imap_open

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

imap_open — Open an IMAP stream to a mailbox

Descripción

imap_open(
    string $mailbox,
    string $user,
    string $password,
    int $flags = 0,
    int $retries = 0,
    array $options = []
): IMAP\Connection|false

Opens an IMAP stream to a mailbox.

This function can also be used to open streams to POP3 and NNTP servers, but some functions and features are only available on IMAP servers.

Parámetros

mailbox

A mailbox name consists of a server and a mailbox path on this server. The special name INBOX stands for the current users personal mailbox. Mailbox names that contain international characters besides those in the printable ASCII space have to be encoded with imap_utf7_encode().

Advertencia

El paso de datos no confiables a este parámetro es inseguro, a menos que imap.enable_insecure_rsh esté inhabilitado.

The server part, which is enclosed in '{' and '}', consists of the servers name or ip address, an optional port (prefixed by ':'), and an optional protocol specification (prefixed by '/').

The server part is mandatory in all mailbox parameters.

All names which start with { are remote names, and are in the form "{" remote_system_name [":" port] [flags] "}" [mailbox_name] where:

remote_system_name - Internet domain name or bracketed IP address of server.
port - optional TCP port number, default is the default port for that service
flags - optional flags, see following table.
mailbox_name - remote mailbox name, default is INBOX

**Optional flags for names**
Flag	Description
`/service=`service	mailbox access service, default is "imap"
`/user=`user	remote user name for login on the server
`/authuser=`user	remote authentication user; if specified this is the user name whose password is used (e.g. administrator)
`/anonymous`	remote access as anonymous user
`/debug`	record protocol telemetry in application's debug log
`/secure`	do not transmit a plaintext password over the network
`/imap`, `/imap2`, `/imap2bis`, `/imap4`, `/imap4rev1`	equivalent to `/service=imap`
`/pop3`	equivalent to `/service=pop3`
`/nntp`	equivalent to `/service=nntp`
`/norsh`	do not use rsh or ssh to establish a preauthenticated IMAP session
`/ssl`	use the `Secure Socket Layer` to encrypt the session
`/validate-cert`	validate certificates from TLS/SSL server (this is the default behavior)
`/novalidate-cert`	do not validate certificates from TLS/SSL server, needed if server uses self-signed certificates
`/tls`	force use of `start-TLS` to encrypt the session, and reject connection to servers that do not support it
`/notls`	do not do `start-TLS` to encrypt the session, even with servers that support it
`/readonly`	request read-only mailbox open (IMAP only; ignored on NNTP, and an error with SMTP and POP3)

user

The user name

password

The password associated with the user

flags

The flags are a bit mask with one or more of the following:

OP_READONLY - Open mailbox read-only
OP_ANONYMOUS - Don't use or update a .newsrc for news (NNTP only)
OP_HALFOPEN - For IMAP and NNTP names, open a connection but don't open a mailbox.
CL_EXPUNGE - Expunge mailbox automatically upon mailbox close (see also imap_delete() and imap_expunge())
OP_DEBUG - Debug protocol negotiations
OP_SHORTCACHE - Short (elt-only) caching
OP_SILENT - Don't pass up events (internal use)
OP_PROTOTYPE - Return driver prototype
OP_SECURE - Don't do non-secure authentication

retries

Number of maximum connect attempts

options

Connection parameters, the following (string) keys maybe used to set one or more connection parameters:

DISABLE_AUTHENTICATOR - Disable authentication properties

Valores devueltos

Returns an IMAP\Connection instance on success, o false en caso de error.

Historial de cambios

Versión	Descripción
8.1.0	Returns an IMAP\Connection instance now; previously, a recurso was returned.

Ejemplos

Ejemplo #1 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.
?>

Ejemplo #2 imap_open() example

<?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);
?>

Ver también

imap_close() - Close an IMAP stream

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User Contributed Notes 18 notes

down

php at dsgvoseidank dot de ¶

2 years ago

Google dropped the support of user/password authentication as of 30 may 2022.
imap_open can not be used anymore, without the support of xoauth2.
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255

There is a ToDo from 2020 that didn't make it.
https://wiki.php.net/todo/ext/imap/xoauth2

The only way is to switch to a third party lib. "php-imap"
This is so sad.

down

neekToO ¶

2 years ago

To reply to "dsgvoseidank" saying it doesnt work anymore with Gmail :

As today 26 august 2022 it is still working but you need to use google parameters to generate a password for your app on a 2FA account

down

kay at rrr dot de ¶

14 years ago

imap_open is very simple to use, but struggles a litte bit on setups with ssl and tls.

this are tested examples for different hosts and protocols.

uncomment the host/protocol line and fill in correct username and password.

