodPos = Position ( EML & "¶¶" ; "¶¶" ; 1 ; 1 ) + 2 ;
                    emlNoBody = Left ( EML ; bodPos - 3 ) ;
                    headerCount =
                    PatternCount ( "¶" & emlNoBody ; "¶" & Header & ": " ) ;
                    headerPos =
                    Position ( "¶" & emlNoBody ; "¶" & Header & ": " ; 1 ; 1 ) ;
                    headerOn =
                    Substitute (
                         Right ( emlNoBody ; Length ( emlNoBody ) - headerPos + 1 ) ;
                         [ "	" ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "¶ " ; " " ]
                    ) ;
                    headerLine = GetValue ( headerOn ; 1 ) ;
                    remainingLines =
                    RightValues ( headerOn ; ValueCount ( headerOn ) - 1 ) ;
                    headerValue =
                    Right (
                         headerLine ;
                         Length ( headerLine ) - Length ( header ) - 2
                    )
               ] ;
               List (
                    headerValue ;
                    If (
                         headerCount < 2 ;
                         "" ;
                         EMLtoJSON ( remainingLines ; Header )
                    )
               )
          ) ;
          //No header specified - return all as JSON
          Let (
               [
                    outJson = "{}" ;
                    bodPos = Position ( EML & "¶¶" ; "¶¶" ; 1 ; 1 ) ;
                    emlNoBody =
                    Substitute (
                         Left ( EML ; bodPos - 1 ) ;
                         [ "	" ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "  " ; " " ] ;
                         [ "¶ " ; " " ]
                    ) ;
                    firstHeaderLength = Position ( emlNoBody ; ": " ; 1 ; 1 ) -
                    1 ;
                    firstHeader =
                    Left ( emlNoBody ; Max ( firstHeaderLength ; 0 ) ) ;
                    restOfHeaders =
                    RightValues ( emlNoBody ; ValueCount ( emlNoBody ) - 1 ) ;
                    firstvalue =
                    Right (
                         GetValue ( emlNoBody ; 1 ) ;
                         Length ( GetValue ( emlNoBody ; 1 ) ) -
                         Length ( firstHeader ) - 2
                    ) ;
                    body =
                    If ( bodPos > 0 ; EMLtoJSON ( emailText ; "body" ) ; "" ) ;
                    restOfJson =
                    If (
                         firstheader = "" ;
                         outJson ;
                         EMLtoJSON ( restOfHeaders ; "" )
                    ) ;
                    existingValue =
                    If(firstheader = "";"";JSONGetElement ( restOfJson ; firstHeader ) );
                    newValue =
                    If (
                         existingValue = "" ;
                         firstValue ;
 "[" &
                         If (
                              Left ( existingValue ; 1 ) = "[" ;
                              Middle ( existingValue ; 2 ; Length ( existingValue ) - 2 ) ;
                              Quote ( existingValue )
                         ) & "," &
                         Quote ( firstValue ) & "]" 
                    )
               ] ;
               Case (
firstheader = "" ; outJson;
                    bodpos > 0 ;
                    //need to append body
                    JSONSetElement (
                         JSONSetElement (
                              If (
                                   existingValue = "" ;
                                   restOfJson ;
                                   JSONDeleteElement ( restOfJson ; firstHeader )
                              ) ;
                              firstHeader ;
                              newValue ;
                              ""
                         ) ;
                         "body" ;
                         body ;
                         JSONString
                    ) ;
                    //no body this iteration
                    JSONSetElement (
                         If (
                              existingValue = "" ;
                              restOfJson ;
                              JSONDeleteElement ( restOfJson ; firstHeader )
                         ) ;
                         firstHeader ;
                         newValue ;
                         ""
                    )
               )
          )
     )
)

This function takes a block of text from an .eml file and parses it. You can request a specific header value as follows, for example for the "To" header value as text:

EMLtoJSON ( [field containing text from an .eml file] ; "To" )

You can also request the body as text:

EMLtoJSON ( [field containing text from an .eml file] ; "Body" )

Or, if you leave the header blank, it will return the entire email as a json object, with the header names as keys and their values as the JSON values. For headers that appear more than once, such as "Received: ", it will only create one key, but the values will be listed as a JSON array of all values found. It will also append a "body" key with the value set to the text of the body.

If you have the .eml file stored in a container field, you can convert it to text to pass to this function with TextDecode(ContainerField, "UTF-8").

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Note: these functions are not guaranteed or supported by BrianDunning.com. Please contact the individual developer with any questions or problems.

EMLtoJSON ( emailText ; header )

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