vB POP3 / IMAP Email Client 1.4 - Web-based access to POP email accounts

vB POP3 / IMAP Email Client 1.4 - by Dr. Erwin Loh

vB3 version here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=66247

World's easiest hack to install! Upload a file, and you're done! No templates to add, no files to edit!!!

Ever wanted to access your POP3 or IMAP email account when you are away from your Outlook Express? Sick of Hotmail and free web-based email addresses, and want to just stick with your ISP email account? Want to be able to use a web-based interface? Want to be able to integrate this interface into your forums and offer it to your members?

Here we have it - I've created a file that does all that.

Features:

1. Only 1 file to upload, no templates, no file edits!
2. Automatic integration into your forums, with your forum colors and layout.
3. Accesses any POP3 or IMAP email account.
4. Ability to bypass any firewalls that any mail servers may have.
5. Ability to READ, REPLY, REPLY ALL, DELETE, FORWARD, and COMPOSE emails using the interface.
6. Ability to read HTML emails.
7. Ability to ATTACH files.
8. Ability to VIEW / DOWNLOAD ATTACHMENTS.
9. Ability to show HEADERS of emails.
10. Ability to allow certain usergroups access to this.
11. Ability to allow or disallow users from changing their FROM: email address
12. Ability to let yourself change the FROM: email address at at all times.
13. Your user can use this to access their ISP email account, or (Yahoo email or Hotmail premium accounts) via your forums!


Installation:

Upload email.php into your forums directory, link to it, and you've got an instant web-based POP3/ IMAP email interface in your forums!

Nothing else to do!

By default, this allows registered members, moderators and admins access only. You can edit the top of email.php to add or remove usergroupids easily.

Settings:

At the top of the PHP file, you can change the variables to:

1. Decide which usergroups can use this
2. Allow or disallow the changing of the FROM: email address (security update)
3. Exempt yourself so you can always change the FROM: email address

Requirements:

1) This hack requires PHP 4 or higher on your server.

2) This hack requires you to have IMAP support compiled with PHP on your server. If you get a error like "imap_open undefined function", then you dont have IMAP support. Sorry!


Please click the install link at the bottom of this thread for updates.

Enjoy!

Add-On (OPTIONAL) - Username and Mail Server saved in Member Profile:

To make the Username and Password become part of a member's profile (I don't suggest to include password as well as staff can then have access to this), just create 2 custom profile fields in your Admin CP - one for Username, the other for Mail Host Server. Make sure they do not show up in the user's profile.

Then, note down the custom profile ID number of each of the 2 custom profile fields (hover your mouse over the link to each, and it's the number at the very end of the URL in the status bar).

Then, in email.php, find:

PHP Code:

if ($CMD=="")
    {
    if (!$session_server)
        { 


Underneath, add:

PHP Code:

$user = $bbuserinfo[fieldx];
$host = $bbuserinfo[fieldy]; 


Change x to the ID number of the username profile ID, and y to the ID number of the host mail server profile ID. Done!

Updates

Version 1.1 - Fixed <td> errors. Fixed error where message did not show when attachment present.

Version 1.2 - Security update - Added settings at the top of the PHP file that you can change to allow or disallow users from changing their FROM: email address. You can exempt yourself and always be able to change your own FROM: email address by modifying the userid here as well.

Version 1.3 - Fixed header text colors - Minor cosmetic improvements - Fixed Attachment Viewer and Downloader!!!

Version 1.4 - Fixed PHP header and cookie problem for certain servers that prevented login.

Screenshots:

Attachment: email.jpg
Courtesy of irn-bru.

Download:

When downloading, make sure it's the latest version - 1.4 (it will say this at the top of the PHP file).

[Erwin]

If it's to do with my PHP file, then I better ask the 50 people who have installed it and get them to stop using it...

Seriously, it's working fine for me. So if it's not working for you, it must be something at your end.

[Jim Mayhugh]

04-05-03 at 07:09 PM Harken said this in Post #178
I have tried using IE6 and i get the same thing...even setting my browser cache low manually...i just get LOGGING IN... and this is the same for mutiple pop3 servers

I appear to be having the same problem, and it looks as though the session variables set during the "cookie" portion of the code are not being either stored or retrieved properly during the next iteration of the code.

Just for the record, I'm using PHP 4.3.1. Might that also be a difference?

I notice that you use session_register("session_variable") rather than using $_SESSION["session_variable"]. Might that make a difference?

UPDATE:
OK, I got it working. For some reason session_register() is not working properly for me. Everything I read about sessions at www.php.net seems to lean toward using $_SESSIONS[] for parameter passing in later revisions of PHP. Here's the changes I made that worked.

