You can retrieve email using traditional user/password authentication from Office 365 account by EWS/IMAP/POP3 Protocol.
However Microsoft has disabled traditional user authentication in many tenants, switching to Microsoft OAuth (Modern Authentication) is strongly recommended now.
In this topic, I will introduce how to retrieve email using VB.NET and Microsoft OAuth (Modern Authentication) in background service.
Sections:
Before you can use the following sample codes, you should download the EAGetMail Installer and install it on your machine at first. Full sample projects are included in this installer.
Install from NuGet
You can also install the run-time assembly by NuGet. Run the following command in the NuGet Package Manager Console:
Install-Package EAGetMail
Note
If you install it by NuGet, no sample projects are installed, only .NET assembly is installed.
To use EAGetMail POP3 & IMAP Component in your project, the first step is “Add reference
of EAGetMail to your project”. Please create or open your project with Visual Studio,
then go to menu
-> Project
-> Add Reference
-> .NET
-> Browse...
, and
select Installation path\Lib\[netversion]\EAGetMail.dll
, click Open
-> OK
, the reference
will be added to the project, you can start to use it to
retrieve email and parse email in your project.
Because EAGetMail has separate builds for .Net Framework, please refer to the following table and choose the correct dll.
Separate builds of run-time assembly for .Net Framework 2.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6.1, 4.7.2, 4.8.1, .NET 6.0, NET 7.0, .NET 8.0, .NET Standard 2.0 and .Net Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5.
File | .NET Framework Version |
Lib\[net20|40|45|461|472|481]\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET Framework 2.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6.1, 4.7.2, 4.8.1
It requires .NET Framework 2.0, 3.5 or later version. |
Lib\[net5.0|6.0|7.0|8.0]\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET 5.0, .NET 6.0, .NET 7.0, .NET 8.0
It requires .NET 5.0 or later version. |
Lib\netstandard2.0\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET Standard 2.0
It requires .NET Standard 2.0 or later version. |
Lib\[net20-cf|net35-cf]\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5
It requires .NET Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5 or later version. |
Normal OAuth requires user to input user and password in browser for authentication. Obviously, it is not suitable for background service.
The solution is granting admin consent
to the azure application, then the application
can use the client secret value to request the access token directly.
This way doesn’t require user attending, it is suitable for background service.
This tutorial introduces how to register application for background service
in Azure Portal,
then assign the Graph API/EWS/SMTP/POP/IMAP API permission to the application and add the access right to the mailbox of specific user.
Sign in to the Azure Portal using the Microsoft account of the Office 365 administrator
.
If your account gives you access to more than one tenant, select your account in the top right corner, and set your portal session to the Azure AD tenant that you want.
Search Microsoft Entra ID
(old name “Azure Active Directory”) and go to this service:
In the left-hand navigation pane, select the Microsoft Entra ID
service, and then select App registrations -> New registration.
Input a name to to register the application:
After the application is registered, you can click Overview
to find the client id
and tenant id
.
These are required parameters for requesting access token.
Now you need to assign API permission to the application by clicking API Permission
-> Add a permission
.
You don’t have to assign all the API permissions below to the application, just assign the API permission(s) you need.
Protocol | Permission | Scope | |
Graph API | Mail.Send, Mail.ReadWrite | https://graph.microsoft.com/.default | |
EWS | full_access_as_app | https://outlook.office365.com/.default | |
SMTP | SMTP.AccessAsApp | https://outlook.office365.com/.default | |
POP | POP.AccessAsApp | https://outlook.office365.com/.default | |
IMAP | IMAP.AccessAsApp | https://outlook.office365.com/.default |
Go to Microsoft APIs
->
Microsoft Graph
-> Application Permission
->
Go to APIs in my organization uses
->
Office 365 Exchange Online
-> Application Permission
->
To use the application to access the user mailbox in Office365 domain, you should grant admin consent by Office365 domain administrator.
In API Permission -> Click grant admin consent for ...
to grant admin consent to the application.
Now we need to create a client secret for the application,
click Certificates and secrets
-> client secrets
and add a new client secret.
After client secret is created, store the client secret value
to somewhere. It is another required parameter
for requesting access token.
Important
Please store client secret value
by yourself, because it is hidden when you view it at next time.
Now you can use the client id
, tenant id
and client secret value
to request access token.
But to use SMTP/POP/IMAP protocol, you need to Register SMTP/POP/IMAP service principals in Exchange as well.
