How to send an email with C++

Question

I'm making a program that supports email functionality within a web browser. I want it to be able to email people and I'm trying to find out how I can accomplish this using C++. Could someone please help?

Answer 1

I've tried sending email with CURL and with libesmtp.
Both are good, although I like CURL more because it can work asynchronously.
Also, I have a header-only curl wrapper. Sending email with it is as simple as:

long rc = Curl().send ("Subject: subject\r\n\r\n" "text\r\n") .smtp ("from", "to") .go().status();
if (rc != 250) std::cerr << "Error sending email: " << rc << std::endl;

Answer 2

Sockets are your best bet. Your best resource for sockets in C and C++ is: http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/

For an implementation try here: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=300530

Answer 3

If you are on Windows, I have used Dundas Ultimate TCP/IP with great results.

Answer 4

If all else fails, you could always write the mail to a file and try using system(3) to invoke mail(1).

$ mail -s 'OMG!' mybff@example.com < mymailfile

Answer 5

All you have to do is use a library that lets you use an SMTP server (Simple mail transfer protocol). What platform are you developing this for?

Answer 6

You will need to install an SMTP server (supposing you are on windows), or use sendmail if on linux. If you do not wish to install an SMTP server, you can use an external one as specified in some examples.