Delphi - DomainKeys and DKIM signature

The following example codes demonstrate how to add DomainKeys and DKIM signature to email and send it using SMTP server.

DKIM and DomainKeys

DomainKeys is a technology proposal that can bring black and white back to this decision process by giving email providers a mechanism for verifying both the domain of each email sender and the integrity of the messages sent. But DomainKey is deprecated by DKIM now,

DKIM is a similar technology as Domainkeys. To learn more detail about DKIM, please refer to RFC4871.

Before you can add DKIM signature to email, you need to generate the DKIM configuration file like this:

Download Json Configuration File for your DomainKeys/DKIM key pair

Please click here to go to this online tool at first. Then input your email sender domain in it and click “Download Configuration Json” and save the downloaded json file to your local disk. This file contains your DomainKeys and DKIM key pair.

Deploy Public Key

Once you get the json file, you can open it by notepad, and find the public key:

{
"CanonAlgorithm": 0,
"Domain": "emailarchitect.net",
"IsActive": true,
"IsSignPartOfMessage": false,
"RsaHashAlgorithm": 1,
"Selector": "s1024",
"PublicKey":"MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCydEgD9oTri865iNJqFVPJLEOW/uOHpjnnhMeGQQDodx/LqHlbs9iz3A95lXmFSlPgxCYNzGJPdqM7XXZnQCkaBO7DmKPJqdhgfOAECHOiT/5oXW9qMdQOymVdgy2iu2ZjKR2eXPnqYUHQycfQP82QigP3dLSi78xkruKlqlXvlQIDAQAB",
"PrivateKey":"-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\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\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n",
"SignedHeaders": "sender:from:to:cc:date:subject:mime-version:content-type:message-id:in-reply-to",
"SignPartMessageLength": 0
}

You should set a TXT record in your domain DNS server. For example: your selector is s1024, your domain is emailarchitect.net, and then you should create a TXT record for s1024._domainkey.emailarchitect.net and set the following content in the record.

s1024._domainkey.emailarchitect.net      text =

        "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGS...hSinuQIDAQAB"

To learn more detail about Public Key deployment, please refer to https://www.emailarchitec.net/domainkeys/kb

Installation

EASendMail is a SMTP component which supports all operations of SMTP/ESMTP protocols (RFC 821, RFC 822, RFC 2554). Before you can use the following example codes, you should download the EASendMail Installer and install it on your machine at first.

Add reference

To use EASendMail SMTP ActiveX Object in your Delphi project, the first step is “Add Unit file of EASendMail to your project”. Please go to C:\Program Files\EASendMail\Include\delphi or C:\Program Files (x86)\EASendMail\Include\delphi folder, find EASendMailObjLib_TLB.pas, and then copy this file to your project folder.

unit Unit1;

interface
// include EASendMailObjLib_TLB unit to your Delphi Project
uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
Dialogs, EASendMailObjLib_TLB, StdCtrls;

You can also create “EASendMailObjLib_TLB.pas” manually like this:

  • Delphi 7

    Please choose menu -> Project -> Import Type Library and select EASendMailObj ActiveX Object, click Create Unit, the reference of EASendMail ActiveX Object will be added to your project.

    add reference in Delphi
  • Delphi XE

    If you use Delphi XE to import the Type library, Please choose menu -> Component -> Import Component -> Import Type Library -> and select EASendMailObj ActiveX Object -> have Generate Component Wrapper checked -> Create Unit.

Then you can start to use it in your Delphi Project.

Delphi - DomainKeys and DKIM signature - example

The following example codes demonstrate sending email with DomainKeys and DKIM signature. In order to run it correctly, please change SMTP server, user, password, sender, recipient value to yours.

Note

To get full sample projects, please download and install EASendMail on your machine.

Unit Unit1;

Interface

Uses
    Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
    Dialogs, StdCtrls, EASendMailObjLib_TLB; // add EASendMail Unit

Type
    TForm1 = Class(TForm)
        Button1: TButton;
        Procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
    private
        { Private declarations }
    public
        { Public declarations }
    End;

const
  ConnectNormal = 0;
  ConnectSSLAuto = 1;
  ConnectSTARTTLS = 2;
  ConnectDirectSSL = 3;
  ConnectTryTLS = 4;

Var
    Form1: TForm1;

Implementation

{$R *.dfm}

Procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
Var
    oSmtp : TMail;
    dkimConfig: TDkimConfig;
Begin
    dkimConfig := TDkimConfig.Create(Application);
    // Load DomainKeys and DKIM configuration file
    if not dkimConfig.LoadFromFile('d:\my folder\emailarchitect.net.json') then
        begin
            ShowMessage('failed to load dkim configuration file');
            exit;
        end;

    oSmtp := TMail.Create(Application);
    oSmtp.LicenseCode := 'TryIt';

    // Assign DkimConfig object to Smtp Mail
    oSmtp.DkimSignerConfig := dkimConfig.DefaultInterface;

    // Set your sender email address
    oSmtp.FromAddr := 'test@emailarchitect.net';

    // Add recipient email address
    oSmtp.AddRecipientEx('support@emailarchitect.net', 0);

    // Set email subject
    oSmtp.Subject := 'simple email from Delphi with DKIM signature';

    // Set email body
    oSmtp.BodyText := 'this is a test email sent from Delphi project, do not reply';

    // Your SMTP server address
    oSmtp.ServerAddr := 'smtp.emailarchitect.net';

    // User and password for ESMTP authentication, if your server doesn't require
    // user authentication, please remove the following codes
    oSmtp.UserName := 'test@emailarchitect.net';
    oSmtp.Password := 'testpassword';

    // ConnectTryTLS means if server supports SSL/TLS connection, SSL/TLS is used automatically
    oSmtp.ConnectType := ConnectTryTLS;

    // If your server uses 587 port
    // oSmtp.ServerPort := 587;

    // If your server uses 25/587/465 port with SSL/TLS
    // oSmtp.ConnectType := ConnectSSLAuto;
    // oSmtp.ServerPort := 587; // 25 or 587 or 465

    ShowMessage('start to send email ...');

    If oSmtp.SendMail() = 0 Then
        ShowMessage('email was sent successfully!')
    Else
        ShowMessage('failed to send email with the following error: '
        + oSmtp.GetLastErrDescription());

End;

End.

Remarks

If your SMTP server has implemented DKIM, you don’t have to sign DKIM in your codes, your email will be signed by your server automatically.

TLS 1.2 protocol

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

32bit/x64 ActiveX DLL

Seperate builds of run-time dll for 32 and x64 platform

File Platform
Installation Path\Lib\native\x86\EASendMailObj.dll 32 bit
Installation Path\Lib\native\x64\EASendMailObj.dll 64 bit

Distribution

  • Standard EXE

    For VB6, C++, Delphi or other standard exe application, you can distribute EASendMailObj.dll with your application to target machine without COM-registration and installer. To learn more detail, please have a look at Registration-free COM with Manifest File.

  • Script

    For ASP, VBScript, VBA, MS SQL Stored Procedure, you need to install EASendMail on target machine by EASendMail installer, both 32bit/x64 DLL are installed and registered.

Appendix

Comments

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