encoding - PHP imap problems

Question

I need to be able to use my gmail from a php script. But whatever I try, the message body comes out all crappy with characters like =3D and random equals signs. Sometimes it comes out as base64 or nothing at alls. How can I fetch an email and dispay it in HTMLPurifier clean html or plain text in a pre if no html is available.

$overview = imap_fetch_overview($inbox,$email_number,0);

$body_pre = imap_fetchbody($inbox, $email_number, 2.1); 

$message = imap_fetchbody($inbox, $email_number, 2.2); 

$message = base64_decode($message);

if (empty($message))
 {
  $message = $body_pre;
  $message = preg_replace('@(https?://([-w.]+)+(:d+)?((/[w/_.%-+~]*)?(?S+)?)?)@', '<a href="$1">$1</a>',$message);
$message = '<pre>'.htmlentities($message).'</pre>';  

}else{

 $cleanconfig = HTMLPurifier_Config::createDefault();
 $cleanconfig->set('Core.Encoding', 'UTF-8');
 $cleanconfig->set('HTML.Doctype', 'HTML 4.01 Transitional');
 $purifier = new HTMLPurifier($cleanconfig);

  $message = $purifier->purify($message);

 }

this code, $message just comes blank.

Answer 1

You're assuming your mail message is always at position 2.2? There's absolutely no guarantees... depends on what message is sent you plan text (just one body), html/text (two), with attachment (three plus) in reply to another email (then the other email will be a body with it's own sub bodies).

The =3D (quoted printable) and base64 data are because of message body encodings. Have a look at imap_fetchstructure which explains how many parts their are on a message (you can search through it to find text), and review the ->type component of each body to learn about it's encoding (type=4 is quoted printable, type=3 is base64)