Important
You should create your client id
and client secret
, do not use the client id
from example codes in production environment,
it is used for test purpose. If you got "This app isn't verified"
information, please click "Advanced"
-> Go to ...
for test.
Because HttpWebRequest is used to get access token from web service.
If you’re using legacy .NET framework (.NET 2.0 - .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0 - 4.6.1),
you need to enable Strong Encryption Algorithms
to request access token:
Put the following content to a file named NetStrongEncrypt.reg
, right-click this file -> Merge
-> Yes
.
You can also download it from https://www.emailarchitect.net/webapp/download/NetStrongEncrypt.zip.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
"SystemDefaultTlsVersions"=dword:00000001
"SchUseStrongCrypto"=dword:00000001
Now you can use the following example codes to retrieve email with Graph API or EWS protocol:
Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Globalization
Imports EAGetMail
Function _generateFileName(ByVal sequence As Integer) As String
Dim currentDateTime As DateTime = DateTime.Now
Return String.Format("{0}-{1:000}-{2:000}.eml",
currentDateTime.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", New CultureInfo("en-US")),
currentDateTime.Millisecond,
sequence)
End Function
Function _postString(ByVal uri As String, ByVal requestData As String) As String
Dim httpRequest As HttpWebRequest = TryCast(WebRequest.Create(uri), HttpWebRequest)
httpRequest.Method = "POST"
httpRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
Using requestStream As Stream = httpRequest.GetRequestStream()
Dim requestBuffer As Byte() = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(requestData)
requestStream.Write(requestBuffer, 0, requestBuffer.Length)
requestStream.Close()
End Using
Try
Dim httpResponse As HttpWebResponse = TryCast(httpRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
Using reader As New StreamReader(httpResponse.GetResponseStream())
Dim responseText = reader.ReadToEnd()
Return responseText
End Using
Catch ex As WebException
If ex.Status = WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError Then
Dim response = TryCast(ex.Response, HttpWebResponse)
If response IsNot Nothing Then
Console.WriteLine("HTTP: " & response.StatusCode)
' reads response body
Using reader As StreamReader = New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
Dim responseText As String = reader.ReadToEnd()
Console.WriteLine(responseText)
End Using
End If
End If
Throw ex
End Try
End Function
Public Sub RetrieveEmail()
Try
Dim client_id As String = "b22194da-44d6-4320-a067-e86a275d6fa4"
Dim client_secret As String = "VTO8Q~eo0JCXc291jcM4wnhZ_GXyKMu."
' If your application is not created by Office365 administrator,
' please use Office365 directory tenant id, you should ask Offic365 administrator to send it to you.
' Office365 administrator can query tenant id in https://portal.azure.com/ - Azure Active Directory.
Dim tenant As String = "2ea4955d-830e-4aa7-8ab5-661a6b9aa84d"
Dim requestData As String = String.Format("client_id={0}&client_secret={1}&scope=https://graph.microsoft.com/.default&grant_type=client_credentials",
client_id, client_secret)
Dim tokenUri As String = String.Format("https://login.microsoftonline.com/{0}/oauth2/v2.0/token", tenant)
Dim responseText As String = _postString(tokenUri, requestData)
Dim parser As OAuthResponseParser = New OAuthResponseParser()
parser.Load(responseText)
Dim officeUser As String = "user@mydomain.onmicrosoft.com"
' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
' to save the email retrieved.
Dim localInbox As String = String.Format("{0}\inbox", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
' If the folder is not existed, create it.
If Not Directory.Exists(localInbox) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(localInbox)
End If
' Office 365 Graph API address, use access token as password
Dim oServer As New MailServer("graph.microsoft.com",
officeUser,
parser.AccessToken,
ServerProtocol.MsGraphApi) ' Use Http Graph API Protocol
' User OAUTH 2.0
oServer.AuthType = ServerAuthType.AuthXOAUTH2
' Enable SSL/TLS connection,
oServer.SSLConnection = True
Console.WriteLine("Connecting {0} ...", oServer.Server)
Dim oClient As New MailClient("TryIt")
oClient.Connect(oServer)
' Get New email only, if you want to get all emails, please remove this line
oClient.GetMailInfosParam.GetMailInfosOptions = GetMailInfosOptionType.NewOnly
Dim infos As MailInfo() = oClient.GetMailInfos()
Console.WriteLine("Total {0} email(s)", infos.Length)
For i As Integer = 0 To infos.Length - 1
Dim info As MailInfo = infos(i)
Console.WriteLine("Index: {0}; Size: {1}; UIDL: {2}",
info.Index, info.Size, info.UIDL)
' Retrieve email from email server
Dim oMail As Mail = oClient.GetMail(info)
Console.WriteLine("From: {0}", oMail.From.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Subject: {0}" & vbCr & vbLf, oMail.Subject)
' Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time.
