Reading email with PHP 1

[IB2]

I know you can use PHP to send emails but can you use PHP to read incoming emails? Is it a question of manipulating the directory where the emails are being received on the server?

 

[jpadie]

i'd use the built in pop3 or imap functions to retrieve the mails rather than addressing the server's file system directly.

 

[kenrbnsn]

You want to use the IMAP() functions. They are fairly easy to use once you get the hang of them.

Here's a small program I just wrote to read a POP mailbox and insert records into a MySQL table.

$user = 'xxxx'; // pop3 user name
$pwd = 'xxxx';  // pop3 password
$hst = 'example.com'; // host address
$mbox = imap_open ('{'.$hst.':110/pop3}INBOX', $user, $pwd);
$headers = imap_headers($mbox);
if (imap_num_msg($mbox) == 0) exit();
// Include MySQL database information
$connect = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die ("Unable to connect!");
$db = mysql_select_db($dbname);

for ($i = 1; $i <= imap_num_msg($mbox); $i++)
{
	$qtmp = array();
   $header = imap_headerinfo($mbox, $i, 80, 80);
	$msg_date = $header->Date;
	$from = $header->from;
	foreach ($from as $id => $object) {
	   $fromname = $object->personal;
	   $fromaddress = $object->mailbox . "@" . $object->host;
	}
//	$qtmp[] =  ($qtmp will be used to create the query 
   $messageBody = imap_body($mbox, $i);
	$tmp = explode(',',$messageBody);
	$q = 'insert into mysql_table set ';
	$q .= implode(',',$qtmp);
	echo $q."\n";
	mysql_query($q) or die(mysql_error());
	imap_delete($mbox,$i);
  }
imap_expunge($mbox);
imap_close($mbox);
?>

Some of the above code comes directly from php.net

Ken