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40

answers:

1

I want to make an application witch involves logging into google. It is basically a small application to always have your gmail with you without always having to go to the web browser and log in. Basically what I want to do is, when the person signs into their google account (or the page url changes) I want the webbrowser to refresh and go to a new point in the form and create an animation using a timer. I dont need help with the animation, I just need to know how to link it together with the person signing into google. And also, If it's possible I would like to have the person log in without the actual google web interface, but with 2 textboxes and a button. I am using Visual Studio 2008 and help with my application would be greatly appreciated!

+1  A: 

One of the great things about GMail is that it gives you Pop3 access to the mailbox. Your application should be able to use Pop3 to login to the mailbox directly and not require the user to use the google web page (or any web page) at all.

This would be much more secure and fault tolerant than highjacking a browser session or scraping a web page for emails (as your application would break as soon as google updated the gmail app or the user changed their preferences).

You should be able to find numerous Pop3 tutorials, libraries and samples on the net (and most probably here on SO).

If you still insist to use the web browser control, you should investigate crafting your own HTTP-Post query to the page that takes the GMail login. Once you craft the correct message (including the user's username and password as the appropriate POST variables) you should be able to login directly.

Finally, you might want to have a look around on code.google.com as I'm certain this has been done before and you will most likely be able to find some sample code (whichever way you go).

Good Luck!

Sam Pride
I want to be able to access all the google services though, not just gmail. I am not looking to make an email client, I want to be able to use Google search, maps, etc.
David
oh, I see sorry didn't read your whole answer, Thank You!
David
the WebClient class would be a great starting point:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.webclient%28VS.80%29.aspx
Sam Pride