Retrieve Email from Exchange Server with Web Service (EWS) in C#¶

In previous section, I introduced how to retrieve email from IMAP4 server. In this section, I will introduce the Exchange Web Service (EWS) protocol (Exchange 2007/2010/2013/2016/2019/Office365).

Sections:

Introduction
[C# Example - Retrieve email from Exchange INBOX]
[C# Example - Retrieve email from “Deleted Items”]

Introduction¶

Exchange Web Service (EWS) protocol is similar with IMAP4 protocol. First of all, it supports retrieving email from different mail folder and folder management. Secondly, Exchange Web Service supports mail read flag management. Therefore, we can do more things with Exchange server. To better understand the Exchange Web Service protocol, please see the following examples.

Exchange Server supports POP3/IMAP4 protocol as well, but in Exchange 2007 or later version, POP3/IMAP4 service is disabled by default. If you don’t want to use POP3/IMAP4 to download email from Exchange Server, you can use Exchange Web Service (Exchange 2007/2010/2013/2016 or later version) or WebDAV (Exchange 2000/2003) protocol.

Office 365 also supports EWS protocol.

Note

Remarks: All of examples in this section are based on first section: A simple C# project. To compile and run the following example codes successfully, please click here to learn how to create the test project and add reference to your project.

[C# Example - Retrieve email from Exchange INBOX]¶

The following example codes demonstrate how to download email from Exchange 2007/2010/2013/2016 server default mailbox using EWS protocol. In order to run it correctly, please change email server, user, password, folder, file name values.

Note

To get the full sample projects, please refer to Samples section.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using EAGetMail; //add EAGetMail namespace

namespace receiveemail
{
    class Program
    {
        // Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time
        static string _generateFileName(int sequence)
        {
            DateTime currentDateTime = DateTime.Now;
            return string.Format("{0}-{1:000}-{2:000}.eml",
                currentDateTime.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", new CultureInfo("en-US")),
                currentDateTime.Millisecond,
                sequence);
        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                // Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
                // to save the email retrieved.
                string localInbox = string.Format("{0}\\inbox", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
                // If the folder is not existed, create it.
                if (!Directory.Exists(localInbox))
                {
                    Directory.CreateDirectory(localInbox);
                }

                // Please use domain\user or full email address as the user name
                MailServer oServer = new MailServer("exch.emailarchitect.net",
                            "test@emailarchitect.net",
                            "testpassword",
                            ServerProtocol.ExchangeEWS);

                // By default, Exchange Web Service (EWS) requires SSL connection
                // Please ignore Port property for EWS and WebDAV protocol
                oServer.SSLConnection = true;

                MailClient oClient = new MailClient("TryIt");
                oClient.Connect(oServer);

                MailInfo[] infos = oClient.GetMailInfos();
                Console.WriteLine("Total {0} email(s)\r\n", infos.Length);
                for (int i = 0; i < infos.Length; i++)
                {
                    MailInfo info = infos[i];
                    Console.WriteLine("Index: {0}; Size: {1}; UIDL: {2}",
                        info.Index, info.Size, info.UIDL);

                    // Receive email from Exchange server
                    Mail oMail = oClient.GetMail(info);

                    Console.WriteLine("From: {0}", oMail.From.ToString());
                    Console.WriteLine("Subject: {0}\r\n", oMail.Subject);

                    // Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time.
                    string fileName = _generateFileName(i + 1);
                    string fullPath = string.Format("{0}\\{1}", localInbox, fileName);

                    // Save email to local disk
                    oMail.SaveAs(fullPath, true);

                    // Mark email as deleted from Exchange server.
                    oClient.Delete(info);
                }

                // Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from Exchange server.
                oClient.Quit();
                Console.WriteLine("Completed!");
            }
            catch (Exception ep)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ep.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}

Because Exchange Web Service protocol supports folder access, so we can retrieve email from other mailbox rather than default “INBOX”. POP3 protocol doesn’t support this feature.

[C# Example - Retrieve email from “Deleted Items”]¶

The following example codes demonstrate how to retrieve emails from “Deleted Items” in an Exchange account. In order to run it correctly, please change email server, user, password, folder, file name values.

Note

To get the full sample projects, please refer to Samples section.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using EAGetMail; //add EAGetMail namespace

namespace receiveemail
{
    class Program
    {
        // if you want to find sub folder, use parentfolder\subfolder as folderPath
        // for example: inbox\mysubfolder
        static Imap4Folder FindFolder(string folderPath, Imap4Folder[] folders)
        {
            int count = folders.Length;
            for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
            {
                Imap4Folder folder = folders[i];
                if (string.Compare(folder.LocalPath, folderPath, true) == 0)
                {
                    return folder;
                }

                folder = FindFolder(folderPath, folder.SubFolders);
                if (folder != null)
                {
                    return folder;
                }
            }

            // No folder found
            return null;
        }

        // Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time
        static string _generateFileName(int sequence)
        {
            DateTime currentDateTime = DateTime.Now;
            return string.Format("{0}-{1:000}-{2:000}.eml",
                currentDateTime.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", new CultureInfo("en-US")),
                currentDateTime.Millisecond,
                sequence);
        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                // Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
                // to save the email retrieved.
                string localInbox = string.Format("{0}\\inbox", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
                // If the folder is not existed, create it.
                if (!Directory.Exists(localInbox))
                {
                    Directory.CreateDirectory(localInbox);
                }

                // Please use domain\user or full email address as the user name
                MailServer oServer = new MailServer("exch.emailarchitect.net",
                            "test@emailarchitect.net",
                            "testpassword",
                            ServerProtocol.ExchangeEWS);

                // By default, Exchange Web Service (EWS) requires SSL connection
                // Please ignore Port property for EWS and WebDAV protocol
                oServer.SSLConnection = true;

                MailClient oClient = new MailClient("TryIt");
                oClient.Connect(oServer);

                // find folder
                Imap4Folder folder = FindFolder("Deleted Items", oClient.GetFolders());
                if (folder == null)
                {
                    throw new Exception("Folder not found!");
                }

                // select dest folder
                oClient.SelectFolder(folder);

                MailInfo[] infos = oClient.GetMailInfos();
                Console.WriteLine("Total {0} email(s)\r\n", infos.Length);
                for (int i = 0; i < infos.Length; i++)
                {
                    MailInfo info = infos[i];
                    Console.WriteLine("Index: {0}; Size: {1}; UIDL: {2}",
                        info.Index, info.Size, info.UIDL);

                    // Receive email from Exchange server
                    Mail oMail = oClient.GetMail(info);

                    Console.WriteLine("From: {0}", oMail.From.ToString());
                    Console.WriteLine("Subject: {0}\r\n", oMail.Subject);

                    // Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time.
                    string fileName = _generateFileName(i + 1);
                    string fullPath = string.Format("{0}\\{1}", localInbox, fileName);

                    // Save email to local disk
                    oMail.SaveAs(fullPath, true);

                    // Mark email as deleted from Exchange server.
                    oClient.Delete(info);
                }

                // Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from Exchange server.
                oClient.Quit();
                Console.WriteLine("Completed!");
            }
            catch (Exception ep)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ep.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}

Next Section

At next section I will introduce how to retrieve email from Exchange Server with WebDAV protocol.

Tutorial Index

Retrieve Email from Exchange Server with Web Service (EWS) in C#¶

Introduction¶

[C# Example - Retrieve email from Exchange INBOX]¶

[C# Example - Retrieve email from “Deleted Items”]¶

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