PHP : Function Reference : IMAP, POP3 and NNTP Functions : imap

Example 1057. Different use of imap_open()

<?php
// To connect to an IMAP server running on port 143 on the local machine,

// do the following:
$mbox = imap_open("{localhost:143}INBOX", "user_id", "password");

// To connect to a POP3 server on port 110 on the local server, use:
$mbox = imap_open ("{localhost:110/pop3}INBOX", "user_id", "password");

// To connect to an SSL IMAP or POP3 server, add /ssl after the protocol

// specification:
$mbox = imap_open ("{localhost:993/imap/ssl}INBOX", "user_id", "password");

// To connect to an SSL IMAP or POP3 server with a self-signed certificate,

// add /ssl/novalidate-cert after the protocol specification:
$mbox = imap_open ("{localhost:995/pop3/ssl/novalidate-cert}", "user_id", "password");

// To connect to an NNTP server on port 119 on the local server, use:
$nntp = imap_open ("{localhost:119/nntp}comp.test", "", "");
// To connect to a remote server replace "localhost" with the name or the

// IP address of the server you want to connect to.
?>

Example 1058. imap_open() example

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<?php

$mbox = imap_open("{imap.example.org:143}", "username", "password");


echo "<h1>Mailboxes</h1>\n";
$folders = imap_listmailbox($mbox, "{imap.example.org:143}", "*");


if ($folders == false) {

    echo "Call failed<br />\n";

} else {

    foreach ($folders as $val) {

        echo $val . "<br />\n";

    }

}


echo "<h1>Headers in INBOX</h1>\n";
$headers = imap_headers($mbox);


if ($headers == false) {

    echo "Call failed<br />\n";

} else {

    foreach ($headers as $val) {

        echo $val . "<br />\n";

    }

}

imap_close($mbox);
?>

Code Examples / Notes » imap_open

To open local mailbox ( mbox ) enter its absolute file name. >an absolute filename >This specifies a mailbox in the default format (usually >Berkeley format for most default library builds) source: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/CodeDoc/Mail-Cclient/Cclient.html

To authenticate using kerberos V / GSSAPI, you might need to add "user=" to the connection string.. eg: $mbox = imap_open( "\{imap.example.com:143/imap/notls/user=" . $user . "}INBOX", $user, $passwd ); Our IMAP servers won't allow a user other than the user specified in the kerberos credentials connect using those credentials unless you specify that extra "user=" in the connection string. Passing it as an argument to imap_open() doesn't seem to be enough.

The only way I made a connection to my IMAP server was using the following syntax -> MAILSERVER="{imap.example.com:143/imap/notls}"; and not MAILSERVER="{imap.example.com:143}"; That was for a REDHAT 7.1 imapd daemon. I searched a lil bit before figuring this one out ;-) rleroy@avantages.com

thanks to the one who added that the login part should be the whole email address for it to work.. (assuming of course that all other stuff is good and working ;) to add something, in the 'email address' login name, is not really the email address, ,it's the pop login name plus '@' plus the domain.. hope it's not confusing... poploginname@domain.com not emailaddress@domain.com..

Thanks for all your comments. The user comments have saved me countless times. I'd like to give back in my small way by providing this little tip. To test your pop or imap services you can use telnet (almost all operating systems should come with a command line telnet client). Here's the pop3 example (the lines that start with + are the server's response): telnet your.pop.host.com 110 +OK POP3 your.pop.host.com v2001.78 server ready user your_username +OK User name accepted, password please pass your_password +OK Mailbox open, 23 messages Note that your pop server may be on some other port than 110 but that is the default/standard. Here's the imap example (Lines that have OK near the begining are server responses): telnet your.imap.host.com 143 * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4REV1...] 1 LOGIN "your_username" "your_password" 1 OK [CAPABILITY...] ... User your_username authenticated This might be old news to some people but I hope it's helpful for many.

