Mail::Box::IMAP4(3)

NAME
Mail::Box::IMAP4 - handle IMAP4 folders as client

INHERITANCE
 Mail::Box::IMAP4
   is a Mail::Box::Net
   is a Mail::Box
   is a Mail::Reporter

SYNOPSIS
 use Mail::Box::IMAP4;
 my $folder = new Mail::Box::IMAP4 folder => $ENV{MAIL}, ...;

DESCRIPTION
Maintain a folder which has its messages stored on a remote server. The communication between the client application and the server is implemented using the IMAP4 protocol. See also Mail::Server::IMAP4.

This class uses Mail::Transport::IMAP4 to hide the transport of information, and focusses solely on the correct handling of messages within a IMAP4 folder. More than one IMAP4 folder can be handled by one single IMAP4 connection.

OVERLOADED

overload: ""()
    See "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Box

overload: @{}()
    See "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Box

overload: cmp()
    See "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Box

METHODS

  Constructors

Mail::Box::IMAP4->new(OPTIONS)
    The "new" can have many OPTIONS. Not only the ones listed here below, but also all the OPTIONS for Mail::Transport::IMAP4::new() can be passed.

    The default depends on the value of new(cache_head).

    Without folder name, no folder is selected. Only few methods are available now, for instance listSubFolders() to get the top-level folder names. Usually, the folder named "INBOX" will be present.

     -Option           --Defined in     --Default
      access             Mail::Box        'r'
      body_delayed_type  Mail::Box        Mail::Message::Body::Delayed
      body_type          Mail::Box        Mail::Message::Body::Lines
      cache_body                          NO
      cache_head                          NO or DELAY
      cache_labels                        NO or DELAY
      coerce_options     Mail::Box        []
      create             Mail::Box        <false>
      extract            Mail::Box        10240
      field_type         Mail::Box        undef
      fix_headers        Mail::Box        <false>
      folder             Mail::Box        /
      folderdir          Mail::Box        <not used>
      head_delayed_type  Mail::Box        Mail::Message::Head::Delayed
      head_type          Mail::Box        Mail::Box::IMAP4::Head or Mail::Message::Head::Complete
      join_connection                     true
      keep_dups          Mail::Box        <false>
      lock_file          Mail::Box        undef
      lock_timeout       Mail::Box        1 hour
      lock_type          Mail::Box        'NONE'
      lock_wait          Mail::Box        10 seconds
      locker             Mail::Box        undef
      log                Mail::Reporter   'WARNINGS'
      manager            Mail::Box        undef
      message_type       Mail::Box        Mail::Box::IMAP4::Message
      multipart_type     Mail::Box        Mail::Message::Body::Multipart
      password           Mail::Box::Net   undef
      remove_when_empty  Mail::Box        <false>
      save_on_exit       Mail::Box        <true>
      server_name        Mail::Box::Net   undef
      server_port        Mail::Box::Net   143
      trace              Mail::Reporter   'WARNINGS'
      transporter                         Mail::Transport::IMAP4
      trusted            Mail::Box        <false>
      username           Mail::Box::Net   undef

    access => MODE
    body_delayed_type => CLASS
    body_type => CLASS|CODE
    cache_body => 'NO'|'YES'|'DELAY'
        Body objects are immutable, but may still cached or not. In common case, the body of a message is requested via Mail::Message::body() or Mail::Message::decoded(). This returns a handle to a body object. You may decide wether that body object can be reused or not. "NO" means: retreive the data each time again, "YES" will cache the body data, "DELAY" will send the whole message when the folder is closed.

                [local cache]  [write]
         NO         no           no
         YES        yes          no
         DELAY      yes          yes

    cache_head => 'NO'|'PARTIAL'|'DELAY'
        For a read-only folder, "DELAY" is the default, otherwise "NO" is chosen. The four configuration parameter have subtile consequences. To start with a table:

                [local cache]  [write]  [default head_type]
         NO         no           no     Mail::Box::IMAP4::Head
         PARTIAL    yes          no     Mail::Box::IMAP4::Head
         DELAY      yes          yes    Mail::Message::Head::Complete

        The default "head_type" is Mail::Box::IMAP4::Head, the default "cached_head_type" is Mail::Message::Head::Complete.

