[edit] Last updated: Fri, 26 Apr 2013

imap_headerinfo

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

imap_headerinfo — Read the header of the message

Description

object imap_headerinfo ( resource $imap_stream , int $msg_number [, int $fromlength = 0 [, int $subjectlength = 0 [, string $defaulthost = NULL ]]] )

Gets information about the given message number by reading its headers.

Parameters

imap_stream: An IMAP stream returned by imap_open().
msg_number: The message number
fromlength: Number of characters for the fetchfrom property. Must be greater than or equal to zero.
subjectlength: Number of characters for the fetchsubject property Must be greater than or equal to zero.
defaulthost

Return Values

Returns the information in an object with following properties:

toaddress - full to: line, up to 1024 characters
to - an array of objects from the To: line, with the following properties: personal, adl, mailbox, and host
fromaddress - full from: line, up to 1024 characters
from - an array of objects from the From: line, with the following properties: personal, adl, mailbox, and host
ccaddress - full cc: line, up to 1024 characters
cc - an array of objects from the Cc: line, with the following properties: personal, adl, mailbox, and host
bccaddress - full bcc: line, up to 1024 characters
bcc - an array of objects from the Bcc: line, with the following properties: personal, adl, mailbox, and host
reply_toaddress - full Reply-To: line, up to 1024 characters
reply_to - an array of objects from the Reply-To: line, with the following properties: personal, adl, mailbox, and host
senderaddress - full sender: line, up to 1024 characters
sender - an array of objects from the Sender: line, with the following properties: personal, adl, mailbox, and host
return_pathaddress - full Return-Path: line, up to 1024 characters
return_path - an array of objects from the Return-Path: line, with the following properties: personal, adl, mailbox, and host
remail -
date - The message date as found in its headers
Date - Same as date
subject - The message subject
Subject - Same a subject
in_reply_to -
message_id -
newsgroups -
followup_to -
references -
Recent - R if recent and seen, N if recent and not seen, ' ' if not recent.
Unseen - U if not seen AND not recent, ' ' if seen OR not seen and recent
Flagged - F if flagged, ' ' if not flagged
Answered - A if answered, ' ' if unanswered
Deleted - D if deleted, ' ' if not deleted
Draft - X if draft, ' ' if not draft
Msgno - The message number
MailDate -
Size - The message size
udate - mail message date in Unix time
fetchfrom - from line formatted to fit fromlength characters
fetchsubject - subject line formatted to fit subjectlength characters


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.

down

trinkaus at ttNetz dot de ¶

3 years ago


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.

down

jahservant 13 at gmail dot com ¶

3 years ago


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....

down

aeolianmeson at exoyiga dot blitzeclipse dot com ¶

3 years ago


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

down

php at spacefish dot biz ¶

4 years ago


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

down

ron at NOSPAM dot clicks2hits dot com ¶

4 years ago


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);

?>

down

scott at fuzzygroup dot com ¶

10 years ago


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

add a note

imap_headerinfo

Description

Parameters

Return Values

See Also