In various cases, the email servers are accessed from within the Python applications to read emails or to implement email clients. For retrieving emails from an email server, Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) protocol is commonly used. In this article, we will show you how to read emails from a server using IMAP in Python. The article will explicitly cover how to connect to an email server, access the desired folder, and read emails.
- Python Library to Read Emails using IMAP
- Connect to an IMAP Server in Python
- Access Email Folders from Mailbox
- Read Emails from a Folder
Python Library to Read Emails using IMAP
To read emails from the email server via IMAP, we will use Aspose.Email for Python via .NET. It is a powerful email library that lets you send emails and access mailboxes from email servers. You can install the library from PyPI using the following command.
pip install Aspose.Email-for-Python-via-NETFor manual installation using a .whl file, you can follow the steps below.
- Download the installable .whl file from the downloads section.
- From the command line, use command: pip install <<FileName>>.whl to install the library.
Connect to Email Server via IMAP in Python
The following are the steps to connect to an email server using IMAP.
- Create an instance of the ImapClient class and initialize it with hostname, port, username, and password.
- Use the ImapClient object to access the mailbox.
The following code sample shows how to connect to an email server using IMAP in Python.
Access Email Folders from Mailbox in Python
Once you have established the connection to the email server, you can choose the folder from which you want to read the email messages. Let’s first check out how to get the list of all the folders in the mailbox. The following are the steps to get information about each folder.
- Create an instance of the ImapClient class and initialize it with hostname, port, username, and password.
- Use ImapClient.list_folders() method to get folders collection in an object.
- Loop through the collection and retrive folders’ details.
The following code sample shows how to print details of the folders in a mailbox.
Let’s now proceed to access a particular folder in the mailbox using IMAP.
- Create an instance of the ImapClient class and initialize it with hostname, port, username, and password.
- Use ImapClient.select_folder(string) method to select the folder.
The following code sample shows how to select an email folder from the mailbox.
Read Emails from a Folder in Python
The following are the steps to read email messages from a particular folder in the mailbox using Python.
- Create an instance of the ImapClient class and initialize it with hostname, port, username, and password.
- Use ImapClient.select_folder(string) method to select the folder.
- Get list of messages in the folder using client.list_messages() method.
- Loop through the collection of messages.
- Get details of each email message and save it to the disk if required.
The following code sample shows how to read emails from an email server in Python.
Get a Free API License
You can use Aspose.Email for Python via .NET for free by getting a temporary license.
Conclusion
In this article, you have learned how to read emails from an email server using IMAP in Python. The code samples have demonstrated how to connect to an email server, get the list of folders in the mailbox, select a folder and read emails. In addition, you can visit documentation to explore more about Aspose.Email for Python via .NET. Also, you can download the complete package of source code samples from GitHub. In case you would have any questions or queries, feel free to let us know via our forum.
