Introduction and Sample Applications

Aspose.Email Mail Usage Scenarios

This article suggests a number of possible uses for Aspose.Email for Java, focusing in particular on the email programming features of the component.

Newsletter Software

The Aspose.Email Mail API can be used to create a robust newsletter application. Using Aspose.Email’s support for adding embedded objects (like pictures, sounds etc.), it is possible to create rich HTML newsletters complete with images (and other embedded objects). Using the bulk mail feature of the Aspose.Email Mail API, it is also possible to send huge bulk emails in a limited time period. Aspose.Email Mail also provides template-based mail merge feature that can be used to create a newsletter template. The newsletter template can be used to perform a mail merge for sending bulk newsletter. There are many other possible tasks that Aspose.Email Mail can perform in an email marketing application.

Other Marketing Tools

Similar to newsletter applications, many other types of software can be built using Aspose.Email Mail. Use it to build email marketing, mass mailer and e-campaign bulk mailer, and more.

Business Applications

Aspose.Email Mail can be used in almost all kinds of business applications to perform utility tasks:

  • Email alerts: Send email alerts to inform users about activities.
  • Meeting requests: Send business meeting requests using Aspose.Email Mail’s iCalendar support.
  • Email scheduled reports: Reports are integral to most business applications. Many business reports are generated at intervals. Use Aspose.Email Mail to email scheduled reports.

Email Clients

Aspose.Email Mail can also be used in email clients to send normal emails. It supports attachments, embedded objects, iCalendar events, mail merges, sending bulk emails, and so on, so Aspose.Email Mail is the best option for creating email client applications.

Aspose.Email Mail Sample Application

To illustrate how to use Aspose.Email Mail, we will create an application that demonstrates how to construct a email message with the MailMessage class and then send it using the SmtpClient class.

Mail : Sample Application Steps

Please follow the steps below to create application using Aspose.Email.

  1. Design your application: create an interface that takes three fields: From, To and Message.
  2. Double click the Send button in design view and write your code in the editor.
  3. Create an instance of the MailMessage class and use its properties to construct an email message. (Instances of the MailMessage class are used to construct email messages that are transmitted to an SMTP server for delivery using the SmtpClient class).
  4. Create an instance of the SmtpClient class and use its properties to sent an email message.
  5. Test your Application.
  6. Type addresses in the From and To fields.
  7. Type a message in the Message Body field.
  8. Click Send.

The above steps are described below double click the Send button in design view and add the code below:

// Declare message as MailMessage instance
MailMessage message = new MailMessage();
// Specify From, To, Subject and Body
message.setFrom(new MailAddress("#From"));
message.setTo(MailAddressCollection.to_MailAddressCollection("#To"));
message.setSubject("#Subject");
message.setBody("#Body");

// Send email using SmtpClient, Create an instance of the SmtpClient Class and Specify the mailing host server, Username, Password and Port
SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();

// Specify the mailing host server, Username, Password and Port
client.setHost("mail.server.com");
client.setUsername("username");
client.setPassword("password");
client.setPort(25);
client.send(message);

// Notify the user that a message has been sent
System.out.println("Message Sent");

When connecting to an SSL enabled server, we need to set the following SMTPClient object properties

// Set the port to 587. This is the SSL port of Gmail SMTP server, set the security mode to explicit
client.setPort(587);
client.setSecurityOptions(SecurityOptions.SSLExplicit);

Conclusion

Aspose.Email Mail is a very powerful component with which developers can perform almost emails tasks, like sending multi-threaded bulk emails, using mail merge, adding attachments, embedding pictures and sounds into email messages, adding iCalendar events to emails, receiving emails and much more.

Aspose.Email Pop3

Aspose.Email Pop3 implements the Post Office Protocol v3 (POP3) on the Java. It lets Java developers add email querying and receiving features to their Java applications without getting involved in protocol details and the complexity of email and network programming. Aspose.Email Pop3 supports all the commands defined in the standard POP3 protocol, and provides easy-to-use interfaces along with a compact and intuitive object model. It greatly reduces the usual learning curve for Java developers.

