Introducing the JavaMail API

As you have seen, e-mail systems have relatively complex architectures and use a selection of transport protocols. In the past, a developer wanting to send or retrieve e-mail messages would have to use TCP sockets and, using an appropriate protocol, talk directly to an e-mail server. As you can imagine, coding such applications was typically involved and intensive. Alternatively, a developer would have to use a vendor-specific API to access e-mail functionality, locking their code into one platform or technology. The JavaMail API changes all of this.

The API provides a generic model of an e-mail system, which allows you to send and retrieve messages in a platform independent and protocol independent way. In addition, JavaMail allows you to simply create different types of messages, such as plain text, those with attachments, or those with mixed binary content. Sun Microsystems' reference implementation of JavaMail supports the three most popular e-mail protocols—SMTP, POP3, and IMAP. Other protocols are available separately, for example, there are third-party implementations that support IMAP over SSL and NNTP.