Setting a mailbox name (eg INBOX) at the end of the connection string does not work when using imap_open() with OP_HALFOPEN. You may use imap_reopen() then. <?php /* this will fail : */ $connection = imap_open('{mx.example.net}INBOX', 'foo', 'secret', OP_HALFOPEN.); $num_mgs = imap_num_msg($connection); imap_close($connection); /* this will do : */ $connection = imap_open('{mx.example.net}INBOX', 'foo', 'secret', OP_HALFOPEN.); imap_reopen($connection, '{mx.example.net}INBOX'); $num_mgs = imap_num_msg($connection); imap_close($connection); ?>

Regarding PHP.net's CONNECT TO POP3 SERVER command above, I have a modification for some people that might help.. For my mail server, it only accepts mail.server.com types of addresses, so if you are having trouble, try using this method: $mailbox = imap_open ("{mail.YOURSITE.com:110/pop3}INBOX", "YOURUSERNAME", "YOURPASSWORD");

Note about "PHP Warning: Certificate failure" I'm not sure if this is a RedHat, PHP, or IMAP library issue, but the default for SSL seems to have changed. You now need to specify "/notls" when you don't want TLS, rather than only needing to specify "/ssl" when you do. Example: "{localhost:143}INBOX" becomes: "{localhost:143/notls}INBOX"

None of the above comments explain the configuration issues on Apache/Windows combination. I thought it might be helpful to list my findings here so that Windows people's time is saved. There is a bug in Windows php_imap.dll that prevents it from connecting it to the SSL IMAP/POP3 server. http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=36496&edit=1

Looking for a cool PHP Script to help you connect to a POP3 server, and download E-Mail to MySQL? Check out my neet-skeet script I wrote. Have fun. Http://www.sellchain.com/phPOP3/phPOP3.txt Download the above TXT file, and rename it to phPOP3.php. Trust me, you will learn mostly everything about IMAP with this script. By the way, be sure to use print_r($headers) to discover the headers that come with each message. You can setup your MySQL + Email Account information at the top of the script. No includes required! Enjoyz;)

Just wanted to add that you cannot have any white space between your {}'s. it took me a little while to figure that out. "{127.0.0.1:110/pop3}INBOX" is correct while "{ 127.0.0.1:110/pop3 } INBOX" is not. Also, if you forget to put INBOX, it may connect but wont return anything. just a heads up to anyone else who might have misinterpreted the manuals instructions.

Just a note concerning "empty mailbox" error in case it helps somebody out there. whenever the mailbox was empty, I kept on getting errors of the type "Warning: imap_header()..." as there were no messages to read headers of. Reading through here I sussed that the first entry in "imap_errors()" gives you a clear "Mailbox is empty" if this is the case. Knowing this, I can now code for not continuing with headers, etc if the mailbox is empty, something like: $foo = imap_errors(); if($foo[0] !== "Mailbox is empty"){check headeres etc... }; Cheers

It would be nice to mention that this function does send headers. It makes sense, but it is not obvious. It took me a while to figure it out. I authenticate against a POP3 server, and set a cookie if the authentication validates. At least I wanted to :) But since it sends a header to the server, setcookie() won't work.

In reference to not being able to use $var in the server string: Because of the way the complex string expansion works, you would have to use a pair of { at the beginning (and if you were doing this for another reason, e.g. an echo, a pair of } at the end). It's the combination of the { and the $ in the beginning that is causing PHP 4 & 5 to "eat" the first {. Also, do not forget to end the expansion point with } after the variable name. <?php $svr = 'mail.myserver.com'; $rs = imap_open("{{$svr}:143}INBOX", 'user_id', 'password'); ?> References: See the complex string expansion section on http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php

In order to make a IMAP connection to a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, I used this connection-string : <?php if(imap_open ("{192.168.1.6:143/imap}Inbox", "DOMAIN/USERNAME/ALIAS", "PASSWORD")) { echo 'Connection success!'; } else { echo 'Connection failed'; } ?> By replacing "Inbox" with, e.g. "Tasks", its possible to see all your tasks. I Hope this helps anybody! Regards

imap_open will not open a stream if your server operates with Transport Layer Security (i.e. TLS) imap_open connects with SSL if its there. So try opening mailbox as $mailbox="{mail.domain.com:143/imap/notls}"; or $mailbox="{mail.domain.com:110/pop3/notls}"; This works... Some mail server requires you to provide username@domain.com so you can always use. user@doamin.com $conn=imap_open($mailbox, $username, $password); Some server may ask for username as "user=user@domain.com" :)

