In PHP there are two comparison operators, == and ===. It’s generally known that the first is not strict about type but the second is. So, for example

echo ( false == 0 ); // true

echo ( false === 0 ); // false

- 0 is an integer and false is a boolean

My problem arose from using non-strict typing with objects.

$a = new MyObj();
$b = new MyObj();
if( $a == $b )
…

I hadn’t considered what I was doing with this code. When comparing two objects using the non-strict comparison operator (==) PHP compares all the properties of the objects and if they match the objects are deemed to be equal. If they don’t match they are not equal. In effect, we have a recursive comparison of all the properties of each object, and all their properties, etc. until we reach basic data types like strings and integers.

If, however, we use strict comparison (===), PHP will check whether the two objects are exactly the same object, not just objects with the same properties.

class MyObj
{
public $p;
}

$a = new MyObj();
$b = new MyObj();
$c = new MyObj();
$a->p = 1;
$b->p = 1;
$c->p = 2;
echo ( $a == $c ); // false
echo ( $a == $b ); // true
echo ( $a === $b ); // false

The problem arises if you have circular references in your objects properties. So, for example

class MyObj
{
public $p;
}
class OtherObj
{
public $q;
}

$a = new MyObj();
$b = new OtherObj();
$a->p = $b;
$b->q = $a; // the circular reference: $a->p->q === $a

$c = new MyObj();
$d = new OtherObj();
$c->p = $d;
$d->q = $c;// another circular reference: $c->p->q === $c

echo ( $a == $c ); // Fatal error:
Nesting level too deep – recursive dependency?

In order to compare $a to $c, PHP must compare their properties. So the logic in PHP goes something like this: $a == $c if $a->p == $c->p if $a->p->q == $c->p->q if $a->p->q->p == $c->p->q->p etc. indefinitely.

PHP 5.1 seemed to smooth over the problem somehow (probably after a certain level of recursion it simply returned false) – and usually it worked out fine. PHP 5.2 correctly produces the fatal error above.

Once you know the problem, the solution is easy – use strict comparison.

echo ( $a === $c ); // false (and no error)

The strict comparison will simply check whether the two objects are at the same location in memory and so doesn’t even look at the values of the properties.

N.B. The same problem can arise when using the negated comparison operators (use !== instead of !=) and when using in_array (use in_array’s third parameter to indicate strict comparison).

To implement the e-mail parser algorithm we need

1. connect and log-on to e-mail server
2. count the number of incoming letters
3. recive e-mail from the server using POP3 protocol
4. process the e-mail headers and body and make parsing
5. … implement any additional actions

Ok, there is very specific task for PHP coding, so we need hosting that supports external connection. I do not propose to write decision entirely because much has been realized by talented programmers already. For example, you can take a ready module which will allow accept e-mails from a remote server.

Thank’s to Manuel Lemos and his module (php class) which named pop3.php.

To connect that class to your code, you just need to use include or require command: require(“pop3.php”);

 
<?
require("pop3.php");
$hostname   = 'pop3.mail.com';
$port       = '110';
$user       = 'pop3-username';
$accesscode = 'pop3-password';
// Create the class connection
$pop3_connection=new pop3_class;
// Specify the hostname
$pop3_connection->hostname=$hostname;
$result=$pop3_connection->Open();
 
// We are trying to open connection and display the result
echo $result;
// Trying to logon and display the error if any appear
$error=$pop3_connection->Login($user,$accesscode,$apop);
if ($error<>'Password error: Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.') {echo $error; exit;}
// Now get the statistic how many emails are stored and the size of them $result=$pop3_connection->Statistics($messages, $size);
echo "$hostname contains <b> $messages</b> of <b>$size</b> bytes.";
 
//..... There we can receive e-mails in the cycle and parse them.... //
 
// If nothing to do - we can close the connection
$error=$pop3_connection->Close(); //
echo $error;
?>

Now we know how to connect and log-on to the POP3 server and how to request the number of Inbox e-mails and them sizes. Next, we should receive each e-mail and parse the headers and body array.

TO BE CONTINUED

Apple MAC computers are widespread used in our office. This is the policy of the company. Despite the policy of the company, our boss prefers Windows and uses its featured laptop. Who should break the rules? Of course the boss, the rest is not allowed I must say that I share that preference, so I have installed Windows 7 to my home laptop.

Our attorneys should pass some investigations from time to time and they should review the correspondence of our staff but they accepted only the files in the Outlook PST format.

In a previous article I wrote about incredibly necessary program Outlook Import Wizard, which saved me a lot of time when importing eml files into Outlook. The task that I had to complete just put me into shock. It is necessary to convert e-mails of our employees into the Outlook .pst file. How can we reconcile incompatible things? How to combine MAC OS with the Windows?

For a start I had to conduct an audit and found that our employees using various e-mail clients. There are just some of them: Turnpike, Mac Mail, Entourage, MailCopa, Thunderbird, Eudora, Berkeley Mail. The conversion task did not seem doable. I decided that if a search engine does not immediately bring me the solution, then I will say to my Boss that the mission is impossible.  So I did search for the phrase “entourage, thunderbird, mac mail, to eml to pst free mbox” and the search was successful, it proved something I never expected. Moreover, the word FREE does not tally with me with the task that had to do. Imagine my surprise when on the description page of the another one eml to pst converter, I found the free mbox to eml converter.

The software review showed that despite the fact that the program is free, it has the incredible potential. Nevertheless the mailbox files format of different programs vary, the program was able accurately identify all meta signatures and correctly recognize the file format. I’m not kidding, all mailbox files Turnpike, Mac Mail, Entourage, MailCopa, Thunderbird, Eudora and Berkeley Mail were transformed into arrays of e-mail files in EML format. Having the Outlook Import Wizard at my hands allow me to import all eml files into Outlook PST.

Free MBOX to EML Converter works as a batch-processor. First you should select all necessary mbox files from which you want to retrieve eml messages. It is easy to select all files with the Shift key. After that, you need click the Processing button, point to the empty directory at your hard drive and wait for the result. The program processing all files sequentially, it creates a directory for each file and fill it with extracted eml files. In my case I had a lot of mailbox files that were named in accordance with user-names of our employees. Eventually I got a lot of folders, each had a user name and contained all corresponding eml files retrieved from the mailbox.

STS-129 video highlights as compiled by the SE&I imagery team here at JSC from all of the ground, air, ET and SRB assets.

Share your experience with others, submit your article.

I was surprised to know that Microsoft Outlook don’t want to import .eml files of Vista Mail directly. I tried to find the solution over the Internet and discovered that I was not the only one who faced with such problem.

I tried several software and chose the Outlook Import Wizard [ by http://www.outlookimport.com ] – utility, which not only import EML, MSG files to Microsoft Outlook but also transfers a directory structure from the hard drive to the Microsoft Outlook.

But Outlook Import Wizard good not only by this, it can convert .eml and .msg files to Microsoft Word .rtf, hypertext .html and other formats, so I can publish the correspondence to the WEB and store emails in an accessible format for viewing and analyzing. And the main thing – is that the price and quality of Outlook Import Wizard surpass all competitors.

What would you choose? To purchase several different tools individually or buy a bundle of  opportunities for the same money.

In addition, I participate in the Christmas sale.

So the Outlook Import Wizard was purchased by me with the great discount for only $ 14.  By the way, the coupon code is: OIW

There is another must-have utility in my collection and it will not stay without the action.