imapical

imapical

This module provides functionality for connecting to an IMAP server, listing unread emails, fetching said emails and attachments, and decoding iCalendar attachments into Events.

Overview

fetch() is the primary method for the module, and calling this function triggers a set of operations that results in returning a list of Events currently awaiting processing from the mailbox.

When fetch() is called, the module connects a single IMAP client to the configured IMAP server, and lists all the available mailboxes. These mailboxes are folders that exist on the email account, such things as Inbox, Sent, Spam, etc. emailjs-imap-client provides the functionality for IMAP connectivity.

When the list of mailboxes has been obtained, new IMAP clients are spawned for each of the available mailboxes. These clients then list all available, unread, mail that can currently be found in the mailbox the client belongs to.

Available mail is then fetched by each client, requesting certain header elements, and a peek of the mail body. This prevents the mail from being marked as read, meaning it will show up in future searches for Unread mail.

Once the body of the mails have been returned, these bodies are then scanned for parts that match the text/calendar mimetype. If such a part is found, the full body of this mail is subsequently fetched. This marks the mail as Read and prevents it from being fetched in future searches for Unread mail.

Once a text/calendar bodypart is fetched, it is converted from base64 if appropriate, and then decoded as a iCalendar file. ical-expander provides this functionality.

An object consisting of the organiser (originator) of the event, attendees, start and end date, description and summary of the event is then returned.

Usage

Construct a new imapical instance by passing relevant configuration parameters to the factory function:

const imapical = require('imapical');

const client = imapical({
  "username": "",
  "password": "",
  "host": "",
  "port": 0
});

fetch() can then be called on the new instance:

client.fetch().then((events) => {
  // Parsed events
});