MailBee IMAP4 Component

MailBee IMAP4 enables developers to easily add IMAP capabilities to their Windows or classic ASP applications. The component supports message search and checking new/read/unread status (all of the above - without downloading entire messages or even message headers). All the basic features are fully supported as well - preview messages, download, parse and manage messages and mailboxes (folders). The component can be used in any ActiveX-aware language such as classic ASP, VB, Delphi, C++, etc.

This is ActiveX component. Looking for .NET version? See MailBee.NET IMAP.

The component supports a number of IMAP extensions like IDLE (instant notifications about new events like the arrival of a new e-mail), XLIST and SPECIAL-USE (special folder flags like Drafts, Sent, Trash), SORT, MOVE, QUOTA, UIDPLUS.

The component supports SSL via both dedicated port 993 and regular 143 port via STARTTLS. The best supported SSL protocol is TLS 1.3.

With the help of MailBee S/MIME Component, encrypted or signed e-mails can be decrypted and verified.

Supports all Windows versions from 2000, 32/64 bit.

No knowledge of IMAP4, SSL, MIME and S/MIME is required.

Tutorials and Samples

Knowledge base

Documentation

MailBee Objects Forum

Download CHM

Licensing Info

Current version: 9.5 Last update: 21 October 2024

IMAP Object

Retrieves entire message, message header, message header and part of message body, message envelope and body structure
Searches messages that match specified criteria
Retrieves, selects and manages mailboxes
Copies and deletes messages on the IMAP4 server
Provides event notification mechanism and background processing
Supports logging IMAP4 session into the file
Executes user-supplied commands
Ping method for keeping connection alive
Automatically decodes received messages from MIME format
Automatically generates plain-text version for HTML-only messages
Supports secure authentication methods (OAuth 2.0, NTLM, MSN, GSSAPI, including Integrated Windows Authentication)
Supports special folder flags (Drafts, Sent, etc) using XLIST extension developed by GMail and Apple
Supports UIDs
Supports IDLE, UIDPLUS and QUOTA extensions
Full support for Unicode, UTF8, and UTF-7M mailbox names. Supports international headers, attachment names, e-mail addresses with IDN domains
OAuth 2.0 support, including Gmail and Office 365

IMAP4 Object reference...

MailMessage Object

Available in all MailBee Objects packages (POP3, SMTP, Objects). Used as a main unit POP3 retrieval and SMTP sending methods operate with
Because SMTP object composes messages using Message object, all composing functionality of SMTP object also applies to Message object
Includes collection of a message's attachments
Provides access to custom message headers through GetHeader method
Can be created explicitly through CreateObject and then saved to disk or sent by SMTP object
Any content can be loaded to RawBody property (such as content of message file or attachment with message inside)
RawBody operates symmetrically: when you set Message properties or call Message-affecting methods (such as AddAttachment), RawBody will reflect this changes next time you read it; when you load RawBody with new value, other Message properties such as BodyText are refreshed
No redundant refreshes on RawBody. If you sequentially change some Message properties, RawBody will be updated only when you read it, not after every changing Message properties

Message Object reference...

What's new

Version 9.5

MailBee DLLs are now compiled with Dynamic Base (ASLR) compiler option. This is a security enhancement.

Version 9.4.1

Office 365 IMAP/POP3 OAuth 2.0 Credentials Flow sample (involves no end user interaction).
SSL certificate validation logic rewritten, works faster and more reliably/correctly.
PLAIN and LOGIN authentication methods for IMAP (including delegated account access).
Attachment.ContentDisposition property.

Version 9.4

TLS 1.3 support.

Version 9.3

OAuth 2.0 support, including Gmail and Office 365

Version 9.2

Better IPv6 support.
IMAP4 UIDPLUS extension support (IMAP4.UIDPlusResult property).
Improved parsing of email addresses.
See History for other changes and details.

Version 9.1

Support of international e-mail addresses (IDN domains).

Version 9.0.2

SHA256 signatures to all .DLLs (in addition to SHA1 signatures).

Version 9.0.1

TLS 1.1/1.2 support.

Version 9.0

Authenticode signatures for all .DLLs and the installer.
IMAP MOVE extension support (moving messages).
IMAP SPECIAL-USE extension support (special mailbox flags).
IMAP CHILDREN extension support (special mailbox flags).
IMAP SORT extension support (sorting of search results).
IMAP UNSEEN response support (message number of the first unseen message in the mailbox).
IMAP UIDNEXT response support (next predicted UID in the mailbox).
IMAP STATUS command support (unseen count, message count and other info for a mailbox without selecting it).
IMAP message sets - arbitrary sequences of message numbers or UIDs (more flexible than ranges, enable doing more actions in a single batch).
IMAP SetSeenFlag in RetrieveSingleMessage method.
IMAP QUOTA now returns not only allocated but also occupied space in the mailbox (QuotaUsage property).
AddressDelimiter property to make it easier to split address strings into individual addresses.
Filename autogeneration for attachments without filenames. New FilenameAsIs property to get the original filename.
Samples now reside in My Documents instead of Program Files (eliminates UAC issues when opening sample projects).
Revised VB6 IMAP samples to support message sets.