using c# .net libraries to check for IMAP messages from gmail servers [closed]

Question

Does anyone have any sample code in that makes use of the .Net framework that connects to googlemail servers via IMAP SSL to check for new emails?

Brueghel

You probably only need to ask for IMAP client examples rather than something specific for googlemail which, AFAIK, is just another IMAP server. – Accused

Answer 1

The URL listed here might be of interest to you

http://www.codeplex.com/InterIMAP

which was extension to

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/imaplibrary.aspx?fid=91819&df=90&mpp=25&noise=5&sort=Position&view=Quick&fr=26&select=2562067#xx2562067xx

Bellda

this project doesnt handle ssl connections but there is a comment from the author that asks you to send him an email to request the gmail ssl code, thanks – Brueghel

InterIMAP isn't brilliant. It really freaks out when you connect to a large mailbox. (As it insists on reading every single header before it will allow you to do anything). – Bromoform

There is a new asynchronous version of the library that addresses many of the speed issues from the previous version. – Argil

The project has no releases. (?) – Execratory

Take a look inside the codebase for InterIMAP. There is some scary bad stuff inside there. I would not build my mission critical system on top of this code. – Checkrow

@Shaul, care to elaborate? I am interested to know what I can do to improve it. thanks. – Argil

Answer 2

I'd recommend looking at MailKit as it is probably the most robust mail library out there and it's Open Source (MIT).

One of the awesome things about MailKit is that all network APIs are cancelable (something I haven't seen available in any other IMAP library).

It's also the only library that I know of that supports threading of messages.

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Threading;

using MailKit.Net.Imap;
using MailKit.Search;
using MailKit;
using MimeKit;

namespace TestClient {
    class Program
    {
        public static void Main (string[] args)
        {
            using (var client = new ImapClient ()) {
                using (var cancel = new CancellationTokenSource ()) {
                    client.Connect ("imap.gmail.com", 993, true, cancel.Token);

                    // If you want to disable an authentication mechanism,
                    // you can do so by removing the mechanism like this:
                    client.AuthenticationMechanisms.Remove ("XOAUTH");

                    client.Authenticate ("joey", "password", cancel.Token);

                    // The Inbox folder is always available...
                    var inbox = client.Inbox;
                    inbox.Open (FolderAccess.ReadOnly, cancel.Token);

                    Console.WriteLine ("Total messages: {0}", inbox.Count);
                    Console.WriteLine ("Recent messages: {0}", inbox.Recent);

                    // download each message based on the message index
                    for (int i = 0; i < inbox.Count; i++) {
                        var message = inbox.GetMessage (i, cancel.Token);
                        Console.WriteLine ("Subject: {0}", message.Subject);
                    }

                    // let's try searching for some messages...
                    var query = SearchQuery.DeliveredAfter (DateTime.Parse ("2013-01-12"))
                        .And (SearchQuery.SubjectContains ("MailKit"))
                        .And (SearchQuery.Seen);

                    foreach (var uid in inbox.Search (query, cancel.Token)) {
                        var message = inbox.GetMessage (uid, cancel.Token);
                        Console.WriteLine ("[match] {0}: {1}", uid, message.Subject);
                    }

                    client.Disconnect (true, cancel.Token);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Slaughterhouse

Great! Just a few things in regards to your example. It seems to be working fine except you may want to correct the inbox.GetMessage (i, cancel.Token) to inbox.GetMessage (uid, cancel.Token) if you keep using foreach and also you may want to make the orderBy in your reverse order sample optional since Gmail does not seem to get excited about the SORT extension (github.com/jstedfast/MailKit/blob/master/MailKit/Net/Imap/…) – Luxurious

I can verify that this is a good library and simple to use! – Wyon

is it possible to assign color categories for processed emails? – Sigmoid

IMAP does not support color categories, but you might be able to use custom labels (which might be supported by your IMAP server). – Slaughterhouse

@Slaughterhouse Is MailKit thread safe? I.e. can I have multiple connections to the same account and download messages from different mailboxes at the same time? – Hedy

That's not what thread-safe means :) What you are asking is: "Does IMAP support multiple connections"? The answer to that is: yes. – Slaughterhouse

I am developing a business management web application using JS front end framework. App users should be able to access their mail inside the web app. I understand that using MailKit I can access IMAP, POP3 accounts. However, will this require me to write REST API wrapper for JS framework to access the mailbox and other inside web app? – Rimma

Answer 3

As the author of the above project i can say that yes it does support SSL.

