imap_mime_header_decode

    (PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    imap_mime_header_decode — Decode MIME header elements

    Description

    imap_mime_header_decode(string $string): array|false

    Decodes MIME message header extensions that are non ASCII text (see » RFC2047).

    Parameters

    string

    The MIME text

    Return Values

    The decoded elements are returned in an array of objects, where each object has two properties, charset and text.

    If the element hasn't been encoded, and in other words is in plain US-ASCII, the charset property of that element is set to default.

    The function returns false on failure.

    Examples

    Example #1 imap_mime_header_decode() example

    <?php
    $text     = "=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Keld_J=F8rn_Simonsen?= <keld@example.com>";

    $elements = imap_mime_header_decode($text);
    for (    $i=0; $i<count($elements); $i++) {
    echo     "Charset: {$elements[$i]->charset}\n";
    echo     "Text: {$elements[$i]->text}\n\n";
    }
    ?>

    The above example will output:

    Charset: ISO-8859-1
Text: Keld Jørn Simonsen

Charset: default
Text:  <keld@example.com>

    In the above example we would have two elements, whereas the first element had previously been encoded with ISO-8859-1, and the second element would be plain US-ASCII.

    See Also

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    User Contributed Notes 13 notes

    up
    9
    Anonymous
    11 years ago
    A nice way to decode strings is to use the mb_list_encodings(), but I had two problems with it:
    sometimes, the charset is uppercase in the header an lowercase in mb_list_encodings() and sometimes, the charset is not in the mb_list_encodings() list.

    <?php
    function upperListEncode() { //convert mb_list_encodings() to uppercase
    $encodes=mb_list_encodings();
    foreach (    $encodes as $encode) $tencode[]=strtoupper($encode);
    return     $tencode;
    }

    function     decode($string) {
    $tabChaine=imap_mime_header_decode($string);
    $texte='';
    for (    $i=0; $i<count($tabChaine); $i++) {

    switch (    strtoupper($tabChaine[$i]->charset)) { //convert charset to uppercase
    case 'UTF-8': $texte.= $tabChaine[$i]->text; //utf8 is ok
    break;
    case     'DEFAULT': $texte.= $tabChaine[$i]->text; //no convert
    break;
    default: if (    in_array(strtoupper($tabChaine[$i]->charset),upperListEncode())) //found in mb_list_encodings()
    {$texte.= mb_convert_encoding($tabChaine[$i]->text,'UTF-8',$tabChaine[$i]->charset);}
    else {     //try to convert with iconv()
    $ret = iconv($tabChaine[$i]->charset, "UTF-8", $tabChaine[$i]->text);
    if (!    $ret) $texte.=$tabChaine[$i]->text; //an error occurs (unknown charset)
    else $texte.=$ret;
    }
    break;
    }
    }

    return     $texte;
    }
    ?>
    up
    2
    cracker at bigcracker dot ca
    19 years ago
    In response to Sven dot Dickert at planb dot de: if you encounter problems with "=?utf-8?Q?" appearing in your headers, I found that simply using "imap_utf8($string)" decoded the "$string" properly and solved my problem perfectly.
    up
    1
    mattias at forss dot se
    20 years ago
    This function does not code a-z 0-9 like the function posted by bandpay at hotmail dot com

    function encode_iso88591($string) {
    if( ereg("[^A-Za-z0-9\ ]", $string) ) {
    $text = "=?iso-8859-1?q?";
    for( $i = 0 ; $i < strlen($string) ; $i++ ) {
    if( ereg("[^A-Za-z0-9]", $string[$i]) ) {
    $text .= "=".dechex(ord($string[$i]));
    } else {
    $text .= $string[$i];
    }
    }
    return $text."?=";
    } else return $string;
    }
    up
    0
    paolo dot ceccacci at gmail dot com
    9 years ago
    Here's a "flatMimeDecode" version converting UTF-8 to iso-8859-1:

    function flatMimeDecode($string) {
    $array = imap_mime_header_decode ($string);
    $str = "";
    foreach ($array as $key => $part) {
    if($part->charset == "UTF-8"){
    $str .= utf8_decode ($part->text);
    }else{
    $str .= $part->text;
    }
    }
    return $str;
    }
    up
    0
    kai at froghh dot de
    16 years ago
    Beware of multilined subjects containing whitespaces which are not part of the subject itself, but needed as functional characters for the clients.

    i.e. you can have a mail header containing content like
    Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?WG=3A_Mobilit=E4t_verschlechtert_--=3E_174?=
    =?iso-8859-1?Q?6?=

    (carriage return and tabspace).
    imap_mime_header_decode returns 5 parts (and not expected 2)
    for this example.
    - The first containing the space between "subject:" and the subject itself.
    - The second is the first encoded text
    - The third will be the line-break within the head lines.
    The were inserted to keep rfc compliant line length and are NOT part of the original subject entered by the sender.
    - The fourth will be the second part of the subject.
    - The fifth is a line break - the last character will be a line break any time other head lines or mailbody will follow, so it's needed in the head - but not part of the original subject.
    up
    0
    diego nunes <dn at nospam dot dnunes dot com>
    17 years ago
    The previous comment (from hans) seems to make no sense at all, since it will not change the encoding and possibly result in a "multiencoding" string (that the browser and anything else will be unable to render, of course).

