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Visual Basic 6.0

Examine Junk/NonJunk Flags on Outlook.com and GMail

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Examines the Junk and NonJunk FLAGS for IMAP on Outlook.com and GMail.com.

Chilkat Visual Basic 6.0 Downloads

Visual Basic 6.0
Dim success As Long
success = 0

Dim imap As New ChilkatImap

' This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
' See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

' Connect to the outlook.com IMAP server.
' We'll do the same for GMail below..
' Use TLS
imap.Ssl = 1
imap.Port = 993
success = imap.Connect("imap-mail.outlook.com")
If (success <> 1) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Login
success = imap.Login("myAccount@outlook.com","OUTLOOK_PASSWORD")
If (success <> 1) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Begin keeping a log of the session here.
imap.KeepSessionLog = 1

' Select an IMAP mailbox
success = imap.SelectMailbox("Inbox")
If (success <> 1) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' The LastResponse property contains the full response of the last command.
' The response to the SELECT mailbox command shows the FLAGS that can be set
' for emails in the mailbox.
Dim selectResponse As String
selectResponse = imap.LastResponse
Debug.Print selectResponse

' The response to "SELECT Inbox" looks like this:
' There are no FLAGS for Junk/NonJunk..

' * 4 EXISTS
' * 0 RECENT
' * FLAGS (\Seen \Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Draft $MDNSent)
' * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Seen \Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Draft $MDNSent)] Permanent flags
' * OK [UIDVALIDITY 14] UIDVALIDITY value
' * OK [UIDNEXT 1719] The next unique identifier value
' aaac OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed.

' Fetch the flags for each message in the mailbox.
' Prior to running this example, (using Mozilla Thunderbird) I marked one of the emails
' in my outlook.com Inbox as Junk.  
Dim sequenceNum As Long
sequenceNum = 1
Do While sequenceNum <= imap.NumMessages
    Dim flags As String
    flags = imap.FetchFlags(sequenceNum,0)
    Debug.Print sequenceNum & ": " & flags
    sequenceNum = sequenceNum + 1
Loop

' The output of the above loop is this:

' 	1: \Seen
' 	2: \Seen
' 	3: \Seen
' 	4: \Seen

' As you can see, nothing is marked as Junk/Spam.  This concurs with the list of FLAGS
' documented in the response to the SELECT command.  Apparently, there is no flag for junk/nonjunk
' for outlook.com.  Mozilla Thunderbird must be storing additional information about particular
' emails locally.  (In other words, perhaps the Junk/NonJunk flag is information stored locally 
' by Thunderbird, and is not a flag set on the server.)

Debug.Print "---- Session Log ----"
Debug.Print imap.SessionLog

' The session log looks like this:

' 	----IMAP REQUEST----
' 	aaac SELECT "Inbox"
' 	----IMAP RESPONSE----
' 	* 4 EXISTS
' 	* 0 RECENT
' 	* FLAGS (\Seen \Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Draft $MDNSent)
' 	* OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Seen \Answered \Flagged \Deleted \Draft $MDNSent)] Permanent flags
' 	* OK [UIDVALIDITY 14] UIDVALIDITY value
' 	* OK [UIDNEXT 1719] The next unique identifier value
' 	aaac OK [READ-WRITE] SELECT completed.
' 	----IMAP REQUEST----
' 	aaad FETCH 1 (FLAGS)
' 	----IMAP RESPONSE----
' 	* 1 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen))
' 	aaad OK FETCH completed.
' 	----IMAP REQUEST----
' 	aaae FETCH 2 (FLAGS)
' 	----IMAP RESPONSE----
' 	* 2 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen))
' 	aaae OK FETCH completed.
' 	----IMAP REQUEST----
' 	aaaf FETCH 3 (FLAGS)
' 	----IMAP RESPONSE----
' 	* 3 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen))
' 	aaaf OK FETCH completed.
' 	----IMAP REQUEST----
' 	aaag FETCH 4 (FLAGS)
' 	----IMAP RESPONSE----
' 	* 4 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen))
' 	aaag OK FETCH completed.

success = imap.Disconnect()

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Now let's check GMail..
' Again, I've marked one email as Junk.

imap.KeepSessionLog = 0
imap.Ssl = 1
imap.Port = 993
success = imap.Connect("imap.gmail.com")
If (success <> 1) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Login
success = imap.Login("myAccount@gmail.com","GMAIL-IMAP-PASSWORD")
If (success <> 1) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

imap.KeepSessionLog = 1

success = imap.SelectMailbox("Inbox")
If (success <> 1) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

selectResponse = imap.LastResponse
Debug.Print selectResponse

' The response to GMail "SELECT Inbox" looks like this:

' * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $Forwarded $NotPhishing $Phishing $label1 $label2 $label3 $label4 $label5 Junk NonJunk)
' * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $Forwarded $NotPhishing $Phishing $label1 $label2 $label3 $label4 $label5 Junk NonJunk \*)] Flags permitted.
' * OK [UIDVALIDITY 3] UIDs valid.
' * 46 EXISTS
' * 0 RECENT
' * OK [UIDNEXT 4147] Predicted next UID.
' * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 403404]
' aaai OK [READ-WRITE] Inbox selected. (Success)

sequenceNum = imap.NumMessages
Dim minSeqNum As Long
minSeqNum = 1
If (sequenceNum > 10) Then
    minSeqNum = sequenceNum - 10
End If

Do While sequenceNum >= minSeqNum
    Dim flags As String
    flags = imap.FetchFlags(sequenceNum,0)
    Debug.Print sequenceNum & ": " & flags
    sequenceNum = sequenceNum - 1
Loop

' The output (for GMail) of the above loop is this:

' 	46: Junk \Seen
' 	45: NonJunk \Answered \Seen
' 	44: NonJunk \Seen
' 	43: \Answered \Seen
' 	42: \Answered \Seen
' 	41: NonJunk \Seen
' 	40: NonJunk \Answered \Seen
' 	39: NonJunk \Seen
' 	38: NonJunk \Seen
' 	37: NonJunk \Seen
' 	36: NonJunk \Seen

' As you can see, the email I marked as "Junk" using Mozilla Thunderbird has the Junk flag set.
' This concurs with GMail's list of FLAGS.  Apparently, since the IMAP server has a "Junk" flag,
' Thunderbird set it when I marked the email as Junk. 

success = imap.Disconnect()