PHP IMAP decoding messages

Question

I have emails sent via base64 encoding and 8bit encoding. I was wondering how I could check the encoding of the message using imap_fetchstructure (been doing this for about two hours, so lost) and then decode it properly.

Gmail and Mailbox (app on iOS) are sending it as 8bit while Windows 8's Mail app is sending it as base64. Either way, I need to decode whether its 8bit or base64 by detecting what type of encoding it has used.

Using PHP 5.1.6 (yes, I should update, been busy).

I really have no code to show. This is all I have:

<?php
$hostname = '{********:993/imap/ssl}INBOX';
$username = '*********';
$password = '******';

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

$emails = imap_search($inbox,'ALL');

if($emails) {

    $output = '';

    rsort($emails);

    foreach($emails as $email_number) {

        $overview = imap_fetch_overview($inbox,$email_number,0);
        $message = imap_fetchbody($inbox,$email_number,2);
        $struct = imap_fetchstructure($inbox, $email_number);

        $output.= '<div class="toggle'.($overview[0]->seen ? 'read' : 'unread').'">';
        $output.= '<span class="subject">'.$overview[0]->subject.'</span> ';
        $output.= '<span class="from">'.$overview[0]->from.'</span>';
        $output.= '<span class="date">on '.$overview[0]->date.'</span>';
        $output.= '</div>';

        /* output the email body */
        $output.= '<div class="body">'.$message.'</div>';
    }

    echo $output;
} 

imap_close($inbox);
?>

Answer 1

I also faced this issue, and this is how I fixed

$structure = imap2_fetchstructure($connection, $messages);
    if (!isset($structure->parts) || !is_array($structure->parts) || !isset($structure->parts[0])) {
        $body = imap2_body($connection, $messages);
        return base64_decode($body);
    }

    $part = $structure->parts[0];
    $body = imap2_fetchbody($connection, $messages, '1');

    if ($part->encoding == 3) {
        return base64_decode($body);
    }
    if ($part->encoding == 1) {
        return imap2_8bit($body);
    }
    return imap2_qprint($body);

Answer 2

            // Best for reading attached file from e-mail as well as body of the mail
            $hostname = '{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl}Inbox';
            $username = 'xzy.xyz@xyz.com';
            $password = '****************';

            $inbox = imap_open($hostname,$username,$password) or die('Cannot connect to Gmail: ' . imap_last_error());  
            $emails   = imap_search($inbox, 'SUBJECT "'.$subject.'"');
            rsort($emails);
            foreach ($emails as $key => $value) {

                $overview = imap_fetch_overview($inbox,$value,0);
                $message_date = new DateTime($overview[0]->date);
                $date = $message_date->format('Ymd');
                $message = imap_fetchbody($inbox,$value,2);
                $structure = imap_fetchstructure($inbox, $value);
                $attachments = [];
                if(isset($structure->parts) && count($structure->parts)) 
                {
                    for($i = 0; $i < count($structure->parts); $i++) 
                    {
                        $attachments[$i] = array(
                                'is_attachment' => false,
                                'filename' => '',
                                'name' => '',
                                'attachment' => ''
                            );
                        if($structure->parts[$i]->ifdparameters) 
                        {
                            foreach($structure->parts[$i]->dparameters as $object) 
                            {
                                if(strtolower($object->attribute) == 'filename') 
                                {
                                    $attachments[$i]['is_attachment'] = true;
                                    $attachments[$i]['filename'] = $object->value;
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        if($structure->parts[$i]->ifparameters) 
                        {
                            foreach($structure->parts[$i]->parameters as $object) 
                            {
                                if(strtolower($object->attribute) == 'name') 
                                {
                                    $attachments[$i]['is_attachment'] = true;
                                    $attachments[$i]['name'] = $object->value;
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        if($attachments[$i]['is_attachment']) 
                        {
                            $attachments[$i]['attachment'] = imap_fetchbody($inbox, $value, $i+1);                           
                            if($structure->parts[$i]->encoding == 3) //3 = BASE64 encoding
                            { 
                                $attachments[$i]['attachment'] = base64_decode($attachments[$i]['attachment']);
                            }
                            elseif($structure->parts[$i]->encoding == 4) //4 = QUOTED-PRINTABLE encoding
                            { 
                                $attachments[$i]['attachment'] = quoted_printable_decode($attachments[$i]['attachment']);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            imap_close($inbox);//Never forget to close the connection

Answer 3

You can look at this example.

Imap/Imap

Here's code snippet

switch ($encoding) {
    # 7BIT
    case 0:
        return $text;
    # 8BIT
    case 1:
        return quoted_printable_decode(imap_8bit($text));
    # BINARY
    case 2:
        return imap_binary($text);
    # BASE64
    case 3:
        return imap_base64($text);
    # QUOTED-PRINTABLE
    case 4:
        return quoted_printable_decode($text);
    # OTHER
    case 5:
        return $text;
    # UNKNOWN
    default:
        return $text;
}

Answer 4

imap_bodystruct() or imap_fetchstructure() should return this info to you. The following code should do exactly what you're looking for:

<?php
$hostname = '{********:993/imap/ssl}INBOX';
$username = '*********';
$password = '******';

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

$emails = imap_search($inbox,'ALL');

if($emails) {
    $output = '';
    rsort($emails);

    foreach($emails as $email_number) {
        $overview = imap_fetch_overview($inbox,$email_number,0);
        $structure = imap_fetchstructure($inbox, $email_number);

        if(isset($structure->parts) && is_array($structure->parts) && isset($structure->parts[1])) {
            $part = $structure->parts[1];
            $message = imap_fetchbody($inbox,$email_number,2);

            if($part->encoding == 3) {
                $message = imap_base64($message);
            } else if($part->encoding == 1) {
                $message = imap_8bit($message);
            } else {
                $message = imap_qprint($message);
            }
        }

        $output.= '<div class="toggle'.($overview[0]->seen ? 'read' : 'unread').'">';
        $output.= '<span class="from">From: '.utf8_decode(imap_utf8($overview[0]->from)).'</span>';
        $output.= '<span class="date">on '.utf8_decode(imap_utf8($overview[0]->date)).'</span>';
        $output.= '<br /><span class="subject">Subject('.$part->encoding.'): '.utf8_decode(imap_utf8($overview[0]->subject)).'</span> ';
        $output.= '</div>';

        $output.= '<div class="body">'.$message.'</div><hr />';
    }

    echo $output;
}

imap_close($inbox);
?>

Answer 5

Returned Objects for imap_fetchstructure()

1. encoding (Body transfer encoding)

Transfer encodings (may vary with used library)

0 7BIT 1 8BIT 2 BINARY 3 BASE64 4 QUOTED-PRINTABLE 5 OTHER

$s = imap_fetchstructure($mbox,$mid);
if ($s->encoding==3)
    $data = base64_decode($data);