Visual FoxPro

Search an IMAP Mailbox

Demonstrates the Chilkat Imap.QueryMbx method, which searches the selected mailbox using IMAP search criteria and stores the matching message identifiers in a MessageSet. If bUid is true, the identifiers are UIDs; otherwise they are sequence numbers. This example finds unseen messages and lists their UIDs.

Background: IMAP search runs on the server, so you can find matching messages without downloading them. The criteria string is standard IMAP search syntax — for example UNSEEN, FROM "alice@example.com", SUBJECT "invoice", or SINCE 1-Jan-2026 — and terms can be combined. The result is a MessageSet of identifiers you then fetch, flag, copy, or move. Requesting UIDs (bUid = true) is preferred because UIDs remain valid across sessions.

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LOCAL lnSuccess
LOCAL loImap
LOCAL loMsgSet
LOCAL n
LOCAL i

lnSuccess = 0

*  Demonstrates the Imap.QueryMbx method, which searches the selected mailbox using IMAP
*  search criteria and stores the matching message identifiers in a MessageSet.  If bUid is
*  1, the identifiers are UIDs; otherwise they are sequence numbers.

loImap = CreateObject('Chilkat.Imap')

loImap.Ssl = 1
loImap.Port = 993

lnSuccess = loImap.Connect("imap.example.com")
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loImap.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loImap
    CANCEL
ENDIF

lnSuccess = loImap.Login("user@example.com","myPassword")
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loImap.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loImap
    CANCEL
ENDIF

lnSuccess = loImap.SelectMailbox("Inbox")
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loImap.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loImap
    CANCEL
ENDIF

*  Search for unseen (unread) messages, returning their UIDs.
loMsgSet = CreateObject('Chilkat.MessageSet')
lnSuccess = loImap.QueryMbx("UNSEEN",1,loMsgSet)
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loImap.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loImap
    RELEASE loMsgSet
    CANCEL
ENDIF

*  Iterate the matching message identifiers.
n = loMsgSet.Count
? "Matching messages: " + STR(n)

FOR i = 0 TO n - 1
    ? "UID: " + STR(loMsgSet.GetId(i))
NEXT

lnSuccess = loImap.Disconnect()
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loImap.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loImap
    RELEASE loMsgSet
    CANCEL
ENDIF

RELEASE loImap
RELEASE loMsgSet