Dim fileName As String = _generateFileName(i + 1)
Dim fullPath As String = String.Format("{0}\{1}", localInbox, fileName)
' Save email to local disk
oMail.SaveAs(fullPath, True)
' Mark email as read to prevent retrieving this email again.
oClient.MarkAsRead(info, True)
' If you want to delete current email, please use Delete method instead of MarkAsRead
' oClient.Delete(info)
Next
' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from server.
oClient.Quit()
Console.WriteLine("Completed!")
Catch ep As Exception
Console.WriteLine(ep.ToString())
End Try
End Sub
Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Globalization
Imports EAGetMail
Function _generateFileName(ByVal sequence As Integer) As String
Dim currentDateTime As DateTime = DateTime.Now
Return String.Format("{0}-{1:000}-{2:000}.eml",
currentDateTime.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", New CultureInfo("en-US")),
currentDateTime.Millisecond,
sequence)
End Function
Function _postString(ByVal uri As String, ByVal requestData As String) As String
Dim httpRequest As HttpWebRequest = TryCast(WebRequest.Create(uri), HttpWebRequest)
httpRequest.Method = "POST"
httpRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
Using requestStream As Stream = httpRequest.GetRequestStream()
Dim requestBuffer As Byte() = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(requestData)
requestStream.Write(requestBuffer, 0, requestBuffer.Length)
requestStream.Close()
End Using
Try
Dim httpResponse As HttpWebResponse = TryCast(httpRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
Using reader As New StreamReader(httpResponse.GetResponseStream())
Dim responseText = reader.ReadToEnd()
Return responseText
End Using
Catch ex As WebException
If ex.Status = WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError Then
Dim response = TryCast(ex.Response, HttpWebResponse)
If response IsNot Nothing Then
Console.WriteLine("HTTP: " & response.StatusCode)
' reads response body
Using reader As StreamReader = New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
Dim responseText As String = reader.ReadToEnd()
Console.WriteLine(responseText)
End Using
End If
End If
Throw ex
End Try
End Function
Public Sub RetrieveEmail()
Try
Dim client_id As String = "b22194da-44d6-4320-a067-e86a275d6fa4"
Dim client_secret As String = "VTO8Q~eo0JCXc291jcM4wnhZ_GXyKMu."
' If your application is not created by Office365 administrator,
' please use Office365 directory tenant id, you should ask Offic365 administrator to send it to you.
' Office365 administrator can query tenant id in https://portal.azure.com/ - Azure Active Directory.
Dim tenant As String = "2ea4955d-830e-4aa7-8ab5-661a6b9aa84d"
Dim requestData As String = String.Format("client_id={0}&client_secret={1}&scope=https://outlook.office365.com/.default&grant_type=client_credentials",
client_id, client_secret)
Dim tokenUri As String = String.Format("https://login.microsoftonline.com/{0}/oauth2/v2.0/token", tenant)
Dim responseText As String = _postString(tokenUri, requestData)
Dim parser As OAuthResponseParser = New OAuthResponseParser()
parser.Load(responseText)
Dim officeUser As String = "user@mydomain.onmicrosoft.com"
' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
' to save the email retrieved.
Dim localInbox As String = String.Format("{0}\inbox", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
' If the folder is not existed, create it.
If Not Directory.Exists(localInbox) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(localInbox)
End If
' Office 365 Server address, use access token as password
Dim oServer As New MailServer("outlook.office365.com",
officeUser,
parser.AccessToken,
ServerProtocol.ExchangeEWS) ' Use Http EWS Protocol
' User OAUTH 2.0
oServer.AuthType = ServerAuthType.AuthXOAUTH2
' Enable SSL/TLS connection,
oServer.SSLConnection = True
Console.WriteLine("Connecting {0} ...", oServer.Server)
Dim oClient As New MailClient("TryIt")
oClient.Connect(oServer)
' Get New email only, if you want to get all emails, please remove this line
oClient.GetMailInfosParam.GetMailInfosOptions = GetMailInfosOptionType.NewOnly
Dim infos As MailInfo() = oClient.GetMailInfos()
Console.WriteLine("Total {0} email(s)", infos.Length)
For i As Integer = 0 To infos.Length - 1
Dim info As MailInfo = infos(i)
Console.WriteLine("Index: {0}; Size: {1}; UIDL: {2}",
info.Index, info.Size, info.UIDL)
' Retrieve email from email server
Dim oMail As Mail = oClient.GetMail(info)
Console.WriteLine("From: {0}", oMail.From.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Subject: {0}" & vbCr & vbLf, oMail.Subject)
' Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time.
