invoke user's standard mail client

[luc.saffre]

Hello,

the simplest way to launch the user's standard mail client from a
Python program is by creating a mailto: URL and launching the
webbrowser:

def mailto_url(to=N one,subject=Non e,body=None,cc= None):
"""
encodes the content as a mailto link as described on
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2368.html
Examples partly taken from
http://selfhtml.teamone.de/html/verweise/email.htm
"""
url = "mailto:" + urllib.quote(to .strip(),"@,")
sep = "?"
if cc:
url+= sep + "cc=" + urllib.quote(cc ,"@,")
sep = "&"
if subject:
url+= sep + "subject=" + urllib.quote(su bject,"")
sep = "&"
if body:
# Also note that line breaks in the body of a message MUST be
# encoded with "%0D%0A". (RFC 2368)
body="\r\n".joi n(body.splitlin es())
url+= sep + "body=" + urllib.quote(bo dy,"")
sep = "&"
return url

import webbrowser
url = mailto_url(...)
webbrowser.open (url,new=1)

(Excerpt from http://svn.berlios.de/wsvn/lino/trun...ile&rev=0&sc=0)

But this method is limited: you cannot specify a file to be attached
to the mail. And I guess that there would be problems if the body text
is too complex.

Does somebody know about a better method?
It should be possible at least on Windows, since Acrobat Reader is
able to do it.

Thanks in advance for any hints!
Luc Saffre

[Tim Golden]

lu********@gmai l.com wrote:

the simplest way to launch the user's standard mail client from a
Python program is by creating a mailto: URL and launching the
webbrowser:

[... snip code ...]

But this method is limited: you cannot specify a file to be attached
to the mail. And I guess that there would be problems if the body text
is too complex.

Does somebody know about a better method?
It should be possible at least on Windows, since Acrobat Reader is
able to do it.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say: I doubt
if there's one recognised, approved method. That
would require every email client to have a way
of accepting a command which said "Open up a new
email and put this, this, and this into that field,
that space, and that attachment." The only thing
I can think of which comes close is the mailto:
protocol you refer to, but according to its RFC

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2368.html

the only fields allowed are headers and the special
case of "body" which, as you point out, is hardly
intended for embedded attachments.

I would imagine that Acrobat must special case
known email clients and probably won't work for
some obscure client. Thunderbird, for example,
seems (haven't tried it) to allow for an attachment:

http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html

Doubtless Outlook has some equivalent mechanism. After
that, you're down to looking at docs for Eudora, Pine,
etc.

TJG

[Cameron Laird]

In article <11************ **********@y80g 2000hsf.googleg roups.com>,
lu********@gmai l.com <lu********@gma il.comwrote:

>Hello,

the simplest way to launch the user's standard mail client from a
Python program is by creating a mailto: URL and launching the
webbrowser:

def mailto_url(to=N one,subject=Non e,body=None,cc= None):
"""
encodes the content as a mailto link as described on
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2368.html
Examples partly taken from
http://selfhtml.teamone.de/html/verweise/email.htm
"""
url = "mailto:" + urllib.quote(to .strip(),"@,")
sep = "?"
if cc:
url+= sep + "cc=" + urllib.quote(cc ,"@,")
sep = "&"
if subject:
url+= sep + "subject=" + urllib.quote(su bject,"")
sep = "&"
if body:
# Also note that line breaks in the body of a message MUST be
# encoded with "%0D%0A". (RFC 2368)
body="\r\n".joi n(body.splitlin es())
url+= sep + "body=" + urllib.quote(bo dy,"")
sep = "&"
return url

import webbrowser
url = mailto_url(...)
webbrowser.ope n(url,new=1)

(Excerpt from
http://svn.berlios.de/wsvn/lino/trun...ile&rev=0&sc=0)

But this method is limited: you cannot specify a file to be attached
to the mail. And I guess that there would be problems if the body text
is too complex.

Does somebody know about a better method?
It should be possible at least on Windows, since Acrobat Reader is
able to do it.

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Fri, 04 May 2007 05:07:44 -0300, lu********@gmai l.com
<lu********@gma il.comescribió:

the simplest way to launch the user's standard mail client from a
Python program is by creating a mailto: URL and launching the
webbrowser:
But this method is limited: you cannot specify a file to be attached
to the mail. And I guess that there would be problems if the body text
is too complex.
Does somebody know about a better method?
It should be possible at least on Windows, since Acrobat Reader is
able to do it.

On Windows you can use MAPI.

