Suppose I have an email address that only receives a specific type of email, i.e. an automatically generated receipt email from a transaction.
I would like to build an iOS app to receive the email text from this email address and parse according to a predefined format and display the results. Is it possible to do this without dealing with the email server directly from the app?
Meaning can I for instance piggyback off the native mail client (assuming it is set up to receive pushed email sent to the email address). I tried looking through Apple's docs for iOS but could not find anything useful. Anyone know of something?
3rd party apps have no way to integrate with the Mail app or to make use of any configured mail account the user has setup on the device.
However, you can write an app that can access external email accounts if the user provides all of the usual email account details. The App Store has several 3rd party mail apps that serve as replacements for Apple's Mail app.
If your app is written to work with a specific email account, and not one entered by the user of the app, then you can hardcode all of the account details in the app.
Your app is basically a run of the mill email client. You just have to know how to access IMAP or POP3 accounts, retrieve the emails, and process them as needed.
Again, there is no way your app can intercept or make use of any emails accessed by any email accounts the user has setup for use with the standard Mail app.