Reading Unread POP3 Email

The POP3 protocol does not provide the ability to ask the server which emails are "unread". Furthermore, a pure POP3 server does not even keep this information. Some servers, such as Exchange Server, expose both POP3 and IMAP interfaces. In these cases, information about read/unread status exists on the server, but it is only available via the IMAP protocol. Email clients such as Outlook and Thunderbird keep read/unread information on the client computer. This example demonstrates how UIDLs can be saved to track and read "unread" email.

Download Chilkat Email ActiveX

<?php

//  The mailman object is used for receiving (POP3)
//  and sending (SMTP) email.
$mailman = new COM("Chilkat.MailMan2");

//  Any string argument automatically begins the 30-day trial.
$success = $mailman->UnlockComponent('30-day trial');
if ($success != true) {
    print 'Component unlock failed' . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  Set the POP3 server's hostname
$mailman->MailHost = 'mail.chilkatsoft.com';

//  Set the POP3 login/password.
$mailman->PopUsername = '***';
$mailman->PopPassword = '***';

//  We're keeping a list of already-seen UIDLs in a text file:
//  If this is the first time you're running this example,
//  create an empty text file named "seenUidls.txt"
$saSeenUidls = new COM("Chilkat.CkStringArray");
$success = $saSeenUidls->LoadFromFile('seenUidls.txt');
if ($success != true) {
    print 'failed to load seenUidls.txt' . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  Get the complete list of UIDLs on the mail server.

$saUidls = $mailman->GetUidls();

if (is_null($saUidls)) {
    print $mailman->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  We don't have set operators (yet) on the StringArray object,
//  so create a new string array object (it's an object, not an actual array)
//  and add the UIDLs from saUidls that aren't already seen.
$saUnseenUidls = new COM("Chilkat.CkStringArray");

$n = $saUidls->Count;
for ($i = 0; $i <= $n - 1; $i++) {
    if ($saSeenUidls->Contains($saUidls->getString($i)) != true) {
        $saUnseenUidls->Append($saUidls->getString($i));
    }

}

if ($saUnseenUidls->Count == 0) {
    print 'No unseen emails!' . "\n";

    exit;
}

//  Download in full the unseen emails:

$bundle = $mailman->FetchMultiple($saUnseenUidls);
if (is_null($bundle)) {
    print $mailman->lastErrorText() . "\n";

    exit;
}

for ($i = 0; $i <= $bundle->MessageCount - 1; $i++) {
    $email = $bundle->GetEmail($i);
    print $email->from() . "\n";
    print $email->subject() . "\n";
    print '----' . "\n";

}

//  We've seen all the emails, save saUidls to "seenUidls.txt"
$saUidls->SaveToFile('seenUidls.txt');


?>