Verify email confirmation using Selenium

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Email confirmation seems to be integral part of any registration process.
I came across an application which lets you provide your email address. You can follow the sign up link in you mail and then complete the registration process.
Lets consider we provide GMail address for it. Now if were to use only Selenium then we would have to follow following steps -

Launch GMail using Selenium; Some how search for new mail in the list of available mails; Some how click on it; Parse the mail message; Get the registration link; Follow up with registration process

What do you think of an approach in which you can

Access GMail using plain java APIs (This in turn uses pop3 or imap); Reach the desired message; Get the registration link; Follow up with registration process

This approach looks far cleaner as we don't have to have UI interaction with GMail.
Java API which I am talking about here is Java Mail. You could find more details on this here -
And here goes the magic code -

	import javax.mail.Authenticator;
	import javax.mail.Flags;
	import javax.mail.Folder;
	import javax.mail.Message;
	import javax.mail.MessagingException;
	import javax.mail.PasswordAuthentication;
	import javax.mail.Session;
	import javax.mail.Store;
	import javax.mail.internet.InternetAddress;
	import javax.mail.search.FromTerm;
	import java.io.BufferedReader;
	import java.io.InputStreamReader;
	public class MailHelper {
	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	Properties props = System.getProperties();
	props.setProperty("mail.store.protocol", "imaps");
	Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props, null);
	Store store = session.getStore("imaps");
	store.connect("imap.gmail.com", "secretmail@gmail.com",
	"qwerty!@#$%");
	Folder folder = store.getFolder("INBOX");
	folder.open(Folder.READ_WRITE);
	System.out.println("Total Message:" + folder.getMessageCount());
	System.out.println("Unread Message:"
	+ folder.getUnreadMessageCount());
	Message[] messages = null;
	boolean isMailFound = false;
	Message mailFromGod= null;
	//Search for mail from God
	for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
	messages = folder.search(new SubjectTerm(
	"Welcome to Heaven"),
	folder.getMessages());
	//Wait for 10 seconds
	if (messages.length == 0) {
	Thread.sleep(10000);
	}
	}
	//Search for unread mail from God
	//This is to avoid using the mail for which
	//Registration is already done
	for (Message mail : messages) {
	if (!mail.isSet(Flags.Flag.SEEN)) {
	mailFromGod = mail;
	System.out.println("Message Count is: "
	+ mailFromGod.getMessageNumber());
	isMailFound = true;
	}
	}
	//Test fails if no unread mail was found from God
	if (!isMailFound) {
	throw new Exception(
	"Could not find new mail from God :-(");
	//Read the content of mail and launch registration URL
	} else {
	String line;
	StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
	BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
	new InputStreamReader(mailFromGod
	.getInputStream()));
	while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
	buffer.append(line);
	}
	System.out.println(buffer);
	//Your logic to split the message and get the Registration URL goes here
	String registrationURL = buffer.toString().split(">http://www.god.de/members/?")[0]
	.split("href=")[1];
	System.out.println(registrationURL);
	}
	}
	}

view raw seemailverify.java hosted with ❤ by GitHub

And now you can launch registrationURL using Selenium and continue with testing :-)