Posts Tagged ‘VB.NET’

Send iCalendar meeting requests for different timezone

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

Usually you define time of an event in relation to UTC time zone.

If you need to define event on 9:00 o’clock in Alaska you simply need
to subtract 9 hours from event time to get the event time in UTC
(18:00:00). 18 – 9 = 9.

It all works great in December (Alaska is UTC-9), but in May, daylight
saving time is in effect in Alaska (Alaska is UTC-8 then).

If the event is recurring, in May, event is going to be held on 10:00
Alaska time (18 – 8 = 10). Which is most likely not what you want.

As the time zones in different parts of world change way to often to reflect these changes in Mail.dll,
you’ll need to specify the time zone when creating new event (including the daylight savings time).

Here’s the sample:

// C#
using Fluent = Lesnikowski.Mail.Fluent;
using Lesnikowski.Client;
using Lesnikowski.Mail;
using Lesnikowski.Mail.Appointments;

Appointment appointment = new Appointment();

// Create time zone
VTimeZone alaska = appointment.AddTimeZone();
alaska.TimeZoneId = "America/Anchorage";

// Define standard time offset
var standardRecurring = new RecurringRule();
standardRecurring.Frequency = Frequency.Yearly;
standardRecurring.ByDay.Add(Weekday.Sunday);
standardRecurring.ByMonths.Add(11);

var standard = new StandardOffset
{
    Name = "AKST",
    Start = new DateTime(1970, 11, 01, 02, 00, 00),
    OffsetFrom = TimeSpan.FromHours(-8),
    OffsetTo = TimeSpan.FromHours(-9),
    RecurringRule = standardRecurring
};

// Define daylight time offset
var daylightRecurring = new RecurringRule();
daylightRecurring.Frequency = Frequency.Yearly;
daylightRecurring.ByDay.Add(new Weekday(2, Weekday.Sunday));
daylightRecurring.ByMonths.Add(3);

var daylight = new DaylightOffset
{
    Name = "AKDT",
    Start = new DateTime(1970, 03, 08, 02, 00, 00),
    OffsetFrom = TimeSpan.FromHours(-9),
    OffsetTo = TimeSpan.FromHours(-8),
    RecurringRule = daylightRecurring
};

alaska.Standard.Add(standard);
alaska.Daylight.Add(daylight);

// Define event
Event e = appointment.AddEvent();
e.Start = new DateTime(2007, 08, 17, 12, 00, 00);
e.End = new DateTime(2007, 08, 17, 12, 30, 00);
e.Summary = "At noon in Alaska";
e.InTimeZone(alaska);

e.SetOrganizer(new Person("Alice", "alice@example.org"));

e.AddParticipant(new Participant(
    "Bob", "bob@example.org", ParticipationRole.Required, true));
e.AddParticipant(new Participant(
    "Tom", "tom@example.org", ParticipationRole.Optional, true));
e.AddParticipant(new Participant(
    "Alice", "alice@example.org", ParticipationRole.Required, true));

Alarm alarm = e.AddAlarm();
alarm.BeforeStart(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15));

IMail email = Fluent.Mail
    .Text("Status meeting at noon in Alaska.")
    .Subject("Status meeting")
    .From("alice@example.org")
    .To("bob@example.org")
    .To("tom@example.org")
    .AddAppointment(appointment)
    .Create();

using (Smtp smtp = new Smtp())
{
    smtp.Connect("smtp.example.org"); // or ConnectSSL
    smtp.Login("user", "password");
    smtp.SendMessage(email);
    smtp.Close();
}
' VB.NET
Imports Fluent = Lesnikowski.Mail.Fluent
Imports Lesnikowski.Client
Imports Lesnikowski.Mail
Imports Lesnikowski.Mail.Appointments

Dim appointment As New Appointment()

' Create time zone
Dim alaska As VTimeZone = appointment.AddTimeZone()
alaska.TimeZoneId = "America/Anchorage"

' Define standard time offset
Dim standardRecurring = New RecurringRule()
standardRecurring.Frequency = Frequency.Yearly
standardRecurring.ByDay.Add(Weekday.Sunday)
standardRecurring.ByMonths.Add(11)

Dim standard = New StandardOffset() With { _
	.Name = "AKST", _
	.Start = New DateTime(1970, 11, 1, 2, 0, 0), _
	.OffsetFrom = TimeSpan.FromHours(-8), _
	.OffsetTo = TimeSpan.FromHours(-9), _
	.RecurringRule = standardRecurring _
}

' Define daylight time offset
Dim daylightRecurring = New RecurringRule()
daylightRecurring.Frequency = Frequency.Yearly
daylightRecurring.ByDay.Add(New Weekday(2, Weekday.Sunday))
daylightRecurring.ByMonths.Add(3)

Dim daylight = New DaylightOffset() With { _
	.Name = "AKDT", _
	.Start = New DateTime(1970, 3, 8, 2, 0, 0), _
	.OffsetFrom = TimeSpan.FromHours(-9), _
	.OffsetTo = TimeSpan.FromHours(-8), _
	.RecurringRule = daylightRecurring _
}

alaska.Standard.Add(standard)
alaska.Daylight.Add(daylight)

