PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (original) (raw)

imap_search

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

imap_search — This function returns an array of messages matching the given search criteria

Description

For example, to match all unanswered messages sent by Mom, you'd use: "UNANSWERED FROM mom". Searches appear to be case insensitive. This list of criteria is from a reading of the UW c-client source code and may be incomplete or inaccurate (see also » RFC1176, section "tag SEARCH search_criteria").

Parameters

imap

An IMAP\Connection instance.

criteria

A string, delimited by spaces, in which the following keywords are allowed. Any multi-word arguments (e.g.FROM "joey smith") must be quoted. Results will match all criteria entries.

ALL - return all messages matching the rest of the criteria
ANSWERED - match messages with the \\ANSWERED flag set
BCC "string" - match messages with "string" in the Bcc: field
BEFORE "date" - match messages with Date: before "date"
BODY "string" - match messages with "string" in the body of the message
CC "string" - match messages with "string" in the Cc: field
DELETED - match deleted messages
FLAGGED - match messages with the \\FLAGGED (sometimes referred to as Important or Urgent) flag set
FROM "string" - match messages with "string" in the From: field
KEYWORD "string" - match messages with "string" as a keyword
NEW - match new messages
OLD - match old messages
ON "date" - match messages with Date: matching "date"
RECENT - match messages with the \\RECENT flag set
SEEN - match messages that have been read (the \\SEEN flag is set)
SINCE "date" - match messages with Date: after "date"
SUBJECT "string" - match messages with "string" in the Subject:
TEXT "string" - match messages with text "string"
TO "string" - match messages with "string" in the To:
UNANSWERED - match messages that have not been answered
UNDELETED - match messages that are not deleted
UNFLAGGED - match messages that are not flagged
UNKEYWORD "string" - match messages that do not have the keyword "string"
UNSEEN - match messages which have not been read yet

flags

Valid values for flags are [SE_UID](imap.constants.php#constant.se-uid), which causes the returned array to contain UIDs instead of messages sequence numbers.

charset

MIME character set to use when searching strings.

Return Values

Returns an array of message numbers or UIDs.

Return [false](reserved.constants.php#constant.false) if it does not understand the searchcriteria or no messages have been found.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.1.0	The imap parameter expects an IMAP\Connection instance now; previously, a valid imap resource was expected.

Examples

Example #1 imap_search() example

<?php <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>p</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>o</mi></msub><mi>p</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>n</mi><msup><mo stretchy="false">(</mo><mo mathvariant="normal" lspace="0em" rspace="0em">′</mo></msup><mrow><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>p</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">.</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>x</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>p</mi><mi>l</mi><mi>e</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">.</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>o</mi><mi>m</mi><mo>:</mo><mn>993</mn><mi mathvariant="normal">/</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>p</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">/</mi><mi>s</mi><mi>s</mi><mi>l</mi></mrow><mi>I</mi><mi>N</mi><mi>B</mi><mi>O</mi><msup><mi>X</mi><mo mathvariant="normal" lspace="0em" rspace="0em">′</mo></msup><msup><mo separator="true">,</mo><mo mathvariant="normal" lspace="0em" rspace="0em">′</mo></msup><mi>f</mi><mi>o</mi><mi>o</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">@</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>x</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>p</mi><mi>l</mi><mi>e</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">.</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>o</mi><msup><mi>m</mi><mo mathvariant="normal" lspace="0em" rspace="0em">′</mo></msup><msup><mo separator="true">,</mo><mo mathvariant="normal" lspace="0em" rspace="0em">′</mo></msup><mi>p</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>s</mi><mi>s</mi><mn>12</mn><msup><mn>3</mn><mo mathvariant="normal" lspace="0em" rspace="0em">′</mo></msup><mo separator="true">,</mo><mi>O</mi><msub><mi>P</mi><mi>R</mi></msub><mi>E</mi><mi>A</mi><mi>D</mi><mi>O</mi><mi>N</mi><mi>L</mi><mi>Y</mi><mo stretchy="false">)</mo><mo separator="true">;</mo></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">imap = imap_open('{imap.example.com:993/imap/ssl}INBOX', 'foo@example.com', 'pass123', OP_READONLY);</annotation></semantics></math>imap=imapopen(′imap.example.com:993/imap/sslINBOX′,′foo@example.com′,′pass123′,OPREADONLY);some = imap_search($imap, 'SUBJECT "HOWTO be Awesome" SINCE "8 August 2008"', SE_UID); <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>m</mi><mi>s</mi><mi>g</mi><mi>n</mi><mi>o</mi><mi>s</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>s</mi></msub><mi>e</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>h</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">msgnos = imap_search(</annotation></semantics></math>msgnos=imapsearch(imap, 'ALL'); <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>u</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>d</mi><mi>s</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>s</mi></msub><mi>e</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>h</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">uids = imap_search(</annotation></semantics></math>uids=imapsearch(imap, 'ALL', SE_UID);print_r($some); print_r($msgnos); print_r($uids); ?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Array ( [0] => 4 [1] => 6 [2] => 11 ) Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 [3] => 4 [4] => 5 [5] => 6 ) Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 4 [2] => 6 [3] => 8 [4] => 11 [5] => 12 )

Found A Problem?