Pop3 : Main Features

As part of Aspose.Email, Aspose.Email Pop3 is designed specifically for Java and is written in managed Java code. It lets you:

  • Connect and log in to POP3 servers.
  • Support APOP.
  • Query messages.
  • Retrieve messages.
  • Fully support for Async programming style.
  • Support SSL.

Aspose.Email Pop3 Scenarios

Aspose.Email Pop3 can be used by developers in many different scenarios. Here, we share a couple.

Business Email Automation

Aspose.Email Pop3 can be used to query email inboxes and fetch email messages. It works smoothly with the email sending component, Aspose.Email Mail. Aspose.Email fully supports email automation. Send email messages with Aspose.Email Mail and fetch messages with Aspose.Email Pop3. The downloaded email messages can then be parsed by Aspose.Email Mime.

Email Clients

Aspose.Email Pop3 can be used in email client applications to receive emails.

Pop3 : Sample Application

Here, we’ll demonstrate how to use Aspose.Email Pop3. This class has many features but we’ll concentrate on how to connect to a POP3 server and retrieve messages. The example shows how to create an application as well as the code examples that get the application to work. Follow the steps given below to create a sample application using Aspose.Email Pop3.

  1. Create an instance of Pop3Client.
  2. Set the POP3 host name, login and password in this instance.
  3. Create a MailMessage instance and fetch the first email in your account into it by calling the fetchMessage() function. This brings the first message from your email account into the MailMessage instance.
  4. Use the MailMessage instance’s From, Subject and HtmlBody properties to see the sender, subject and body of the message.

The above steps is demonstrated in the code examples below.

// Create a POP3 client
Pop3Client client = new Pop3Client();

// Basic settings (required)
client.setHost("pop3.youdomain.com");
client.setUsername("username");
client.setPassword("psw");

try {
    // Retrieve first message in MailMessage format directly
    MailMessage msg;
    msg = client.fetchMessage(1);
    System.out.println(msg.getFrom().toString());
    System.out.println(msg.getSubject());
    System.out.println(msg.getHtmlBody());
} catch (Exception ex) {
    System.err.println(ex);
}

For SSL enabled servers, we need to change the following properties of the Pop3Client object:

// Set implicit security mode
client.setSecurityOptions(SecurityOptions.SSLImplicit);

Aspose.Email Imap

Aspose.Email Imap implements the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) on Java. Aspose.Email Imap lets Java developers add IMAP capabilities to their Java applications quickly, without having to understand the protocol detail. The component supports fetching and uploading messages, checking messages' new/read/unread status, and so on.

Imap : Main Features

Aspose.Email Imap allows you to:

  • Fetch email messages.
  • Upload email messages.
  • List email messages on different folders.
  • Check the status of email messages.
  • Work with MailMessage.
  • Work with SSL support.

Using Aspose.Email Imap

Aspose.Email Imap implements the Internet Message Access Protocol on Java. With it, developers can easily query and manage IMAP server emails, and create, delete or rename email folders. Using Aspose.Email Imap, developers can take advantage of the IMAP protocol with easy to use APIs. They can access emails from any PC as the emails remain saved on the server. Using Aspose.Email Imap, developers can create web or desktop applications that receive and manipulate emails from IMAP servers. Aspose implemented the IMAP protocol according to the internet authentication and RFC standards. Hence Aspose.Email Imap is a secure and fully featured implementation of the IMAP protocol with an easy to understand object model and interfaces.

Imap : Sample Application

This article explains how how to use Aspose.Email Imap. We create a small application that gets the number of email messages in your IMAP email account. Follow the steps given below to create a sample application using with Aspose.Email Imap.

  1. Create an instance of ImapClient by passing the IMAP server name, login and password.
  2. Call the ImapClient instance’s selectFolder() function to select the folder you want to count the number of messages in.
  3. Now call the ImapClient instance’s CurrentFolder.TotalMessageCount property to get the email message count.

