How to get raw email data with the imap extension?

Question

I\'m looking for a way to download the whole raw email data (including attachment), similar to what you get by clicking \"Show Original\" in Gmail.

Currently, I can get

Answer 1

A common mistake is to use "\n" or PHP_EOL.

According to RFC RFC821, RFC2060, RFC1939 "\r\n" should be used. While some mailserver auto convert that mistakes, Cyrus does not and throw a nice error.

PHP_EOL is a system depending constant, it's "\n" on Linux, "\r" on Mac and "\r\n" on Windows, for example.

Furthermore imap_fetchheader() contains the trailing "\r\n" as expected. So the correct example would be:

 $source = imap_fetchheader($conn, $msg->msgno) . imap_body($conn, $msg->msgno);

Answer 2

My answer is "overcomplete", see Boy Baukema's answer for a more straight forward "view source" way of doing if you don't need the whole structure of the email.

If you want to fetch all, you need to fetch

• The headers imap_fetchheader.
• Obtain the number of bodies the message has imap_fetchstructure.
• Each mine-headers a body has imap_fetchmime.
• Each body it has imap_fetchbody.

As mime-message can have multiple bodies, you need to process each part after the other. To reduce load to the server use the FT_PREFETCHTEXT option for imap_fetchheader. Some example code about imap_fetchstructure in another answer that shows handling the imap connection and iterating over parts of a message already through encapsulation.

Answer 3

The answer by hakre is overcomplete, if you don't really care about the structure then you won't need imap_fetchstructure.

For a simple 'Show Source' you should only need imap_fetchheader and imap_body.

Example:

$conn = imap_open('{'."$mailServer:$port/pop3}INBOX", $userName, $password, OP_SILENT && OP_READONLY);
$msgs = imap_fetch_overview($conn, '1:5'); /** first 5 messages */
foreach ($msgs as $msg) {
    $source = imap_fetchheader($conn, $msg->msgno) . imap_body($conn, $msg->msgno);
    print $source;
}

Answer 4

I came across this question when I was searching for the same issue. I knew it had to be easier than the solution by hakre and I found the right answer on the page for imap_fetchbody on a post from 5 years ago.

To get the full raw message just use the following:

$imap_stream = imap_open($server, $username, $password);
$raw_full_email = imap_fetchbody($imap_stream, $msg_num, "");

Notice the empty string as third parameter of imap_fetchbody this signifies all parts and sub-parts of the email, including headers and all bodies.