--
Gabriel Genellina

[Stefan Sonnenberg-Carstens]

Gabriel Genellina schrieb:

En Fri, 04 May 2007 05:07:44 -0300, lu********@gmai l.com
<lu********@gma il.comescribió:

>the simplest way to launch the user's standard mail client from a
Python program is by creating a mailto: URL and launching the
webbrowser:
But this method is limited: you cannot specify a file to be attached
to the mail. And I guess that there would be problems if the body text
is too complex.
Does somebody know about a better method?
It should be possible at least on Windows, since Acrobat Reader is
able to do it.

On Windows you can use MAPI.

import win32api
win32api.ShellE xecute(0,'open' ,'mailto:',None ,None,0)

[Stefan Sonnenberg-Carstens]

Stefan Sonnenberg-Carstens schrieb:

Gabriel Genellina schrieb:

>En Fri, 04 May 2007 05:07:44 -0300, lu********@gmai l.com
<lu********@gm ail.comescribió :

>>the simplest way to launch the user's standard mail client from a
Python program is by creating a mailto: URL and launching the
webbrowser:
But this method is limited: you cannot specify a file to be attached
to the mail. And I guess that there would be problems if the body text
is too complex.
Does somebody know about a better method?
It should be possible at least on Windows, since Acrobat Reader is
able to do it.

On Windows you can use MAPI.

import win32api
win32api.ShellE xecute(0,'open' ,'mailto:',None ,None,0)

For completeness

import win32api
win32api.ShellE xecute(0,'open' ,'mailto: gu***@python.or g',None,None,0)

[luc.saffre]

On May 6, 9:50 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <[e-mail].a rwrote:

On Windows you can use MAPI.

But how? I could not find any starting point.

I found examples about sending mail directly, which gives me the
impression that MAPI is just Microsoft's version of SMTP. This is not
what I need. I need the user's client to start, so that the user may
edit the message and decide herself whether she clicks on the Send
button to really send it.

Luc

[luc.saffre]

On May 6, 10:08 am, Stefan Sonnenberg-Carstens
<stefan.sonnenb ...@pythonmeist er.comwrote:

Stefan Sonnenberg-Carstens schrieb:

Gabriel Genellina schrieb:

En Fri, 04 May 2007 05:07:44 -0300, luc.saf...@gmai l.com
<luc.saf...@gma il.comescribió:

>the simplest way to launch the user's standard mail client from a
Python program is by creating a mailto: URL and launching the
webbrowser:
But this method is limited: you cannot specify a file to be attached
to the mail. And I guess that there would be problems if the body text
is too complex.
Does somebody know about a better method?
It should be possible at least on Windows, since Acrobat Reader is
able to do it.

On Windows you can use MAPI.

import win32api
win32api.ShellE xecute(0,'open' ,'mailto:',None ,None,0)

For completeness

import win32api
win32api.ShellE xecute(0,'open' ,'mailto: [e-mail] ',None,None,0)

That's equivalent to what the webbrowser module does in my example.
Except that your program won't work on Unix.
Luc

[luc.saffre]

On May 4, 11:42 am, Tim Golden <m...@timgolden .me.ukwrote:

I'm going to stick my neck out and say: I doubt
if there's one recognised, approved method. That
would require every email client to have a way
of accepting a command which said "Open up a new
email and put this, this, and this into that field,
that space, and that attachment."

Tim, I agree, but I hope that we are both wrong.

I would imagine that Acrobat must special case
known email clients and probably won't work for
some obscure client. Thunderbird, for example,
seems (haven't tried it) to allow for an attachment:

http://www.mozilla.org/docs/command-line-args.html

Doubtless Outlook has some equivalent mechanism. After
that, you're down to looking at docs for Eudora, Pine,
etc.

That's what I plan to do if you are right. At least for Thunderbird
and Outlook...

Luc

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Mon, 07 May 2007 01:52:18 -0300, lu********@gmai l.com
<lu********@gma il.comescribió:

On May 6, 9:50 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <[e-mail].a rwrote:

>On Windows you can use MAPI.

But how? I could not find any starting point.

Get the pywin32 package (Python for Windows extensions) from sourceforge,
install it, and look into the win32comext\map i\demos directory.

I found examples about sending mail directly, which gives me the
impression that MAPI is just Microsoft's version of SMTP. This is not
what I need. I need the user's client to start, so that the user may
edit the message and decide herself whether she clicks on the Send
button to really send it.

No, it should launch the email client (Outlook Express by example) and let
the user confirm it. I think there were some flags to suppress the GUI or
the confirmation, but they're not honored anymore, I presume. At least
Eudora warns the user on such attempts.

--
Gabriel Genellina