## check-gmail.py -- A command line util to check GMail -*- Python -*-

# ======================================================================
# Copyright (C) 2006 Baishampayan Ghose <b.ghose@ubuntu.com>
# Time-stamp: Mon Jul 31, 2006 20:45+0530
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
# published by the Free Software Foundation.
# ======================================================================

import urllib             # For BasicHTTPAuthentication
import feedparser         # For parsing the feed
from textwrap import wrap # For pretty printing assistance

_URL = "https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom"

def auth():
    '''The method to do HTTPBasicAuthentication'''
    opener = urllib.FancyURLopener()
    f = opener.open(_URL)
    feed = f.read()
    return feed

def fill(text, width):
    '''A custom method to assist in pretty printing'''
    if len(text) < width:
        return text + ' '*(width-len(text))
    else:
        return text

def readmail(feed):
    '''Parse the Atom feed and print a summary'''
    atom = feedparser.parse(feed)
    print ""
    print atom.feed.title
    print "You have %s new mails" % len(atom.entries)
    # Mostly pretty printing magic
    print "+"+("-"*84)+"+"
    print "| Sl.|"+" Subject"+' '*48+"|"+" Author"+' '*15+"|"
    print "+"+("-"*84)+"+"
    for i in xrange(len(atom.entries)):
        print "| %s| %s| %s|" % (
            fill(str(i), 3),
            fill(wrap(atom.entries[i].title, 50)[0]+"[...]", 55),
            fill(wrap(atom.entries[i].author, 15)[0]+"[...]", 21))
    print "+"+("-"*84)+"+"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    f = auth()  # Do auth and then get the feed
    readmail(f) # Let the feed be chewed by feedparser

And here is a sample output —

ghoseb@trinka:~$ python check-gmail.py
Enter username for New mail feed at mail.google.com: foo.bar
Enter password for foo.bar in New mail feed at mail.google.com:

Gmail - Inbox for foo.bar@gmail.com
You have 20 new mails
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Sl.| Subject                                                | Author               |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 0  | Strip Whitespace Middleware[...]                       | Will McCutchen ([...]|
| 1  | [FOSS Nepal] list of free alternatives to windows[...] | Manish Regmi (r[...] |
| 2  | json serialization[...]                                | Gábor Farkas (g[...] |
| 3  | editable=False and "Could not find Formfield or[...]   | Corey (coordt@e[...] |
| 4  | IronPython 1.0 release candidate[...]                  | Jeremy Dunck (j[...] |
| 5  | django server tree organization[...]                   | Kenneth[...]         |
| 6  | Project when using multiple sites[...]                 | Jay Parlar (par[...] |
| 7  | [FOSS Nepal] Neprog (nepali version pogrammer for[...] | ujwal (ujwal2@g[...] |
| 8  | Bug#379789: wrong keymap on Intel MacBook Pro[...]     | Frans Pop (elen[...] |
| 9  | debconf is Level 1?[...]                               | Clytie Siddall ([...]|
| 10 | Weird slowdown with dev server behind nat[...]         | Akatemik (tpiev[...] |
| 11 | Database API question: I am not able to return a[...]  | DavidA (david.a[...] |
| 12 | Bug#379120: lspci present on i386, verify on[...]      | Eddy Petrişor ([...] |
| 13 | New levels of D-I[...]                                 | Eddy Petrişor ([...] |
| 14 | Installed Apps in settings.py[...]                     | limodou (limodo[...] |
| 15 | where u at man ... where can i call you ??????[...]    | Sanjeev[...]         |
| 16 | unable to runser ?[...]                                | Geert[...]           |
| 17 | Bug#380585: debian 3.1 install FD[...]                 | as_hojoe (as_ho[...] |
| 18 | Re: Translated packages descriptions progress[...]     | Michael Bramer ([...]|
| 19 | Loading an url takes 60 sec.[...]                      | and_ltsk (andre[...] |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
ghoseb@trinka:~$

Well, the code is obviously pretty rough. It’s just for showing newbies how to use feedparser and urllib, two very powerful Python libraries. Improvements, patches are welcome

The text source can also be downloaded.

I was quite relieved to know that python-apt is quite usable and it works fine (though not being very pythonic in nature). I read somewhere that it's not very actively maintained now-a-days and lacks a lot of features. That info relieved me quite a lot, otherwise my whole app would have become jeopardised

There are people who are also requesting me to port the tool to Windows. Well, Python code is easily portable but hey, Windows has no APT library Thankfully Mario is writing a tool for Windows which does a similar job, so may be I will be able to borrow some ideas from him.

I also need to check if my bank accepts cheques in Indian Rupees but drawn in the USA. As I have heard, they may claim that such cheques are impossible … heh, they have no idea about Google!

Anyway, I need to sleep off now. I must finish the design doc by tomorrow.