Kay

<?php

#######
# localhost pop3 with and without ssl
# $authhost="{localhost:995/pop3/ssl/novalidate-cert}";
# $authhost="{localhost:110/pop3/notls}";

# localhost imap with and without ssl
# $authhost="{localhost:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}";
# $authhost="{localhost:143/imap/notls}";
# $user="localuser";

# localhost nntp with and without ssl
# you have to specify an existing group, control.cancel should exist
# $authhost="{localhost:563/nntp/ssl/novalidate-cert}control.cancel";
# $authhost="{localhost:119/nntp/notls}control.cancel";

######
# web.de pop3 without ssl
# $authhost="{pop3.web.de:110/pop3/notls}";
# $user="kay.marquardt@web.de";

#########
# goggle with pop3 or imap
# $authhost="{pop.gmail.com:995/pop3/ssl/novalidate-cert}";
# $authhost="{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}";
# $user="username@gmail.com";

$user="username like above";
$pass="yourpass";

if ($mbox=imap_open( $authhost, $user, $pass ))
        {
         echo "<h1>Connected</h1>\n";
         imap_close($mbox);
        } else
        {
         echo "<h1>FAIL!</h1>\n";
        }

?>

down

jeff at newscloud dot com ¶

10 years ago

One of the issues with gmail IMAP SSL authentication is related to Google's account security.

Once you get the login error once, sign out of all your google accounts. Then, visit this link:
http://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

Log in with the account you're attempting to access via imap.

Follow the steps and you'll then be able to login in to gmail with php imap.

It's visually shown here:
http://jeffreifman.com/filtered-open-source-imap-mail-filtering-software-for-php/configuring-gmail/

down

guilherme dot geronimo at gmail dot com ¶

14 years ago

Using: 

<?php

imap_open( "{server.example.com:143}INBOX" , 'login' , 'password' );

?>



Got this error:

"Couldn't open stream {server.example.com:143}INBOX" 



Solved by adding the flag "novalidate-cert":

<?php

imap_open( "{server.example.com:143/novalidate-cert}INBOX" , 'login' , 'password' );

?>



=D

down

hashampel at yahoo dot de ¶

10 years ago

Subfolders of INBOX have to be seperate by dot like this: 'INBOX.test'
$mailbox = '{example.example.com:143/imap/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test'

down

dominic_mayers at yahoo dot com ¶

7 years ago

This code demonstrates features that are not well documented at this time. The main feature is that the selected mailbox in imap_open (or reopen)  and the specified mailbox in other imap functions are unrelated.  It has been tested with Gmail and with a Dovecot IMAP server.  The mailbox separator depends on the server. Gmail: "/"  Dovecot: "."  If you want to test with Gmail, you need to turn on "Access for less secure apps" in your account.
 
<?php
  // Change these.
  $server    = "{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}"; 
  $email     = "example@gmail.com"; 
  $password  = "password";
 
  // The code assumes that the folders Test/Sub1/Sub11, etc. exist. 
  $selected  = "{$server}Test/Sub1/Sub12";
  $conn      = imap_open($selected, $email , $password);

  // This returns the $specified mailbox and its sub mailboxes, 
  // even if the $specified mailbox is outside the $selected mailbox. 
  $specified =  "{$server}Test/Sub1"; 
  $boxes     = imap_list($conn, $specified , '*');
  print_r($boxes);
  
  // This appends the message in the $specified mailbox. 
  // It ignores the $selected mailbox. 
  imap_append($conn, $specified
                     , "From: me@example.com\r\n"
                     . "To: you@example.com\r\n"
                     . "Subject: test\r\n"
                     . "\r\n"
                     . "this is a test message, please ignore\r\n");

  // This changes the $selected mailbox
  $selected = "{$server}Test/Sub1"; 
  imap_reopen($conn, $selected); 

  // This moves a message from the $selected to the $specified mailbox
  // In this case, the specified mailbox does not include the server. 
  imap_mail_move ($conn , "1" ,  "Test"); 
  imap_expunge($conn); 
  imap_close($conn);
  // If you executed this code with a real IMAP server, 
  // the message is now in the Test mailbox !
?>

down

me at achronos dot ca ¶

10 years ago

Do not bother using "/debug" flag in $mailbox or OP_DEBUG in $options. They do not do anything.

