# Pop3 body email

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pop3-body-email/155200>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 9, 2008, 10:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pop3-body-email/155200 "2008-12-09T10:28:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/erika)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 10:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pop3-body-email/155200/1 "2008-12-09T10:28:09Z")

</div>

Hi,

I have to check the body of the email which is a html code, like the  
following:

Text1: Text2

I have to check that for “Text1” what “Text2” is shown, which can vary  
for different reasons.

I managed to get the emails, to check the subject of the email to  
identify the correct email, but I can’t get to resolve this problem  
which I mentioned previously.

Thank you,  
Erika

require ‘net/pop’

```
pop = Net::POP3.new('smtp server name')
pop.start('user', 'parola')
if pop.mails.empty?
  puts 'No mail.'
else
  i = 0
  pop.each_mail do |m|
    sbj=m.header.split("\r\n").grep(/^Subject:/)
    rate=m.pop.grep(/^Test1/)
    puts sbj
    puts m.pop
    i += 1
  end
  puts "#{pop.mails.size} mails popped."
end
pop.finish
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/erika)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pop3-body-email/155200/2 "2008-12-09T21:36:07Z")

</div>

Erika wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have to check the body of the email which is a html code, like the  
> following:
> 
> Text1: Text2
> 
> I have to check that for “Text1” what “Text2” is shown, which can vary  
> for different reasons.
> 
> If you are already able to read the E-mail via POP3, and the body  
> consists of a single text/html part, then this just becomes a question  
> about parsing HTML. Hpricot is usually cited as the best library for  
> doing that. I’d say it’s not worth digging about with regexps when you  
> can do the job properly.
> 
> If your E-mail is a multipart/alternative then you may need a bit more  
> work to extract the text/html part first. The rubymail library may help  
> here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/erika)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pop3-body-email/155200/3 "2008-12-09T22:12:08Z")

</div>

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Brian C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> > for different reasons.
> 
> If you are already able to read the E-mail via POP3, and the body  
> consists of a single text/html part, then this just becomes a question  
> about parsing HTML. Hpricot is usually cited as the best library for  
> doing that. I’d say it’s not worth digging about with regexps when you  
> can do the job properly.  
> Thx a lot there, but please do not underestimate regexen, especially  
> as they will become more powerful in 1.9.

Are you aware of dependencies of Hpricot notwithstanding that it is a  
wonderful tool.  
Being an old Unix guy however I feel that you do not need a full  
fledged library + dependencies if a three liner  
can do the job.  
However if this was only an example and OP needs more parsing Hpricot  
is a very sensible way to go.  
Cheers  
R

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/erika)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 9:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pop3-body-email/155200/4 "2009-02-17T09:00:43Z")

</div>

Hi,

I tried with pop to get my inbox messages from my gmail account.but i  
got “execution expired” error.plz help me.My code is

require ‘net/pop’  
puts “Running Mail Importer…”  
begin  
if Net::POP3.start(“[pop.gmail.com](http://pop.gmail.com)”, nil, “gmailaccount”,  
“gmailpassword”)  
Net::POP3.start(“[pop.gmail.com](http://pop.gmail.com)”, nil, “gmailaccount”, “gmailpassword”)  
do |pop|  
puts “After…”  
if pop.mails.empty?  
puts “NO MAIL”  
else  
pop.mails.each do |email|  
begin  
puts “receiving mail…”  
Notifier.receive(email.pop)  
email.delete  
rescue Exception =\> e  
puts "Error receiving email at " + Time.now.to\_s + "::: " +  
e.message  
end  
end  
end  
end  
else  
puts “Not Connecting…”  
end  
rescue Exception =\> e  
puts e  
end

puts “Finished Mail Importer.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@erika](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/erika)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pop3-body-email/155200/5 "2008-12-10T09:22:23Z")

</div>

Hi,

I tried using Hpricot in the following way:  
…  
Connect with POP3 and get the email  
…  
email = TMail::Mail.parse(m.pop)  
body2=Hpricot(email.body)  
elements = body2.search(“/html/body/table//td”).collect{|k|  
k.inner\_html.split(‘,’) unless k.inner\_html =~ /\</ }.flatten.compact  
puts elements

…

Is there any better way to extract the info?

My html email looks like something like this:

| Info1 | Info2 |

| Info1 | Info2 |

| Info1 | Info2 |

| Info1 | Info2 |
| Info1 | Info2 |
| Info1 | Info2 |

So the general rule is that i have 3 tables and I need to check that for  
Info1 the correct Info2 is shown. Every Info1 / Info2 can vary.

Is there a better way to have in to arrays for example Info1 and Info2.  
Because my solution is ok, only I subtract all the info from the html  
code which I need to parse one more time.

Thanks,  
Erika

* * *

From: Robert D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
To: ruby-talk ML [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 11:02:39 PM  
Subject: Re: pop3 body email

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Brian C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> > for different reasons.
> 
> If you are already able to read the E-mail via POP3, and the body  
> consists of a single text/html part, then this just becomes a question  
> about parsing HTML. Hpricot is usually cited as the best library for  
> doing that. I’d say it’s not worth digging about with regexps when you  
> can do the job properly.  
> Thx a lot there, but please do not underestimate regexen, especially  
> as they will become more powerful in 1.9.

Are you aware of dependencies of Hpricot notwithstanding that it is a  
wonderful tool.  
Being an old Unix guy however I feel that you do not need a full  
fledged library + dependencies if a three liner  
can do the job.  
However if this was only an example and OP needs more parsing Hpricot  
is a very sensible way to go.  
Cheers  
R