PHP imap_open function

imap_open

(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

imap_open -- Open an IMAP stream to a mailboxDescriptionresource imap_open ( string mailbox, string username, string password [, int options] )

Opens an IMAP stream to a mailbox.

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.

Parameters

mailbox

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

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.

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

FlagDescription/service=servicemailbox access service, default is "imap"/user=userremote user name for login on the server/authuser=userremote authentication user; if specified this is the user name
whose password is used (e.g. administrator)/anonymousremote access as anonymous user/debugrecord protocol telemetry in application's debug log/securedo not transmit a plaintext password over the network/imap, /imap2,
/imap2bis, /imap4,
/imap4rev1equivalent to /service=imap/pop3equivalent to /service=pop3/nntpequivalent to /service=nntp/norshdo not use rsh or ssh to establish a preauthenticated IMAP
session/ssluse the Secure Socket Layer to encrypt the session/validate-certvalidate certificates from TLS/SSL server (this is the default
behavior)/novalidate-certdo not validate certificates from TLS/SSL server, needed if
server uses self-signed certificates/tlsforce use of start-TLS to encrypt the session, and reject
connection to servers that do not support it/notlsdo not do start-TLS to encrypt the session, even with servers
that support it/readonlyrequest read-only mailbox open (IMAP only; ignored on NNTP, and
an error with SMTP and POP3)

username

The user name

password

The password associated with the username

options

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

Return Values

Returns an IMAP stream on success or FALSE on error.

Examples

Example 1. Different use of imap_open()

// 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.