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What can I do with the IMAP4 Fetch command?
The Fetch command gets the data associated with one or more messages. The application can either retrieve the whole message or just part of it. This method is very flexible and powerful. Here are some possible uses:
- Retrieve only the header information (To, From, Subject );
- Retrieve the message statistics (Unique Identifier, Size or Date Received);
- Retrieve the status of a message (Recent, Answered, Seen );
- Retrieve the entire message (with or without the initial header);
- Retrieve information on the contents of a multipart message (Type of message, Section No., Encoding );
- Retrieve sections of the message (header fields, Content, Attributes);
- Retrieve only a specified number of lines of a message;
- Retrieve the initial header fields for sections of the message;
- Retrieve sections of a MIME multipart message; etc.
Remember if an IMAP4 "vendor" wants to sell you an IMAP4 implementation that does not fully implement the Search and the Fetch commands, just say "no thank you!". It is not IMAP4 unless it implements these most powerful features. Check out the IMAP RFC.
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