zorba111
asked on
parsing email messages, content and attachments out of mail client or mail server
Hi Experts!
I'm looking to automate collection of our email.
I'm looking for a library / interface etc. that will let me programmatically access the content of various mailboxes / message stores in our organisation, and then save out the content (fields, message, attachements etc.), analyse them, and depending on them move/copy/delete the email.
Is it easier to "get at" the server or the mail client?
We are running Exchange 6.5 (SBS 2003's version of Exchange) and Outlook 2003. My programming language of choice is C# and I will want to put the content (selectively) into our domain specific CRM database (which uses Advantage Database Server) (though this last fact or two are hardly relevant - more an explanation for why I'm preferring to use C#)
I do want to make this into a product (or part of a larger product that solves a domain problem) eventually, so is there a generic interface that *all*, *most* or even *some* clients and/or mail servers expose?
any help appreciated, and if anyone has experience of the above type of project pls don't hesitate to share...
thanks in advance!
I'm looking to automate collection of our email.
I'm looking for a library / interface etc. that will let me programmatically access the content of various mailboxes / message stores in our organisation, and then save out the content (fields, message, attachements etc.), analyse them, and depending on them move/copy/delete the email.
Is it easier to "get at" the server or the mail client?
We are running Exchange 6.5 (SBS 2003's version of Exchange) and Outlook 2003. My programming language of choice is C# and I will want to put the content (selectively) into our domain specific CRM database (which uses Advantage Database Server) (though this last fact or two are hardly relevant - more an explanation for why I'm preferring to use C#)
I do want to make this into a product (or part of a larger product that solves a domain problem) eventually, so is there a generic interface that *all*, *most* or even *some* clients and/or mail servers expose?
any help appreciated, and if anyone has experience of the above type of project pls don't hesitate to share...
thanks in advance!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Yes, probably every five minutes per mailbox should suffice.
thanks
so you agree that IMAP is better than using an API?
many thanks
thanks
so you agree that IMAP is better than using an API?
many thanks
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
An API would be good if the server is in the LAN or on the machine. If the mailserver is remote then we would have to use IMAP.
I presume IMAP can also be used for local mailservers? (of course, just provide a local IP or domain hostname?)
Using IMAP, can we manipulate the messages on the server *as well as* read them.
Eg. if we succesfully process a message, then we wnat to move it to another folder called "processed".
Do you guys think IMAP is the way to go here?
We want to create a generic solution that can be configured for all/most mailservers.
The customer sets up their "read" directory and their "processed" directory, and then its down to our daemon to do the rest.
IMAP is platform and implementation agnostic? so suits this generic case?
typically we will want to login to several users mailboxes per organisation, and do autoprocessing