Let's do a little experiment. I've sent two messages to myself. One with an attachment, and one without.
Request:
GET https://www.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages?maxResults=2
Response:
{
"messages": [
{
"id": "14fe21fd6b3fb46f",
"threadId": "14fe21fd6b3fb46f"
},
{
"id": "14fe21f9341ed73c",
"threadId": "14fe21f9341ed73c"
}
],
"nextPageToken": "08943597140129624594",
"resultSizeEstimate": 3
}
I only ask for the payload, since that is where all the relevant parts are:
fields = payload
GET https://www.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/14fe21fd6b3fb46f?fields=payload
GET https://www.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/14fe21f9341ed73c?fields=payload
Mail without attachment:
{
"payload": {
"parts": [
{
"partId": "0",
"mimeType": "text/plain",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "text/plain; charset=UTF-8"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 22,
"data": "aGVjaz8gTm8gYXR0YWNobWVudD8NCg=="
}
},
{
"partId": "1",
"mimeType": "text/html",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "text/html; charset=UTF-8"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 43,
"data": "PGRpdiBkaXI9Imx0ciI-aGVjaz8gTm8gYXR0YWNobWVudD88L2Rpdj4NCg=="
}
}
]
}
}
Mail with attachment:
{
"payload": {
"parts": [
{
"mimeType": "multipart/alternative",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "multipart/alternative; boundary=001a1142e23c551e8e05200b4be0"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 0
},
"parts": [
{
"partId": "0.0",
"mimeType": "text/plain",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "text/plain; charset=UTF-8"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 9,
"data": "V293IG1hbg0K"
}
},
{
"partId": "0.1",
"mimeType": "text/html",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "text/html; charset=UTF-8"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 30,
"data": "PGRpdiBkaXI9Imx0ciI-V293IG1hbjwvZGl2Pg0K"
}
}
]
},
{
"partId": "1",
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"filename": "feelthebern.jpg",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "image/jpeg; name=\"feelthebern.jpg\""
},
{
"name": "Content-Disposition",
"value": "attachment; filename=\"feelthebern.jpg\""
},
{
"name": "Content-Transfer-Encoding",
"value": "base64"
},
{
"name": "X-Attachment-Id",
"value": "f_ieq3ev0i0"
}
],
"body": {
"attachmentId": "ANGjdJ_2xG3WOiLh6MbUdYy4vo2VhV2kOso5AyuJW3333rbmk8BIE1GJHIOXkNIVGiphP3fGe7iuIl_MGzXBGNGvNslwlz8hOkvJZg2DaasVZsdVFT_5JGvJOLefgaSL4hqKJgtzOZG9K1XSMrRQAtz2V0NX7puPdXDU4gvalSuMRGwBhr_oDSfx2xljHEbGG6I4VLeLZfrzGGKW7BF-GO_FUxzJR8SizRYqIhgZNA6PfRGyOhf1s7bAPNW3M9KqWRgaK07WTOYl7DzW4hpNBPA4jrl7tgsssExHpfviFL7yL52lxsmbsiLe81Z5UoM",
"size": 100446
}
}
]
}
}
These responses corresponds to the $parts in your code. As you can see, if you are lucky, $parts[0]['body']->data will give you what you want, but most of the time it will not.
There are generally two approaches to this problem. You could implement the following algorithm (you are much better at PHP than me, but this is the general outline of it):
- Traverse the
payload.parts and check if it contains a part that has the body you were looking for (either text/plain or text/html). If it has, you are done with your searching. If you were parsing a mail like the one above with no attachment, this would be enough.
- Do step 1 again, but this time with the
parts found inside the parts you just checked, recursively. You will eventually find your part. If you were parsing a mail like the one above with an attachment, this would eventually find you your body.
