Implementation: How to retrieve and send emails for different Gmail accounts?

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+1 Q:

Implementation: How to retrieve and send emails for different Gmail accounts?

Hello all,

I need advice and how to got about setting up a simple service for my users. I would like to add a new feature where users can send and receive emails from their gmail account. I have seen this done several times and I know its possible.

There use to be a project for "Libgmailer" at sourceforge but I think it was abandoned. Is anyone aware of anything similar?

I have found that Gmail has a Python API but my site is making use of PHP.

I really need ideas on how to best go about this!

Thanks all for any input

Well if Google didn't come up with anything personally I'd see if I could reverse engineer the Python API by implementing it and watching it with a packet sniffer. My guess is it's just accessing some web service which should be pretty easy to mimic regardless of the language you're using.

Spencer Ruport 2009-03-17 21:55:45

Or you could just use SMTP and IMAP/POP to send/receive email through Gmail.

Kurt 2009-03-18 10:15:03

Google only allows SSL encrypted SMTP and POP3 which is kind of a pain to set up.

Spencer Ruport 2009-03-18 20:08:28

+6 A:

any library/source that works with imap or pop will work.

Tim 2009-03-17 21:56:17

Like PHPMailer? Also would I have to do what Kevin Laity asked in his Answer?

Abs 2009-03-17 22:04:37

yes, they would have to enable pop or imap in that case.

Tim 2009-03-17 22:10:30

Sorry to keep going in circles. You say "that case", does that mean not in your case?

Abs 2009-03-17 22:14:41

@abs, when talking about 'case' perhaps he is referring to the fact that pop/imap must be enabled in the users Gmail settings.

Zoredache 2009-03-17 23:37:58

yes, if you are using imap or pop access you need to do what Kevin says - the users need to enable it.

Tim 2009-03-18 01:18:55

Just a thought, Gmail supports POP/IMAP access. Could you do it using those protocols? It would mean asking your users to go into their gmail and enable it though.

Kevin Laity 2009-03-17 21:58:33

Any other way without them having to enable it?

Abs 2009-03-17 22:04:00

The only other possibility I think is something that actually pretends to be a browser and parses the html that gmail sends. It would be a risk though, in case they ever do a major revamp of their html.

Kevin Laity 2009-03-18 13:37:31

ansaurus

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Implementation: How to retrieve and send emails for different Gmail accounts?

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