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Welcome to php-imap-client

Hello! This is php-imap-client. This is a simple and easy to use library for connecting to imap servers and working with the emails inside. Our well-known features are:

• simple interface
• Get emails and folders
• Move, delete, count emails
• Rename, delete and
• Get attachments
• Many more

Click to open documentation

[!CAUTION] php-imap-client base on the IMAP extensions. From PHP 8.4 it will move from PHP core to PECL. The IMAP extension can still be installed from PECL but the Webklex/php-imap library doesn't need any extension.

Documentation

1. Getting started
2. Connecting
3. Errors
4. Installing
5. Methods
6. Usage
7. Examples
8. Incoming Message
9. Sending Emails
10. License

Getting started

In order to get started, we first need to get php-imap-client to your code base.
There are currently two ways of doing this.

1) Composer

composer require ssilence/php-imap-client:^3.0

2) Manually

1) Download the files from github or the releases page
2) Extract the files into the folder you wish
3) In the file that will call methods add

After this, we need to let php we need these classes:

Next, we need to declare out variables:

Next, we need to open the connection:

After that we can do all this fun stuff :)

Connecting

Default connnection

A default connection is the easy and most uncommon way to connect to an imap sever. Use the code below to use our default connection method.

This code does not check for errors and assumeing everything is right. If you are using this in production be sure to check for errors

Advanced Connecting

We also have ways to change how your connection works. Read the code and examples below to learn some ways to modifiy your connection,

Errors

Many errors may be thrown while using the library, if you cant seem to find what an error means or what you are doing wrong, take a look here. Everything is structured like this:

$imap = new ImapClient([
    'connect' => [
        'username' => 'user',
        'password' => 'pass',
    ]
]);

$imap->saveEmail($your_file_path_var, $your_email_id_var, $your_part_var)

$imap->saveEmail($your_file_path_var, $your_email_id_var, $your_part_var)

Installing

PHP-imap-client can be installed 2 ways. The first composer and the second manual

1) Composer

Use the following command to install php-imap-client library: composer require ssilence/php-imap-client:^3.0

2) Manual

1) Download the files from github or the releases page
2) Extract the files into the folder you wish
3) In the file that will call methods add

You may then use connect etc

Methods

The following methods are currently available.

Usage

After install prep

After you install this library ensure you have added the required classes. A basic connection may look like this:

The above code connects you to a mail server and makes sure it connected. Change the variables to your information

After connection

There are many things you can do after the code above. For example you can get and echo all folders

See getFolders() method settings. You can also select folders

Once you selected a folder you can count the number of messages in the folder:

To get a brief summary of all messages in the current folder, including the message ID you can use this

Get the message with ID 82

Save all of the attachmets in this email.

or

or save the attachment(s) like this

It is also possible to save all attachments for messages with a special word in the message subject.

Get the header info like cc and bcc

Get all unread messages.

Okay, now lets fetch all emails in the currently selected folder (in our example the "Inbox"):

Now $emails it is array object.

The structure of a single message when it is received by the method getMessage() or getMessages() it by the look here Incoming Message

For example get subject and simple text messages

You can also add/rename/delete folders. Lets add a new folder:

Now we move the first email into this folder

And we delete the second email from inbox

We also can save emails

You can use the method of sending messages.

But for this you need to take several steps. Adapter for outgoing message. Use in 3 steps.

For a full list of methods you can do check current list of methods.

Advanced connecting

You can also use the below code to add some more options while connecting

All connecting options you can see in example-connect.php file or go Advanced connecting or you can see code ImapConnect class.

Examples

Composer

Connect

Direct

Incoming Message

Structure

Incoming Message is an object(SSilence\ImapClient\IncomingMessage) that has 5 basic properties

and one for debugging

Header properties

The header properties typically look like this:

To get the subject of the message, use $imap->incomingMessage->header->subject

This object also contains the id and the uid of the current message according to https://php.net/manual/en/function.imap-fetch-overview.php:

To get the CC or BCC use the property

Header details properties have more properties like this imap_headerinfo. If there is no property in the returned object, then it is not present in this email. To get the CC or BCC of the message, use

Message properties

Message properties will look like this:

To get info on the message use $imap->incomingMessage->message->info Is an array. It will allways return an array

To get the body of the message use

Get the emails charset like this:

Get all subtype message:

These are auto generated by the client. This allows you to have an html and a plain text version of the email

Attachments properties

Attachment properties is an array of objects. If the letter has attachments, then its return will look like as follows

The attachment object has 3 basic properties. Like this:

To get the names of all attachments in an email, use the following

All information for the email will be in the info property. It will look like this:

The attachment info object has 2 basic properties.

Body properties contain the body attachment(s).

Section properties

Section properties it is array sections of which the email consists.

Structure properties

The structure propertie is the complete structure of the email

Debug properties

The debug propertie can be used for debugging

Sending Emails

The IMAP protocol is designed to read messages and does not support the sending of messages. But if you want ImapClient to send messages, then use the AdapterForOutgoingMessage class. To do this you will also need to install PHPMailer

First step

The first step is to install php mailer. You can do so in two ways.

1) Composer

2) Minimal Read PHPMailer's guide on a minimal installation

Second step

Turn phpmailer into an adapter. File AdapterForOutgoingMessage.php To do this, we rewrite send() method. Note this is note safe yet and may be re written in the future.

Third step

Now you can send messages like this:

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Tobias Zeising [email protected]
https://www.aditu.de
Licensed under the MIT license