Anonymous ¶

12 years ago

`The date format for e.g. SINCE is, according to rfc3501:

date = date-text / DQUOTE date-text DQUOTE

date-day = 1*2DIGIT
; Day of month

date-day-fixed = (SP DIGIT) / 2DIGIT
; Fixed-format version of date-day

date-month = "Jan" / "Feb" / "Mar" / "Apr" / "May" / "Jun" /
"Jul" / "Aug" / "Sep" / "Oct" / "Nov" / "Dec"

date-text = date-day "-" date-month "-" date-year

So a valid date is e.g. "22-Jul-2012" with or without the double quotes.

Steve ¶

3 years ago

`It has been noted that imap_search breaks with imap4 syntax. To do an imap 4 search use curl and send a custom command, then grab the results. Its best to do a UID search to get the unique IDs to work with later. Here's an example with a working curl function.

user,user, user,pass, command,command, command,folder="INBOX") { //Send an imap command directly to the imap server$result=["response"=>"", "error"=>""]; url="imaps://url = "imaps://url="imaps://server/". rawurlencode($folder); options=[CURLOPTURL=>options=[CURLOPT_URL=>options=[CURLOPTURL=>url, CURLOPT_PORT=> 993, CURLOPT_USERNAME=> $user, CURLOPT_PASSWORD=> $pass, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER=> true, CURLOPT_HEADER=> true, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST=> $command]; $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt_array($ch, options);options);options);result["response"] = curl_exec($ch); if(curl_errno($ch)) response["error"]="Error(".curlerrno(response["error"]="Error (". curl_errno(response["error"]="Error(".curlerrno(ch) ."): ". curl_error($ch); return $result; }//Pull out all the emails returned as undeliverable by the remote mail server in the inbox using curl response=sendimapcommand(response=send_imap_command(response=sendimapcommand(host, user,user, user,pass, 'UID SEARCH SINCE "01-Jan-2022" (OR FROM "mailer-daemon" FROM "postmaster") (OR SUBJECT "fail" (OR SUBJECT "undeliver" SUBJECT "returned"))', $folder); if( $response["error"]!="") { echo $response["error"]."\n"; } elseif (strlen($response["response"])>5){ //Server returns a string in the form * SEARCH uid1 uid2 uid3 ... Clean up and create array of UIDs. response["response"]=strreplace("∗SEARCH","",response["response"]=str_replace("* SEARCH ","",response["response"]=strreplace("∗SEARCH","",response["response"]); messages=explode("",messages=explode(" ",messages=explode("",response["response"]); }print_r($messages); ?>

mail at nikha dot org ¶

11 years ago

`Hi,
be aware, that imap_search() does NOT (as you may exspect) return an empty array, if nothing was found!
As the manual says, it returns FALSE.

Do not test the result like "count($array)" as I did.
This gives you 1 for an empty result. Took me an hour to found out why :-( RTFM

britty dot it at hotmail dot com ¶

9 years ago

`imap_search function is not fully compatible with IMAP4. the c-client used as of now supports only IMAP2 and some search criterion will not be available for use such as "OR"

