JavaMail API core classes

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The javax.mail and javax.mail.internet package consist the commonly used core classes for JavaMail API.

Commonly used core classes of JavaMail API:

  1. javax.mail.Session
  2. javax.mail.Message
  3. javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage
  4. javax.mail.Address
  5. javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress
  6. javax.mail.Authenticator
  7. javax.mail.Transport
  8. javax.mail.Store
  9. javax.mail.Folder

 

1. javax.mail.Session:

The Session class is the primary class for JavaMail API. The Session object is used to handle configuration setting and authentication and it actss as the connection factory for the JavaMail API.

We can get the Session object from getDefaultInstance() or getInstance() method of Session class.

getDefaultInstance(): This method returns the default session.

Syntax of getDefaultInstance():

public static Session getDefaultInstance(Properties props)

public static Session getDefaultInstance(Properties props, Authenticator auth)

getInstance(): This method returns the new session.

Syntax of getInstance():

public static Session getInstance(Properties props);

public static Session getInstance(Properties props, Authenticator auth);

2. javax.mail.Message:

The Javax.mail.Message class is used to create or compose an email message. It is an abstract class so its subclass javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage is mostly used.

To create a message we have to pass session object in MimeMessage class constructor.

MimeMessage message=new MimeMessage(session);

After creating the message object we can store information in it. MimeMessage class provides the methods to store the information in it.

Commonly used methods of MimeMessage class:

1. setFrom(Address address): It is used to store the from header field.

Syntax: 

public void setFrom(Address address)

2. addRecipients(Message.RecipientType type, String addresses): It is used to add the given address to the recipient type.
Syntax: 

public void addRecipient(Message.RecipientType type, Address address)

3. addRecipients(Message.RecipientType type, Address[] addresses): It is used to add the given address to the recipient type.
Syntax: 

public void addRecipients(Message.RecipientType type, Address[] addresses)

4. setSubject(String subject): It is used to set the subject header field.
Syntax: 

public void setSubject(String subject)

5. setText(String textmessage): It is used to set the text as the message content using text/plain MIME type.
Syntax: 

public void setText(String textmessage)

6. setContent(Object msg, String contentType): It is used to set the text as the message content using text/plain MIME type.
Syntax: 

public void setContent(Object msg, String contentType)

Three predefined address types in Message class:

  1. Message.RecipientType.TO
  2. Message.RecipientType.CC
  3. Message.RecipientType.BCC

3. javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage:

The javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage class is the subclass of Javax.mail.Message class. A MimeMessage is an e-mail message that understands MIME types and headers.

4. javax.mail.Address:

The javax.mail.Address class an abstract class that defines the addresses like from,to etc in a message. As it is an abstract class so its subclass javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress is mostly used.

We can create an Address object by passing email address or name along with the email address.

Syntax: 

Address address = new InternetAddress("emailAddress");

Address address = new InternetAddress("emailAddress", name);

5. javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress:

The javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress is the subclass of javax.mail.Address class. It represents an Internet email address using the syntax of RFC822.

6. javax.mail.Authenticator:

The javax.mail.Authenticator is an abstract class which is used to protect mail resources on the mail server. PasswordAuthentication is its subclass and we can create a PasswordAuthentication object by passing username and password in its constructor.
Syntax: 

PasswordAuthentication auth = new PasswordAuthentication("userName", "password")

7. javax.mail.Transport:

The javax.mail.Transport is an abstract class which is used to send the message.
Syntax: 

Transport.send(message);

8. javax.mail.Store:

The javax.mail.Store is an abstract class that models a message store and its access protocol, for storing and retrieving messages.

9. javax.mail.Folder:

The javax.mail.Folder is an abstract class that represents a folder for mail messages. A folder can contain subfolders.
 
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