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Work with email and mailbox by IMAP

Project description

Work with email and mailbox by IMAP:

  • Parsed email message attributes

  • Query builder for searching emails

  • Actions with emails: copy, delete, flag, move, seen, append

  • Actions with folders: list, set, get, create, exists, rename, delete, status

  • No dependencies

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Python version

3.3+

License

Apache-2.0

PyPI

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/imap_tools/

IMAP RFC

VERSION 4rev1 - https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3501

EMAIL RFC

Internet Message Format - https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822

Installation

$ pip install imap-tools

Guide

Basic

from imap_tools import MailBox, AND

# get list of email subjects from INBOX folder
with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('test@mail.com', 'pwd') as mailbox:
    subjects = [msg.subject for msg in mailbox.fetch()]

# get list of email subjects from INBOX folder - equivalent verbose version
mailbox = MailBox('imap.mail.com')
mailbox.login('test@mail.com', 'pwd', initial_folder='INBOX')  # or mailbox.folder.set instead 3d arg
subjects = [msg.subject for msg in mailbox.fetch(AND(all=True))]
mailbox.logout()

MailBox(BaseMailBox), MailBoxUnencrypted(BaseMailBox) - for create mailbox instance.

BaseMailBox.login, MailBox.xoauth2 - authentication functions

BaseMailBox.fetch - email message generator, first searches email nums by criteria, then fetch and yields MailMessage:

  • criteria = ‘ALL’, message search criteria, query builder

  • charset = ‘US-ASCII’, indicates charset of the strings that appear in the search criteria. See rfc2978

  • limit = None, limit on the number of read emails, useful for actions with a large number of messages, like “move”

  • miss_defect = True, miss emails with defects

  • miss_no_uid = True, miss emails without uid

  • mark_seen = True, mark emails as seen on fetch

  • reverse = False, in order from the larger date to the smaller

  • headers_only = False, get only email headers (without text, html, attachments)

  • bulk = False, False - fetch each message separately per N commands - low memory consumption, slow; True - fetch all messages per 1 command - high memory consumption, fast

BaseMailBox.<action> - copy, move, delete, flag, seen, append

BaseMailBox.folder - folder manager

BaseMailBox.search - search mailbox for matching message numbers (this is not uids)

BaseMailBox.box - imaplib.IMAP4/IMAP4_SSL client instance.

Email attributes

MailMessage and MailAttachment public attributes are cached by functools.lru_cache

for msg in mailbox.fetch():  # iter: imap_tools.MailMessage
    msg.uid          # str or None: '123'
    msg.subject      # str: 'some subject 你 привет'
    msg.from_        # str: 'Sender.Bartölke@ya.ru'
    msg.to           # tuple: ('iam@goo.ru', 'friend@ya.ru', )
    msg.cc           # tuple: ('cc@mail.ru', )
    msg.bcc          # tuple: ('bcc@mail.ru', )
    msg.reply_to     # tuple: ('reply_to@mail.ru', )
    msg.date         # datetime.datetime: 1900-1-1 for unparsed, may be naive or with tzinfo
    msg.date_str     # str: original date - 'Tue, 03 Jan 2017 22:26:59 +0500'
    msg.text         # str: 'Hello 你 Привет'
    msg.html         # str: '<b>Hello 你 Привет</b>'
    msg.flags        # tuple: ('SEEN', 'FLAGGED', 'ENCRYPTED')
    msg.headers      # dict: {'received': ('from 1.m.ru', 'from 2.m.ru'), 'anti-virus': ('Clean',)}
    msg.size_rfc822  # int: 20664 bytes - size info from server (*useful with headers_only arg)
    msg.size         # int: 20377 bytes

    for att in msg.attachments:  # list: imap_tools.MailAttachment
        att.filename             # str: 'cat.jpg'
        att.payload              # bytes: b'\xff\xd8\xff\xe0\'
        att.content_id           # str: 'part45.06020801.00060008@mail.ru'
        att.content_type         # str: 'image/jpeg'
        att.content_disposition  # str: 'inline'
        att.part                 # email.message.Message: original object
        att.size                 # int: 17361 bytes

    msg.obj              # email.message.Message: original object
    msg.from_values      # dict or None: {'email': 'im@ya.ru', 'name': 'Ya 你', 'full': 'Ya 你 <im@ya.ru>'}
    msg.to_values        # tuple: ({'email': '', 'name': '', 'full': ''},)
    msg.cc_values        # tuple: ({'email': '', 'name': '', 'full': ''},)
    msg.bcc_values       # tuple: ({'email': '', 'name': '', 'full': ''},)
    msg.reply_to_values  # tuple: ({'email': '', 'name': '', 'full': ''},)

Search criteria

This chapter about “criteria” and “charset” arguments of MailBox.fetch.

