Save attachments from imap messages to disk.

imap-attachment.php

<?php
/**
 * imap-attachment.php
 *
 * @author hakre <hakre.wordpress.com>
 * @link http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9974334/how-to-download-mails-attachment-to-a-specific-folder-using-imap-and-php
 */

/**
 * Utility Class
 */
class IMAP
{
    /**
     *
     * =?x-unknown?B?
     * =?iso-8859-1?Q?
     * =?windows-1252?B?
     *
     * @param string $stringQP
     * @param string $base (optional) charset (IANA, lowercase)
     * @return string UTF-8
     */
    public static function decodeToUTF8($stringQP, $base = 'windows-1252')
    {
        $pairs = array(
            '?x-unknown?' => "?$base?"
        );
        $stringQP = strtr($stringQP, $pairs);
        return imap_utf8($stringQP);
    }
}

class IMAPMailbox implements IteratorAggregate, Countable
{
    private $stream;

    public function __construct($hostname, $username, $password)
    {
        $stream = imap_open($hostname, $username, $password);
        if (FALSE === $stream) {
            throw new Exception('Connect failed: ' . imap_last_error());
        }
        $this->stream = $stream;
    }

    public function getStream()
    {
        return $this->stream;
    }

    /**
     * @return stdClass
     */
    public function check()
    {
        $info = imap_check($this->stream);
        if (FALSE === $info) {
            throw new Exception('Check failed: ' . imap_last_error());
        }
        return $info;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $criteria
     * @param int $options
     * @param int $charset
     * @return IMAPMessage[]
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function search($criteria, $options = NULL, $charset = NULL)
    {
        $emails = imap_search($this->stream, $criteria, $options, $charset);
        if (FALSE === $emails) {
            throw new Exception('Search failed: ' . imap_last_error());
        }
        foreach ($emails as &$email) {
            $email = $this->getMessageByNumber($email);
        }
        return $emails;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $number
     * @return IMAPMessage
     */
    public function getMessageByNumber($number)
    {
        return new IMAPMessage($this, $number);
    }

    public function getOverview($sequence = NULL)
    {
        if (NULL === $sequence) {
            $sequence = sprintf('1:%d', count($this));
        }
        return new IMAPOverview($this, $sequence);
    }

    /**
     * Retrieve an external iterator
     * @link http://php.net/manual/en/iteratoraggregate.getiterator.php
     * @return Traversable An instance of an object implementing Iterator or
     * Traversable
     */
    public function getIterator()
    {
        return $this->getOverview()->getIterator();
    }

    /**
     * @return int
     */
    public function count()
    {
        return $this->check()->Nmsgs;
    }
}

class IMAPOverview extends ArrayObject
{
    private $mailbox;

    public function __construct(IMAPMailbox $mailbox, $sequence)
    {
        $result = imap_fetch_overview($mailbox->getStream(), $sequence);
        if (FALSE === $result) {
            throw new Exception('Overview failed: ' . imap_last_error());
        }
        $this->mailbox = $mailbox;
        foreach ($result as $overview)
        {
            if (!isset($overview->subject)) {
                $overview->subject = '';
            } else {
                $overview->subject = IMAP::decodeToUTF8($overview->subject);
            }
        }
        parent::__construct($result);
    }

    /**
     * @return IMAPMailbox
     */
    public function getMailbox()
    {
        return $this->mailbox;
    }
}

class IMAPMessage
{
    private $mailbox;
    private $number;
    private $stream;

    public function __construct(IMAPMailbox $mailbox, $number)
    {
        $this->mailbox = $mailbox;
        $this->number = $number;
        $this->stream = $mailbox->getStream();
    }

    public function getNumber()
    {
        return $this->number;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $number
     * @return string
     */
    public function fetchBody($number)
    {
        return imap_fetchbody($this->stream, $this->number, $number);
    }

    /**
     * @return stdClass
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public function fetchOverview()
    {
        $result = imap_fetch_overview($this->stream, $this->number);
        if (FALSE === $result) {
            throw new Exception('FetchOverview failed: ' . imap_last_error());
        }
        list($result) = $result;
        foreach ($result as &$prop) {
            $prop = imap_utf8($prop);
        }
        return $result;
    }

    public function fetchStructure()
    {
        $structure = imap_fetchstructure($this->stream, $this->number);
        if (FALSE === $structure) {
            throw new Exception('FetchStructure failed: ' . imap_last_error());
        }
        return $structure;
    }

