(CkPython) Download an IMAP Message Set

Demonstrates how to read a set of IMAP emails.

Note: This example requires Chilkat v11.0.0 or greater.

Chilkat Python Downloads install with pip pip3 install chilkat or download... Python Module for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Alpine Linux

import sys
import chilkat

success = False

# This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
# See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

imap = chilkat.CkImap()

# Connect using TLS.
imap.put_Ssl(True)
imap.put_Port(993)
success = imap.Connect("imap.example.com")
if (success == False):
    print(imap.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

# Authenticate
success = imap.Login("email_account_login","email_account_password")
if (success == False):
    print(imap.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

# Select an IMAP mailbox
success = imap.SelectMailbox("Inbox")
if (success == False):
    print(imap.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

# Search for messages with the word "test" in the subject.
fetchUids = True

messageSet = chilkat.CkMessageSet()
success = imap.QueryMbx("Subject test",fetchUids,messageSet)
if (success == False):
    print(imap.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

# Download the messages in a single call to FetchMsgSet.
# 
# This only makes sense if the number of emails to be downloaded is not too large.  
# For example, you wouldn't want to download 10000 emails in a single call to FetchMsgSet.
# Why? For two reasons:  (1) It could potentially cause an out-of-memory condition, and 
# (2) it would take an extremely large amount of time.  The longer the amount of time,
# the greater the likelihood of some kind of external networking or server problem occuring,
# and if it happens, then you would need to re-download everything from the beginning again.
# For large numbers of emails, it's better to loop over the emails in the message set
# and download/process one at a time as shown here: Download IMAP Messages One at a Time
# Downloading one message at a time makes it possible to resume the downloads rather than restart the entire operation all over again.

# If the message set is reasonable in size, you can download all at once using FetchMsgSet:

print("Number of messages = " + str(messageSet.get_Count()))

bundle = chilkat.CkEmailBundle()
headersOnly = False
success = imap.FetchMsgSet(headersOnly,messageSet,bundle)
if (success == False):
    print(imap.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

# Display the Subject and From of each email.
email = chilkat.CkEmail()
i = 0
numEmails = bundle.get_MessageCount()
while i < numEmails :
    bundle.EmailAt(i,email)

    print(email.getHeaderField("Date"))
    print(email.subject())
    print(email.ck_from())
    print("--")
    i = i + 1