You can use 3 approaches to build search criteria:

from imap_tools import AND, OR, NOT

mailbox.fetch(AND(subject='weather'))  # query, the str-like object
mailbox.fetch('TEXT "hello"')          # str
mailbox.fetch(b'TEXT "\xd1\x8f"')      # bytes, *charset arg is ignored

The “charset” is argument used for encode criteria to this encoding. You can pass criteria as bytes in desired encoding - charset will be ignored.

Query builder implements all search logic described in rfc3501.

Class

Alias

Usage

Arguments

AND

A

combines keys by logical “AND” condition

Search keys (see below) | str

OR

O

combines keys by logical “OR” condition

Search keys (see below) | str

NOT

N

invert the result of a logical expression

AND/OR instances | str

Header

H

for search by headers

name: str, value: str

UidRange

U

for search by UID range

start: str, end: str

from imap_tools import A, AND, OR, NOT
# AND
A(text='hello', new=True)  # '(TEXT "hello" NEW)'
# OR
OR(text='hello', date=datetime.date(2000, 3, 15))  # '(OR TEXT "hello" ON 15-Mar-2000)'
# NOT
NOT(text='hello', new=True)  # 'NOT (TEXT "hello" NEW)'
# complex
A(OR(from_='from@ya.ru', text='"the text"'), NOT(OR(A(answered=False), A(new=True))), to='to@ya.ru')
# encoding
mailbox.fetch(A(subject='привет'), charset='utf8')
# python note: you can't do: A(text='two', NOT(subject='one'))
A(NOT(subject='one'), text='two')  # use kwargs after logic classes (args)

See more query examples.

Search key table. Key types marked with * can accepts a sequence of values like list, tuple, set or generator.

Key

Types

Results

Description

answered

bool

ANSWERED/UNANSWERED

with/without the Answered flag

seen

bool

SEEN/UNSEEN

with/without the Seen flag

flagged

bool

FLAGGED/UNFLAGGED

with/without the Flagged flag

draft

bool

DRAFT/UNDRAFT

with/without the Draft flag

deleted

bool

DELETED/UNDELETED

with/without the Deleted flag

keyword

str*

KEYWORD KEY

with the specified keyword flag

no_keyword

str*

UNKEYWORD KEY

without the specified keyword flag

from_

str*

FROM “from@ya.ru”

contain specified str in envelope struct’s FROM field

to

str*

TO “to@ya.ru”

contain specified str in envelope struct’s TO field

subject

str*

SUBJECT “hello”

contain specified str in envelope struct’s SUBJECT field

body

str*

BODY “some_key”

contain specified str in body of the message

text

str*

TEXT “some_key”

contain specified str in header or body of the message

bcc

str*

BCC “bcc@ya.ru”

contain specified str in envelope struct’s BCC field

cc

str*

CC “cc@ya.ru”

contain specified str in envelope struct’s CC field

date

datetime.date*

ON 15-Mar-2000

internal date is within specified date

date_gte

datetime.date*

SINCE 15-Mar-2000

internal date is within or later than the specified date

date_lt

datetime.date*

BEFORE 15-Mar-2000

internal date is earlier than the specified date

sent_date

datetime.date*

SENTON 15-Mar-2000

rfc2822 Date: header is within the specified date

sent_date_gte

datetime.date*

SENTSINCE 15-Mar-2000

rfc2822 Date: header is within or later than the specified date

sent_date_lt

datetime.date*

SENTBEFORE 1-Mar-2000

rfc2822 Date: header is earlier than the specified date

size_gt

int >= 0

LARGER 1024

rfc2822 size larger than specified number of octets

size_lt

int >= 0

SMALLER 512

rfc2822 size smaller than specified number of octets

new

True

NEW

have the Recent flag set but not the Seen flag

old

True

OLD

do not have the Recent flag set

recent

True

RECENT

have the Recent flag set

all

True

ALL

all, criteria by default

uid

iter(str)/str/U

UID 1,2,17

corresponding to the specified unique identifier set

header

H(str, str)*

HEADER “A-Spam” “5.8”

have a header that contains the specified str in the text

gmail_label

str*

X-GM-LABELS “label1”

have this gmail label.

