Electronic mail is the most prevalent application in computer networking and its use has evolved beyond the simple exchange of text messages between two people. For the developer, e-mail provides a reliable means for sending and receiving messages where the protocols are based on well-known and widely used standards. The Catalyst Internet Mail .NET class provides an interface to e-mail services, allowing developers to easily implement this functionality in their own software without requiring general knowledge of network programming or specific application protocols.
The Internet Mail .NET class provides a single interface for composing, sending and retrieving e-mail messages. Instead of using separate components to format, retrieve and send messages, the developer can use a single interface for much of the same functionality without the inherent complexity and coding. For most applications, this is the only component that will be needed to process e-mail messages. However, in some cases a program may require the advanced features of a specific SocketTools control, such as sending extended authentication commands or server-specific options. In this situation, the InternetMail class can be seamlessly integrated with the other SocketTools components to build a more complex solution that requires a greater degree of customization.
The Internet Mail .NET component is managed code class designed specifically for the Visual Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2005 development tools. This edition of the product is ideal for the developer who is programming in Visual Basic .NET or C# on the Windows platform. If you are currently using the Internet Mail ActiveX control with Visual Basic .NET or Visual C#.NET then we strongly recommend that you move to the Internet Mail .NET component. You'll see improved performance and a more natural interface that makes the product much easier to work with. If you're planning on migrating your application to the Visual Studio .NET platform, many of the the properties, methods and events are the same. Although there are some differences between the two editions in terms of the interface, those differences are minor. Both versions of the product provide the same general functionality and support the same Internet application protocols.