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IMAP is a surprisingly simple protocol to implement, particularly in an environment like the Translator. Here are some basic concepts:

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title	Next we need to verify our identity since we don't want to give sensitive information to anyone

We need to authenticate - usually with a user name and password. We send a LOGIN command which looks like this:

Code Block
a01 LOGIN aryn.wiebe@interfaceware.com lkjllkjddkdjsfdhgh\r\n

So IMAP messages start with a unique code for each message we send to the server. In this case a01 - this unique ID that we use to track the command we have sent so when we get a reply from the server then we know what the topic was.

Notice the \r\n newline sequence? There is an interesting story behind that.

Remember that question I asked you?

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title	Select INBOX command - also tells us what the highest ID mail that we can request

Notice line Line 8 tells us we have successfully selected the INBOX.

Line 4 also tells us the highest ID mail which exists is 82838.

Code Block

* FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $NotPhishing $Phishing)
* OK [PERMANENTFLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $NotPhishing $Phishing \*)] Flags permitted.
* OK [UIDVALIDITY 1] UIDs valid.
* 82838 EXISTS
* 0 RECENT
* OK [UIDNEXT 84128] Predicted next UID.
* OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 8669111]
a02 OK [READ-WRITE] INBOX selected. (Success)

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title	Fetch an email

Here is a sample of an IMAP Fetch response:

Note we can clearly see the header, body, and success response all separated by a boundry (001a113da73205a6ea056272f2ab). We can use this boundary to help parse the email and isolate its parts.

Code Block

* 1 FETCH (BODY[] {4835}
MIME-Version: 1.0
x-no-auto-attachment: 1
Received: by 10.25.43.137; Wed, 10 Jan 2018 13:45:09 -0800 (PST)
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2018 13:45:09 -0800
Message-ID: &lt;CAP14fq11RQ3+xEZk7uSmWb4rv1oEDdX66fuq7wJJbkxFv+u1fA@mail.gmail.com&gt;
Subject: Hey!
From: real.person@gmail.com;
To: Aryn Wiebe &lt;aryn.wiebe@interfaceware.com&gt;
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="001a113da73205a6ea056272f2ab"

--001a113da73205a6ea056272f2ab
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hi Aryn

This is a sample email! 

Thanks, 

--001a113da73205a6ea056272f2ab
Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<!DOCTYPE html>
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--001a113da73205a6ea056272f2ab--)
a03 OK Success

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title	What other commands are possible - Chat GPT is helpful resource here

Lot’s of commands are possible like getting a summary of an email (can be helpful to avoid loading a very big email).

You can delete emails.

You can probably filter on them. Ask Chat GPT - it knows a lot about IMAP

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title	The best way to understand the protocol is to open up the IMAPemail Feeder and look at it in the translator

You’ll never get a better way to see how IMAP really works.

Load the IMAP Email Feed and use The string viewing window and Annotation Windows you really get to see how it works.

That’s important since it’s also how you can diagnose problems.

I don’t know about you but I get very frustrated with the spinning disc I often get on my Apple Email client on my phone with no visibility as to what is going wrong.

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