Server side search notes:

  • For string search keys a message matches if the string is a substring of the field. The matching is case-insensitive.

  • When searching by dates - email’s time and timezone are disregarding.

Actions with emails

First of all read about uid at rfc3501.

You can use 2 approaches to perform these operations:

  • “in bulk” - Perform IMAP operation for message set per 1 command

  • “by one” - Perform IMAP operation for each message separately per N commands

MailBox.fetch generator instance passed as the first argument to any action will be implicitly converted to uid list.

For actions with a large number of messages imap command may be too large and will cause exception at server side, use ‘limit’ argument for fetch in this case.

with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('test@mail.com', 'pwd', initial_folder='INBOX') as mailbox:

    # COPY all messages from current folder to folder1, *by one
    for msg in mailbox.fetch():
        res = mailbox.copy(msg.uid, 'INBOX/folder1')

    # MOVE all messages from current folder to folder2, *in bulk (implicit creation of uid list)
    mailbox.move(mailbox.fetch(), 'INBOX/folder2')

    # DELETE all messages from current folder, *in bulk (explicit creation of uid list)
    mailbox.delete([msg.uid for msg in mailbox.fetch()])

    # FLAG unseen messages in current folder as Answered and Flagged, *in bulk.
    flags = (imap_tools.MailMessageFlags.ANSWERED, imap_tools.MailMessageFlags.FLAGGED)
    mailbox.flag(mailbox.fetch(AND(seen=False)), flags, True)

    # SEEN: flag as unseen all messages sent at 05.03.2007 in current folder, *in bulk
    mailbox.seen(mailbox.fetch("SENTON 05-Mar-2007"), False)

    # APPEND: add message to mailbox directly, to INBOX folder with SEEN flag and now date
    with open('/tmp/message.eml', 'rb') as f:
        msg = imap_tools.MailMessage.from_bytes(f.read())  # *or use bytes instead MailMessage
    mailbox.append(msg, 'INBOX', dt=None, flag_set=[imap_tools.MailMessageFlags.SEEN])

Actions with folders

with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('test@mail.com', 'pwd') as mailbox:
    # LIST
    for f in mailbox.folder.list('INBOX'):
        print(f)  # {'name': 'INBOX|cats', 'delim': '|', 'flags': ('\\Unmarked', '\\HasChildren')}
    # SET
    mailbox.folder.set('INBOX')
    # GET
    current_folder = mailbox.folder.get()
    # CREATE
    mailbox.folder.create('folder1')
    # EXISTS
    is_exists = mailbox.folder.exists('folder1')
    # RENAME
    mailbox.folder.rename('folder1', 'folder2')
    # DELETE
    mailbox.folder.delete('folder2')
    # STATUS
    stat = mailbox.folder.status('some_folder')
    print(stat)  # {'MESSAGES': 41, 'RECENT': 0, 'UIDNEXT': 11996, 'UIDVALIDITY': 1, 'UNSEEN': 5}

Exceptions

Custom lib exceptions here: errors.py.

Release notes

History of important changes: release_notes.rst

Contribute

If you found a bug or have a question, please let me know - create merge request or issue.

Reasons

  • Excessive low level of imaplib library.

  • Other libraries contain various shortcomings or not convenient.

  • Open source projects make world better.

Thanks

Big thanks to people who helped develop this library:

shilkazx, somepad, 0xThiebaut, TpyoKnig, parchd-1, dojasoncom, RandomStrangerOnTheInternet, jonnyarnold, Mitrich3000, audemed44, mkalioby, atlas0fd00m, unqx, daitangio, upils, Foosec, frispete, PH89, amarkham09, nixCodeX, backelj, ohayak, mwherman95926, andyfensham, mike-code, aknrdureegaesr, ktulinger, SamGenTLEManKaka, devkral, tnusraddinov, thepeshka, shofstet, the7erm, c0da, dev4max, ascheucher, Borutia, nathan30, daniel55411, rcarmo, bhernacki, ilep

💰 You may donate, if this library helped you.

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