        Having a local cache means that a lookup for a field is first done in a local data-structure (which extends Mail::Message::Head::Partial), and only on the remote server if it was not found. This is dangerous, because your locally cached data can be out-of-sync with the server. However, it may give you a nice performance benefit.

        "DELAY" will always collect the whole header for you. This is required when you want to look for Resent Groups (See Mail::Message::Head::ResentGroup) or other field order dependent header access. A Mail::Message::Head::Delayed will be created first.

    cache_labels => 'NO'|'WRITE'|'DELAY'
        When labels from a message are received, these values can be kept. However, this imposes dangers where the server's internal label storage may get out of sync with your data.

        With "NO", no caching will take place (but the performance will be worse). With "WRITE", all label access will be cached, but written to the server as well. Both "NO" and "WRITE" will update the labels on the served, even when the folder was opened read-only. "DELAY" will not write the changed information to the server, but delay that till the moment that the folder is closed. It only works when the folder is opened read/write or write is enforced.

        The default is "DELAY" for folders which where opened read-only. This means that you still can force an update with close(write). For folders which are opened read-write, the default is the safeset setting, which is "NO".

    coerce_options => ARRAY
    create => BOOLEAN
    extract => INTEGER | CODE | METHOD | 'LAZY'|'ALWAYS'
    field_type => CLASS
    fix_headers => BOOLEAN
    folder => FOLDERNAME
    folderdir => DIRECTORY
    head_delayed_type => CLASS
    head_type => CLASS
    join_connection => BOOLEAN
        Within this Mail::Box::IMAP4 class is registered which transporters are already in use, i.e. which connections to the IMAP server are already in established. When this option is set, multiple folder openings on the same server will try to reuse one connection.

    keep_dups => BOOLEAN
    lock_file => FILENAME
    lock_timeout => SECONDS
    lock_type => CLASS|STRING|ARRAY
    lock_wait => SECONDS
    locker => OBJECT
    log => LEVEL
    manager => MANAGER
    message_type => CLASS
    multipart_type => CLASS
    password => STRING
    remove_when_empty => BOOLEAN
    save_on_exit => BOOLEAN
    server_name => HOSTNAME
    server_port => INTEGER
    trace => LEVEL
    transporter => OBJECT|CLASS
        The name of the CLASS which will interface with the connection. When you implement your own extension to Mail::Transport::IMAP4, you can either specify a fully instantiated transporter OBJECT, or the name of your own CLASS. When an OBJECT is given, most other options will be ignored.

    trusted => BOOLEAN
    username => STRING

    example:

     my $imap   = Mail::Box::IMAP4->new(username => 'myname',
        password => 'mypassword', server_name => 'imap.xs4all.nl');

     my $url    = 'imap4://user:password@imap.xs4all.nl');
     my $imap   = $mgr->open($url);

     my $client = Mail::IMAPClient->new(...);
     my $imap   = Mail::Box::IMAP4->new(imap_client => $client);

  The folder

$obj->addMessage(MESSAGE, OPTIONS)
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->addMessages(MESSAGE [, MESSAGE, ...])
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

Mail::Box::IMAP4->appendMessages(OPTIONS)
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->close(OPTIONS)
    Close the folder. In the case of IMAP, more than one folder can use the same connection, therefore, closing a folder does not always close the connection to the server. Only when no folder is using the connection anymore, a logout will be invoked by Mail::Transport::IMAP4::DESTROY()

     -Option      --Defined in     --Default
      force         Mail::Box        <false>
      save_deleted  Mail::Box        false
      write         Mail::Box        MODIFIED

    force => BOOLEAN
    save_deleted => BOOLEAN
    write => 'ALWAYS'|'NEVER'|'MODIFIED'
$obj->copyTo(FOLDER, OPTIONS)
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->delete(OPTIONS)
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->folderdir([DIRECTORY])
    See "METHODS" in Mail::Box::Net

$obj->name()
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->organization()
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->size()
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->type()
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->update(OPTIONS)
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

