Return information about the first article available in the current newsgroup.

Syntax

object.GetFirstArticle( ByVal Article As Variant, [ByVal Subject As Variant], [ByVal Author As Variant], [ByVal Posted As Variant], [ByVal MessageId As Variant], [ByVal References As Variant], [ByVal ByteCount As Variant], [ByVal LineCount As Variant] )

Remarks

The GetFirstArticle method returns information about the first article in the currently selected newsgroup. This method is used in conjunction with the GetNextArticle method to enumerate all of the articles in the newsgroup. Typically this is used to provide the user with a list of articles to access.

While the articles in the newsgroup are being listed, the client cannot retrieve the contents of a specific article. For example, the GetArticle method cannot be called while inside a loop calling GetNextArticle. The client should store those articles which it wants to retrieve in an array, and then once all of the articles have been listed, it can begin calling GetArticle for each article number to retrieve the article text.

A program should use either the ListArticles method or the GetFirstArticle and GetNextArticle methods, but never in combination with one another. The ListArticles method is event driven and more suited for asynchronous connections. The GetFirstArticle and GetNextArticle methods are more appropriate for scripting languages such as VBScript.

Article

An integer value which specifies the article ID. This is the number that should be used to access the article on the server.

Subject

A string value which specifies the subject of the article. This argument is optional and may be omitted if the program does not require this information.

Author

A string value which specifies the author of the article. This is typically the name and email address of the user who posted the article. This argument is optional and may be omitted if the program does not require this information.

Posted

A string value which specifies the date that the article was posted. This argument is optional and may be omitted if the program does not require this information.

MessageId

A string value which specifies the message ID for the article. Athough it is more common to reference an article by number, it is possible to reference an article by its message ID. To select a message by its message ID string, set the MessageID property. This argument is optional and may be omitted if the program does not require this information.

References

A string which specifies references to the article. This can be used by an application to create a list of cross references to the article so that related threads can be provided to the user. This argument is optional and may be omitted if the program does not require this information.

ByteCount

An integer value which specifies the size of the message in bytes. This argument is optional and may be omitted if the program does not require this information.

LineCount

An integer value which specifies the number of lines of text in the message. This argument is optional and may be omitted if the program does not require this information.

Return Value

A value of true is returned if the operation was successful, otherwise a return value of false indicates that there are no articles available in the currently selected newsgroup.

Example

Dim nArticleId As Long
Dim strSubject As String
Dim strAuthor As String
Dim datePosted As Date
Dim strMessageId As String
Dim strReferences As String
Dim nByteCount As Long
Dim nLineCount As Long
Dim bResult As Boolean;

' List each article in the current newsgroup, adding the subject to
' a ListBox control
bResult = NntpClient1.GetFirstArticle(nArticleId, strSubject, strAuthor, _
    datePosted, strMessageId, strReferences, _
    nByteCount, nLineCount);

Do While bResult
    List1.AddItem strSubject
    List1.ItemData(List1.NewIndex) = nArticleId

    bResult = NntpClient1.GetNextArticle(nArticleId, strSubject, strAuthor, _
        datePosted, strMessageId, strReferences, _
        nByteCount, nLineCount);
End Do

See Also

Article Property, MessageID Property, GetNextArticle Method, ListArticles Method,

Copyright © 2008 Catalyst Development Corporation. All rights reserved.