List all folders using IMAP

IMAP protocol sometimes calls folders mailboxes. It’s not very fortunate as mailbox usually means email address (john.smith@example.com) or account attached to an email address.

You can use Mail.dll IMAP component to retrieve a list of all IMAP folders existing on the server, by using GetFolders method. It returns a list of FolderInfo objects. You can use this object to get a folder name (FolderInfo.Name). You can also use FolderInfo instance as a parameter for SelectFolderInfo() method to access this folder.

// C# version:

using Limilabs.Mail;
using Limilabs.Client.IMAP;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using (Imap imap = new Imap())
        {
            imap.Connect("imap.example.com");
            imap.Login("user", "password");

            foreach (FolderInfo folder in imap.GetFolders())
            {
                Console.WriteLine(folder.Name);
            }
            imap.Close();
        }
    }
};

' VB.NET version:

Imports Limilabs.Mail
Imports Limilabs.Client.IMAP

Public Module Module1
    Public Sub Main(ByVal args As String())

        Using imap As New Imap()
            imap.Connect("imap.example.com")
            imap.Login("user", "password")

            For Each folder As FolderInfo In imap.GetFolders()
                Console.WriteLine(folder.Name)
            Next
            imap.Close()
        End Using

    End Sub
End Module

FolderInfo object contains detailed information about the folder (Name, SeparatorChar, Flags)

You can read more about folder management using IMAP.

On some servers it is possible to get information about the purpose (spam, sent items) of each IMAP folder.

Tags: C#, IMAP, Mail.dll, VB.NET

This entry was posted on Monday, October 25th, 2010 at 15:09 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.