imap_headerinfo

andyltm (2010-07-08 15:17:02)

When I was testing imap_headerinfo() with an e-mail that had multiple recipients (multiple e-mails in to to: and/or cc: field), I noticed that imap_headerinfo() was failing hard for me on PHP 5.2.10-2ubuntu6.4 with Suhosin-Patch 0.9.7 (cli).
Rather than providing me an array with each and every e-mail address listed in the to and/or cc fields, it was only providing me the first listed. This was disappointing.
[to] => Array
(
[0] => stdClass Object
(
[mailbox] => game
[host] => blunts.com
)
)
Luckily, there was a cool workaround to this problem:
imap_rfc822_parse_headers(imap_fetchheader( string ); which subsequentally worked like a nice little pet would:
[to] => Array
(
[0] => stdClass Object
(
[mailbox] => game
[host] => blunts.com
)
[1] => stdClass Object
(
[mailbox] => dutch
[host] => masters.com
)
)
TL;DR:
So in other words, instead of imap_headerinfo() use imap_rfc822_parse_headers(imap_fetchheader()).
Hope this helps anyone else that runs into this issue from now into the future. This post was suggested by people in #PHP on FreeNode IRC.

trinkaus at ttNetz dot de (2010-01-31 02:32:58)

When i try to access the same mailbox through pop3 and through imap i get different update infomations.

1. Using imap 
header->udate is not the same as strtotime($header->date)
<?php
$mBox = imap_open("{host:143/imap/novalidate-cert}INBOX}", $username, $password); // open as imap
$header = imap_header($mBox, 1); // get first mails header
echo $header->udate;
echo strtotime($header->date);
?>

1. Using pop3
header->udate is the same as strtotime($header->date)
<?php
$mBox = imap_open("{host:110/pop3/novalidate-cert}INBOX}", $username, $password); // open as pop3
$header = imap_header($mBox, 1); // get first mails header
echo $header->udate;
echo strtotime($header->date);
?>

I do not know why this is so, but for this reason, i use strtotime($header->date) together with other values to create my own message-UID because this seems to work independent from the protocol.

jahservant 13 at gmail dot com (2009-12-08 15:56:48)

I'm not entirely sure why this is, but if you loop through all of the messages in a mailbox, calling imap_header() each time, you can significantly increase performance by calling imap_headers() first.

Compare this:
<?php
     $imap = imap_open("{my.server.com:143}INBOX", "user", "pass");
     $n_msgs = imap_num_msg($imap);
     $s = microtime(true);
     for ($i=0; $i<$n_msgs; $i++) {
          $header = imap_header($imap, $i);
     }
     $e = microtime(true);
     echo ($e - $s);
     imap_close($imap);
?>

With this:
<?php
     $imap = imap_open("{my.server.com:143}INBOX", "user", "pass");
     $n_msgs = imap_num_msg($imap);
  /****** adding this line: ******/
     imap_headers($imap)
  /***************************/
     $s = microtime(true);
     for ($i=0; $i<$n_msgs; $i++) {
          $header = imap_header($imap, $i);
     }
     $e = microtime(true);
     echo ($e - $s);
     imap_close($imap);
?>

The performance difference, as I have tested on several boxes, connecting to several different servers, is that the second code snippet ALWAYS takes 1/2 the time, if not less.

Perhaps it is because imap_headers() retrieves all of the messages on one connection, whereas imap_header() has to make a new fetch request for each message??  I'm not sure WHY it is faster if imap_headers() is called first, but I do know that it is, so I thought I'd pass on the knowledge.  If anyone knows why this is, please let me know....

aeolianmeson at exoyiga dot blitzeclipse dot com (2009-05-17 10:56:52)

I typically use UID's to identify messages, and recently discovered that the headers I had been pulling using this function and a message-number didn't match the UID's. Instead of worrying about it, I just began using imap_fetchheader() and imap_ rfc822_ parse_ headers() on its output. The only significant difference I immediately noticed was that there is no "udate" property, so I assigned one with the result of strtotime() on the 'date' property.
Dustin

php at spacefish dot biz (2009-01-27 10:57:05)

