betterimap is a wrapper library for Python's standard imaplib, that
improves the experience.
imap = betterimap.IMAPAdapter(
'username', 'password', host='imap.example.com', ssl=True)
imap.select(imap.get_inbox_folder())
### Download last 10 messages
for msg in imap.search(limit=10):
print msg.subject # prints unicode subject
print msg.date # prints a timezone-aware datetime.datetime object
print msg.from_addr # ('First Last', 'first.last@example.com')
print msg.get_header('Date') # get any unicode header
print msg.to # Prints receivers
# [
# ('First Last2', 'first.last-2@example.com'),
# ('First Last3', 'first.last-3@example.com'),
# ]
print msg.html() # prints html, if multipart
print msg.plaintext() # prints message plaintext
for attachment in msg.attachments:
print attachment.size # integer
print attachment.data # the content of the attachment
print attachment.filename # unicode
print attachment.content_type # stringimap = betterimap.IMAPAdapter(
'username', 'password', host='imap.example.com', ssl=True)
stop, stream = imap.idle(copy=False)
for msg in stream:
print msg
# When you are done, you can call stop(), to free the resources.
stop()imap = betterimap.IMAPAdapter(...)
# Search by subject
for msg in email.easy_search(subject=u'Some subject'):
pass
# Search by date
for msg in email.easy_search(exact_date=datetime.date(2014, 9, 27)):
pass
# Search since and before
for msg in email.easy_search(since=datetime.date(2014, 9, 27)):
pass
for msg in email.easy_search(before=datetime.date(2014, 9, 27), limit=10):
pass
# Search by sender
for msg in email.easy_search(sender='123@example.com', limit=5):
pass As Gmail forbids login/password access to IMAP, and only allows OAuth2 access, you will need an access token (short term use), and optionally a refresh token (for long term use) to login. To obtain them you will need:
- An application set up in google developers console
- An access or refresh token given to this application, with scope
https://mail.google.com/
You can read here about how to do all this.
Once you have them, do something like:
# If you have access token:
gmail = betterimap.Gmail(login='username@gmail.com', access_token=access_token)
# If you have refresh token:
gmail = betterimap.Gmail(
login='username@gmail.com',
access_token=access_token
refresh_token=refresh_token,
client_id=client_id,
client_secret=client_secret,
refresh_token_callback=refresh_callback # optional
)
If refresh_token_callback is provided, it will be called with a dictionary
in format {'access_token': '...', 'expires_in': integer}, so that you
can update your storage with the refreshed access token.