How to get full message body in Gmail?

Question

I want to get full message body. So I try:

Message gmailMessage = service.users().messages().get("me", messageId).setFormat("full").execute();

That to get body, I try:

gmailMessage.getPayload().getBody().getData()

but result always null. How to get full message body?

Answer 1

To get the data from your gmailMessage, you can use gmailMessage.payload.parts[0].body.data. If you want to decode it into readable text, you can do the following:

import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.StringUtils;

System.out.println(StringUtils.newStringUtf8(Base64.decodeBase64(gmailMessage.payload.parts[0].body.data)));

Answer 2

I tried this way, since message.getPayload().getBody().getParts() was always null

import com.google.api.client.repackaged.org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
import com.google.api.client.repackaged.org.apache.commons.codec.binary.StringUtils;

(...)

Message message = service.users().messages().get(user, m.getId()).execute();
MessagePart part = message.getPayload();
System.out.println(StringUtils.newStringUtf8(Base64.decodeBase64(part.getBody().getData())));

And the result is pure HTML String

Answer 3

I found more interesting way how to resolve a full body message (and not only body):

System.out.println(StringUtils.newStringUtf8(   Base64.decodeBase64 (message.getRaw())));

Answer 4

If you have the message (com.google.api.services.gmail.model.Message) you could use the following methods:

public String getContent(Message message) {
    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    try {
        getPlainTextFromMessageParts(message.getPayload().getParts(), stringBuilder);
        byte[] bodyBytes = Base64.decodeBase64(stringBuilder.toString());
        String text = new String(bodyBytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
        return text;
    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
        logger.error("UnsupportedEncoding: " + e.toString());
        return message.getSnippet();
    }
}

private void getPlainTextFromMessageParts(List<MessagePart> messageParts, StringBuilder stringBuilder) {
    for (MessagePart messagePart : messageParts) {
        if (messagePart.getMimeType().equals("text/plain")) {
            stringBuilder.append(messagePart.getBody().getData());
        }

        if (messagePart.getParts() != null) {
            getPlainTextFromMessageParts(messagePart.getParts(), stringBuilder);
        }
    }
}

It combines all message parts with the mimeType "text/plain" and returns it as one string.

Answer 5

here is the solution in c# code gmail API v1 to read the email body content:

  var request = _gmailService.Users.Messages.Get("me", mail.Id);
                request.Format = UsersResource.MessagesResource.GetRequest.FormatEnum.Full;

and to solve the data error

 var res = message.Payload.Body.Data.Replace("-", "+").Replace("_", "/");
 byte[] bodyBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(res);


 string val = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bodyBytes);

Answer 6

When we get full message. The message body is inside Parts.

This is an example in which message headers (Date, From, To and Subject) are displayed and Message Body as a plain text is displayed. Parts in Payload returns both type of messages (plain text and formatted text). I was interested in Plain text.

Message msg = service.users().messages().get(user, message.getId()).setFormat("full").execute();
// Displaying Message Header Information
for (MessagePartHeader header : msg.getPayload().getHeaders()) {
  if (header.getName().contains("Date") || header.getName().contains("From") || header.getName().contains("To")
      || header.getName().contains("Subject"))
    System.out.println(header.getName() + ":" + header.getValue());
}
// Displaying Message Body as a Plain Text
for (MessagePart msgPart : msg.getPayload().getParts()) {
  if (msgPart.getMimeType().contains("text/plain"))
    System.out.println(new String(Base64.decodeBase64(msgPart.getBody().getData())));
}

Answer 7

Base on the @Tholle comment I've made something like that

Message message = service.users().messages()
        .get(user, messageHolder.getId()).execute();

System.out.println(StringUtils.newStringUtf8(Base64.decodeBase64(
        message.getPayload().getParts().get(0).getBody().getData())));

Answer 8

There is a method to decode the body:

final String body = new String(message.getPayload().getParts().get(0).getBody().decodeData());

Answer 9

Message message = service.users().messages().get(user, messageId).execute();
    
//Print email body
List<MessagePart> parts = message.getPayload().getParts();
String data = parts.get(0).getBody().getData();
String body = new String(BaseEncoding.base64Url().decode(data));