validating mailto links in java

Question

Is it possible to check whether an email is a valid email or not?

For checking whether a link is a valid one or not I am checking like this...

URL url = new URL("http://www.google.com");
URLConnection connection = url.openConnection();

        if ( connection instanceof HttpURLConnection)
        {
            HttpURLConnection httpConnection = (HttpURLConnection)connection;
            httpConnection.connect();
            return httpConnection.getResponseCode();
        }

now if its a mialto how do I do it?
URL url = new new URL("mailto:someone@gmail.com");

Just curious: what is the ultimate goal behind the validation? — Vlad Gudim, Apr 09 '09 at 11:11
When a link is added I need to validate it and display an icon next to it,if its a valid or invalid link.The link can be either http,ftp or mailto.Using javascript I can check whether its an mail address,now using java if possible I need to check if its valid or not.Nothing to do with spam. — Phani Kumar Bhamidipati, Apr 09 '09 at 12:12

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

2

The answer is not really Java related, the short form is: you can't without actually sending an email to that address. See my answer to a similar question here: Email SMTP validator

edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

Community

1
1

answered Apr 09 '09 at 11:04

WMR

12,661
5
35
30

Also see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/565504/how-to-check-if-an-email-address-exists-without-sending-an-email – Jonik Apr 09 '09 at 11:07

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 09 '09 at 11:02

To validate whether an email address is valid or not, you can read http://azcarya.blogspot.com/2007/10/email-address-validation.html. To check whether an email address exists or not, you can shoot an email to the address and check for the server reply, in case you receive an email address not valid status mail.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 09 '09 at 11:14

0

this smells. why would you want to do this? validate e-mails of your customers when they sign up for your service and then you can be sure their email exists. but checking whether other peoples' email exists smells.

answered Apr 09 '09 at 11:14

Peter Perháč

20,434
21
120
152

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 09 '09 at 11:39

I do believe there is a reason why you can't ping an email-address. Spammers would love to have the opportunity;)

Email clients give you an option to not download pictures, and that's because that would allow the spammers to see that someone actually read the mail, and thus someone is using the address. Another way is to have a "don't send me more of this crap" button, when someone clicks it, you know it's a used address.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 09 '09 at 11:39

0

to check if email address is really an email address you could to

try{
    InternetAddress a = new InternetAddress("my@email.com");
    a.validate()
}catch(Exception e){
    //INVALID
}

to check wether email address exists is another story...

answered Apr 09 '09 at 11:39

miceuz

3,327
5
29
33

note: javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress is a class from the JavaMail API: http://java.sun.com/products/javamail/ – user85421 Apr 09 '09 at 12:19

validating mailto links in java

5 Answers5