I had to pass the msgid as array($msgid) instead of an integer. the error "Invalid messageID" is generated if i pass an integer.

ron at NOSPAM dot clicks2hits dot com (2008-11-05 17:51:37)

Simple little code for checking gmail using headerinfo

<?php /* Created on: 11/3/2008 By Ron Hickey 6tx.net/gmail_mod 
Gmail mod for admin panels or you can edit it and convert html results to XML for personal RSS reader */ 

// enter gmail username below e.g.--> $m_username = "yourusername";
$m_username = "";

// enter gmail password below e.g.--> $m_password = "yourpword";
$m_password = "";

// enter the number of unread messages you want to display from mailbox or 
//enter 0 to display all unread messages e.g.--> $m_acs = 0; 
$m_acs = 15; 

// How far back in time do you want to search for unread messages - one month = 0 , two weeks = 1, one week = 2, three days = 3,
// one day = 4, six hours = 5 or one hour = 6 e.g.--> $m_t = 6;
$m_t = 2;

//----------->Nothing More to edit below
//open mailbox..........please
$m_mail = imap_open ("{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl}INBOX", $m_username . "@gmail.com", $m_password)

// or throw a freakin error............you pig
or die("ERROR: " . imap_last_error());

// unix time gone by or is it bye.....its certanly not bi.......or is it? ......I dunno fooker 
$m_gunixtp = array(2592000, 1209600, 604800, 259200, 86400, 21600, 3600);

// Date to start search
$m_gdmy = date('d-M-Y', time() - $m_gunixtp[$m_t]); 

//search mailbox for unread messages since $m_t date 
$m_search=imap_search ($m_mail, 'UNSEEN SINCE ' . $m_gdmy . '');

//If mailbox is empty......Display "No New Messages", else........ You got mail....oh joy
if($m_search < 1){ 
$m_empty = "No New Messages";} 
else {

// Order results starting from newest message
rsort($m_search);

//if m_acs > 0 then limit results
if($m_acs > 0){ 
array_splice($m_search, $m_acs);
} 

//loop it 
foreach ($m_search as $what_ever) { 

//get imap header info for obj thang 
$obj_thang = imap_headerinfo($m_mail, $what_ever);

//Then spit it out below.........if you dont swallow 
echo "<body bgcolor=D3D3D3><div align=center><br /><font face=Arial size=2 color=#800000>Message ID# " . $what_ever . "</font>

<table bgcolor=#D3D3D3 width=700 border=1 bordercolor=#000000 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr>
<td><table width=100% border=0>
<tr>
<td><table width=100% border=0>
<tr>
<td bgcolor=#F8F8FF><font face=Arial size=2 color=#800000>Date:</font> <font face=Arial size=2 color=#000000>" . date("F j, Y, g:i a", $obj_thang->udate) . "</font></td>
<td bgcolor=#F8F8FF><font face=Arial size=2 color=#800000>From:</font> <font face=Arial size=2 color=#000000>" . $obj_thang->fromaddress . "</font></td>
<td bgcolor=#F8F8FF><font face=Arial size=2 color=#800000>To:</font> <font face=Arial size=2 color=#000000>" . $obj_thang->toaddress . " </font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr><tr><td bgcolor=#F8F8FF><font face=Arial size=2 color=#800000>Subject:</font> <font face=Arial size=2 color=#000000>" . $obj_thang->Subject . "</font></td></tr><tr>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table><a href=http://gmail.com target=_blank><font face=Arial size=2 color=#800000>Login to read message</a></font><br /></div></body>";

}} echo "<div align=center><font face=Arial size=4 color=#800000><b>" . $m_empty . "</b></font></div>";
//close mailbox bi by bye
imap_close($m_mail);
?>

scott at fuzzygroup dot com (2002-11-11 09:13:11)

If you want to extract values from to, from, or other header elements, they are an object and you need to loop over them i.e.
$header = imap_header($mbox, $message_id);
$from = $header->from;
foreach ($from as $id => $object) {
$fromname = $object->personal;
$fromaddress = $object->mailbox . "@" . $object->host;
}
Would give you two variables for the friendly from and the smtp from address
Thanks to www.natrak.net for help with this