In email.php, look for

//CHANGE SETTINGS ABOVE//

and add just below it:

$session_server=$_SESSION["session_server"];
$session_username=$_SESSION["session_username"];
$session_password=$_SESSION["session_password"];
$type=$_SESSION["session_type"];


then find

session_register("session_server"); $session_server=$host;
session_register("session_username"); $session_username=$user;
session_register("session_password"); $session_password=$pass;
session_register("type"); $type = $opt;

and replace it with:

$_SESSION["session_server"]=$host;
$_SESSION["session_username"]=$user;
$_SESSION["session_password"]=$pass;
$_SESSION["session_type"]=$opt;

I am by no means a PHP programmer, but like I said, it seems to work for me. YMMV

[Erwin]

UPDATE: Version 1.4 - Fixed header cookie problem for certain servers that prevented login

Thanks to Jim, who suggested the fix. This only applies to certain servers which have problems with the cookies created in the previous versions of this hack. Most servers appear to be unaffected for some reason.

I have applied the fix to the hack anyway.

This update will fix the problem that some servers have, where you cannot seem to login. It appears to be a cookie problem as described.

For those who previously had problems with this hack, download the newest email.php. Make sure the top of the file says "Version 1.4". If this hack already works for you, no need to upgrade.

Enjoy!

[msimplay]

Today at 08:39 AM Erwin said this in Post #183
UPDATE: Version 1.4 - Fixed header cookie problem for certain servers that prevented login

Thanks to Jim, who suggested the fix. This only applies to certain servers which have problems with the cookies created in the previous versions of this hack. Most servers appear to be unaffected for some reason.

I have applied the fix to the hack anyway.

This update will fix the problem that some servers have, where you cannot seem to login. It appears to be a cookie problem as described.

For those who previously had problems with this hack, download the newest email.php. Make sure the top of the file says "Version 1.4". If this hack already works for you, no need to upgrade.

Enjoy!

If i am having no problems with the hack do i really need to download this ?

[Harken]

well it worked...thanx alot. : )

I do have one problem still...for some reason whenever i did what u put in about making the mail server stay the same...it stopped allowing me to login...now it doesnt even hit the mail server. I hit login and it goes white...then back to the beggining.. Anyway thought u might want to know. Ive checked my file twice with what u put ...and it causes that problem.

[Erwin]

Today at 12:54 AM msimplay said this in Post #184
If i am having no problems with the hack do i really need to download this ?

No. Only for those with problems need to upgrade. If you don't have problems, you can still upgrade, but it will make no difference (unless you change to a server that has problems with the older version).

[Erwin]

Today at 05:41 AM Harken said this in Post #185
well it worked...thanx alot. : )

I do have one problem still...for some reason whenever i did what u put in about making the mail server stay the same...it stopped allowing me to login...now it doesnt even hit the mail server. I hit login and it goes white...then back to the beggining.. Anyway thought u might want to know. Ive checked my file twice with what u put ...and it causes that problem.

That's very strange... remember, some mail servers do not let you log in multiple times within a short period, to prevent server load increases... maybe that's a problem... if it's a major problem, don't use the saved server settings option.

[msimplay]

Yesterday at 11:52 PM Erwin said this in Post #186
No. Only for those with problems need to upgrade. If you don't have problems, you can still upgrade, but it will make no difference (unless you change to a server that has problems with the older version).

thanks

[Harken]

well i tried that...waited about 30 minutes...tried it again...still just gave me a wrong info. However put back in the orginal..and typed in the mail server and went right through. Its something else....sorry for the continuos replies...also...whenever i send an email with an attachment its sending a .dat file thats about 4bytes big everytime.

[verbum]

I've found one very significant "bug" when using this hack in VBulletin when accessed with IE6 on XP:

For whatever reason, which I hope someone can address, once accessed, the hack prohibits normal cookie sessions. Examples:
An old cache is shown when I go to the forums; even after logging in, the cache is different each time; when I next access the forum, it shows me logged on, even though I clearly logged off, etc. At first, I thought this was just a problem on my end, although I noticed it only after I installed and tried the mod out--until I got the following message from the only forum member who used tried out the email mod:

"When I enter the main page it has shown the same page every time I enter (same posts, same time 6:51pm). I found a bunch of posts that weren't showing on the first page by going to "view new posts". I even posted a new topic about the convention... and I couln't find it after I returned to the main page. It seems to be the same page no matter how I access it. I can go from my favorites list, backpage or go directly to it by highlighting the main page from an individual forum and it still shows the same page. "

The same problem I've been having.

In BOTH cases, this hapopens only when using IE6, and only on the one particular forum in question. The members I've asked who have *not* used the hack report that everything is running smoothly.

Any ideas for a solution? I even removed the hack, deleted every last cookie--and I still can't have a normal session on my board.

(I've since re-installed the hack in case anyone would like to confirm--or, conversely, disprove--my brief findings.)

Thanks!