17.6.1. Problem

17.6.2. Solution

// open a connection to the nntp server
$server = '{news.php.net/nntp:119}';
$group = 'php.general'; // main PHP mailing list
$nntp = imap_open("$server$group", '', '', OP_ANONYMOUS);

// get header
$header = imap_header($nntp, $msg);
        
// pull out fields
$subj  = $header->subject;
$from  = $header->from;
$email = $from[0]->mailbox."@".$from[0]->host;
$name  = $from[0]->personal;
$date  = date('m/d/Y h:i A', $header->udate);

// get body
$body  = nl2br(htmlspecialchars(imap_fetchbody($nntp,$msg,1)));

// close connection
imap_close($nntp);

17.6.3. Discussion

Reading news from a news server requires you to connect to the server and specify a group you're interested in reading:

// open a connection to the nntp server
$server = "{news.php.net/nntp:119}";
$group = "php.general";
$nntp = imap_open("$server$group",'','',OP_ANONYMOUS);

The middle two arguments to imap_open( ) are a username and password, in case you need to provide verification of your identity. Because news.php.net is open to all readers, leave them blank. Finally, pass the flag OP_ANONYMOUS, which tells IMAP you're an anonymous reader; it will not then keep a record of you in a special .newsrc file.

// read and display posting index
$last = imap_num_msg($nntp);
$n = 10; // display last 10 messages

// table header
print <<<EOH
<table>
<tr>
    <th align="left">Subject</th>
    <th align="left">Sender</th>
    <th align="left">Date</th>
</tr>
EOH;

// the messages
for ($i = $last-$n+1; $i <= $last; $i++) {
    $header = imap_header($nntp, $i);

    if (! $header->Size) { continue; }
           
    $subj  = $header->subject;
    $from  = $header->from;
    $email = $from[0]->mailbox."@".$from[0]->host;
    $name  = $from[0]->personal ? $from[0]->personal : $email;
    $date  = date('m/d/Y h:i A', $header->udate);

print <<<EOM
<tr>
    <td><a href="$_SERVER[PHP_SELF]"?msg=$i\">$subj</a></td>
    <td><a href="mailto:$email">$name</a></td>
    <td>$date</td>
</tr>
EOM;
     }

// table footer
echo "</table>\n";

To browse a listing of posts, you need to specify what you want by number. The first post ever to a group gets number 1, and the most recent post is the number returned from imap_num_msg( ). So, to get the last $n messages, loop from $last-$n+1 to $last.

Table 17-2. imap_header( ) fields from a NNTP server

Some of the more useful fields are: size, subject, the from list, and udate. The size property is the size of the message in bytes; if it's 0, the message was either deleted or otherwise removed. The subject field is the subject of the post. The from list is more complicated. It's an array of objects; each element in the array holds an object with three properties: personal, mailbox and host. The personal field is the name of the poster: Homer Simpson. The mailbox field is the part of the email address before the @ sign: homer. The host is the part of the email address after the @ sign: thesimpsons.com. Usually, there's just one element in the from list array, because a message usually has just one sender.

Pull the $header->from object into $from because PHP can't directly access $header->from[0]->personal due to the array in the middle. Then combine $from[0]->mailbox and $from[0]->host to form the poster's email address. Use the ternary operator to assign the personal field as the poster's name, if one is supplied; otherwise, make it the email address.

You can also view a specific posting as follows:

// read and display a single message
$header = imap_header($nntp, $msg);
        
$subj  = $header->subject;
$from  = $header->from;
$email = $from[0]->mailbox."@".$from[0]->host;
$name  = $from[0]->personal;
$date  = date('m/d/Y h:i A', $header->udate);
$body  = nl2br(htmlspecialchars(imap_fetchbody($nntp,$msg,1)));

print <<<EOM
<table>
<tr>
    <th align=left>From:</th>
    <td>$name &lt;<a href="mailto:$email">$email</a>&gt;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <th align=left>Subject:</th>
    <td>$subj</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <th align=left>Date:</th>
    <td>$date</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td colspan="2">$body</td>
</tr>
</table>
EOM;

// close connection when finished
imap_close($nntp);

17.6.4. See Also