' Define event
Dim e As [Event] = appointment.AddEvent()
e.Start = New DateTime(2007, 8, 17, 12, 0, 0)
e.[End] = New DateTime(2007, 8, 17, 12, 30, 0)
e.Summary = "At noon in Alaska"
e.InTimeZone(alaska)

e.SetOrganizer(New Person("Alice", "alice@example.org"))

e.AddParticipant(New Participant( _
	"Bob", "bob@example.org", ParticipationRole.Required, True))
e.AddParticipant(New Participant( _
	"Tom", "tom@example.org", ParticipationRole.[Optional], True))
e.AddParticipant(New Participant( _
	"Alice", "alice@example.org", ParticipationRole.Required, True))

Dim alarm As Alarm = e.AddAlarm()
alarm.BeforeStart(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15))

Dim email As IMail = Fluent.Mail _
	.Text("Status meeting at noon in Alaska.") _
	.Subject("Status meeting") _
	.From("alice@example.org") _
	.[To]("bob@example.org") _
	.[To]("tom@example.org") _
	.AddAppointment(appointment) _
	.Create()

Using smtp As New Smtp()
	smtp.Connect("smtp.example.org") 	' or ConnectSSL
	smtp.Login("user", "password")
	smtp.SendMessage(email)
	smtp.Close()
End Using

Mail.dll .NET email spam filter

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Mail.dll .NET email component includes high accuracy anti-spam filter.

It uses enhanced naive Bayesian classifier, specifically modified to handle email messages. Bayesian spam filters are a very powerful technique for dealing with spam.

In our tests we achieved 99,6% accuracy with very low false positive spam detection rates (9 false positives in 54’972 emails tested – that’s 0.016%).

Training

First in the learning phase, you need to teach the classifier to recognize spam and non-spam (ham) messages. You need to prepare 100-200 spam and ham messages.

I suggest using following folder structure:

“Learn” folder is used for training the filter. Both spam and ham folders should contain around 100-200 messages each (the more the better). The number of messages in spam and ham folders must be equal. You can find a spam archive on the bottom of the article.

Messages must be in eml format with correct line endings (rn or 13 10 hex).

Now we use SpamFilterTeacher class to teach BayesianMailFilter:

// C#
using Lesnikowski.Mail.Tools.Spam;

BayesianMailFilter filter = new BayesianMailFilter();
SpamFilterTeacher teacher = new SpamFilterTeacher(filter);
teacher.TeachSpam(@"c:bayeslearnspam");
teacher.TeachHam(@"c:bayeslearnham");

Testing

“Test” folder is used for testing our filter:

// C#

SpamTestResults r = teacher.Test(
    @"c:bayestestspam",
    @"c:bayestestham");

Console.WriteLine(r);
r.FalsePositives.ForEach(Console.WriteLine);
r.NotMarkedAsSpam.ForEach(Console.WriteLine);

The results should be similar to this:

Accuracy=0.9949, False positives=9, Not marked as spam=271, Tests count=54972
c:bayestestham�16874.eml
...

When the filter is trained and the results are satisfactory, you can save it to disk:

// C#

filter.Save("c:\20111022.mbayes");

Using

You can load the filter from disk and check individual messages:

// C#

BayesianMailFilter filter = new BayesianMailFilter();
filter.Load("c:\20111022.mbayes");

// you can use Mail.dll to download mesage from POP3 or IMAP server:
string eml = ... 

IMail email = new MailBuilder().CreateFromEml(eml);

SpamResult result = filter.Examine(email);
Console.WriteLine(result.Probability);
Console.WriteLine(result.IsSpam);

If the filter incorrectly recognizes the message you can train it again:

// C#

filter.LearnSpam(email);
// - or -
filter.LearnHam(email);

filter.Save("c:\20111022.mbayes");

Spam archives

For most recent spam you can check this great archive: http://www.untroubled.org/spam/.
Unfortunately messages don’t have correct extension (*.eml) and line endings are incorrect.

You can download spam archive including 7874 spam messages from Oct 2011 here:
http://www.lesnikowski.com/mail/spam/spam201110.zip

OAuth with Gmail

Friday, October 21st, 2011

OAuth is an open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.

In this post I’ll show how to access Gmail account using 3-legged OAuth authentication method. The key advantage of this method is that it allows an application to access user email without knowing user’s password.

You can read more on OAuth authentication with Google accounts here:
http://code.google.com/apis/accounts/docs/OAuth_ref.html

Gmail IMAP and SMTP using OAuth:
http://code.google.com/apis/gmail/oauth/protocol.html

If your application/website is not registered, you should use following key and secret:
consumer key: “anonymous”
consumer secret: “anonymous”

Remember to add reference to Maill.dll and appropriate namespaces.

