Getting emails after a specific date with php-ews (Exchange Web Services) - php

Question

In my PHP script, I need to figure out how to retrieve all emails that are either after a specified message ID or after a specific date (Either will work, I just need to retrieve emails that are new since the last time I scraped the inbox).
This inbox is getting thousands of emails a day, and I can't delete any emails for 30 days. For the initial import I was just doing an offset from the beginning of the inbox, but obviously that won't work once we start cleaning out emails.
I think I have to set the $Restriction property of the class "EWSType_FindItemType", but I don't think the necessary classes exist in php-ews for me to do this. I've tried to add them myself, but I don't understand enough about EWS or SOAP.
So far the only thing I've come up with is this:
$Request->Restriction = new EWSType_RestrictionType();
$Request->Restriction->IsGreaterThan = new stdClass;
$Request->Restriction->IsGreaterThan->FieldURIOrConstant = new stdClass;
$Request->Restriction->IsGreaterThan->FieldURIOrConstant->Constant = '2012-01-02T07:04:00Z';
$Request->Restriction->IsGreaterThan->FieldURI = new stdClass;
$Request->Restriction->IsGreaterThan->FieldURI->FieldURI = 'item:DateTimeReceived';
And that doesn't work :(
Here's the code I am currently using to retrieve email:
<?php
require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/ews/ExchangeWebServicesLoader.php' );
$ews = new ExchangeWebServices( EXCHANGE_HOSTNAME, EXCHANGE_USERNAME, EXCHANGE_PASSWORD, ExchangeWebServices::VERSION_2010_SP1 );
$Request = new EWSType_FindItemType();
$Request->ItemShape = new EWSType_ItemResponseShapeType();
$Request->ItemShape->BaseShape = EWSType_DefaultShapeNamesType::ALL_PROPERTIES;
$Request->ItemShape->BodyType = EWSType_BodyTypeResponseType::TEXT;
$Request->ItemShape->BodyTypeSpecified = true;
$Request->Traversal = EWSType_ItemQueryTraversalType::SHALLOW;
$Request->IndexedPageItemView = new EWSType_IndexedPageViewType();
$Request->IndexedPageItemView->MaxEntriesReturned = 25;
$Request->IndexedPageItemView->BasePoint = 'Beginning';
$Request->IndexedPageItemView->Offset = $offset;
$Request->ParentFolderIds = new EWSType_NonEmptyArrayOfBaseFolderIdsType();
$Request->ParentFolderIds->DistinguishedFolderId = new EWSType_DistinguishedFolderIdType();
$Request->ParentFolderIds->DistinguishedFolderId->Id = 'inbox';
$Request->ParentFolderIds->DistinguishedFolderId->Mailbox = new EWSType_EmailAddressType();
$Request->ParentFolderIds->DistinguishedFolderId->Mailbox->EmailAddress = 'sharedmailbox#company.org';
// sort order
$Request->SortOrder = new EWSType_NonEmptyArrayOfFieldOrdersType();
$Request->SortOrder->FieldOrder = array();
$order = new EWSType_FieldOrderType();
$order->FieldURI = new stdClass;
$order->FieldURI->FieldURI = 'item:DateTimeReceived';
$order->Order = 'Ascending';
$Request->SortOrder->FieldOrder[] = $order;
$response = $ews->FindItem($Request);
$items = $response->ResponseMessages->FindItemResponseMessage->RootFolder->Items->Message;
foreach ( $items as $item ) {
// Do stuff
}
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Restriction are tricky in EWS, true. You can take a look at haw they are used in EWSWrapper, here's example how to create AND restriction to get items in between date range:
//create AND restrction
$request->Restriction = new EWSType_RestrictionType();
$request->Restriction->And = new EWSType_AndType();
$request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo = new EWSType_IsGreaterThanOrEqualToType();
$request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI = new EWSType_PathToExtendedFieldType;
$request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI->DistinguishedPropertySetId = "Task";
$request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI->PropertyId = "33029";
$request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI->PropertyType = "SystemTime";
$request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->FieldURIOrConstant->Constant->Value = date('c', $start);
$request->Restriction->And->IsLessThanOrEqualTo = new EWSType_IsLessThanOrEqualToType();
$request->Restriction->And->IsLessThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI = new EWSType_PathToExtendedFieldType;
$request->Restriction->And->IsLessThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI->DistinguishedPropertySetId = "Task";
$request->Restriction->And->IsLessThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI->PropertyId = "33029";
$request->Restriction->And->IsLessThanOrEqualTo->ExtendedFieldURI->PropertyType = "SystemTime";
$request->Restriction->And->IsLessThanOrEqualTo->FieldURIOrConstant->Constant->Value = date('c', $end);
And the types used:
class EWSType_RestrictionType extends EWSType {
/**
* SearchExpression property
*
* #var EWSType_SearchExpressionType
*/
public $SearchExpression;
/**
* Constructor
*/
public function __construct() {
$this->schema = array(
array(
'name' => 'SearchExpression',
'required' => false,
'type' => 'SearchExpressionType',
),
); // end $this->schema
} // end function __construct()
} // end class RestrictionType
<?php
class EWSType_AndType extends EWSType {
/**
* SearchExpression property
*
* #var EWSType_MultipleOperandBooleanExpressionType
*/
public $SearchExpression;
/**
* Constructor
*/
public function __construct() {
$this->schema = array(
array(
'name' => 'SearchExpression',
'required' => false,
'type' => 'MultipleOperandBooleanExpressionType',
),
); // end $this->schema
} // end function __construct()
} // end class AndType
class EWSType_IsLessThanOrEqualToType extends EWSType {
/**
* SearchExpression property
*
* #var EWSType_TwoOperandExpressionType
*/
public $SearchExpression;
/**
* Constructor
*/
public function __construct() {
$this->schema = array(
array(
'name' => 'SearchExpression',
'required' => false,
'type' => 'TwoOperandExpressionType',
),
); // end $this->schema
} // end function __construct()
} // end class IsLessThanOrEqualToType
class EWSType_IsGreaterThanOrEqualToType extends EWSType {
/**
* SearchExpression property
*
* #var EWSType_TwoOperandExpressionType
*/
public $SearchExpression;
/**
* Constructor
*/
public function __construct() {
$this->schema = array(
array(
'name' => 'SearchExpression',
'required' => false,
'type' => 'TwoOperandExpressionType',
),
); // end $this->schema
} // end function __construct()
} // end class IsGreaterThanOrEqualToType

Answer 2

Thanks Maiiku for your code samples!
This is how I enabled filtering by date and subject field using the PHP Exchange Web Services library (php-ews).
(You will need to require_once the relevant EWSType libraries first before using this sample).
$start = new DateTime('2013-03-31');
$Request->Restriction = new EWSType_RestrictionType();
$Request->Restriction->And = new EWSType_AndType();
$Request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo = new EWSType_IsGreaterThanOrEqualToType();
$Request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->FieldURI = new stdClass;
$Request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->FieldURI->FieldURI = 'item:DateTimeReceived';
$Request->Restriction->And->IsGreaterThanOrEqualTo->FieldURIOrConstant->Constant->Value = $start->format('c');
$Request->Restriction->And->Contains = new EWSType_ContainsExpressionType();
$Request->Restriction->And->Contains->FieldURI = new stdClass;
$Request->Restriction->And->Contains->FieldURI->FieldURI = 'item:Subject';
$Request->Restriction->And->Contains->Constant->Value = 'annual leave application';
$Request->Restriction->And->Contains->ContainmentMode = 'Substring';
$Request->Restriction->And->Contains->ContainmentComparison = 'Exact';
Hope this helps!