Download emails from Gmail

The task is quite easy with Mail.dll IMAP client.
IMAP protocol unlike POP3 stores the unseen information on the server. So all we need to do is connect via SSL, search for unseen emails, and download them. Mail.dll will do all the hard work.

First thing to remember is to enable IMAP in Gmail, second is to use ConnectSSL method, as Gmail allows only secure SSL connections.

We’ll use Imap.SearchFlag(Flag.Unseen) method to download unique ids of all unseen email messages in our inbox. Finally the sample shows how to download such emails and parse them using MailBuilder class. After this it is easy to access any email data like: Subject, Date, From and To collections, plain-text and HTML versions of the email. Also all Attachments are downloaded and stored in IMail.Attachments collection.

// C# code:

using(Imap imap = new Imap())
{
	imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com");
	imap.Login("pat@gmail.com", "password");

	imap.SelectInbox();

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

		Console.WriteLine(mail.Subject);
		Console.WriteLine(mail.Text);
	}
	imap.Close();
}

' VB.NET code:

Using imap As New Imap()
	imap.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com")
	imap.Login("pat@gmail.com", "password")

	imap.SelectInbox()

	Dim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.SearchFlag(Flag.Unseen)
	For Each uid As Long In uids
		Dim eml As String = imap.GetMessageByUID(uid)
		Dim mail As IMail = New MailBuilder().CreateFromEml(eml)

		Console.WriteLine(mail.Subject)
		Console.WriteLine(mail.Text)
	Next
	imap.Close()
End Using

If you like the idea of such simple Gmail access just give it a try for yourself and download Mail.dll .NET IMAP component.

Tags: Gmail, IMAP, Mail.dll

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 12:00 and is filed under Component. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.