The algorithm could look something like the following (example in JavaScript):
var response = {
"payload": {
"parts": [
{
"mimeType": "multipart/alternative",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "multipart/alternative; boundary=001a1142e23c551e8e05200b4be0"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 0
},
"parts": [
{
"partId": "0.0",
"mimeType": "text/plain",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "text/plain; charset=UTF-8"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 9,
"data": "V293IG1hbg0K"
}
},
{
"partId": "0.1",
"mimeType": "text/html",
"filename": "",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "text/html; charset=UTF-8"
}
],
"body": {
"size": 30,
"data": "PGRpdiBkaXI9Imx0ciI-V293IG1hbjwvZGl2Pg0K"
}
}
]
},
{
"partId": "1",
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"filename": "feelthebern.jpg",
"headers": [
{
"name": "Content-Type",
"value": "image/jpeg; name=\"feelthebern.jpg\""
},
{
"name": "Content-Disposition",
"value": "attachment; filename=\"feelthebern.jpg\""
},
{
"name": "Content-Transfer-Encoding",
"value": "base64"
},
{
"name": "X-Attachment-Id",
"value": "f_ieq3ev0i0"
}
],
"body": {
"attachmentId": "ANGjdJ_2xG3WOiLh6MbUdYy4vo2VhV2kOso5AyuJW3333rbmk8BIE1GJHIOXkNIVGiphP3fGe7iuIl_MGzXBGNGvNslwlz8hOkvJZg2DaasVZsdVFT_5JGvJOLefgaSL4hqKJgtzOZG9K1XSMrRQAtz2V0NX7puPdXDU4gvalSuMRGwBhr_oDSfx2xljHEbGG6I4VLeLZfrzGGKW7BF-GO_FUxzJR8SizRYqIhgZNA6PfRGyOhf1s7bAPNW3M9KqWRgaK07WTOYl7DzW4hpNBPA4jrl7tgsssExHpfviFL7yL52lxsmbsiLe81Z5UoM",
"size": 100446
}
}
]
}
};
// In e.g. a plain text message, the payload is the only part.
var parts = [response.payload];
while (parts.length) {
var part = parts.shift();
if (part.parts) {
parts = parts.concat(part.parts);
}
if(part.mimeType === 'text/html') {
var decodedPart = decodeURIComponent(escape(atob(part.body.data.replace(/\-/g, '+').replace(/\_/g, '/'))));
console.log(decodedPart);
}
}
The far easier option is to just get the raw data of the mail, and let a already written library do the work for you:
Request:
format = raw
fields = raw
GET https://www.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/me/messages/14fe21fd6b3fb46f?format=raw&fields=raw
Response:
{
"raw": "TUlNRS1WZXJzaW9uOiAxLjANClJlY2VpdmVkOiBieSAxMC4yOC45OS4xOTYgd2l0aCBIVFRQOyBGcmksIDE4IFNlcCAyMDE1IDEzOjIzOjAxIC0wNzAwIChQRFQpDQpEYXRlOiBGcmksIDE4IFNlcCAyMDE1IDIyOjIzOjAxICswMjAwDQpEZWxpdmVyZWQtVG86IGVtdGhvbGluQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ0KTWVzc2FnZS1JRDogPENBRHNaTFJ5eGk2UGt0MHZnUS1iZHd1N2FNLWNHRmZKcEwrRHYyb3ZKOGp4SGN4VWhfQUBtYWlsLmdtYWlsLmNvbT4NClN1YmplY3Q6IFdoYXQgZGENCkZyb206IEVtaWwgVGhvbGluIDxlbXRob2xpbkBnbWFpbC5jb20-DQpUbzogRW1pbCBUaG9saW4gPGVtdGhvbGluQGdtYWlsLmNvbT4NCkNvbnRlbnQtVHlwZTogbXVsdGlwYXJ0L2FsdGVybmF0aXZlOyBib3VuZGFyeT0wMDFhMTE0NjhmMTY1YzUwNDUwNTIwMGI0YzYxDQoNCi0tMDAxYTExNDY4ZjE2NWM1MDQ1MDUyMDBiNGM2MQ0KQ29udGVudC1UeXBlOiB0ZXh0L3BsYWluOyBjaGFyc2V0PVVURi04DQoNCmhlY2s_IE5vIGF0dGFjaG1lbnQ_DQoNCi0tMDAxYTExNDY4ZjE2NWM1MDQ1MDUyMDBiNGM2MQ0KQ29udGVudC1UeXBlOiB0ZXh0L2h0bWw7IGNoYXJzZXQ9VVRGLTgNCg0KPGRpdiBkaXI9Imx0ciI-aGVjaz8gTm8gYXR0YWNobWVudD88L2Rpdj4NCg0KLS0wMDFhMTE0NjhmMTY1YzUwNDUwNTIwMGI0YzYxLS0="
}
The biggest drawback of the second method is that if you get the message raw, you will download all the attachment data right away, which might be far to much data for your use case.
I'm not good at PHP, but this looks promising if you want to go with the second solution! Good luck!