IMAP, POP and NNTP are ok. But plaintext mailboxes are unmentioned here. You just forget the {part} and go for the file (tested on unix): $mbox = imap_open ($a_mail_box_file_name_in_home_dir, "", "") || die("Snif...: ".imap_last_error());

If you use cyrus, passwords shadow via saslauth, check this: > =====IMAPD.conf====== > configdirectory: /var/imap > partition-default: /var/spool/imap > sievedir: /var/imap/sieve > tls_cert_file: /etc/cyrusimapd/server.crt > tls_key_file: /etc/cyrusimapd/server.key > admins: cyrus > hashimapspool: yes > allowanonymouslogin: no > allowplaintext: yes > unixhierarchysep: 0 > servername: mail.garage.com > sasl_pwcheck_method: saslauthd > mech_list: plain login Make this sasl_mech_list: plain login

I've found that on my servers I _must_ use imap_errors() and imap_alerts() after an imap_open or this error is thrown in the logs when the mailbox is empty: [error] PHP Warning: (null)(); Mailbox is empty (errflg=1) in Unknown on line 0

I was trying to use the example code above to connect to a POP mailbox, but no matter how I arranged the elements of the mailbox name, the script hung on the imap_open() command, and never came back. No error message, no timeout - the browser just spins. Strangely, the same syntax worked just fine for a local mailbox. I did some Googling, and it looks like many others are having the same problem. Finally, I got it to work using the following syntax: $mbox = imap_open( "{yourmailserver.com/pop3:110/notls}INBOX", "username", "password" ); Note that the port information comes AFTER the "/pop3" bit, which is contrary to the examples given above. I have no idea if this is correct or not, but it works for me :) FWIW, I'm using PHP 4.1.2. Also - others here have suggested using the "/notls" part, but haven't explained what it does: it explicitly requests a non-SSL connection.

I was getting bizzare errors that I couldn't find documentation about anywhere on Google. I tried connecting to another server and got different, but just as unusual error messages. I even checked the POP3 server logs and it said something about invalid command... I figured it was another libc problem. Stupidly enough, the problem was that I was using an unset variable for the password! Make sure you don't have an empty username or password... you'll have a hard time debugging the problem ;)

I ran into the PHP Warning: Certificate failure for <server>: self signed certificate: message while upgrading 4.0.6->4.1.2. I'm pleased to report that {<server>:<port>/imap/tls/novalidate-cert}<mailbox> works as expected (and fixes my problem). I'm using IMP 2.2.8.

I only run imap on port 993 (ssl only) and I was unable to use imap_open().. couldn't even get an error out of the script, it just sat there and timed out with no messages in the logs or anything--the page wouldn't load. Anyway, this is what finally worked, which I found in the readme for a popular opensource webmail system: $i = @imap_open("{localhost:993/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX", $user, $pw); I didn't see the 'ssl' option mentioned anywhere in these comments so maybe this will help someone out.

I have found that the syntax for the imap_open command in PHP 4 differs whether you're passing a variable to the imap_open function or declaring the host directly within the function. If you are passing variables to the imap_open function, the syntax should look like: $username = "user"; $password = "password"; $mailserver = "mail.somedomina.com:110/imap"; $link = imap_open("\{$mailserver}INBOX",$username,$password); If you don't include the leading backslash (\) you will not open the stream. Likewise you cannot pass the curly braces to the function. If you define the server directly, omit the leading backslash. $username = "user"; $password = "password"; $link = imap_open("{mail.somedomain.com:110/pop3}",$username,$password)" I discovered all of this after 3 days of trying to get all of this work on redhat 7.1.

I have a single comment to add about imap_open. If you want to connect to a news server, without specifying any news gruop, you can use the following: $server = "{news.servername.com/nntp:119}"; $nntp = imap_open($server,"","",OP_HALFOPEN); and $nntp will become the connection ID. Regards //Babak

I have a little trouble while trying to connect to gmail server: $link = imap_open('{pop.gmail.com:995/pop3/tls/validate-cert}INBOX', $login, $pass); Error is: Warning: imap_open() [function.imap-open]: Couldn't open stream {pop.gmail.com:995/pop3/tls/validate-cert}INBOX What should I do?