So a php code similar to:
$inbox = imap_open('{imap.example.com:993/imap/ssl}INBOX', 'foo@example.com', 'pass123', OP_READONLY); searchstring=′SUBJECT"FedEx"ORSUBJECT"USPS"′;<spanclass="katex"><spanclass="katex−mathml"><mathxmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>e</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>l</mi><mi>s</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>s</mi></msub><mi>e</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>h</mi><mostretchy="false">(</mo></mrow><annotationencoding="application/x−tex">emails=imapsearch(</annotation></semantics></math><spanclass="katex−html"aria−hidden="true"><spanclass="base"><spanclass="strut"style="height:0.6944em;"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">e<spanclass="mordmathnormal">mai<spanclass="mordmathnormal"style="margin−right:0.01968em;">l<spanclass="mordmathnormal">s<spanclass="mspace"style="margin−right:0.2778em;"><spanclass="mrel">=<spanclass="mspace"style="margin−right:0.2778em;"><spanclass="base"><spanclass="strut"style="height:1em;vertical−align:−0.25em;"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">ima<spanclass="mord"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">p<spanclass="msupsub"><spanclass="vlist−tvlist−t2"><spanclass="vlist−r"><spanclass="vlist"style="height:0.1514em;"><spanstyle="top:−2.55em;margin−left:0em;margin−right:0.05em;"><spanclass="pstrut"style="height:2.7em;"><spanclass="sizingreset−size6size3mtight"><spanclass="mordmathnormalmtight">s<spanclass="vlist−s"><spanclass="vlist−r"><spanclass="vlist"style="height:0.15em;"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">e<spanclass="mordmathnormal">a<spanclass="mordmathnormal">rc<spanclass="mordmathnormal">h<spanclass="mopen">(inbox,search_string = 'SUBJECT "FedEx" OR SUBJECT "USPS"'; <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>e</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>l</mi><mi>s</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>s</mi></msub><mi>e</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>h</mi><mo stretchy="false">(</mo></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">emails = imap_search(</annotation></semantics></math>emails=imapsearch(inbox, searchstring=′SUBJECT"FedEx"ORSUBJECT"USPS"′;<spanclass="katex"><spanclass="katex−mathml"><mathxmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>e</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>i</mi><mi>l</mi><mi>s</mi><mo>=</mo><mi>i</mi><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><msub><mi>p</mi><mi>s</mi></msub><mi>e</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>r</mi><mi>c</mi><mi>h</mi><mostretchy="false">(</mo></mrow><annotationencoding="application/x−tex">emails=imapsearch(</annotation></semantics></math><spanclass="katex−html"aria−hidden="true"><spanclass="base"><spanclass="strut"style="height:0.6944em;"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">e<spanclass="mordmathnormal">mai<spanclass="mordmathnormal"style="margin−right:0.01968em;">l<spanclass="mordmathnormal">s<spanclass="mspace"style="margin−right:0.2778em;"><spanclass="mrel">=<spanclass="mspace"style="margin−right:0.2778em;"><spanclass="base"><spanclass="strut"style="height:1em;vertical−align:−0.25em;"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">ima<spanclass="mord"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">p<spanclass="msupsub"><spanclass="vlist−tvlist−t2"><spanclass="vlist−r"><spanclass="vlist"style="height:0.1514em;"><spanstyle="top:−2.55em;margin−left:0em;margin−right:0.05em;"><spanclass="pstrut"style="height:2.7em;"><spanclass="sizingreset−size6size3mtight"><spanclass="mordmathnormalmtight">s<spanclass="vlist−s"><spanclass="vlist−r"><spanclass="vlist"style="height:0.15em;"><spanclass="mordmathnormal">e<spanclass="mordmathnormal">a<spanclass="mordmathnormal">rc<spanclass="mordmathnormal">h<spanclass="mopen">(inbox,search_string);

will throw an error saying "Unknown search criterion"

observations and reference:

PHP source trace:(ref: https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/ext/imap/php_imap.c)
/ext/imap/php_imap.c -> line no : 4126
imap_search => line no : 4148

c-client library source trace:
src/c-client/mail.c -> line no : 3973

internal.txt -> line no : 1919 => mail_criteria()
criteria IMAP2-format search criteria string
WARNING: This function does not accept IMAP4 search criteria.

IMAP2 RFC1064 => ref: [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1064] [page: 13]
IMAP4 RFC2060 => ref: [http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2060.html] [section: 6.4.4]

Note:
The core search functionality in a core module(IMAP) is still not available in PHP. Hope this will be brought to the developer community's attention...

james at medbirdie dot com ¶

12 years ago

`To set your own CHARSET, which is useful if you are dealing with Chinese Japanese and Korean queries.

Enriqe ¶

4 years ago

`Please be aware about UID of the message.
It is NOT an ID that never change!

If you move your message to another folder in your IMAP account, this UID WILL CHANGE.

So if your message has UID = 100 (in INBOX folder) and you move it to some subfolder and then back to INBOX, it's new UID in INBOX will be 101.

Paula ¶

8 years ago

`This is the correct way to use the imap_search with ON "date"

$date = date("j F Y"); emails=imapsearch(emails = imap_search(emails=imapsearch(inbox,'ON "'.$date.'"' );

joseph dot cardwell at jbcwebservices dot com ¶

13 years ago

imap_search() always returns false when op_silent flag is set in the connection parameters.