imap_utf7_encode

Description

string imap_utf7_encode ( string data )

Converts data to modified UTF-7 text. Note that data is expected to be encoded in ISO-8859-1.

This is needed to encode mailbox names that contain certain characters which are not in range of printable ASCII characters.

The modified UTF-7 encoding is defined in RFC 2060, section 5.1.3 (original UTF-7 was defined in RFC1642).

See also: imap_utf7_decode().

add a note User Contributed Notes

31-Jul-2006 10:10


This encoding will not work for cyrus imapservers and you might have problems with other mail clients.

Use mb_convert_encoding($str, "UTF7-IMAP","ISO-8859-15") instead.



ps: mb_convert_encoding() requires   building php with  --enable-mbstring option

02-Nov-2005 07:01


Note that php4 (4.4.0) will encode IMAP folders in a way that no other program will be able to decode them back.

$ php4 <<EOF

> <?php

> echo "ENCODED: " . imap_utf7_encode("") . "\\n";

> ?>

> EOF

ENCODED: &w5w-



Now try to decode the result string ("&w5w-") using e.g. javamail or python's imaplib, or if you don't like these languages - create an IMAP folder using PHP and try to display it in an IMAP client (mutt, thunderbird, outlook, whatever...)

marcelo at maccoy dot com dot br
07-Mar-2005 09:48


<?php

/**

* @return encoded string

* @param string $str        

* @desc Convert str to UTF-7 imap default mailbox names

    (the imap_utf7_encode don t built the same result)

*/

function getEncodedUtf7($str){

    if(!$str){

       echo "error: you need to give a string parameter.";

       return false;                        

    }

# change spaces by entropy because mb_convert fail with spaces

    $str=ereg_replace(" ","xyxy",$str);                

# if mb_convert work

    if($str=mb_convert_encoding($str,"UTF-7")){

        # change characters

            $str=preg_replace("/\+A/","&A",$str);

        # change to spaces again

            $str=preg_replace("/xyxy/"," ",$str);                        

        # return encoded string

            return $str;

 # else

    }else{

        # print error and return false

            echo "error: is not possible to encode this string '$str'.[".

            imap_last_error().

            "]";

            return false;                      

    }                 

}

?>

hartmut at six dot de
16-Mar-2000 02:14


this function was buggy up to php3.0.15 / php4beta4pl1

add a note