PHP Manual: imap

Description

resource imap_open ( string mailbox, string username, string password [, int options] )

Returns an IMAP stream on success and FALSE on error. 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.

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

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

Table 1. 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)

The options 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_EXPUNGE - Silently expunge recycle stream
OP_SECURE - Don't do non-secure authentication

Example 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.
?>

Example 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);
?>