I am currently working on a new version of the library that will be completely asynchronous to increase the speed with which it can interact with IMAP servers.

That code, while not complete, can be downloaded, along with the original synchronous library (which also supports SSL), from the code plex site linked to above.

Argil

Have u completed this yet ..? – Pase

This is arguably commentary on lakshmanaraj's answer above and perhaps lacks aspects to be a complete answer. Consider mentioning which library you are referring to and where we can get it without requiring me to look at another answer. You never know, the other answer may get deleted then all the goodies would be lost. Wishing you well – Fukien

Answer 4

Cross posted from the other similar question. See what happens when they get so similar?

I've been searching for an IMAP solution for a while now, and after trying quite a few, I'm going with AE.Net.Mail.

There is no documentation, which I consider a downside, but I was able to whip this up by looking at the source code (yay for open source!) and using Intellisense. The below code connects specifically to Gmail's IMAP server:

// Connect to the IMAP server. The 'true' parameter specifies to use SSL
// which is important (for Gmail at least)
ImapClient ic = new ImapClient("imap.gmail.com", "[email protected]", "pass",
                ImapClient.AuthMethods.Login, 993, true);
// Select a mailbox. Case-insensitive
ic.SelectMailbox("INBOX");
Console.WriteLine(ic.GetMessageCount());
// Get the first *11* messages. 0 is the first message;
// and it also includes the 10th message, which is really the eleventh ;)
// MailMessage represents, well, a message in your mailbox
MailMessage[] mm = ic.GetMessages(0, 10);
foreach (MailMessage m in mm)
{
    Console.WriteLine(m.Subject);
}
// Probably wiser to use a using statement
ic.Dispose();

I'm not affiliated with this library or anything, but I've found it very fast and stable.

Gambrell

I'm sorry, I've been meaning to add some documentation for quite a while. :[ I haven't felt the need to post binaries, because it is up on Nuget. I'll be adding some additional IMAP functionality soon (IDLE), so I'll be sure to post both documentation, and binaries for it. – Festoonery

@Andy - Cool, that's always nice to hear! – Gambrell

Thanks for the great example to Dman and for the nice library to Andy. Keep up to the good work, I hope to see that documentation soon :) – Astrogeology

@Matti - You're welcome :) Docs are always good! – Gambrell

What an awesome library. I was up and running in seconds. Works perfectly. – Mut

@AndyEdinborough Is AE thread safe? I.e. can I have multiple connections to the same account and download messages from different mailboxes at the same time? – Hedy

Answer 5

Lumisoft.net has both IMAP client and server code that you can use.

I've used it to download email from Gmail. The object model isn't the best, but it is workable, and seems to be rather flexible and stable.

Here is the partial result of my spike to use it. It fetches the first 10 headers with envelopes, and then fetches the full message:

using (var client = new IMAP_Client())
{
    client.Connect(_hostname, _port, _useSsl);
    client.Authenticate(_username, _password);
    client.SelectFolder("INBOX");
     var sequence = new IMAP_SequenceSet();
    sequence.Parse("0:10");
    var fetchItems = client.FetchMessages(sequence, IMAP_FetchItem_Flags.Envelope | IMAP_FetchItlags.UID,
                                        false, true);
    foreach (var fetchItem in fetchItems)
    {
        Console.Out.WriteLine("message.UID = {0}", fetchItem.UID);
        Console.Out.WriteLine("message.Envelope.From = {0}", fetchItem.Envelope.From);
        Console.Out.WriteLine("message.Envelope.To = {0}", fetchItem.Envelope.To);
        Console.Out.WriteLine("message.Envelope.Subject = {0}", fetchItem.Envelope.Subject);
        Console.Out.WriteLine("message.Envelope.MessageID = {0}", fetchItem.Envelope.MessageID);
    }
    Console.Out.WriteLine("Fetching bodies");
    foreach (var fetchItem in client.FetchMessages(sequence, IMAP_FetchItem_Flags.All, false, true)
    {             
        var email = LumiSoft.Net.Mail.Mail_Message.ParseFromByte(fetchItem.MessageData);             
        Console.Out.WriteLine("email.BodyText = {0}", email.BodyText);

