Retrieve Your Gmail Emails Using PHP and IMAP

Grabbing emails from your Gmail account using PHP is probably easier than you think. Armed with PHP and its IMAP extension, you can retrieve emails from your Gmail account in no time! Just for fun, I’ll be using the MooTools Fx.Accordion plugin to display each email.

The CSS

copydiv.toggler        { border:1px solid #ccc; background:url(gmail2.jpg) 10px 12px #eee no-repeat; cursor:pointer; padding:10px 32px; }
div.toggler .subject  { font-weight:bold; }
div.read          { color:#666; }
div.toggler .from, div.toggler .date { font-style:italic; font-size:11px; }
div.body          { padding:10px 20px; }

Some simple CSS formatting.

The MooTools JavaScript

copywindow.addEvent('domready',function() {
  var togglers = $$('div.toggler');
  if(togglers.length) var gmail = new Fx.Accordion(togglers,$$('div.body'));
  togglers.addEvent('click',function() { this.addClass('read').removeClass('unread'); });
  togglers[0].fireEvent('click'); //first one starts out read
});

Some simple accordion code.

The PHP

copy/* connect to gmail */
$hostname = '{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl}INBOX';
$username = 'davidwalshblog@gmail.com';
$password = 'davidwalsh';

/* try to connect */
$inbox = imap_open($hostname,$username,$password) or die('Cannot connect to Gmail: ' . imap_last_error());

/* grab emails */
$emails = imap_search($inbox,'ALL');

/* if emails are returned, cycle through each... */
if($emails) {
  
  /* begin output var */
  $output = '';
  
  /* put the newest emails on top */
  rsort($emails);
  
  /* for every email... */
  foreach($emails as $email_number) {
    
    /* get information specific to this email */
    $overview = imap_fetch_overview($inbox,$email_number,0);
    $message = imap_fetchbody($inbox,$email_number,2);
    
    /* output the email header information */
    $output.= '<div class="toggler '.($overview[0]->seen ? 'read' : 'unread').'">';
    $output.= '<span class="subject">'.$overview[0]->subject.'</span> ';
    $output.= '<span class="from">'.$overview[0]->from.'</span>';
    $output.= '<span class="date">on '.$overview[0]->date.'</span>';
    $output.= '</div>';
    
    /* output the email body */
    $output.= '<div class="body">'.$message.'</div>';
  }
  
  echo $output;
} 

/* close the connection */
imap_close($inbox);

With our individual username/password settings set, we connect to Gmail. Once connected, we request all emails. If we find emails, I reverse sort the emails so that the newest emails appear on top. For every email we receive, I output the subject and message in MooTools Fx.Accordion format.

Now that I’ve shown you the basics, it’s time for you to build your next great PHP email app! Go ahead and send a few emails to davidwalshblog@gmail.com to see your eamil display on the page!

There are some encoding issues and I’ve not found a great way to include images. Any tips appreciated!