    /**
     * @return IMAPAttachments
     */
    public function getAttachments()
    {
        return new IMAPAttachments($this);
    }

    public function __toString()
    {
        return (string)$this->number;
    }
}

class IMAPAttachment
{
    private $attachment;
    private $message;

    public function __construct(IMAPMessage $message, $attachment)
    {
        $this->message = $message;
        $this->attachment = $attachment;
    }

    /**
     * @return string;
     */
    public function getBody()
    {
        return $this->message->fetchBody($this->attachment->number);
    }

    /**
     * @return int
     */
    public function getSize()
    {
        return (int)$this->attachment->bytes;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getExtension()
    {
        return pathinfo($this->getFilename(), PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
    }

    public function getFilename()
    {
        $filename = $this->attachment->filename;
        NULL === $filename && $filename = $this->attachment->name;
        return $filename;
    }

    public function __toString()
    {
        $encoding = $this->attachment->encoding;
        switch ($encoding) {
            case 0: // 7BIT
            case 1: // 8BIT
            case 2: // BINARY
                return $this->getBody();

            case 3: // BASE-64
                return base64_decode($this->getBody());

            case 4: // QUOTED-PRINTABLE
                return imap_qprint($this->getBody());
        }
        throw new Exception(sprintf('Encoding failed: Unknown encoding %s (5: OTHER).', $encoding));
    }
}

class IMAPAttachments extends ArrayObject
{
    private $message;

    public function __construct(IMAPMessage $message)
    {
        $array = $this->setMessage($message);
        parent::__construct($array);
    }

    private function setMessage(IMAPMessage $message)
    {
        $this->message = $message;
        return $this->parseStructure($message->fetchStructure());
    }

    private function parseStructure($structure)
    {
        $attachments = array();
        if (!isset($structure->parts)) {
            return $attachments;
        }

        foreach ($structure->parts as $index => $part)
        {
            if (!$part->ifdisposition) continue;
            $attachment = new stdClass;
            $attachment->isAttachment = FALSE;
            $attachment->number = $index + 1;
            $attachment->bytes = $part->bytes;
            $attachment->encoding = $part->encoding;
            $attachment->filename = NULL;
            $attachment->name = NULL;
            $part->ifdparameters
                && ($attachment->filename = $this->getAttribute($part->dparameters, 'filename'))
                && $attachment->isAttachment = TRUE;
            $part->ifparameters
                && ($attachment->name = $this->getAttribute($part->parameters, 'name'))
                && $attachment->isAttachment = TRUE;

            $attachment->isAttachment
                && $attachments[] = new IMAPAttachment($this->message, $attachment);
        }
        return $attachments;
    }

    private function getAttribute($params, $name)
    {
        foreach ($params as $object)
        {
            if ($object->attribute == $name) {
                return IMAP::decodeToUTF8($object->value);
            }
        }
        return NULL;
    }
}

very nice clean code!
as a newbie, I can see this code is beautiful :)

can you give me a demo code on how to use this class with imap_search "All" that has attachments

@mjc169 Please find below sample codes,The code of these classes is more or less wrapping the imap_... functions, but for the attachment classes, it's doing the parsing of the structures as well. Hope this is helpful.

$savedir = __DIR__ . '/imap-dump/';

$inbox = new IMAPMailbox($hostname, $username, $password);

$emails = $inbox->search('ALL');
if ($emails) {
    rsort($emails);
    foreach ($emails as $email) {
        foreach ($email->getAttachments() as $attachment) {
            $savepath = $savedir . $attachment->getFilename();
            file_put_contents($savepath, $attachment);
        }
    }
}

Zip Archive is not working is this correct? How can this be solved?

