Overview of JavaMail APIs

The JavaMail APIs only provide general mail facilities for reading and sending mail. These APIs require service providers to implement the protocols.

Service providers implement specific protocols. For example, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a transport protocol for sending e-mail. Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3 ) is the standard protocol for receiving e-mail. Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an alternative protocol to POP3.

In addition to service providers, JavaMail requires the JavaBeans Activation Framework (JAF) to handle mail content that is not plain text. For example, this includes MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), URL (Uniform Resource Locator) pages, and file attachments.

The JavaMail APIs, the JAF, the service providers and the protocols are shipped as part of WebSphere Application Server - Express using the following Sun licensed packages:

• mail.jar : This JAR file contains JavaMail APIs, and the SMTP, IMAP, and POP3 service providers.
• activation.jar: This JAR file contains the JavaBeans Activation Framework.

Note: These JAR files are located in the Java extensions directory for WebSphere Application Server - Express (/QIBM/ProdData/WebASE/ASE5/java/ext).