Retrieve Email from IMAP4 server in VB 6.0¶

In previous section, I introduced retrieving email from POP3 server in VB 6.0. In this section, I will introduce the IMAP4 server.

Sections:

Introduction
[VB 6.0 Example - Retrieve email from IMAP4 inbox]
[VB 6.0 Example - Retrieve email from “Deleted Items”]
TLS 1.2

Introduction¶

IMAP4 protocol is different with POP3 protocol. First of all, IMAP4 supports retrieving email from different mail folder and folder management. Secondly, IMAP4 supports mail flags management. Therefore, we can do more things with IMAP4 server. To better understand the IMAP4 protocol, please see the following examples.

Note

Remarks: All of examples in this section are based on first section: A simple VB 6.0 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.

[VB 6.0 Example - Retrieve email from IMAP4 inbox]¶

The following example codes demonstrate how to download email from IMAP4 server default mailbox. 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.

Option Explicit

Const MailServerPop3 = 0
Const MailServerImap4 = 1
Const MailServerEWS = 2
Const MailServerDAV = 3
Const MailServerMsGraph = 4

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim curpath As String
    Dim mailbox As String
    Dim oTools As New EAGetMailObjLib.Tools

    ' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
    ' to save the email retrieved.
    curpath = App.Path
    mailbox = curpath & "\inbox"
    oTools.CreateFolder mailbox

    Dim oServer As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailServer
    oServer.Server = "imap4.emailarchitect.net"
    oServer.User = "test@emailarchitect.net"
    oServer.Password = "testpassword"
    oServer.Protocol = MailServerImap4

    ' Enable SSL/TLS connection, most modern email servers require SSL/TLS by default
    oServer.SSLConnection = True
    oServer.Port = 993

    ' If your IMAP doesn't deploy SSL connection
    ' Please use
    ' oServer.SSLConnection = False
    ' oServer.Port = 143

On Error GoTo ErrorHandle:
    Dim oClient As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailClient
    oClient.LicenseCode = "TryIt"

    oClient.Connect oServer
    MsgBox "Connected"

    Dim infos As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfoCollection
    Set infos = oClient.GetMailInfoList()
    MsgBox infos.Count & " emails"

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To infos.Count - 1
        Dim info As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfo
        Set info = infos.Item(i)

        MsgBox "Index: " & info.Index & "; Size: " & info.Size & _
        "; UIDL: " & info.UIDL

        ' Receive email from IMAP4 server
        Dim oMail As EAGetMailObjLib.Mail
        Set oMail = oClient.GetMail(info)

        MsgBox "From: " & oMail.From.Address & _
            vbCrLf & "Subject: " & oMail.Subject

        Dim fileName As String
        ' Generate a random file name by current local datetime,
        ' You can use your method to generate the filename if you do not like it
        fileName = mailbox & "\" & oTools.GenFileName(i) & ".eml"

        ' Save email to local disk
        oMail.SaveAs fileName, True

        ' Mark email as deleted from IMAP4 server.
        oClient.Delete info
    Next

    ' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from IMAP4 server.
    oClient.Quit
    Exit Sub

ErrorHandle:
    MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub

Because IMAP4 protocol supports folder access, so we can retrieve email from other mailbox rather than default “INBOX”. POP3 protocol doesn’t support this feature.

[VB 6.0 Example - Retrieve email from “Deleted Items”]¶

The following example codes demonstrate how to retrieve emails from “Deleted Items” in an IMAP4 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.

Option Explicit

Const MailServerPop3 = 0
Const MailServerImap4 = 1
Const MailServerEWS = 2
Const MailServerDAV = 3
Const MailServerMsGraph = 4

Function FindFolder(ByVal FolderPath As String, ByRef folders As FolderCollection)
    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To folders.Count - 1
        Dim oFolder As Imap4Folder
        Set oFolder = folders.Item(i)
        If StrComp(oFolder.LocalPath, FolderPath, 1) = 0 Then
            Set FindFolder = oFolder
            Exit Function
        End If

        Set oFolder = FindFolder(FolderPath, oFolder.SubFolderList)
        If Not (oFolder Is Nothing) Then
            Set FindFolder = oFolder
            Exit Function
        End If
    Next

    Set FindFolder = Nothing
End Function

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim curpath As String
    Dim mailbox As String
    Dim oTools As New EAGetMailObjLib.Tools

    ' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
    ' to save the email retrieved.
    curpath = App.Path
    mailbox = curpath & "\inbox"
    oTools.CreateFolder mailbox

    Dim oServer As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailServer
    oServer.Server = "imap4.emailarchitect.net"
    oServer.User = "test@emailarchitect.net"
    oServer.Password = "testpassword"
    oServer.Protocol = MailServerImap4

    ' Enable SSL/TLS connection, most modern email servers require SSL/TLS by default
    oServer.SSLConnection = True
    oServer.Port = 993

    ' If your IMAP doesn't deploy SSL connection
    ' Please use
    ' oServer.SSLConnection = False
    ' oServer.Port = 143

On Error GoTo ErrorHandle:
    Dim oClient As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailClient
    oClient.LicenseCode = "TryIt"

    oClient.Connect oServer
    MsgBox "Connected"

    ' Lookup folder based name,
    Dim folder As Imap4Folder
    ' If you want search sub folder, use parentfolder\subfolder
    ' For example: INBOX\MySubFolder
    Set folder = FindFolder("Deleted Items", oClient.GetFolderList())
    If folder Is Nothing Then
        Err.Raise 2, "ImapFolder", "Folder was not found"
    End If

    ' Select this folder
    oClient.SelectFolder folder

    Dim infos As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfoCollection
    Set infos = oClient.GetMailInfoList()
    MsgBox infos.Count & " emails"

    Dim i As Long
    For i = 0 To infos.Count - 1
        Dim info As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfo
        Set info = infos.Item(i)

        MsgBox "Index: " & info.Index & "; Size: " & info.Size & _
        "; UIDL: " & info.UIDL

        ' Receive email from IMAP4 server
        Dim oMail As EAGetMailObjLib.Mail
        Set oMail = oClient.GetMail(info)

        MsgBox "From: " & oMail.From.Address & _
            vbCrLf & "Subject: " & oMail.Subject

        Dim fileName As String
        ' Generate a random file name by current local datetime,
        ' You can use your method to generate the filename if you do not like it
        fileName = mailbox & "\" & oTools.GenFileName(i) & ".eml"

        ' Save email to local disk
        oMail.SaveAs fileName, True

        ' Mark email as deleted from IMAP4 server.
        oClient.Delete info
    Next

    ' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from IMAP4 server.
    oClient.Quit
    Exit Sub

ErrorHandle:
    MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub

TLS 1.2¶

TLS is the successor of SSL, more and more Email 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, and you got connection error with SSL/TLS connection, 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

Next Section

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

Tutorial Index

Retrieve Email from IMAP4 server in VB 6.0¶

Introduction¶

[VB 6.0 Example - Retrieve email from IMAP4 inbox]¶

[VB 6.0 Example - Retrieve email from “Deleted Items”]¶

TLS 1.2¶

Share

See Also