Hi, please, i need error

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'Search failed: [BADCHARSET]' in path .... 92 Stack trace: #0 C:\xampp\htdocs\testIMAP\downloadFileImapv2.php(359): IMAPMailbox->search('UNSEEN FROM ".....@gmail.com".') #1 {main} thrown in C:\xampp\htdocs\testIMAP\downloadFileImapv2.php on line 92

Notice: Unknown: [BADCHARSET] (errflg=2) in Unknown on line 0

i have put in line 24 $base = 'windows-1252' like this code

Thank

hello, @kamaroly
i want to download email attachment from my hosting server email account then it's working or not?
if yes then which username and password are use hosting or email account

Great code and works in most circumstances but what can be done when there is no attachment disposition? I have one major supplier who emails bulk orders through in batches and, although the PDF attachment is visible, the structure doesn't have attachment parameter included. With all other suppliers it works fine.

This is the structure for those that work fine >

Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [type] => 0 [encoding] => 4 [ifsubtype] => 1 [subtype] => PLAIN [ifdescription] => 1 [description] => The attachment name [ifid] => 0 [ifdisposition] => 1 [disposition] => inline [ifdparameters] => 0 [ifparameters] => 1 [parameters] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [attribute] => charset [value] => utf-8 ) ) ) [1] => stdClass Object ( [type] => 3 [encoding] => 3 [ifsubtype] => 1 [subtype] => PDF [ifdescription] => 1 [description] => The attachment name [ifid] => 0 [bytes] => 114446 [ifdisposition] => 1 [disposition] => attachment [ifdparameters] => 1 [dparameters] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [attribute] => filename [value] => The attachment name.pdf ) ) [ifparameters] => 1 [parameters] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [attribute] => name [value] => The attachment name.pdf ) ) ) )

And this is the structure of the emails coming through which is causing the problem, these are sent directly from SAP overnight >

Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [type] => 0 [encoding] => 4 [ifsubtype] => 1 [subtype] => PLAIN [ifdescription] => 0 [ifid] => 0 [lines] => 15 [bytes] => 1163 [ifdisposition] => 0 [ifdparameters] => 0 [ifparameters] => 1 [parameters] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [attribute] => charset [value] => us-ascii ) ) ) [1] => stdClass Object ( [type] => 2 [encoding] => 0 [ifsubtype] => 1 [subtype] => RFC822 [ifdescription] => 0 [ifid] => 0 [lines] => 326 [bytes] => 23823 [ifdisposition] => 0 [ifdparameters] => 0 [ifparameters] => 0 [parameters] => stdClass Object ( ) [parts] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [type] => 3 [encoding] => 3 [ifsubtype] => 1 [subtype] => PDF [ifdescription] => 1 [description] => The attachment name [ifid] => 0 [bytes] => 20032 [ifdisposition] => 0 [ifdparameters] => 0 [ifparameters] => 1 [parameters] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [attribute] => name [value] => The attachment name.pdf ) ) ) ) ) )

Any help would be great.

This was a super helpful gist. Turned it into a set of services for symfony, and it works pretty much outta the box. Thanks a lot.

Awesome clean code! I adore you!

Somebody try to download mp3 attachment ? I can't make it work

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function imap_open()

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function imap_open()
@SerenellaWonder U must install imap extension for php
like this:
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install -y php7.2-imap

Hi :)

Can somebody help to get out the Email date, subject and email from using this code, sorry for bothering you guys I am just starting with PHP and not to much into objects, help will be appreciated

Regards.

I use the code and it works perfect for me, but I cant get the subject, email date, email can somebody help me

Regards.

throw new Exception(sprintf('Encoding failed: Unknown encoding %s (5: OTHER).', $encoding)); in IMAPAttachment->__toString() cause error
Throwing an exception from ''__toString'' is only possible since PHP 7.4
))))))) i`m have 7.3 )))))))')

@Den2016: if you're bound to PHP 7.3, change the throw into a trigger_error() with E_USER_ERROR which also fatals and/or E_USER_WARNING and return some fall-through string, depending on your workflow. It's not completely the same, but may give you the wiggle room.

@hakre Many thanks for the source code.
Unfortunately, I have the following problem: If the e-mails are S/MIME signed, I only receive the smime.p7s certificate as an attachment. All other attachments are unfortunately missing.

@twoconcepts: Many thanks for your comment. That's related to S/MIME I'd guess. Are you seeing the email message in plain text or only the attachment? Perhaps the test for $part->ifdisposition (line 304) is now bogus or for the attributes as they all are falsy (e.g. empty string or null, lines 313 and 316).