$obj->url()
    See "The folder" in Mail::Box

  Folder flags

$obj->access()
    See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

$obj->isModified()
    See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

$obj->modified([BOOLEAN])
    See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

$obj->writable()
    See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

  The messages

$obj->current([NUMBER|MESSAGE|MESSAGE-ID])
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->find(MESSAGE-ID)
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->findFirstLabeled(LABEL, [BOOLEAN, [ARRAY-OF-MSGS]])
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->message(INDEX [,MESSAGE])
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->messageId(MESSAGE-ID [,MESSAGE])
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->messageIds()
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->messages(['ALL',RANGE,'ACTIVE','DELETED',LABEL,!LABEL,FILTER])
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->nrMessages(OPTIONS)
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

$obj->scanForMessages(MESSAGE, MESSAGE-IDS, TIMESPAN, WINDOW)
    See "The messages" in Mail::Box

  Sub-folders

$obj->listSubFolders(OPTIONS)
Mail::Box::IMAP4->listSubFolders(OPTIONS)
    See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

$obj->nameOfSubFolder(SUBNAME, [PARENTNAME])
Mail::Box::IMAP4->nameOfSubFolder(SUBNAME, [PARENTNAME])
    See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

$obj->openRelatedFolder(OPTIONS)
    See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

$obj->openSubFolder(SUBNAME, OPTIONS)
    See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

$obj->topFolderWithMessages()
Mail::Box::IMAP4->topFolderWithMessages()
    See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

  Internals

$obj->body([BODY])
$obj->coerce(MESSAGE, OPTIONS)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->create(FOLDER, OPTIONS)
Mail::Box::IMAP4->create(FOLDER, OPTIONS)
    See "METHODS" in Mail::Box::Net

$obj->createTransporter(CLASS, OPTIONS)
    Create a transporter object (an instance of Mail::Transport::IMAP4), where CLASS defines the exact object type. As OPTIONS, everything which is acceptable to a transporter initiation can be used (see Mail::Transport::IMAP4::new().

     -Option         --Default
      join_connection  true

    join_connection => BOOLEAN
        See new(join_connection). When false, the connection will never be shared with other IMAP mail boxes.

$obj->determineBodyType(MESSAGE, HEAD)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->fetch(ARRAY-OF-MESSAGES|MESSAGE-SELECTION, INFO)
    Low-level data retreival about one or more messages via IMAP4 from the remote server. Some of this data may differ from the information which is stored in the message objects which are created by MailBox, so you should avoid the use of this method for your own purposes. The IMAP implementation provides some wrappers around this, providing the correct behavior.

    An array of MESSAGES may be specified or some MESSAGE SELECTION, acceptable to Mail::Box::messages(). Examples of the latter are 'ALL', 'DELETED', or "spam" (messages labelled to contain spam).

    The INFO contains one or more attributes as defined by the IMAP protocol. You have to read the full specs of the related RFCs to see these.

Mail::Box::IMAP4->foundIn([FOLDERNAME], OPTIONS)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->getHead(MESSAGE)
    Read the header for the specified message from the remote server. "undef" is returned in case the message disappeared.

$obj->getHeadAndBody(MESSAGE)
    Read all data for the specified message from the remote server. Return head and body of the mesasge as list, or an empty list if the MESSAGE disappeared from the server.

$obj->lineSeparator([STRING|'CR'|'LF'|'CRLF'])
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->locker()
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->read(OPTIONS)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->readMessages(OPTIONS)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->storeMessage(MESSAGE)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->toBeThreaded(MESSAGES)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->toBeUnthreaded(MESSAGES)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->transporter([OBJECT])
    Returns the object which is the interface to the IMAP4 protocol handler. The IMAP4 handler has the current folder selected. When an OBJECT is specified, it is set to be the transporter from that moment on. The OBJECT must extend Mail::Transport::IMAP4.

$obj->updateMessages(OPTIONS)
    See "Internals" in Mail::Box

$obj->write(OPTIONS)
    The IMAP protocol usually writes the data immediately to the remote server, because that's what the protocol wants. However, some options to new() may delay that to boost performance. This method will, when the folder is being closed, write that info after all.

