Visual C++ - Retrieve email from Yahoo account

The following c++ example codes demonstrate how to retrieve email from Yahoo IMAP4 server.

Yahoo POP3 server address is pop.mail.yahoo.com. It requires SSL connection on 995 port; Yahoo IMAP4 server address is imap.mail.yahoo.com . It requires SSL connection on 993 port. You should use your Yahoo email address as the user name for user authentication. For example: your email is myid@yahoo.com, and then the user name should be myid@yahoo.com.

Server Port SSL Protocol
pop.mail.yahoo.com 995 SSL required Pop3
imap.mail.yahoo.com 993 SSL required Imap4

Installation

Before you can use the following sample codes, you should download the EAGetMail Installer and install it on your machine at first. Full sample projects are included in this installer.

Add reference

To better demonstrate how to retrieve email and parse email, let’s create a Visual C++ console project named “receiveemail” at first, and then add the reference of EAGetMail in your project.

Visual C++ console project

To use EAGetMail POP3 & IMAP4 ActiveX Object in your project, the first step is “Add header files of EAGetMail to your project”. Please go to C:\Program Files\EAGetMail\Include\tlh or C:\Program Files (x86)\EAGetMail\Include\tlh folder, find eagetmailobj.tlh and eagetmailobj.tli, and then copy these files to your project folder. You can start to use it to retrieve email and parse email in your project.

add reference in C++

Visual C++ - Retrieve email from Yahoo account - example

The following example codes demonstrate how to download emails from Yahoo account using IMAP4 protocol. In order to run it correctly, please change email server, user, password, folder, file name value to yours.

Note

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

App Password

If you got authentication error, you need to enable Allowing less secure apps in your Yahoo account. Or you can generate an App Passwords and use this app password instead of your user password.

Although Yahoo supports OAUTH, but it doesn’t provide mail permission, so OAUTH is not a solution for Yahoo mail.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <Windows.h>

#include "EAGetMailobj.tlh"
using namespace EAGetMailObjLib;

DWORD  _getCurrentPath(LPTSTR lpPath, DWORD nSize)
{
    DWORD dwSize = ::GetModuleFileName(NULL, lpPath, nSize);
    if (dwSize == 0 || dwSize == nSize)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    // Change file name to current full path
    LPCTSTR psz = _tcsrchr(lpPath, _T('\\'));
    if (psz != NULL)
    {
        lpPath[psz - lpPath] = _T('\0');
        return _tcslen(lpPath);
    }

    return 0;
}

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    const int MailServerPop3 = 0;
    const int MailServerImap4 = 1;
    const int MailServerEWS = 2;
    const int MailServerDAV = 3;
    const int MailServerMsGraph = 4;

    // Initialize COM environment
    ::CoInitialize(NULL);

    // Create a folder named "inbox" under current exe file directory
    // to save the emails retrieved.

    TCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH + 1];
    _getCurrentPath(szPath, MAX_PATH);

    TCHAR szMailBox[MAX_PATH + 1];
    wsprintf(szMailBox, _T("%s\\inbox"), szPath);

    // Create a folder to store emails
    ::CreateDirectory(szMailBox, NULL);

    try
    {
        IMailServerPtr oServer = NULL;
        oServer.CreateInstance(__uuidof(EAGetMailObjLib::MailServer));

        // Yahoo IMAP4 server address
        oServer->Server = _T("imap.mail.yahoo.com");
        oServer->User = _T("yahooid@yahoo.com");
        oServer->Password = _T("testpassword");
        oServer->Protocol = MailServerImap4;

        // Enable SSL connection
        oServer->SSLConnection = VARIANT_TRUE;

        // Set 993 IMAP4 SSL port
        oServer->Port = 993;

        IMailClientPtr oClient = NULL;
        oClient.CreateInstance(__uuidof(EAGetMailObjLib::MailClient));
        oClient->LicenseCode = _T("TryIt");

        oClient->Connect(oServer);
        _tprintf(_T("Connected\r\n"));

        IMailInfoCollectionPtr infos = oClient->GetMailInfoList();
        _tprintf(_T("Total %d emails\r\n"), infos->Count);

        for (long i = 0; i < infos->Count; i++)
        {
            IMailInfoPtr pInfo = infos->GetItem(i);

            TCHAR szFile[MAX_PATH + 1];
            // Generate a random file name by current local datetime,
            // You can use your method to generate the filename if you do not like it
            SYSTEMTIME curtm;
            ::GetLocalTime(&curtm);
            ::wsprintf(szFile, _T("%s\\%04d%02d%02d%02d%02d%02d%03d%d.eml"),
                szMailBox,
                curtm.wYear,
                curtm.wMonth,
                curtm.wDay,
                curtm.wHour,
                curtm.wMinute,
                curtm.wSecond,
                curtm.wMilliseconds,
                i);

            // Receive email from POP3 server
            IMailPtr oMail = oClient->GetMail(pInfo);

            // Save email to local disk
            oMail->SaveAs(szFile, VARIANT_TRUE);

            // Mark email as deleted from POP3 server.
            oClient->Delete(pInfo);
        }