    I use a little function to decode the whole header to a specified encoding. It is as follow:

    <?php
    //return supported encodings in lowercase.
    function mb_list_lowerencodings() { $r=mb_list_encodings();
    for (    $n=sizeOf($r); $n--; ) { $r[$n]=strtolower($r[$n]); } return $r;
    }

    // Receive a string with a mail header and returns it
    // decoded to a specified charset.
    // If the charset specified into a piece of text from header
    // isn't supported by "mb", the "fallbackCharset" will be
    // used to try to decode it.
    function decodeMimeString($mimeStr, $inputCharset='utf-8', $targetCharset='utf-8', $fallbackCharset='iso-8859-1') {
    $encodings=mb_list_lowerencodings();
    $inputCharset=strtolower($inputCharset);
    $targetCharset=strtolower($targetCharset);
    $fallbackCharset=strtolower($fallbackCharset);

    $decodedStr='';
    $mimeStrs=imap_mime_header_decode($mimeStr);
    for (    $n=sizeOf($mimeStrs), $i=0; $i<$n; $i++) {
    $mimeStr=$mimeStrs[$i];
    $mimeStr->charset=strtolower($mimeStr->charset);
    if ((    $mimeStr == 'default' && $inputCharset == $targetCharset)
    ||     $mimStr->charset == $targetCharset) {
    $decodedStr.=$mimStr->text;
    } else {
    $decodedStr.=mb_convert_encoding(
    $mimeStr->text, $targetCharset,
    (    in_array($mimeStr->charset, $encodings) ?
    $mimeStr->charset : $fallbackCharset)
    )
    );
    }
    } return     $decodedStr;
    }
    ?>

    Hope it helps.
    up
    -2
    hdlim at kis21 dot com
    21 years ago
    imap_mime_header_decode, utf-7 and utf-8 problem, i solved the problem using below function. note that iconv function for code converting.
    you must replace "EUC-KR" as iconv parameter with charset you want such as "iso-8859-1".

    function mime_decode($s) {
    $elements = imap_mime_header_decode($s);
    for($i = 0;$i < count($elements);$i++) {
    $charset = $elements[$i]->charset;
    $text =$elements[$i]->text;
    if(!strcasecmp($charset, "utf-8") ||
    !strcasecmp($charset, "utf-7"))
    {
    $text = iconv($charset, "EUC-KR", $text);
    }
    $decoded = $decoded . $text;
    }
    return $decoded;
    }
    up
    -2
    Sven dot Dickert at planb dot de
    22 years ago
    Beware! imap_mime_header_decode in 4.0.6 is _not_ RFC2047 conform. The string =?utf-7?Q?Petra_M+APw-ller?= will not converted into Petra M?ller cause the charset utf7 is unknown. Same goes to =?utf-8?Q?Petra_M=C3=BCller?= for charset utf8.
    up
    -1
    s dot wiese at trabia dot md
    16 years ago
    The example of diego is working well, he has a (very) little
    mistake in his code. Here is the corrected version:

    <?php
    //return supported encodings in lowercase.
    function mb_list_lowerencodings() { $r=mb_list_encodings();
    for (    $n=sizeOf($r); $n--; ) { $r[$n]=strtolower($r[$n]); } return $r;
    }

    // Receive a string with a mail header and returns it
    // decoded to a specified charset.
    // If the charset specified into a piece of text from header
    // isn't supported by "mb", the "fallbackCharset" will be
    // used to try to decode it.
    function decodeMimeString($mimeStr, $inputCharset='utf-8', $targetCharset='utf-8', $fallbackCharset='iso-8859-1') {
    $encodings=mb_list_lowerencodings();
    $inputCharset=strtolower($inputCharset);
    $targetCharset=strtolower($targetCharset);
    $fallbackCharset=strtolower($fallbackCharset);

    $decodedStr='';
    $mimeStrs=imap_mime_header_decode($mimeStr);
    for (    $n=sizeOf($mimeStrs), $i=0; $i<$n; $i++) {
    $mimeStr=$mimeStrs[$i];
    $mimeStr->charset=strtolower($mimeStr->charset);
    if ((    $mimeStr == 'default' && $inputCharset == $targetCharset)
    ||     $mimStr->charset == $targetCharset) {
    $decodedStr.=$mimStr->text;
    } else {
    $decodedStr.=mb_convert_encoding(
    $mimeStr->text, $targetCharset,
    (    in_array($mimeStr->charset, $encodings) ?
    $mimeStr->charset : $fallbackCharset)
    )
    );
    }
    } return     $decodedStr;
    }
    ?>
    up
    -1
    charsyam at liso dot cs dot pusan dot ac dot kr
    23 years ago
    I wrote a simple ks_c_5601-1987(2byte)
    encode

    function encode_ksc5601( $string )
    {
    $encode = base64_encode( $string );
    $text = "=?ks_c_5601-1987?B?";
    $text = $text.$encode."?=";
    return $text;
    }
    up
    -1
    Pawel Tomicki <pafka at klub dot chip dot pl>
    20 years ago
    <?php

    function decode_iso88591($string){
    if (    strpos(strtolower($string), '=?iso-8859-1') === false) {
    return     $string;
    }
    $string = explode('?', $string);
    return     strtolower($string[2]) == 'q' ? quoted_printable_decode($string[3]) : base64_decode($string[3]);
    }

    ?>
    up
    -3
    alchrystal88 at web dot de
    5 years ago
    If you have errors with wrong attachment names like this:

    correct name:
    String -> Prüfbericht Hersteller.pdf

    fetchstructure object name:
    =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Pr=FCfbericht_Hersteller=2Epdf?=

    Workaround to reconvert:

    imap_mime_header_decode($fetchstructure->dparameters->value)[0]->text

    imap_mime_header_decode($filename)[0]->text
    up
    -4
    hans at lintoo dot dk
    18 years ago
    This is obvious, but nevertheless here is a "flat" version:
    <?php
    private function flatMimeDecode($string) {
    $array = imap_mime_header_decode($string);
    $str = "";
    foreach (    $array as $key => $part) {
    $str .= $part->text;
    }
    return     $str;
    }
    ?>
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