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Open email folder

This action connects to an email server and opens the selected email folder.

Application name

Specify the name for the application.

Assign different application names to applications in a Robot to avoid errors.

Protocol

Select the email protocol used to connect to the email server: Select from "imap", "pop3," and their secure variants "imaps," "imap+tls," and "pop3s." The option "imap+tls" is for email servers requiring opportunistic TLS.

Email server

Specify the name or address of the email server.

Email server port (optional)

Specify a port number of the email server. If not provided, the standard port of the selected protocol is used.

Account name and Password

Enter credentials to log in to the email server.

Path in mailbox (optional)

The name of the folder to open on the email server. It may be in the form of a path for a nested folder, in which case the elements in the path must be separated with slashes. To open the folder where the incoming email is stored, do not provide any path or name.

Examples: Junk E-Mail, Subscriptions/Mailing lists.

Leave this field blank when using the POP3 or POP3S protocols, as POP3 does not support folders.

The opened folder is represented in the application tree. A folder can contain zero or more messages. Each message has a der_index property that indicates its place in the folder. Indexes start at 1 and are consecutive.

To retrieve the attachments, select the Get attachment component action.

Application actions

The following application action is available.

Action

Description

Close email folder

Closes the application.

Component actions

The following component actions are available.

Action

Description

Copy message

For IMAP and IMAPS protocols. Copies the selected message to the specified target folder. The availability of the action depends on whether the email server supports the copy operation.

Delete message

Removes an email message.

Get message content

Returns a string value containing the message and headers in RFC 822 format.

Open message as HTML

Opens an email as an HTML web page, using the Chromium built-in browser. Operates on a row in an opened email table.

Move message

For IMAP and IMAPS protocols. Moves the selected message to the specified target folder. The availability of the action depends on whether the email server supports the move operation.

Mark message as read

For IMAP and IMAPS protocols. Flags a message as read or unread.

Select the check box Is read to mark the message as read, or clear the check box to mark the message as unread.

Get attachment

Retrieves the attachment binary data and stores it in a variable. This action is useful when the attachment is large.

To retrieve the required data, configure the following properties.

  • Index: A zero-based index of the attachment to extract.

  • Attachment data: The binary variable that stores the resulting attachment data.

POP3 or POP3S protocol restrictions

  • No folder support. The folder name on the "Open email folder" action must be empty or "INBOX."

  • Most POP3 servers delete messages after they have been downloaded.

    The expected behavior is that when you re-run a robot, the messages that were retrieved in the first run, are not shown in the Recorder view. However, the mail program may still show them.

  • Some POP3 servers do not reflect changes made through the POP3 connection on other interfaces.

    For example, when a robot deletes a message from a Gmail account using the POP3 protocol, the web browser interface may continue to show that message. For the robot, the message is deleted.

  • The Delete Message step marks a message for deletion, but it stays on the server until the application is closed.

  • The "read" or "unread" flag cannot be set.