Connecting

ImapEngine will automatically attempt connecting to the mailbox when a method is called that requires connectivity:

use DirectoryTree\ImapEngine\Mailbox;

$mailbox = new Mailbox([
    // ...
]);

// Automatically connects to the mailbox.
$folders = $mailbox->folders()->get();

However, if you prefer to connect manually, you may use the connect method.

If connecting fails, an ImapConnectionFailedException exception is thrown:

use DirectoryTree\ImapEngine\Mailbox;
use DirectoryTree\ImapEngine\Exceptions\ImapConnectionFailedException;

$mailbox = new Mailbox([
    // ...
]);

try {
    $mailbox->connect();
} catch (ImapConnectionFailedException $e) {
    // Do something with the exception.
}

Checking Connection Status

You may check if the mailbox is currently connected via the connected() method:

if ($mailbox->connected()) {
    // The mailbox is connected.
}

Forcing Reconnection

If you want to forcibly reconnect—even if you’re already connected—you can call reconnect():

$mailbox->reconnect();

This internally calls disconnect() and then connect() again.

Disconnecting

To disconnect from the mailbox at any time, you may call disconnect():

$mailbox->disconnect();

This logs out and disconnects from the server.

Accessing the Underlying Connection

If you need low-level access to the active connection, you can retrieve it via connection():

// DirectoryTree\ImapEngine\Connection\ImapConnection
$connection = $mailbox->connection();

Retrieving Supported Capabilities

You can see which IMAP capabilities your mailbox server supports by calling capabilities():

// ["IMAP4rev1", "IDLE", "UIDPLUS", ...]
$capabilities = $mailbox->capabilities();

Managing Configuration

You can retrieve the entire mailbox configuration array or specific config values using config():

// Get the entire config.
$config = $mailbox->config();

// Get a specific config value with a default.
$port = $mailbox->config('port', 993);

This allows you to inspect or use configuration data at runtime.

You may use dot-notation to access nested values:

$proxyUsername = $mailbox->config('proxy.username');