    }
}

Tweedy

It appears he has changed his syntax. Instead of calling Authenticate you now call client.Login(_username, _password); And the FetchMessages has been replaced with a Fetch that works very differently. The Lumisoft code is fantastic though, but could use more samples of how to use it. – Donatelli

This library is really brilliant! ImapX has a problem with decoding Shift_JIS when it calls the process method, but Lumisoft.net does the great work. Yes, it's kinda difficult to understand the object model, but I can closely take a look at the source code, so it really doesn't matter. – Gemperle

I used to use it, but I cant make it connect to GMAIL as it does not support SSL and there is no way to turn on SSL. – Swound

This code doesn't work. client.FetchMessages( doesn't exists. Thanks. Delete from reference. – Sooty

Answer 6

There is no .NET framework support for IMAP. You'll need to use some 3rd party component.

Try Mail.dll email component, it's very affordable and easy to use, it also supports SSL:

using(Imap imap = new Imap())
{
    imap.ConnectSSL("imap.company.com");
    imap.Login("user", "password");

    imap.SelectInbox();
    List<long> uids = imap.Search(Flag.Unseen);
    foreach (long uid in uids)
    {
        string eml = imap.GetMessageByUID(uid);
        IMail message = new MailBuilder()
            .CreateFromEml(eml);

        Console.WriteLine(message.Subject);
        Console.WriteLine(message.Text);
    }
    imap.Close(true);
}

Please note that this is a commercial product I've created.

You can download it here: https://www.limilabs.com/mail.

Dorothadorothea

I've been using this component for years and love it (not affiliated with @Pavel in any way). Best email library for .NET I ever tried, worth every penny. Nuget-compatible. – Skiest

Answer 7

MailSystem.NET contains all your need for IMAP4. It's free & open source.

(I'm involved in the project)

Urbanus

It's a simple and functional library, I recommend it. – Albuminoid

The project is dead and has been for some time. The samples do not build, out of the box, in either VS 2008 or 2010. I upconverted them then had to wade through 16 reference issues. The documentation is out of date and the CodePlex pages sit unanswered for any issues/comments in the past year or more. Some of the more recent issues ask about broken updates to the code. Other commenters say to download source and fix the problem yourself. I don't recommend using this. – Orling

project is pretty dead. IDLE does not work properly mailsystem.codeplex.com/workitem/23586 – Tutorial

It doesn't support non ASCII mailbox names – Keeling

project is dead ? any updates ? – Arbe

Answer 8

the source to the ssl version of this is here: http://atmospherian.wordpress.com/downloads/

Brueghel

Answer 9

LumiSoft.ee - works great, fairly easy. Compiles with .NET 4.0.

Here are the required links to their lib and examples. Downloads Main:

http://www.lumisoft.ee/lsWWW/Download/Downloads/

Code Examples:

are located here: ...lsWWW/Download/Downloads/Examples/

.NET:

are located here: ...lsWWW/Download/Downloads/Net/

I am putting a SIMPLE sample up using their lib on codeplex (IMAPClientLumiSoft.codeplex.com). You must get their libraries directly from their site. I am not including them because I don't maintain their code nor do I have any rights to the code. Go to the links above and download it directly. I set LumiSoft project properties in my VS2010 to build all of it in .NET 4.0 which it did with no errors. Their samples are fairly complex and maybe even overly tight coding when just an example. Although I expect that these are aimed at advanced level developers in general.

