Fluent Support IMAP Fetcher

A WordPress plugin that fetches emails via IMAP and creates support tickets in Fluent Support, without relying on the remote email piping service.

Why?

Fluent Support Pro's built-in email piping depends on an external API server (apiv2.wpmanageninja.com) to relay emails. When that server is down or unreachable, email-to-ticket conversion stops working entirely.

IMAP Fetcher eliminates this dependency by connecting directly to your mail server via IMAP, polling for new emails on a configurable interval, and converting them into Fluent Support tickets and responses — all without any external service.

Features

• Direct IMAP connection to any mail server (Gmail, Outlook, cPanel/DirectAdmin, custom IMAP)
• Automatic polling every N minutes via WP Cron (default: 5 minutes, configurable per mailbox)
• Smart thread detection — replies are matched to existing tickets via:
  • In-Reply-To / References email headers
  • Ticket ID in subject line (#123)
  • Subject line matching
• Attachment support — PDF, images, documents are imported and attached to tickets
• MIME type fallback — triple-check via IMAP header, mime_content_type(), and file extension
• Deduplication — prevents the same email from creating duplicate tickets
• CC tracking — CC addresses are preserved on tickets and responses
• Customer auto-creation — new senders are automatically registered as Fluent Support customers, linked to WordPress users when possible
• Loop prevention — emails sent from the mailbox's own address are ignored
• Encrypted credentials — IMAP passwords are stored encrypted (AES-256-CBC using AUTH_KEY)
• Verbose logging toggle — detailed debug logs on demand, clean logs in production
• Fully translatable — English default with Italian translation included (.pot / .po / .mo)
• Works without Fluent Support Pro — only the free Fluent Support plugin is required

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0+
• PHP 7.4+ with the IMAP extension enabled
• Fluent Support (free version) — the Pro version is not required

Enabling PHP IMAP

Installation

1. Download or clone this repository
2. Upload the fluent-support-imap folder to /wp-content/plugins/
3. Activate the plugin in WordPress → Plugins
4. Go to Fluent Support → Business Inboxes → select an Email-type inbox
5. Click IMAP Fetcher in the left sidebar
6. Enter your IMAP credentials, test the connection, and enable automatic fetching

Configuration

Note: The actual fetch frequency depends on how often WP Cron runs. If you set an interval below 5 minutes, fetches may still occur every 5 minutes (minimum cron interval). For reliable sub-5-minute intervals, consider a real server-side cron job pointing to wp-cron.php.

How It Works

WP Cron (every 5 min)
  └─ For each mailbox with IMAP enabled:
       ├─ Check if interval has elapsed since last fetch
       ├─ Connect to IMAP server
       ├─ Fetch unread emails (max 20 per cycle)
       ├─ For each email:
       │    ├─ Find or create customer from sender
       │    ├─ Detect if it's a reply (thread matching) or new ticket
       │    ├─ Create ticket or add response
       │    ├─ Import attachments
       │    └─ Mark email as read on IMAP
       └─ Log results

Emails remain in your mailbox (marked as read) — you'll still receive them in your email client.

Screenshots

The IMAP Fetcher panel integrates directly into the Fluent Support mailbox settings page as a sidebar tab:

• With Fluent Support Pro: appears after "Email Piping"
• Without Pro: appears after the last settings tab

The panel includes:

• Connection configuration form
• Test Connection / Fetch Now buttons
• Verbose logging toggle
• Real-time log viewer

Logging

Enable verbose logging via the checkbox in the IMAP Fetcher panel → Log section. Disable it in production to keep logs clean.

File Structure

fluent-support-imap/
├── fluent-support-imap.php              # Plugin bootstrap
├── app/
│   ├── Services/
│   │   ├── ImapConnector.php            # IMAP connection, email parsing, attachments
│   │   ├── EmailProcessor.php           # Email → Ticket/Response conversion
│   │   └── ImapLogger.php               # Logging with verbose toggle
│   ├── Http/
│   │   ├── Controllers/
│   │   │   └── ImapSettingsController.php   # REST API endpoints
│   │   └── routes.php                   # Route registration
│   └── Hooks/
│       └── CronHandler.php              # WP Cron scheduling & execution
├── assets/
│   ├── admin.js                         # UI panel (DOM injection into FS admin)
│   └── admin.css                        # Panel styling
├── languages/
│   ├── fluent-support-imap.pot          # Translation template (English)
│   ├── fluent-support-imap-it_IT.po     # Italian translation
│   └── fluent-support-imap-it_IT.mo     # Italian translation (compiled)
└── README.md

REST API Endpoints

All endpoints require manage_options capability (admin only).

Translations

The plugin ships with English as the default language and includes a complete Italian translation.

To add a new language:

1. Copy languages/fluent-support-imap.pot to languages/fluent-support-imap-{locale}.po
2. Translate all msgstr entries
3. Compile to .mo using Poedit or msgfmt

Troubleshooting

License

This plugin is provided as-is for private use. Not intended for distribution on WordPress.org.

Credits

Built by Hardweb as a self-hosted alternative to Fluent Support Pro's email piping service.