        // Delete method just mark the email as deleted,
        // Quit method expunge the emails from server exactly.
        oClient->Quit();
    }
    catch (_com_error &ep)
    {
        _tprintf(_T("Error: %s"), (const TCHAR*)ep.Description());
    }

    return 0;
}

Visual C++ - Retrieve unread/new email from Yahoo account - example

Because IMAP/EWS/WebDAV support read mail flag, with this feature, we can also retrieve unread/new email only from Yahoo like this

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <Windows.h>

#include "EAGetMailobj.tlh"
using namespace EAGetMailObjLib;

DWORD  _getCurrentPath(LPTSTR lpPath, DWORD nSize)
{
    DWORD dwSize = ::GetModuleFileName(NULL, lpPath, nSize);
    if (dwSize == 0 || dwSize == nSize)
    {
        return 0;
    }

    // Change file name to current full path
    LPCTSTR psz = _tcsrchr(lpPath, _T('\\'));
    if (psz != NULL)
    {
        lpPath[psz - lpPath] = _T('\0');
        return _tcslen(lpPath);
    }

    return 0;
}

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    const int MailServerPop3 = 0;
    const int MailServerImap4 = 1;
    const int MailServerEWS = 2;
    const int MailServerDAV = 3;
    const int MailServerMsGraph = 4;

    const int GetMailInfos_All = 1;
    const int GetMailInfos_NewOnly = 2;
    const int GetMailInfos_ReadOnly = 4;
    const int GetMailInfos_SeqRange = 8;
    const int GetMailInfos_UIDRange = 16;
    const int GetMailInfos_PR_ENTRYID = 32;
    const int GetMailInfos_DateRange = 64;
    const int GetMailInfos_OrderByDateTime = 128;

    // Initialize COM environment
    ::CoInitialize(NULL);

    // Create a folder named "inbox" under current exe file directory
    // to save the emails retrieved.

    TCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH + 1];
    _getCurrentPath(szPath, MAX_PATH);

    TCHAR szMailBox[MAX_PATH + 1];
    wsprintf(szMailBox, _T("%s\\inbox"), szPath);

    // Create a folder to store emails
    ::CreateDirectory(szMailBox, NULL);

    try
    {
        IMailServerPtr oServer = NULL;
        oServer.CreateInstance(__uuidof(EAGetMailObjLib::MailServer));

        // Yahoo IMAP4 server address
        oServer->Server = _T("imap.mail.yahoo.com");
        oServer->User = _T("yahooid@yahoo.com");
        oServer->Password = _T("testpassword");
        oServer->Protocol = MailServerImap4;

        // Enable SSL connection
        oServer->SSLConnection = VARIANT_TRUE;

        // Set 993 IMAP4 SSL port
        oServer->Port = 993;

        IMailClientPtr oClient = NULL;
        oClient.CreateInstance(__uuidof(EAGetMailObjLib::MailClient));
        oClient->LicenseCode = _T("TryIt");

        oClient->Connect(oServer);
        _tprintf(_T("Connected\r\n"));

        // retrieve unread/new email only
        oClient->GetMailInfosParam->Reset();
        oClient->GetMailInfosParam->GetMailInfosOptions = GetMailInfos_NewOnly;

        IMailInfoCollectionPtr infos = oClient->GetMailInfoList();
        _tprintf(_T("Total %d unread emails\r\n"), infos->Count);

        for (long i = 0; i < infos->Count; i++)
        {
            IMailInfoPtr pInfo = infos->GetItem(i);

            TCHAR szFile[MAX_PATH + 1];
            // Generate a random file name by current local datetime,
            // You can use your method to generate the filename if you do not like it
            SYSTEMTIME curtm;
            ::GetLocalTime(&curtm);
            ::wsprintf(szFile, _T("%s\\%04d%02d%02d%02d%02d%02d%03d%d.eml"),
                szMailBox,
                curtm.wYear,
                curtm.wMonth,
                curtm.wDay,
                curtm.wHour,
                curtm.wMinute,
                curtm.wSecond,
                curtm.wMilliseconds,
                i);

            // Receive email from POP3 server
            IMailPtr oMail = oClient->GetMail(pInfo);

            // Save email to local disk
            oMail->SaveAs(szFile, VARIANT_TRUE);

            // mark unread email as read, next time this email won't be retrieved again
            if( pInfo->Read == VARIANT_FALSE)
            {
                oClient->MarkAsRead(pInfo, VARIANT_TRUE);
            }

            // if you don't want to leave a copy on server, please use
            // oClient->Delete(pInfo);
            // instead of MarkAsRead
        }

        // Delete method just mark the email as deleted,
        // Quit method expunge the emails from server exactly.
        oClient->Quit();
    }
    catch (_com_error &ep)
    {
        _tprintf(_T("Error: %s"), (const TCHAR*)ep.Description());
    }

    return 0;
}

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\EAGetMailObj.dll 32 bit
Installation Path\Lib\native\x64\EAGetMailObj.dll 64 bit

Distribution

  • Standard EXE

    For VB6, C++, Delphi or other standard exe application, you can distribute EAGetMailObj.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 EAGetMail on target machine by EAGetMail installer, both 32bit/x64 DLL are installed and registered.

Appendix

Comments

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