Imap : Code Examples

The code examples below show how to implement the steps described above with Aspose.Email.

// Creates an instance of the class ImapClient by specified the host, username and password
ImapClient client = new ImapClient("localhost", "username", "password");

try {
    client.selectFolder(ImapFolderInfo.IN_BOX);
    String strTemp;
    strTemp = "You have " + client.getCurrentFolder().getTotalMessageCount() + " messages in your account.";
    // Gets number of messages in the folder, Disconnects to imap server.
    System.out.println(strTemp);
} catch (Exception ex) {
    System.err.println(ex);
}

For SSL enabled mail servers, set the following properties of the ImapClient object:

// Set security mode
client.setSecurityOptions(SecurityOptions.SSLImplicit);

Aspose.Email Exchange

Aspose.Email Exchange enables the developers to manage emails on Microsoft Exchange Server. Using this component you can connect, list messages and download emails from exchange server mailbox without understanding the underlying protocol details. The component supports listing messages, sending emails, downloading messages and saving to eml or msg format on your local disk etc.

Exchange : Main Features

Aspose.Email Exchange lets you:

  • Connect to Microsoft Exchange Servers.
  • List email messages in Exchange mailboxes.
  • List email messages from different folders, for example, the Inbox, Sent, Deleted, or Drafts folders.
  • Delete messages in any folder on Exchange Servers.

Using Aspose.Email Exchange

With Aspose.Email Exchange, developers can access Exchange Server mailboxes from their Java applications. It provides an easy to use API for managing emails on Exchange Servers. Developers can create console, desktop or web applications that manages emails in Exchange mailboxes.

Aspose.Email Exchange Sample Application

This article demonstrates how to use Aspose.Email Exchange. We create a simple desktop application that connects to an Exchange Server mailbox, get the list of messages in the Inbox folder and display them on the windows form.

Exchange : Sample Application Steps

To run the application successfully, you need the right credentials to accessing the Exchange Server. Here, we get the credential information - Exchange Server URI, username, password and domain - from the Windows form. This is a very basic sample so the message properties - subject, from and to - are simply displayed in the listbox.

Exchange : Code Examples

Add the following code into the click even handler of the List Messages button.

// Clear the items in the listbox
lstMessages.clear();

// Create instance of IEWSClient class by giving credentials and Call ListMessages method to list messages info from Inbox
IEWSClient client = EWSClient.getEWSClient("mailboxURI", "Username", "Password", "Domain");
ExchangeMessageInfoCollection msgCollection = client.listMessages(client.getMailboxInfo().getInboxUri());

// Loop through the collection to display the basic information
for (ExchangeMessageInfo msgInfo : msgCollection) {
    String strMsgInfo = "Subject: " + msgInfo.getSubject() + " == From: " + msgInfo.getFrom().toString() + " == To: " + msgInfo.getTo().toString();
    lstMessages.add(strMsgInfo);
}

Exchange : Output

This screenshot shows the messages fetched from the Exchange Server. The listMessages() method returns the basic information like subject, from, to and message ID. To get the full message, call the IEWSClient.fetchMessage() method. (Using the IEWSClient.fetchMessage() is described in the article Working with Exchange Mailbox and Messages.)

Aspose.Email Mime

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the email format to support text in character sets other than US-ASCII, non-text attachments, multi-part message bodies, and header information in non-ASCII character sets. Aspose.Email Mime implements the MIMI protocol on Java. It acts like a translator as it can read an email from file (.eml etc) or from memory (string). It then parses the email file or string into meaningful parts. If you want to go through an email file without getting involved with MIME protocol details, for example to extract an attachment from an email, use Aspose.Email Mime.

Main Features

Aspose.Email Mime works perfectly with Aspose.Email Pop3 and Aspose.Email Mail.

  • Aspose.Email Pop3 retrieves email messages from a specified mailbox.
  • Aspose.Email Mail sends email messages to a specified mailbox.
  • Aspose.Email Mime is the hinge of the above two, and parses email messages.
Multi-threading support in mail clients Cancelling Meeting Requests with Calendar