PHP - imap_list() Function

PHP−IMAP functions helps you to access email accounts, IMAP stands for Internet Mail Access Protocol using these functions you can also work with NNTP, POP3 protocols and local mailbox access methods.

The imap_list() function accepts a resource value representing an IMAP stream, two string values representing the server specification and mailbox hierarchy as parameters and, reads the list of specified mailboxes.

Syntax

imap_list($imap_stream, $ref, $pattern);

Parameters

Sr.No	Parameter & Description
1	imap_stream (Mandatory) This is a string value representing an IMAP stream, return value of the imap_open() function.
2	ref (Mandatory) This is a string value representing the server specification.
3	pattern (Mandatory) This is a string value representing the start of the mailbox hierarchy search.

Sr.No

Parameter & Description

imap_stream (Mandatory)

This is a string value representing an IMAP stream, return value of the imap_open() function.

ref (Mandatory)

This is a string value representing the server specification.

pattern (Mandatory)

This is a string value representing the start of the mailbox hierarchy search.

Return Values

This function returns an array which contains the names of mailboxes in case of success, and returns a Boolean value FALSE in case of failure.

PHP Version

This function was first introduced in PHP Version 4 and works in all the later versions.

Example

Following example demonstrates the usage of the imap_list() function −

<html>
   <body>
      <?php
         //Establishing connection
         $url = "{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX";
         $id = "tutorialspoint.test@gmail.com";
         $pwd = "cohondob_123";
         $imap = imap_open($url, $id, $pwd);
         print("Connection established...."."<br>");
		 
         //list of mailboxes
         $res = imap_list($imap, $url, "*");
         print_r($res);		 

         //Closing the connection
         imap_close($imap);   
      ?>
   </body>
</html>

Output

This will generate the following output −

Connection established....
Array ( 
   [0] => {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX [1] => 
   {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test_mail1 [2] => 
   {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test_mail2 [3] => 
   {imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test_mail3 [4] => 
)

Example

Following is another example of this function −

<html>
   <body>
      <?php
         $url = "{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX";
         $id = "tutorialspoint.test@gmail.com";
         $pwd = "cohondob_123";
         $mailbox = imap_open($url, $id, $pwd);
         print("Connection established....");
         print("<br>");

         //Creating a mailbox
         $newmailbox1 = "{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test_mail1";
         $newmailbox2 = "{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test_mail2";   
         $res = imap_createmailbox($mailbox, imap_utf7_encode($newmailbox1));
         $res = imap_createmailbox($mailbox, imap_utf7_encode($newmailbox2));		 
		 
         //Retrieving the contents of mail boxes
         $list = imap_list($mailbox, $url, "*");
         foreach ($list as $key => $val) {
            print_r($val);
            print("<br>");
         }	 
      ?>
   </body>
</html>

Output

This will generate the following output −

Connection established....
{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX
{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test_mail1
{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX.test_mail2

php_function_reference.htm

Kickstart Your Career

Get certified by completing the course

Get Started