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B4X Requires Chilkat v11.0.0+

Search IMAP Mailbox for Email Matching Criteria

Searching an IMAP mailbox for messages that match search criteria.

Chilkat B4X Downloads

B4X
Dim success As Boolean = False

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

Dim imap As ChilkatImap
imap.Initialize("imap")

'  Connect to an IMAP server.
'  Use TLS
imap.Ssl = True
imap.Port = 993
success = imap.Connect("imap.example.com")
If success = False Then
    Log(imap.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  Login
success = imap.Login("myLogin", "myPassword")
If success = False Then
    Log(imap.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  Select an IMAP mailbox
success = imap.SelectMailbox("Inbox")
If success = False Then
    Log(imap.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  We can choose to fetch UIDs or sequence numbers.
Dim fetchUids As Boolean = True

'  Here are examples of different search criteria:

'  Return all messages.
Dim allMsgs As String = "ALL"

'  Search for already-answered emails.
Dim answered As String = "ANSWERED"

'  Search for messages on a specific date.
'  The date string is DD-Month-YYYY where Month is
'  Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, or Dec.
Dim onDate As String = "SENTON 05-Mar-2007"

'  Search for messages between two dates.  SENTBEFORE
'  finds emails sent before a date, and SENTSINCE finds
'  email sent on or after a date.  The "AND" operation
'  is implied by joining criteria, separated by spaces.
Dim betweenDates As String = "SENTSINCE 01-Mar-2007 SENTBEFORE 05-Mar-2007"

'  Another example of AND: find all unanswered emails
'  sent after 04-Mar-2007 with "Problem" in the subject:
Dim complexSearch1 As String = "UNANSWERED SENTSINCE 04-Mar-2007 Subject " & Chr(34) & "Problem" & Chr(34)

'  Find messages with a specific string in the body:
Dim bodySearch As String = "BODY " & Chr(34) & "problem solved" & Chr(34)

'  Using OR.  The syntax is OR <criteria1> <criteria2>. 
'  The "OR" comes first, followed by each criteria.
'  For example, to match all emails with "Help" or "Question" in the subject.
'  You'll notice that literal strings may be quoted or unquoted.
'  If a literal contains SPACE characters, quote it:
Dim orSearch As String = "OR SUBJECT Help SUBJECT Question"

'  ----------------------------------------------
'  Strings are case-insensitive when searching....
'  ----------------------------------------------

'  Find all emails sent from yahoo.com addresses:
Dim fromSearch As String = "FROM yahoo.com"
'  Find all emails sent from anyone with "John" in their name:
Dim johnSearch As String = "FROM John"

'  Find emails with the RECENT flag set:
Dim recentSearch As String = "RECENT"

'  Find emails that don't have the recent flag set:
Dim notRecentSearch As String = "NOT RECENT"
'  This is synonymous with "OLD":
Dim oldSearch As String = "OLD"

'  Find all emails marked for deletion:
Dim markedForDeleteSearch As String = "DELETED"

'  Find all emails having a specified header field with a value
'  containing a substring:
Dim headerSearch As String = "HEADER DomainKey-Signature paypal.com"

'  Find any emails having a specific header field.  If the 
'  2nd argument to the "HEADER" criteria is an empty string,
'  any email having the header field is returned regardless
'  of the header field's content.
'  Find any emails with a DomainKey-Signature field:
Dim headerExistsSearch As String = "HEADER DomainKey-Signature " & Chr(34) & Chr(34)

'  Find NEW emails: these are emails that have the RECENT flag
'  set, but not the SEEN flag:
Dim newSearch As String = "NEW"

'  Find emails larger than a certain number of bytes:
Dim sizeLargerSearch As String = "LARGER 500000"

'  Find emails marked as seen or not already seen:
Dim seenSearch As String = "SEEN"
Dim notSeenSearch As String = "NOT SEEN"

'  Find emails having a given substring in the TO header field:
Dim toSearch As String = "TO support@chilkatsoft.com"
'  A more long-winded way to do the same thing:
Dim toSearch2 As String = "HEADER TO support@chilkatsoft.com"

'  Find emails smaller than a size in bytes:
Dim smallerSearch As String = "SMALLER 30000"

'  Find emails that have a substring anywhere in the header
'  or body:
Dim fullSubstringSearch As String = "TEXT " & Chr(34) & "Zip Component" & Chr(34)

'  Pass any of the above strings here to test a search:
Dim messageSet As ChilkatMessageSet
messageSet.Initialize
success = imap.QueryMbx(orSearch, fetchUids, messageSet)
If success = False Then
    Log(imap.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  Fetch the email headers into a bundle object:
Dim bundle As ChilkatEmailBundle
bundle.Initialize
Dim headersOnly As Boolean = True
success = imap.FetchMsgSet(headersOnly, messageSet, bundle)
If success = False Then
    Log(imap.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  Display the Subject and From of each email.
Dim email As ChilkatEmail
email.Initialize
Dim i As Int = 0
Do While i < bundle.MessageCount
    bundle.EmailAt(i, email)

    Log(email.GetHeaderField("Date"))
    Log(email.Subject)
    Log(email.From)
    Log("--")

    i = i + 1
Loop

'  Disconnect from the IMAP server.
success = imap.Disconnect