How to read emails from Gmail server by PHP IMAP

Question

I am trying to read all emails form Gmail server using PHP IMAP.

I have following configuration:

$hostname = '{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX';
$username = 'email';
$password = 'pass';

$inbox = imap_open($hostname,$username,$password) or die('Cannot connect to Gmail: ' . imap_last_error());

var_dump($inbox);exit;

I am getting PHP Warning and Notice:

imap_open(): Couldn't open stream {imap.gmail.com:995/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX

Unknown: Can't connect to imap.gmail.com,993: Timed out (errflg=2) in Unknown on line 0

Please help

Abhinav Abhinav · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-15T11:33:28

set_time_limit(4000); 

// Connect to gmail
$imapPath = '{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl}INBOX';
$username = '[email protected]';
$password = 'your_gmail_password';

// try to connect 
$inbox = imap_open($imapPath,$username,$password) or die('Cannot connect to Gmail: ' . imap_last_error());

   /* 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*/

// search and get unseen emails, function will return email ids
$emails = imap_search($inbox,'UNSEEN');

$output = '';

foreach($emails as $mail) {

    $headerInfo = imap_headerinfo($inbox,$mail);

    $output .= $headerInfo->subject.'<br/>';
    $output .= $headerInfo->toaddress.'<br/>';
    $output .= $headerInfo->date.'<br/>';
    $output .= $headerInfo->fromaddress.'<br/>';
    $output .= $headerInfo->reply_toaddress.'<br/>';

    $emailStructure = imap_fetchstructure($inbox,$mail);

    if(!isset($emailStructure->parts)) {
         $output .= imap_body($inbox, $mail, FT_PEEK); 
    } else {
        //    
    }
   echo $output;
   $output = '';
}

// colse the connection
imap_expunge($inbox);
imap_close($inbox);

For using this you need to install and enable php5-imap

You can install the PHP5 IMAP module with this command :

apt-get install php5-imap

However it’s not enabled by default so enable it with:

php5enmod imap

To see the changes ,restart Apache

service apache2 restart

For Windows with Xampp7 and above,

Go to php.ini, Remove the semicolon,

;extension=imap

How to read emails from Gmail server by PHP IMAP

1 Answers