When you set either one, the underlying IMAP c-client library will gather protocol debugging data and pass it back to PHP.
However, the debug handler defined by PHP is an empty function, it doesn't do anything.

So unless you're using a customized version of the IMAP extension that does something with that handler (mm_dlog), there is no point using "/debug" or OP_DEBUG.

down

LANGE.LUDO ¶

6 years ago

If you get Kerberos errors like:
« Notice: Unknown: Kerberos error: Credentials cache file '/tmp/krb5cc_0123' not found (try running kinit) ».

Try to add as a $param:
<?php array('DISABLE_AUTHENTICATOR' => 'GSSAPI') ?>

eg.
<?php
$imap_stream = imap_open('{mail.domain.tld:993/imap/ssl}' , 'username' , 'password', null, 1, array('DISABLE_AUTHENTICATOR' => 'GSSAPI'));
?>

down

Lisboa ¶

9 years ago

The error: Unknown: Mailbox is empty (errflg=1) in Unknown on line 0
appears when:

1)  use imap_open to connect 
2) then use imap_search ALL to retrieve emails

but there are no messages available. To avoid this error, check first the number of messages in a mailbox using imap_status. Only if there are messages available then you can use the imap_search.

down

Anonymous ¶

6 years ago

Function to test most of the possible options of a connection:

function imapConfig($options, $i=0, $till = array()) {
        if(sizeof($options)==$i)
            return $till;
        
        if(sizeof($till)==0)
            $till[] = '';
        
        $opt = $options[$i];
        $new = array();
        foreach($till as $t) {
            foreach($opt as $o) {
                if(strlen($o)==0)
                    $new[] = $t;
                else
                    $new[] = $t.'/'.$o;
            }
        }
        return imapConfig($options, $i+1, $new);
    }

function imap_test($server, $port, $dir, $username, $passw) {
        $options = array();
        //$options[] = array('debug');
        $options[] = array('imap', 'imap2', 'imap2bis', 'imap4', 'imap4rev1', 'pop3'); //nntp
        $options[] = array('', 'norsh');
        $options[] = array('', 'ssl');
        $options[] = array('', 'validate-cert', 'novalidate-cert');
        $options[] = array('', 'tls', 'notls');
        
        $configOptions = imapConfig($options);
        foreach($configOptions as $c) {
            $mbox = @imap_open("{".$server.":".$port.$c."}".$dir, $username, $passw);
            echo "<b>{".$server.":".$port.$c."}".$dir."</b> ... ";
            if (false !== $mbox) {
                echo '<span style="color: green"> success</span>';
            }
            else {
                echo '<span style="color: red"> failed</span>';
            }
            echo '<br>';
        }
    }

imap_test('mail.server.de', 143, 'INBOX', 'username', 'pwd');

down

liamr at umich dot edu ¶

20 years ago

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.

down

shaikh_zaid at yahoo dot com ¶

18 years ago

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"

:)

down

frederik at roal dot no ¶

22 years ago

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() )

down

rvarkelen AT hortimax.nl ¶

20 years ago

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

down

brojann at netscape dot com ¶

23 years ago

You can do



<? $foo = imap_errors(); ?>



to clear unwanted warning messages like 'Mailbox is empty'

down

m dot stoel at cyberkinetic dot nl ¶

19 years ago

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..

down

Stefano ¶

2 years ago

``There is one thing I learned over the years,
if someone says: "it's not possible", prove them wrong.`` ~ Stefano Kocka '99

test date: 2022-11-20
php version: PHP 8.0.10 (cli)
extension=imap
extension=openssl

imap: IMAP c-Client Version => 2007f
SSL Support => enabled

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en

<?php
$cnx = '{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}';
$mbox = imap_open($cnx, 'user@gmail.com', 'MyAppPassword');
$folders = imap_listmailbox($mbox, $cnx, '*');
print_r($folders);
/*
Array
(
    [0] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}INBOX
    [1] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}LABEL1
    [2] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}LABEL2
    [3] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}Queue
    [4] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}[Gmail]/All
    [5] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}[Gmail]/Drafts
    [6] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}[Gmail]/Sent
    [7] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}[Gmail]/Spam
    [8] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}[Gmail]/Starred
    [9] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/readonly}[Gmail]/Trash
)
*/
?>
Kind regards

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