Work With E-Mail Easily Using the Mailman Class

Environment: VC6 SP4, NT4 SP3, winCE 2.0

Introduction

MailMan is a simple C++ class that makes the task of reading and sending e-mails easy. This class uses the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) to accomplish its functionalities.

I have seen code listings regarding sending e-mails or reading e-mails in different bits and pieces on this site and on codeproject, but I did not find them as a plug-and-play kind of code. Then I thought of creating a class to encapsulate the entire functionality in one piece.

Requirement

For sending e-mails, you do not need to have Microsoft Outlook (or any other e-mail client) open, but for receiving it you do. (Some have told me you don’t, but experience has shown me otherwise…).

If you happen to be one who disagrees, please e-mail me.

Methods

This class has the following members:

Example

First of all, you should have a pointer to CMailMan:

CMailMan *mail=;

This can be defined in the header file of your class.

You then need to allocate it to an instance of this class:

mail = new CMailMan();

// Initialise it

if(mail->LogonMail() = false)
{

// Error

}

How to read e-mail:

switch (mail->ReadMail())
{
  case GOTMAIL:
  // If you have any UNREAD e-mail in your INBOX, it will be fetched here
    x.Format(_T("Name:%s Date:%s Address:%s notetext:%s Subject:%s"),
      mail->mailbox.name,
      mail->mailbox.date,
      mail->mailbox.address,
      mail->mailbox.notetext,
      mail->mailbox.subject);
    break;

  case FAILMAIL:
  // "Reading Failed – Boy, you got a problem";
    break;

  case NOMAIL:
  //"No mail... – No worries!";
    break;

}

How to send e-mail:

mail->SendMail("Saeed","GWBush@usa.com;Osma@Kabul.com",
  "Stop fighting. Make Love, not war.");

How to log off from your e-mail:

//Log off to avoid memory leakage

if(mail)
{
mail->LogoffMail();
delete mail;
}

Piece of cake? You bet.

Demo:

Follow the steps as numbered.

1. Enter your e-mail address in the edit control. This is the account that will be used for testing.
2. Click the send button a few times (say 2).
3. Click the Send/Receive message button of Microsoft Outlook instead of waiting for Outlook to do its checking every few minutes. DO NOT OPEN YOUR E-MAILS in Outlook; the messages will be marked as READ and that is not what we want for this test.
   After you have fetched the e-mail messages sent by this application to your INBOX, you can proceed.
4. Click the Read button – At every click, one UNREAD e-mail is read and displayed. Use the scroll slider to view.

Although I have developed this code on Windows 2000 only, I don’t anticipate any problems to pop up on the NT or XP platforms. However, if you run into any problems, please contact me in a civilized manner with a clear explanation of what the problem is.

Share what you know and ask what you don’t!

// MailMan.h: interface for the CMailMan class.
//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//need to include mapi headers files mapix,mapiutil,
//mapitags,mapi (.h)
#if !defined(AFX_MAILMAN_H__99148C57_15FD_4D06_9D9E_5A66AD50E95A__INCLUDED_)
#define AFX_MAILMAN_H__99148C57_15FD_4D06_9D9E_5A66AD50E95A__INCLUDED_
#if _MSC_VER > 1000
#pragma once
#endif // _MSC_VER > 1000
enum status { OK , CANT_LOGON , CANT_LOAD};
enum readstatus { GOTMAIL,NOMAIL ,FAILMAIL};
struct MailBox
{
  CString date;
  CString name;
  CString address;
  CString subject;
  CString notetext;
  int flag;
};
class CMailMan
{
public:
  CMailMan();
  virtual ~CMailMan();
  int ReadMail();
  int LogonMail() ;
  void LogoffMail();
  bool SendMail( CString name,
                 CString address,
                 CString Subject,
                 CString Text);
  MailBox      mailbox;
protected:
  HINSTANCE GetHandle();
  HINSTANCE hMAPILib;
public:
  LHANDLE           lhSession;
  LPMAPILOGON       lpfnMAPILogon;
  LPMAPIFINDNEXT    lpfnMAPIFindNext;
  LPMAPIREADMAIL    lpfnMAPIReadMail;
  LPMAPILOGOFF      lpfnMAPILogoff;
  LPMAPIDETAILS     lpfnMAPIDetails;
  LPMAPIFREEBUFFER  lpfnMAPIFreeBuffer;
  LPMAPISENDMAIL    lpfnMAPISendMail;
};
#endif
// !defined(AFX_MAILMAN_H__99148C57_15FD_4D06_9D9E_5A66AD50E95A__INCLUDED_)