I've been asked to write a Windows service in C# to periodically monitor an email inbox and insert the details of any messages received into a database table.
My instinct is to do this via POP3 and sure enough, Googling for ".NET POP3 component" produces countless (ok, 146,000) results.
Has anybody done anything similar before and can you recommend a decent component that won't break the bank (a few hundred dollars maximum)?
Would there be any benefits to using IMAP rather than POP3?
I use the free and open source SharpMimeTools in my application, BugTracker.NET. It has been very dependable:
http://anmar.eu.org/projects/sharpmimetools/
See the files POP3Client.cs, POP3Main.cs, and insert_bug.aspx
With IMAP protocol you can access sub folders, and set message status (seen/unseen), also you can use IDLE feature for instant notifications.
Mail.dll includes POP3, IMAP, SMTP components with SSL support and powerful MIME parser:
using(Imap imap = new Imap())
{
imap.Connect("imap.server.com"); // or ConnectSSL for SSL
imap.Login("user", "password");
imap.SelectInbox();
List<long> uids = imap.Search(Flag.Unseen);
foreach (long uid in uids)
{
IMail mail = new MailBuilder()
.CreateFromEml(imap.GetMessageByUID(uid));
Console.WriteLine(mail.Subject);
}
imap.Close();
}
Please note that this is commercial product that I've created.
You can download it at https://www.limilabs.com/mail
I recomment chilkat. They have pretty stable components, and you can get their email component for as cheap as $99 for a single developer. Personally, I think going with the whole package of components is a better deal, as it's only $289, and comes with many useful components. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, although I probably sound like I am.
You may want to check our Rebex Mail component. It includes IMAP, SMTP, POP3 protocols and and S/MIME parser.
The POP3 does not have a concept of 'unread' messages or searchig for messages matching specific criteria. POP3 simply returns all messages in your inbox.
Using IMAP you can instruct the IMAP server to send you just unread messages, messages which arrived since specified time, messages from specific user etc. You don't have to download it all to the client and do the filtering there.
Following code shows how to download unread messages from the Imap server using Rebex.Net.Imap class.
// create client, connect and log in
Imap client = new Imap();
client.Connect("imap.example.org");
client.Login("username", "password");
// select folder
client.SelectFolder("Inbox");
// get message list - envelope headers
ImapMessageCollection messages = client.Search
(
ImapSearchParameter.HasFlagsNoneOf(ImapMessageFlags.Seen)
);
// display info about each message
Console.WriteLine("UID | From | To | Subject");
foreach (ImapMessageInfo message in messages)
{
Console.WriteLine(
"{0} | {1} | {2} | {3}",
message.UniqueId,
message.From,
message.To,
message.Subject);
}
// disconnect
client.Disconnect();
Example of combining multiple search criteria follows. This will return messages from the last year larger than 100KB.
ImapMessageCollection messages = client.Search
(
ImapSearchParameter.Arrived(DateTime.Now.AddYears(-1), DateTime.Now),
ImapSearchParameter.Size(1024 * 100, Int32.MaxValue)
);
You can download the trial from rebex.net/secure-mail.net/download.aspx
I would recommend AdvancedIntellect. There are components for POP3 and IMAP (ASPNetPOP3 and ASPNetIMAP). Good quality and very responsive support - I remember receiving replies to my questions on a weekend.
If you use an open source POP3 implementation or something freely available then you will have access to modify the code and expand it in the direction needed. A quick Google resulted in this C# POP3 code from Code Project to retrieve messages.
There's something empowering about rolling your own, or at least extending it.
Lumisoft is open-source and includes IMAP and POP clients (among other stuff). I've been using them for years with no problems.
You can do this using MailBee.NET Objects: http://www.afterlogic.com/products/net-email-components
While I'd recommend to use IMAP indeed, particularly since it offers IDLE support mentioned here already, you could do the same with POP3. There's a brief description of both the approaches, and a complete sample for IMAP IDLE scenario:
Please note that I am affiliated with AfterLogic, and I'll be pleased to assist you if you need any help, check Request Support option at our website.
How about WCF? It's free.
If you have an Exchange server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397812.aspx
an example for pop3: http://bartdesmet.net/blogs/bart/archive/2006/09/13/4417.aspx
IMAPX2 is the best. Using IMAP you can control the folders in a mail server, a thing you wouldn't be able to do using POP. IMAPX is an open source code you can look into, and is free to use.
IMAPX is straight forward and reliable.