I had been having lots of trouble trying to get imap_open to connect to an imap server. Then I found another post online that suggested this and it worked, so I am going to post it here. I hope this helps others.. "I have tried with the following strings instead and it works: for pop3: {www.server.com:110/pop3/notls}INBOX and for imap: {www.server.com:143/notls}INBOX.

I can connect to my email server with no problem using regular usernames and passwords but.... in my server the usernames are long.. like name.surname1.surname2@subdomain.domain.com , and i get an error when the username size is over 40 chars: $conn = imap_open("{". $server . ":110/pop3}", $username, $user_password) or die ("Failed with error: ".imap_last_error()); returns Too many login failures when the username is over 40 chars. Just remember that if you plan to use long usernames.

hi Note for all having problems to connect hosts using imap_open: I spent almost week trying to fix my script which was connecting to localhost but was unable to connect any other host. Sollution was actually wery simple but I'm writing that note becouse there are some posts at usenet or forums decribing similiar problems. And actually I haven't found any answer for that. So for all of you trying to connect to hosts with imap_open CHECK IF THERE IS NO FIREWALL BLOCKING POP3. madsiuk

For all imap functions where you specify the mailbox string it is important that you ALWAYS use IP (not hostname) and the portnumber. If you do not do this imap functions will be painfully slow. Using hostname instead of IP adds 3 seconds to each IMAP call, not using portnumber adds 10 seconds to each imap call. (hint: use gethostbyname() )

By default, imap_open() will retry an incorrect password 3 times before giving up. This is a feature built into the c-client library intended for interactive mail clients (which can prompt the end user for a new username/password combo.) The new optional parameter "$n_retries" allows PHP to override the default retry limit. There is absolutely no reason to leave this at default, or to set it to any value other than 1. This is especially important if the mail server you're using locks users out after too many login failures.

Be careful about how you specify the string (at least on PHP5). It looks like you need to break out of the "string" if you specify the server name within a variable. <?php //DOES NOT WORK: imap_open("{$server:143/novalidate-cert}". $mailbox,$username,$password) //DOES WORK: imap_open("{".$server.":143/novalidate-cert}". $mailbox,$username,$password) //ALSO WORKS: imap_open("{imap.servername.com:143/novalidate-cert}". $mailbox,$username,$password) ?>

a little tip for those who get really frustrated even after reading all the right solutions and implementing them but still get the same errors or none at all..: after having changed the code.. restart the httpd deamon.. for Fedora or any other Red Hat Linux OS (/etc/init.d/httpd restart). After this you will be able to make a imap/pop3 stream from apache..

A better way to connect to a mail server would be to use uri syntax, for example: imap://username:password@server.com:143/INBOX/message/part this is very easy to parse using 'parse_url()' Remember to keep your username and password hidden if your over an open network

"notls" seems to be required for PHP on RedHat 8.0, but it seems that "/norsh" is also advisable; without it, the client library will attempt an RSH connection and wait for this to timeout before reverting to normal IMAP. This was causing a 15 second delay in imap_open for me. Looking at the client lib C code this will likely be an issue on other platforms as well as they update to the newer version. You can use both "/notls" and "/norsh", e.g. the first parameter to imap_open can be something like: "{your.imap.host/imap/notls/norsh}".

imap_open

Open an IMAP stream to a mailbox (PHP 4, PHP 5)
resource imap_open ( string mailbox, string username, string password [, int options [, int n_retries]] )

Example 1057. Different use of imap_open()

Example 1058. imap_open() example

Code Examples / Notes » imap_open

Change Language

imap_open

Open an IMAP stream to a mailbox (PHP 4, PHP 5) resource imap_open ( string mailbox, string username, string password [, int options [, int n_retries]] )

Example 1057. Different use of imap_open()

Example 1058. imap_open() example

Code Examples / Notes » imap_open

Change Language

Open an IMAP stream to a mailbox (PHP 4, PHP 5)
resource imap_open ( string mailbox, string username, string password [, int options [, int n_retries]] )