Search IMAP Mailbox for Email Matching Criteria

Searching an IMAP mailbox for messages that match search criteria.

Download Chilkat IMAP ActiveX

LOCAL loImap
LOCAL lnSuccess
LOCAL loMessageSet
LOCAL lnFetchUids
LOCAL lcAllMsgs
LOCAL lcAnswered
LOCAL lcOnDate
LOCAL lcBetweenDates
LOCAL lcComplexSearch1
LOCAL lcBodySearch
LOCAL lcOrSearch
LOCAL lcFromSearch
LOCAL lcJohnSearch
LOCAL lcRecentSearch
LOCAL lcNotRecentSearch
LOCAL lcOldSearch
LOCAL lcMarkedForDeleteSearch
LOCAL lcHeaderSearch
LOCAL lcHeaderExistsSearch
LOCAL lcNewSearch
LOCAL lcSizeLargerSearch
LOCAL lcSeenSearch
LOCAL lcNotSeenSearch
LOCAL lcToSearch
LOCAL lcToSearch2
LOCAL lcSmallerSearch
LOCAL lcFullSubstringSearch
LOCAL loBundle
LOCAL i
LOCAL loEmail

loImap = CreateObject('Chilkat.Imap')

* Anything unlocks the component and begins a fully-functional 30-day trial.
lnSuccess = loImap.UnlockComponent("Anything for 30-day trial")
IF (lnSuccess <> 1) THEN
    =MESSAGEBOX(loImap.LastErrorText)
    QUIT
ENDIF

* Connect to an IMAP server.
lnSuccess = loImap.Connect("mail.chilkatsoft.com")
IF (lnSuccess <> 1) THEN
    =MESSAGEBOX(loImap.LastErrorText)
    QUIT
ENDIF

* Login
lnSuccess = loImap.Login("admin@chilkatsoft.com","*myPassword5*")
IF (lnSuccess <> 1) THEN
    =MESSAGEBOX(loImap.LastErrorText)
    QUIT
ENDIF

* Select an IMAP mailbox
lnSuccess = loImap.SelectMailbox("Inbox")
IF (lnSuccess <> 1) THEN
    =MESSAGEBOX(loImap.LastErrorText)
    QUIT
ENDIF

* We can choose to fetch UIDs or sequence numbers.

lnFetchUids = 1

* Here are examples of different search criteria:

* Return all messages.

lcAllMsgs = "ALL"

* Search for already-answered emails.

lcAnswered = "ANSWERED"

* Search for messages on a specific date.
* The date string is DD-Month-YYYY where Month is
* Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, or Dec.

lcOnDate = "SENTON 05-Mar-2007"

* Search for messages between two dates.  SENTBEFORE
* finds emails sent before a date, and SENTSINCE finds
* email sent on or after a date.  The "AND" operation
* is implied by joining criteria, separated by spaces.

lcBetweenDates = "SENTSINCE 01-Mar-2007 SENTBEFORE 05-Mar-2007"

* Another example of AND: find all unanswered emails
* sent after 04-Mar-2007 with "Problem" in the subject:

lcComplexSearch1 = "UNANSWERED SENTSINCE 04-Mar-2007 Subject ""Problem"""

* Find messages with a specific string in the body:

lcBodySearch = "BODY ""problem solved"""

* Using OR.  The syntax is OR <criteria1> <criteria2>.
* The "OR" comes first, followed by each criteria.
* For example, to match all emails with "Help" or "Question" in the subject.
* You'll notice that literal strings may be quoted or unquoted.
* If a literal contains SPACE characters, quote it:

lcOrSearch = "OR SUBJECT Help SUBJECT Question"

* ----------------------------------------------
* Strings are case-insensitive when searching....
* ----------------------------------------------

* Find all emails sent from yahoo.com addresses:

lcFromSearch = "FROM yahoo.com"
* Find all emails sent from anyone with "John" in their name:

lcJohnSearch = "FROM John"

* Find emails with the RECENT flag set:

lcRecentSearch = "RECENT"

* Find emails that don't have the recent flag set:

lcNotRecentSearch = "NOT RECENT"
* This is synonymous with "OLD":

lcOldSearch = "OLD"

* Find all emails marked for deletion:

lcMarkedForDeleteSearch = "DELETED"

* Find all emails having a specified header field with a value
* containing a substring:

lcHeaderSearch = "HEADER DomainKey-Signature paypal.com"

* Find any emails having a specific header field.  If the
* 2nd argument to the "HEADER" criteria is an empty string,
* any email having the header field is returned regardless
* of the header field's content.
* Find any emails with a DomainKey-Signature field:

lcHeaderExistsSearch = "HEADER DomainKey-Signature """""

* Find NEW emails: these are emails that have the RECENT flag
* set, but not the SEEN flag:

lcNewSearch = "NEW"

* Find emails larger than a certain number of bytes:

lcSizeLargerSearch = "LARGER 500000"

* Find emails marked as seen or not already seen:

lcSeenSearch = "SEEN"

lcNotSeenSearch = "NOT SEEN"

* Find emails having a given substring in the TO header field:

lcToSearch = "TO support@chilkatsoft.com"
* A more long-winded way to do the same thing:

lcToSearch2 = "HEADER TO support@chilkatsoft.com"

* Find emails smaller than a size in bytes:

lcSmallerSearch = "SMALLER 30000"

* Find emails that have a substring anywhere in the header
* or body:

lcFullSubstringSearch = "TEXT ""Zip Component"""

* Pass any of the above strings here to test a search:
loMessageSet = loImap.Search(lcOrSearch,lnFetchUids)
IF (loMessageSet = NULL ) THEN
    =MESSAGEBOX(loImap.LastErrorText)
    QUIT
ENDIF

* Fetch the email headers into a bundle object:

loBundle = loImap.FetchHeaders(loMessageSet)
IF (loBundle = NULL ) THEN
    RELEASE loMessageSet
    =MESSAGEBOX(loImap.LastErrorText)
    QUIT
ENDIF

* Display the Subject and From of each email.

FOR i = 0 TO loBundle.MessageCount - 1

    loEmail = loBundle.GetEmail(i)

    ? loEmail.GetHeaderField("Date")
    ? loEmail.Subject
    ? loEmail.From
    ? "--"

    RELEASE loEmail
NEXT

* Disconnect from the IMAP server.
loImap.Disconnect()

RELEASE loMessageSet
RELEASE loBundle