Their project worked with minor tweaks. The tweaks: Their IMAP Client Winform example is set in the project properties as "Release" which prevents VS from breaking on debug points. You must use the solution "Configuration Manager" to set the project to "Active(Debug)" for breakpoints to work. Their examples use anonymous methods for event handlers which is great tight coding... not real good as a teaching tool. My project uses "named" event method handlers so you can set breakpoints inside the handlers. However theirs is an excellent way to handle inline code. They might have used the newer Lambda methods available since .NET 3.0 but did not and I didn't try to convert them.

From their samples I simplified the IMAP client to bare minimum.

Shipyard

Their Net library is relatively complex and I am kind of lost with numerous helper classes. I am looking for fairly a simple example to access gmail using Lumisoft IMAP client. Can you share? – Heaviness

Answer 10

Another alternative: HigLabo

https://higlabo.codeplex.com/documentation

Good discussion: https://higlabo.codeplex.com/discussions/479250

//====Imap sample================================//
//You can set default value by Default property
ImapClient.Default.UserName = "your server name";
ImapClient cl = new ImapClient("your server name");
cl.UserName = "your name";
cl.Password = "pass";
cl.Ssl = false;
if (cl.Authenticate() == true)
{
    Int32 MailIndex = 1;
    //Get all folder
    List<ImapFolder> l = cl.GetAllFolders();
    ImapFolder rFolder = cl.SelectFolder("INBOX");
    MailMessage mg = cl.GetMessage(MailIndex);
}

//Delete selected mail from mailbox
ImapClient pop = new ImapClient("server name", 110, "user name", "pass");
pop.AuthenticateMode = Pop3AuthenticateMode.Pop;
Int64[] DeleteIndexList = new.....//It depend on your needs
cl.DeleteEMail(DeleteIndexList);

//Get unread message list from GMail
using (ImapClient cl = new ImapClient("imap.gmail.com")) 
{
    cl.Port = 993;
    cl.Ssl = true; 
    cl.UserName = "xxxxx";
    cl.Password = "yyyyy";
    var bl = cl.Authenticate();
    if (bl == true)
    {
        //Select folder
        ImapFolder folder = cl.SelectFolder("[Gmail]/All Mail");
        //Search Unread
        SearchResult list = cl.ExecuteSearch("UNSEEN UNDELETED");
        //Get all unread mail
        for (int i = 0; i < list.MailIndexList.Count; i++)
        {
            mg = cl.GetMessage(list.MailIndexList[i]);
        }
    }
    //Change mail read state as read
    cl.ExecuteStore(1, StoreItem.FlagsReplace, "UNSEEN")
}


//Create draft mail to mailbox
using (ImapClient cl = new ImapClient("imap.gmail.com")) 
{
    cl.Port = 993;
    cl.Ssl = true; 
    cl.UserName = "xxxxx";
    cl.Password = "yyyyy";
    var bl = cl.Authenticate();
    if (bl == true)
    {
        var smg = new SmtpMessage("from mail address", "to mail addres list"
            , "cc mail address list", "This is a test mail.", "Hi.It is my draft mail");
        cl.ExecuteAppend("GMail/Drafts", smg.GetDataText(), "\\Draft", DateTimeOffset.Now); 
    }
}

//Idle
using (var cl = new ImapClient("imap.gmail.com", 993, "user name", "pass"))
{
    cl.Ssl = true;
    cl.ReceiveTimeout = 10 * 60 * 1000;//10 minute
    if (cl.Authenticate() == true)
    {
        var l = cl.GetAllFolders();
        ImapFolder r = cl.SelectFolder("INBOX");
        //You must dispose ImapIdleCommand object
        using (var cm = cl.CreateImapIdleCommand()) Caution! Ensure dispose command object
        {
            //This handler is invoked when you receive a mesage from server
            cm.MessageReceived += (Object o, ImapIdleCommandMessageReceivedEventArgs e) =>
            {
                foreach (var mg in e.MessageList)
                {
                    String text = String.Format("Type is {0} Number is {1}", mg.MessageType, mg.Number);
                    Console.WriteLine(text);
                }
            };
            cl.ExecuteIdle(cm);
            while (true)
            {
                var line = Console.ReadLine();
                if (line == "done")
                {
                    cl.ExecuteDone(cm);
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Arbe