Dim fileName As String = _generateFileName(i + 1)
Dim fullPath As String = String.Format("{0}\{1}", localInbox, fileName)
' Save email to local disk
oMail.SaveAs(fullPath, True)
' Mark email as read to prevent retrieving this email again.
oClient.MarkAsRead(info, True)
' If you want to delete current email, please use Delete method instead of MarkAsRead
' oClient.Delete(info)
Next
' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from server.
oClient.Quit()
Console.WriteLine("Completed!")
Catch ep As Exception
Console.WriteLine(ep.ToString())
End Try
End Sub
Although the application is consented by the tenant admin, but to access SMTP/POP/IMAP service, the tenant administrator still need to register your application as service principal in Exchange via Exchange Online PowerShell. This is enabled by the New-ServicePrincipal cmdlet.
New-ServicePrincipal -AppId <APPLICATION_ID> -ServiceId <OBJECT_ID>
You should find your APPLICATION_ID
and OBJECT_ID
before running above cmdlet.
Go to Overview
-> Managed application in local directory
:
After you click your application name in Managed application in l...
,
you can see Application ID
and Object ID
for New-ServicePrincipal cmdlet.
Now you need to open Exchange Online PowerShell to run the cmdlet. If you have not installed the module, you can use the Install-Module cmdlet to install the module from the PowerShell Gallery.
Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
After you’ve installed the module, open a PowerShell window and load the module by running the following command:
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement
Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName "admin@yourdomain.onmicrosoft.com"
After Exchange Online PowerShell is connected successfully, run the following cmdlet to create a new service principal:
The ServiceId is the OBJECT_ID
and the AppId is APPLICATION_ID
found in Find APPLICATION_ID and OBJECT_ID
New-ServicePrincipal -AppId "b22194da-44d6-4320-a067-e86a275d6fa4" -ServiceId "71941e67-ef24-45e8-bd22-dfd53790bb77"
After you create the service principal, you can query it by:
Get-ServicePrincipal
You can now add the specific mailboxes in the tenant that will be allowed to be access by your application. This is done with the Add-MailboxPermission cmdlet.
Add-MailboxPermission -Identity <mailboxIdParameter> -User <SecurityPrincipalIdParameter|OBJECT_ID> -AccessRights <MailboxRights[]>
For example:
Add-MailboxPermission -Identity "grant-test@emailarchitect.net" -User "71941e67-ef24-45e8-bd22-dfd53790bb77" -AccessRights FullAccess
You can also query the permission by:
Get-MailboxPermission -Identity "grant-test@emailarchitect.net"
Now you can use IMAP or POP3 protocol to retrieve email by the following codes:
Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Globalization
Imports EAGetMail
Function _generateFileName(ByVal sequence As Integer) As String
Dim currentDateTime As DateTime = DateTime.Now
Return String.Format("{0}-{1:000}-{2:000}.eml",
currentDateTime.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", New CultureInfo("en-US")),
currentDateTime.Millisecond,
sequence)
End Function
Function _postString(ByVal uri As String, ByVal requestData As String) As String
Dim httpRequest As HttpWebRequest = TryCast(WebRequest.Create(uri), HttpWebRequest)
httpRequest.Method = "POST"
httpRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
Using requestStream As Stream = httpRequest.GetRequestStream()
Dim requestBuffer As Byte() = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(requestData)
requestStream.Write(requestBuffer, 0, requestBuffer.Length)
requestStream.Close()
End Using
Try
Dim httpResponse As HttpWebResponse = TryCast(httpRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
Using reader As New StreamReader(httpResponse.GetResponseStream())
Dim responseText = reader.ReadToEnd()
Return responseText
End Using
Catch ex As WebException
If ex.Status = WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError Then
Dim response = TryCast(ex.Response, HttpWebResponse)
If response IsNot Nothing Then
Console.WriteLine("HTTP: " & response.StatusCode)
' reads response body
Using reader As StreamReader = New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
Dim responseText As String = reader.ReadToEnd()
Console.WriteLine(responseText)
End Using
End If
End If
Throw ex
End Try
End Function
Public Sub RetrieveEmail()
Try
Dim client_id As String = "b22194da-44d6-4320-a067-e86a275d6fa4"
Dim client_secret As String = "VTO8Q~eo0JCXc291jcM4wnhZ_GXyKMu."
