This is a work in progress IMAP client for node.js.
The project consists of two major parts
- IMAP command parser (token based, more or less complete)
- IMAP control for accessing mailboxes (under construction)
Install from npm
npm install inbox
NB! This API is preliminary and may change.
Use inbox module
var inbox = require("inbox");
Create connection object with
inbox.createConnection(port, host, options)
where
- port is the port to the server (defaults to 143 on non-secure and to 993 on secure connection)
- host is the hostname of the server
- options is an options object for auth etc.
- options.secureConnection is a Boolean value to indicate if the connection is initially secure or not
- options.auth is an authentication object
- options.auth.user is the IMAP username
- options.auth.pass is the IMAP password
- options.auth.XOAuthToken (optional) is either a String or inbox.createXOAuthGenerator object
Example:
var client = inbox.createConnection(false, "imap.gmail.com", {
secureConnection: true,
auth:{
user: "[email protected]",
pass: "Nodemailer123"
}
});
Or when login with XOAUTH (see examples/xoauth.js)
var client = inbox.createConnection(false, "imap.gmail.com", {
secureConnection: true,
auth:{
XOAuthToken: inbox.createXOAuthGenerator({
user: "[email protected]",
token: "1/Gr2OVA2Ol64fNyjZCns-bkRau5eLisbdlEa_HSuTaEk",
tokenSecret: "ymFpseHtEnrIsuL8Ppbfnnk3"
})
}
});
Once the connection object has been created, use connect() to create the actual connection.
client.connect();
When the connection has been successfully established a 'connect' event is emitted.
client.on("connect", function(){
console.log("Successfully connected to server");
});
To get the list of available mailboxes, use
client.getMailboxList()
which returns the mailbox list
Example
console.log(client.getMailboxList());
Output:
{
INBOX: { name: 'INBOX', inbox: true },
Drafts: { name: 'Drafts' },
Sent: { name: 'Sent', disabled: true},
Junk: { name: 'Junk' }
}
Before you can check mailbox contents, you need to select one with
client.openMailbox(name[, options], callback)
Where
- name is the name of the mailbox (ie. "INBOX")
- options is an optional options object
- options.readOnly - if set to true, open the mailbox in read-only mode (downloading messages does not update seen/unseen flag)
- callback (error, mailbox) is a callback function to run after the mailbox has been opened. Has an error param in case the opening failed and a mailbox param with the properties of the opened mailbox.
Example
client.on("connect", function(){
client.openMailbox("INBOX", function(error, mailbox){
if(error) throw error;
console.log("Message count in INBOX: " + mailbox.count);
});
});
Once a mailbox has been opened you can list contained e-mails with
client.listMessages(from[, limit], callback)
Where
- from is the index of the first message (0 based), you can use negative numbers to count from the end (-10 indicates the 10 last messages)
- limit defines the maximum count of messages to fetch, if not set or 0 all messages from the starting position will be included
- callback (error, messages) is the callback function to run with the message array
Example
// list newest 10 messages
client.listMessages(-10, function(err, messages){
messages.forEach(function(message){
console.log(message.UID + ": " + message.title);
});
});
Example output for a message listing
[
{
// if uidvalidity changes, all uid values are void!
UIDValidity: '664399135',
// uid value of the message
UID: 52,
// message flags (Array)
flags: [ '\\Flagged', '\\Seen' ],
// date of the message (Date object)
date: Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:23:05 GMT,
title: 'This is a message, may contain unicode symbols',
// single "from:" address
from: {
name: 'Andris Reinman',
address: '[email protected]'
},
// an array of "to:" addresses
to: [
{
name: 'test nodemailer',
address: '[email protected]'
}
],
// an array of "cc:" addresses
cc: [
{
name: 'test nodemailer',
address: '[email protected]'
}
],
messageId: '<[email protected]>'
},
...
]
NB! if some properties are not present in a message, it may be not included in the message object - for example, if there are no "cc:" addresses listed, there is no "cc" field in the message object
To fetch message data (flags, title, etc) for a specific message, use
client.fetchData(uid, callback)
Where
- uid is the UID value for the mail
- callback (error, message) is the callback function to with the message data object (or null if the message was not found). Gets an error parameter if error occured
Example
client.fetchData(123, function(error, message){
console.log(message.flags);
});
Message listing only retrieves the envelope part of the message. To get the full RFC822 message body you need to fetch the message.
var messageStream = client.createMessageStream(uid)
Where
- uid is the UID value for the mail
Example (output message contents to console)
client.createMessageStream(123).pipe(process.stdout, {end: false});
NB! If the opened mailbox is not in read-only mode, the message will be automatically marked as read (\Seen flag is set) when the message is fetched.
You can add and remove message flags like \Seen or \Answered with client.addFlags() and client.removeFlags()
Add flags
client.addFlags(uid, flags, callback)
Where
- uid is the message identifier
- flags is the array of flags to be added
- callback (error, flags) is the callback to run, gets message flags array as a parameter
Remove flags
client.removeFlags(uid, flags, callback)
Where
- uid is the message identifier
- flags is the array of flags to be removed
- callback (error, flags) is the callback to run, gets message flags array as a parameter
Example
// add \Seen and \Flagged flag to a message
client.addFlags(123, ["\\Seen", "\\Flagged"], function(err, flags){
console.log("Current flags for a message: ", flags);
});
// remove \Flagged flag from a message
client.removeFlags(123, ["\\Flagged"], function(err, flags){
console.log("Current flags for a message: ", flags);
});
You can listen for new incoming e-mails with event "new"
client.on("new", function(message){
console.log("New incoming message " + message.title);
});
Listing newest 10 messages:
var inbox = require("inbox");
var client = inbox.createConnection(false, "imap.gmail.com", {
secureConnection: true,
auth:{
user: "[email protected]",
pass: "Nodemailer123"
}
});
client.connect();
client.on("connect", function(){
client.openMailbox("INBOX", function(error, mailbox){
if(error) throw error;
client.listMessages(-10, function(err, messages){
messages.forEach(function(message){
console.log(message.UID + ": " + message.title);
});
});
});
});