// C#

using Lesnikowski.Client.IMAP;
using Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication;
using Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication.Google;

const string userEmailAccount = "pat@gmail.com";
const string consumerKey = "anonymous";
const string consumerSecret = "anonymous";

GmailOAuth oauth = new GmailOAuth(
    consumerKey, consumerSecret);

string url = oauth.GetAuthorizationUrl("http://localhost:64119/");

Process.Start(url);
// You can use Response.Redirect(url) in ASP.NET

string oauthVerifier = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(Console.ReadLine());
// You can use Request["oauth_verifier"].ToString() in ASP.NET

oauth.GetAccessToken(oauthVerifier);

using (Imap client = new Imap())
{
    client.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com");
    string oauthImapKey = oauth.GetXOAuthKeyForImap();
    client.LoginOAUTH(oauthImapKey);

    // Now you can access user's emails
    //...

    client.Close();
    oauth.RevokeToken(oauthImapKey);
}

1.
GmailOAuth.GetAuthorizationUrl method returns url you should redirect your user to so he can authorize access.
As you can see Mail.dll is asking for access to user’s email information and Gmail access:

2.
If you don’t specify callback parameter, user will have to manually copy&paste the token to your application:

In case of a web project, you can specify a web address on your website. oauth_verifier will be included as the redirection url parameter.

After the redirection, your website/application needs to read oauth_verifier query parameter:

3.
GmailOAuth.GetAccessToken method authorizes the token.

4.
GmailOAuth.GetXOAuthKeyForImap method uses Google API to get the email address of the user, and generates XOAuth key for IMAP protocol (you can use GetXOAuthKeyForSmtp for SMTP).

5.
GmailOAuth.RevokeToken method revokes XOAuth key, so no further access can be made with it.

…and finally VB.NET version of the code:

' VB.NET

Imports Lesnikowski.Client.IMAP
Imports Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication
Imports Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication.Google

Const userEmailAccount As String = "pat@gmail.com"
Const consumerKey As String = "anonymous"
Const consumerSecret As String = "anonymous"

Dim oauth As New GmailOAuth(consumerKey, consumerSecret)

Dim url As String = oauth.GetAuthorizationUrl("http://localhost:64119/")

Process.Start(url)
' You can use Response.Redirect(url) in ASP.NET

Dim oauthVerifier As String = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(Console.ReadLine())
' You can use Request["oauth_verifier"].ToString() in ASP.NET

oauth.GetAccessToken(oauthVerifier)

Using client As New Imap()
	client.ConnectSSL("imap.gmail.com")
	Dim oauthImapKey As String = oauth.GetXOAuthKeyForImap()
	client.LoginOAUTH(oauthImapKey)

	' Now you can access user's emails
	'...

	client.Close()
	oauth.RevokeToken(oauthImapKey)
End Using

2-legged OAuth with Gmail

Friday, October 21st, 2011

OAuth is an open protocol to allow secure API authorization in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.

In this post I’ll show how to access Gmail account using 2-legged OAuth authentication method. The basic idea is that domain administrator can use this method to access user email without knowing user’s password.

You can read more on OAuth authentication with Google accounts here:
http://code.google.com/apis/accounts/docs/OAuth_ref.html

Gmail IMAP and SMTP using OAuth:
http://code.google.com/apis/gmail/oauth/protocol.html

Remember to add reference to Maill.dll and appropriate namespaces.

// C#

using Lesnikowski.Client.IMAP;
using Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication;
using Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication.Google;

const string consumerKey = "example.com";
const string consumerSecret = "secret";
const string email = "pat@example.com";

Gmail2LeggedOAuth oauth = new Gmail2LeggedOAuth(
    consumerKey, consumerSecret);

using (Imap client = new Imap())
{
    client.ConnectSSL(TestConstants.GmailImapServer);

    string oauthImapKey = oauth.GetXOAuthKeyForImap(email);

    client.LoginOAUTH(oauthImapKey);

    //...

    client.Close();
}
' VB.NET

Imports Lesnikowski.Client.IMAP
Imports Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication
Imports Lesnikowski.Client.Authentication.Google

Const  consumerKey As String = "example.com"
Const  consumerSecret As String = "secret"
Const  email As String = "pat@example.com"

Dim oauth As New Gmail2LeggedOAuth(consumerKey, consumerSecret)

Using client As New Imap()
	client.ConnectSSL(TestConstants.GmailImapServer)

	Dim oauthImapKey As String = oauth.GetXOAuthKeyForImap(email)

	client.LoginOAUTH(oauthImapKey)

	'...

	client.Close()
End Using

Here are the google apps configuration screens:

FTP Active vs Passive

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Ftp.dll .NET FTP component supports both Active and Passive mode FTP transfers.

In Active mode client waits for incomming data connections, in Passive mode client establishes data connections.

Passive mode is default. You can switch to Active mode using Mode property:

// C#

using (Ftp client = new Ftp())
{
    client.Mode = FtpMode.Active;

    client.Connect("ftp.example.com");
    client.Login("user", "password");

    // ...

    client.Close();
}
' VB.NET

Using client As New Ftp()
    client.Mode = FtpMode.Active

    client.Connect("ftp.example.com")
    client.Login("user", "password")

    ' ...

    client.Close()
End Using