' If your application is not created by Office365 administrator,
' please use Office365 directory tenant id, you should ask Offic365 administrator to send it to you.
' Office365 administrator can query tenant id in https://portal.azure.com/ - Azure Active Directory.
Dim tenant As String = "2ea4955d-830e-4aa7-8ab5-661a6b9aa84d"
Dim requestData As String = String.Format("client_id={0}&client_secret={1}&scope=https://outlook.office365.com/.default&grant_type=client_credentials",
client_id, client_secret)
Dim tokenUri As String = String.Format("https://login.microsoftonline.com/{0}/oauth2/v2.0/token", tenant)
Dim responseText As String = _postString(tokenUri, requestData)
Dim parser As OAuthResponseParser = New OAuthResponseParser()
parser.Load(responseText)
Dim officeUser As String = "grant-test@emailarchitect.net"
' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
' to save the email retrieved.
Dim localInbox As String = String.Format("{0}\inbox", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
' If the folder is not existed, create it.
If Not Directory.Exists(localInbox) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(localInbox)
End If
' Office 365 Server address, use access token as password
Dim oServer As New MailServer("outlook.office365.com",
officeUser,
parser.AccessToken,
ServerProtocol.Imap4) ' Use IMAP Protocol
' User OAUTH 2.0
oServer.AuthType = ServerAuthType.AuthXOAUTH2
' Enable SSL/TLS connection,
oServer.SSLConnection = True
' Set IMAP4 SSL Port
oServer.Port = 993
Console.WriteLine("Connecting {0} ...", oServer.Server)
Dim oClient As New MailClient("TryIt")
oClient.Connect(oServer)
' Get New email only, if you want to get all emails, please remove this line
oClient.GetMailInfosParam.GetMailInfosOptions = GetMailInfosOptionType.NewOnly
Dim infos As MailInfo() = oClient.GetMailInfos()
Console.WriteLine("Total {0} email(s)", infos.Length)
For i As Integer = 0 To infos.Length - 1
Dim info As MailInfo = infos(i)
Console.WriteLine("Index: {0}; Size: {1}; UIDL: {2}",
info.Index, info.Size, info.UIDL)
' Retrieve email from email server
Dim oMail As Mail = oClient.GetMail(info)
Console.WriteLine("From: {0}", oMail.From.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Subject: {0}" & vbCr & vbLf, oMail.Subject)
' Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time.
Dim fileName As String = _generateFileName(i + 1)
Dim fullPath As String = String.Format("{0}\{1}", localInbox, fileName)
' Save email to local disk
oMail.SaveAs(fullPath, True)
' Mark email as read to prevent retrieving this email again.
oClient.MarkAsRead(info, True)
' If you want to delete current email, please use Delete method instead of MarkAsRead
' oClient.Delete(info)
Next
' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from server.
oClient.Quit()
Console.WriteLine("Completed!")
Catch ep As Exception
Console.WriteLine(ep.ToString())
End Try
End Sub
You don’t have to request access token
every time. By default,
access token
expiration time is 3600 seconds, you can reuse the access token
repeatedly before it is expired.
TLS is the successor of SSL, more and more SMTP servers require TLS 1.2
encryption now.
If your operating system is Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 2003/2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2
, you need to
enable TLS 1.2 protocol in your operating system like this:
Enable TLS 1.2 on Windows XP/Vista/7/10/Windows 2008/2008 R2/2012
If you are not the tenant administrator and you don’t have the permission to create or grant the application in Azure, or if your code is too complex or out of maintenance, and you don’t want to change anything in your source codes, then you can have a try with EA Oauth Service for Offic365. It provides an easy way for the legacy email application that doesn’t support OAUTH 2.0 to send and retrieve email from Office 365 without changing any codes. SMTP, POP, IMAP and SSL/TLS protocols are supported.
Appendix
Comments
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