Get common email fields (Subject, Text) with IMAP

In this article we’ll show how to download emails using Mail.dll IMAP client and access some common email properties like: Subject, Date, Html, Text and Attachments.

Remember about adding a reference to Mail.dll and importing namespaces.

First you need to download email from IMAP server using Imap class. Then parse it using MailBuilder class. After that you’ll receive IMail interface.

This interface can be used to access all standard and non-standard headers.
Subject, From, To, Date, email data like: Text and Html versions of the email, and others can be accessed as simple properties. This sample also shows how to access Attachments collection.

// C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Limilabs.Client.IMAP;
using Limilabs.Mail;
using Limilabs.Mail.MIME;
using Limilabs.Mail.Headers;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using(Imap imap = new Imap())
        {
            imap.Connect("imap.example.com");    // use ConnectSSL for SSL
            imap.UseBestLogin("user", "password");

            imap.SelectInbox();
            List<long> uids = imap.Search(Flag.Unseen);

            foreach (long uid in uids)
            {
                var eml = imap.GetMessageByUID(uid);
                IMail email = new MailBuilder()
                    .CreateFromEml(eml);

                // Subject
                Console.WriteLine(email.Subject);

                // From
                foreach (MailBox m in email.From)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(m.Address);
                    Console.WriteLine(m.Name);
                }

                // Date
                Console.WriteLine(email.Date);

                // Text body of the message
                Console.WriteLine(email.Text);

                // Html body of the message
                Console.WriteLine(email.Html);

                // Custom header
                Console.WriteLine(email.Document.Root.Headers["x-spam"]);

                // Save all attachments to disk
                foreach (MimeData mime in email.Attachments)
                {
                    mime.Save(@"c:\" + mime.SafeFileName);
                }
            }
            imap.Close();
        }
    }
};

' VB.NET

Imports Limilabs.Client.IMAP
Imports Limilabs.Mail
Imports Limilabs.Mail.MIME
Imports Limilabs.Mail.Headers
Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic

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

        Using imap As New Imap()
            imap.Connect("pop3.example.com")    ' use ConnectSSL for SSL
            imap.UseBestLogin("user", "password")

            imap.SelectInbox()
            Dim uids As List(Of Long) = imap.Search(Flag.Unseen)

            For Each uid As Long In uids
                Dim eml = imap.GetMessageByUID(uid)
                Dim email As IMail = New MailBuilder() _
                    .CreateFromEml(eml)

                ' Subject
                Console.WriteLine(email.Subject)

                ' From
                For Each m As MailBox In email.From
                    Console.WriteLine(m.Address)
                    Console.WriteLine(m.Name)
                Next

                ' Date
                Console.WriteLine(email.[Date])

                ' Text body of the message
                Console.WriteLine(email.Text)

                ' Html body of the message
                Console.WriteLine(email.Html)

                ' Custom header
                Console.WriteLine(email.Document.Root.Headers("x-spam-value"))

                ' Save all attachments to disk
                For Each mime As MimeData In email.Attachments
                    mime.Save("c:\" + mime.SafeFileName)
                Next
            Next
            imap.Close()
        End Using

    End Sub
End Module

To, Cc and Bcc headers are a bit tricky as they can contain address groups. You can learn more about how to work with them in how to access To, Cc, Bcc fields article.

Tags: C# Email component IMAP IMAP component VB.NET