Lotus Notes 6.5 Domino COM API and extracting Attachments

This is definitely an expert question. Please let me know if I need to post this to a different discussion group and which one that would be. Thanks.

Does anyone know of a rock-solid approach to extracting attachments from Notes using the COM API?  Maybe the answer is to NOT use the COM API? We have tried the following:

1)        

a)       The following approach intermittently has a null EmbeddedObject.  The biggest problem with this approach is that I have no way to match the externalFileNames (attachment name shown in viewer) with the internal names (pName required by NotesDocument.GetAttachment()).

·          Get the internal attachment names from the lotus script @AttachmentName

·          Iterate and call the NotesDocument.GetAttachment(internalAttachmentName) to get a Domino.NotesEmbeddedObject

·          Check the type of NotesEmbeddedObject to ensure it is a Domino.EMBED_TYPE.EMBED_ATTACHMENT

·          Then call EmbeddedObject.ExtractFile(externalFileName);

b)       This approach has not been stable.  The Navigator intermittently blows up; running the same test again may or may not work (can’t be attributed to a certain item)

·         Get the body: Domino.NotesItem bodyItem = _dominoNotesDocument.GetFirstItem("Body");

·         Check to ensure body is not null and is Domino.IT_TYPE.RICHTEXT

·         Create a NotesRichTextItem:  _dominoNotesDocument.CreateRichTextItem(TEMP_ITEM_NAME)

·         Append the body to the NotesRichTextItem: rti.AppendRTItem((Domino.NotesRichTextItem)bodyItem)

·         Save the Document: _dominoNotesDocument.Save(true, false, false);

·         Create a Navigator: Domino.NotesRichTextNavigator navigator = rti.CreateNavigator()

·         if(navigator.FindFirstElement(Domino.RT_ELEM.RTELEM_TYPE_FILEATTACHMENT))

·         do

·         {

·           Domino.NotesEmbeddedObject embeddedObj = navigator.GetElement()

·           embeddedObj.ExtractFile(externalFileName);

·         }

·         while(navigator.FindNextElement(Domino.RT_ELEM.RTELEM_TYPE_FILEATTACHMENT, 1));

c)       This approach blows up intermittently when attempting to iterate the NoteRichTextItem.EmbeddedObject array

·         Get the body: Domino.NotesItem bodyItem = _dominoNotesDocument.GetFirstItem("Body");

·         Check to ensure body is not null and is Domino.IT_TYPE.RICHTEXT

·         Create a NotesRichTextItem:  _dominoNotesDocument.CreateRichTextItem(TEMP_ITEM_NAME)

·         Append the body to the NotesRichTextItem: rti.AppendRTItem((Domino.NotesRichTextItem)bodyItem)

·         Save the Document: _dominoNotesDocument.Save(true, false, false);

·         object[] embeddedObjects = (object[])rti.EmbeddedObjects;

·         //check null for embeddedObjects

·         foreach(Domino.NotesEmbeddedObject embeddedObj in (System.Array)rti.EmbeddedObjects)

·         {

·         if (embeddedObj.type == Domino.EMBED_TYPE.EMBED_ATTACHMENT)

·         {

·           embeddedObj.ExtractFile(externalFileName);

·         }

2)       How can we best match up the Attachment internal names with the external names (that display in the viewer)?  I can get the internal names from the @AttachmentNames lotus script call.  Ex. _dominoNotesDocument.ParentDatabase.Parent.Evaluate("@AttachmentNames", _dominoNotesDocument);.  But I need to extract the attachment to disk with the external name.

a)       I have exported DXL for documents and looked for the “attachmentref” attribute. This is the only way I have found to get the mapping between internal and external attachment names.  Unfortuneately, this is extremely slow and doesn’t work for all documents (occaissionally throws exception on certain documents.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!