     -Option      --Defined in     --Default
      force         Mail::Box        <false>
      save_deleted                   <false>

    force => BOOLEAN
    save_deleted => BOOLEAN
        You may be able to save the messages which are flagged for deletion now, but they will be removed anyway when the folder is closed.

$obj->writeMessages(OPTIONS)
     -Option     --Defined in     --Default
      messages     Mail::Box        <required>
      transporter                   <required>

    messages => ARRAY
    transporter => OBJECT

  Other methods

$obj->timespan2seconds(TIME)
Mail::Box::IMAP4->timespan2seconds(TIME)
    See "Other methods" in Mail::Box

  Error handling

$obj->AUTOLOAD()
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->addReport(OBJECT)
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->defaultTrace([LEVEL]|[LOGLEVEL, TRACELEVEL]|[LEVEL, CALLBACK])
Mail::Box::IMAP4->defaultTrace([LEVEL]|[LOGLEVEL, TRACELEVEL]|[LEVEL, CALLBACK])
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->errors()
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->log([LEVEL [,STRINGS]])
Mail::Box::IMAP4->log([LEVEL [,STRINGS]])
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->logPriority(LEVEL)
Mail::Box::IMAP4->logPriority(LEVEL)
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->logSettings()
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->notImplemented()
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->report([LEVEL])
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->reportAll([LEVEL])
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->trace([LEVEL])
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->warnings()
    See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

  Cleanup

$obj->DESTROY()
    See "Cleanup" in Mail::Box

$obj->inGlobalDestruction()
    See "Cleanup" in Mail::Reporter

DIAGNOSTICS

Warning: Cannot find head back for $uidl in $folder.
    The header was read before, but now seems empty: the IMAP4 server does not produce the header lines anymore.

Warning: Cannot read body for $uidl in $folder.
    The header of the message was retreived from the IMAP4 server, but the body is not read, for an unknown reason.

Error: Copying failed for one message.
    For some reason, for instance disc full, removed by external process, or read-protection, it is impossible to copy one of the messages. Copying will proceed for the other messages.

Error: Couldn't select IMAP4 folder $name
Error: Destination folder $name is not writable.
    The folder where the messages are copied to is not opened with write access (see new(access)). This has no relation with write permission to the folder which is controled by your operating system.

Warning: Different messages with id $msgid
    The message id is discovered more than once within the same folder, but the content of the message seems to be different. This should not be possible: each message must be unique.

Error: Folder $name not deleted: not writable.
    The folder must be opened with write access via new(access), otherwise removing it will be refused. So, you may have write-access according to the operating system, but that will not automatically mean that this "delete" method permits you to. The reverse remark is valid as well.

Notice: Impossible to keep deleted messages in IMAP
    Some folder type have a 'deleted' flag which can be stored in the folder to be performed later. The folder keeps that knowledge even when the folder is rewritten. Well, IMAP4 cannot play that trick.

Error: Invalid timespan '$timespan' specified.
    The string does not follow the strict rules of the time span syntax which is permitted as parameter.

Warning: Message $uidl disappeared from $folder.
    Trying to get the specific message from the server, but it appears to be gone.

Warning: Message $uidl disappeared from $folder.
    Trying to get the specific message from the server, but it appears to be gone.

Warning: Message-id '$msgid' does not contain a domain.
    According to the RFCs, message-ids need to contain a unique random part, then an "@", and then a domain name. This is made to avoid the creation of two messages with the same id. The warning emerges when the "@" is missing from the string.

Error: No IMAP4 transporter configured
Error: Package $package does not implement $method.
    Fatal error: the specific package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not. Probably you should investigate this and probably inform the author of the package.

Error: Unable to create subfolder $name of $folder.
    The copy includes the subfolders, but for some reason it was not possible to copy one of these. Copying will proceed for all other sub-folders.

SEE ALSO
This module is part of Mail-Box distribution version 2.106, built on August 15, 2012. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

LICENSE
Copyrights 2001-2012 by [Mark Overmeer]. For other contributors see ChangeLog.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html