NNTP library that supports post retrieval with attachments and a lot more

• Download source (0.2) - 10 Kb
• Download demo asp.net application (0.2) - 19 Kb

Introduction

I have built this library because I found that there is lack of support for NNTP. I wanted a library supporting Multilanguage posts with attachments. That required MIME handling, Base64, UUEncode, Quoted-Printable etc. I also wanted a library with Authentication support too.

Using the code

Classes can be classified as below.

• BS: NntpConnection
• VO: Article, ArticleBody, ArticleHeader, Attachment, MIMEPart, Newsgroup
• Util: NntpUtil
• Exp: NntpException

Using the library is simple, and it is done mainly by manipulating the NntpConnection class.

Connect to a specified news server and list all the newsgroups:

NntpConnection con = new NntpConnection();
con.ConnectServer(serverName, 119);
ArrayList list = con.GetGroupList();
foreach ( Newsgroup ng in list )
    Console.WriteLine(ng.Group);

Subscribe to a group and list out all the articles:

Newsgroup ng = con.ConnectGroup(groupName);
ArrayList list = con.GetArticleList(ng.Low, ng.High);
foreach( Article article in list )
    Console.WriteLine(article.Header.Subject);

Retrieve an article, examine the text content and save the attachment:

// msgId can be a string or an integer
Article a = con.GetArticle(msgId);
Console.WriteLine(a.Body.Text);
foreach ( Attachment at in a.Body.Attachments )
{
    at.SaveAs(@"C:\Temp\" + at.Filename, true);
}

If you want to provide an identity:

NntpConnection con = new NntpConnection();
con.ConnectServer(serverName, 119);
// Identity will be store and will be sent automatically upon the server request
con.ProvideIdentity(username, password);
// You can force the identity to be sent immediately, 
// however some servers do not support this
con.SendIdentity();

This is a brief description only and my library has many more features. I will review this article if I have time.

More Information

Articles are decoded by self-built library, where it is still far away from the internet standard. However, it should be able to decode over 95% of the posts in the internet. These codes are still under development and will be updated soon.

History

• Beta 0.1 2004/03/17
• Beta 0.2 2004/03/23
  • Enhanced MIME support by optimizing internal implementation.
  • Restructured some classes.
  • New authentication methods.