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 2007-2019/Office365).
Sections:
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 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.
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.
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
' Please use domain\user as the user name
Dim oServer As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailServer
oServer.Server = "exch.emailarchitect.net"
oServer.User = "emailarchitect.net\test"
oServer.Password = "testpassword"
oServer.Protocol = MailServerEWS
' By default, Exchange Web Service (EWS) requires SSL connection
' Please ignore Port property for EWS and WebDAV protocol
oServer.SSLConnection = True
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 Exchange 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
' Delete email from Exchange server.
oClient.Delete info
Next
' Quit from Exchange server.
oClient.Quit
Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub
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.
The following example codes demonstrate how to retrieve emails from “Deleted Items” in an Exchange account.
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
' Please use domain\user as the user name
Dim oServer As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailServer
oServer.Server = "exch.emailarchitect.net"
oServer.User = "emailarchitect.net\test"
oServer.Password = "testpassword"
oServer.Protocol = MailServerEWS
' By default, Exchange Web Service (EWS) requires SSL connection
' Please ignore Port property for EWS and WebDAV protocol
oServer.SSLConnection = True
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 Exchange 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
' Delete email from Exchange server.
oClient.Delete info
Next
' Quit from Exchange server.
oClient.Quit
Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub
Next Section
At next section I will introduce how to retrieve email from Exchange Server with WebDAV protocol.
Appendix
Comments
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