(Excel) IMAP Get List of Flags

When a mailbox is selected, the server response includes a list of flags:

The FLAGS response occurs as a result of a SELECT or EXAMINE command. The flag parenthesized list identifies the flags (at a minimum, the system-defined flags) that are applicable for this mailbox. Flags other than the system flags can also exist, depending on server implementation.

This example demonstrates how to capture the SELECT (or EXAMINE) response, and parse the list of flags.

Download Excel Class Modules

Chilkat Excel Class Modules

Dim imap As Chilkat.Imap
Set imap = Chilkat.NewImap

' This example assumes Chilkat Imap to have been previously unlocked.
' See Unlock Imap for sample code.

' Connect to an IMAP server.
' Use TLS
imap.Ssl = True
imap.Port = 993

success = imap.Connect("MY-IMAP-DOMAIN")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Login
success = imap.Login("MY-IMAP-LOGIN","MY-IMAP-PASSWORD")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' Select an IMAP mailbox
success = imap.SelectMailbox("INBOX")
If (success <> True) Then
    Debug.Print imap.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

' The LastResponse property contains the full response of the last command.

selectResponse = imap.LastResponse
Debug.Print selectResponse

' For example, on GMail, the SELECT response looks like this:

' 	* FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $Forwarded $NotPhishing $Phishing $label1 $label2 $label3 $label4 $label5 Junk NonJunk)
' 	* OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $Forwarded $NotPhishing $Phishing $label1 $label2 $label3 $label4 $label5 Junk NonJunk \*)] Flags permitted.
' 	* OK [UIDVALIDITY 3] UIDs valid.
' 	* 46 EXISTS
' 	* 0 RECENT
' 	* OK [UIDNEXT 4147] Predicted next UID.
' 	* OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 402971]
' 	aaac OK [READ-WRITE] INBOX selected. (Success)

' The goal of this example is to capture the list of FLAGS.
' All IMAP servers will respond with the list of flags in a SPACE separated list enclosed in parentheses.

Dim sbResponse As Chilkat.StringBuilder
Set sbResponse = Chilkat.NewStringBuilder
Dim success As Boolean
success = sbResponse.Append(selectResponse)

' Get just the list of flags:
Dim sbFlagList As Chilkat.StringBuilder
Set sbFlagList = Chilkat.NewStringBuilder
success = sbFlagList.Append(sbResponse.GetAfterBetween("* FLAGS","(",")"))
Debug.Print sbFlagList.GetAsString()

' sbFlagList contains this:  
' 
'     \Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $Forwarded $NotPhishing $Phishing $label1 $label2 $label3 $label4 $label5 Junk NonJunk
' 

' Make sure no more than one SPACE char in a row exists.
success = sbFlagList.TrimInsideSpaces()
' Modify sbFlagList to one flag per line

numReplaced = sbFlagList.Replace(" ",vbCrLf)

' Load a StringTable with the flag names.
Dim flagsTable As Chilkat.StringTable
Set flagsTable = Chilkat.NewStringTable
success = flagsTable.AppendFromSb(sbFlagList)

' Iterate over the individual flag names:

i = 0
Do While i < flagsTable.Count
    Debug.Print i; ": "; flagsTable.StringAt(i)
    i = i + 1
Loop

' The output is:
' 
' 	0: \Answered
' 	1: \Flagged
' 	2: \Draft
' 	3: \Deleted
' 	4: \Seen
' 	5: $Forwarded
' 	6: $NotPhishing
' 	7: $Phishing
' 	8: $label1
' 	9: $label2
' 	10: $label3
' 	11: $label4
' 	12: $label5
' 	13: Junk
' 	14: NonJunk
'