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Description

Domain Concepts

Post Office Protocol facilitates a user to retrieve mail messages that the server is holding for the user. It lets a user login to a POP3 server and retrieve mail messages from a remote workstation. The user can access the a server on the Internet and run any user agent that understands and speaks the Post Office Protocol. Normally mail transport systems use SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to send mail messages and POP3 (Post Office Protocol) to receive mail messages.

The POP3 session passes through three stages : authorization, transaction, and update.


User Interface

This section provides a detailed description of the POP3 Main Screen layout. It provides the user step-by-step instructions to use each of the Main Screen components.

{short description of image}Note : The POP3 UserInterfaceBean has been explained with respect to demo application. This application provides the container for the bean and interacts with it via menu options. It must be noted, however, that the menu is not a part of the actual UserInterfaceBean. The user can implement this interface according to the requirements of the application that will be developed. e.g. the options in the menu of the demo application can either be buttons or part of a toolbar in an application developed by an application builder.

tocPOP3 Main Screen

The POP3 Main Screen is as shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1 - POP3 Main Screen

The Main Screen contains five main components :

Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is located at the top of the Main Screen. It contains two menu items File and Message.

File Menu - The File Menu is as shown in Figure 2. The File Menu contains the following options :

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Figure 2 - File menu

Message Menu - The Message Menu appears as shown in Figure 3. The Message Menu contains the following two options :

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Figure 3 - Message menu
  1. Inbox option is selected to move a specified mail message from current folder to Inbox folder.
  2. Trash option is selected to move a specified mail message from current folder to Trash folder.

{short description of image}Note : - Currently Inbox and Trash are the only two folders supported into which mails can be moved.

Folder Selection Area

The Folder selection consists of a drop-down list box labelled Select Folder with two options Inbox and Trash.

  1. Inbox contains all the mail messages downloaded from the POP3 Server.
  2. Trash contains the mail messages which are marked for deletion. The messages in the Trash can be retrieved using the Move To Folder option described above.
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Figure 4 - Select Folder Drop-Down menu

To Delete a Mail

  1. Select the message to be deleted from the Mail-List window.
  2. Select Message from the Menu Bar.
  3. Select Delete Selected from Message drop-down menu.
    Figure 5 shows a "deleted" message in the Trash folder
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Figure 5 - Mail List Window (Trash folder)

Message-Read Status

Message-Read Status area is to the right of Folder Selection area. It gives the status of the number of mails in the current folder and number of unread mail messages.

Mail-List Window

Mail-List Window is located just below the Folder Selection area. It displays summary information for the messages in the currently selected folder.

Body Window

Body Window is located below the Mail-List window. It displays the content of the selected mail message, which consists of the header information, subject, body of the mail etc.

Status Bar

Status Bar is located at the bottom of the Main Screen. It displays the status information such as error messages, status information from server etc.


tocConfiguration

The POP3 suite of beans provides the facility to configure certain preferences. Following are some of the preferences the user can configure :

Configuring User Preferences

To Configure user preferences

  1. Select File from the Menu Bar.
  2. Select the Configure option from the File menu. The Configuration dialog box as shown in Figure 6 appears.
  3. Type in the following:
  4. Select the OK button to close the Configuration dialog box and save the changes.
  5. Select the Cancel button to close the Configuration dialog box without saving the changes.
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Figure 6 - Configuration dialog box (User tab)

Configuring a Server

To Configure Server Preferences

  1. Select File from the Menu Bar.
  2. Select the Configure option from the Filemenu.
    This displays the Configuration dialog box as shown in Figure 7.
  3. Select the Servers tab.
  4. Type in the following information :
  5. Select theOK button to close the Configuration dialog box and save the information.
  6. Select the Cancel button to close the Configuration dialog box without saving the information.
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Figure 7- Configuration dialog box (Server tab)

Configuring Miscellaneous preferences

To configure Miscellaneous preferences

  1. Select File menu from the Menu Bar.
  2. Select the Configure option from the drop-down File menu.
  3. Select Misc tab from Configuration dialog box.
  4. Type in the absolute path of the directory where all the messages are to be stored. It is important that the messages and *.summary files created in this directory are not tampered with, since it will result in the loss of stored messages.

    If the specified path does not exist, an error message dialog box appears with the following message, "The configured folder directory does not exist. Create ?". To create the specified directory select the OK button, or Cancel to close the dialog box. If the path exists , it is checked if it is a valid existing directory name. If it is not, the error dialog box appears with the following message, "The folder directory name is not valid . Please enter a valid name". This error message will also be displayed if the folder directory has not been set.

  5. Select the OK button to Close the Configuration dialog box and save the changes.
  6. Select Cancel button to Close the Configuration dialog box without saving the changes.
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Figure 8- Configuration dialog box (Miscellaneous tab)

tocReceiving mail

To receive mail from the POP3 server to the Inbox folder

  1. Select File from the Menu Bar.
  2. Select Receive Messages option from the File drop-down menu.
  3. Mail messages will be listed as they are received, as shown in Figure 9 .
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Figure 9 - Mail-List Window (Inbox Folder)

tocRead mail messages

To read the received mail

  1. Select the mail to be read from the Mail-List area by clicking on its header.
  2. This displays the messages along with the header information, attachments etc. in the Body Window .

Refer to Figure 10 a sample of a mail with header, body part and attachment

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Figure 10 - Mail Display Screen

To read the Attachment file

  1. Right click on the Attachment icon.
  2. The Save option pops up as shown in Figure 11appears.
  3. Click on the Save option.
  4. Select the directory, where the file is to be saved.
  5. Start the application in which the file can be opened.
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Figure 11 - Attachment file