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

[Paul Boddie]

On 4 Mai, 18:54, cla...@lairds.u s (Cameron Laird) wrote:

.
Portland <URL:http://ct.enews.eweek. com/rd/cts?d=186-6281-53-799-798304-697089-0-0-0-1>
is the best standardization of this problem we have under Linux.

I'll address Windows in a subsequent follow-up.

Portland [1] provides scripts (xdg-open, xdg-email...) which overlap
with the functionality provided by the desktop module:

http://www.python.org/pypi/desktop

The desktop module should even work with Windows as well, but it seems
that xdg-email has the edge in terms of providing the inquirer's
desired support for composing e-mail messages (on Free Software
desktops, anyway).

Paul

[1] http://portland.freedesktop.org/wiki/

[Cameron Laird]

In article <u2************ @lairds.us>, Cameron Laird <cl****@lairds. uswrote:

>In article <11************ **********@y80g 2000hsf.googleg roups.com>,
lu********@gma il.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.op en(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.

.
.
.
Portland <URL:
http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=1...697089-0-0-0-1 >
is the best standardization of this problem we have under Linux.

I'll address Windows in a subsequent follow-up.

A. Apologies! I'm sorry about the URL above; it was
completely wrong. I intended <URL:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...-portland.html >.
B. The best approach I know under Windows is to invoke
start mailto:$ADDRESS
1. That invocation does *not* communicate
subject, attachments, ... To do so
adequately involves application-specific
work, as other follow-ups have mentioned.
2. "start" has its own complexities. The
best invocation from console-based Python
is likely to be
start /w "" mailto:$ADDRESS

[luc.saffre]

On May 7, 10:28 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <[e-mail].a r>
wrote:

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

Thanks for the hint, Gabriel.
Wow, that's heavily spiced code! When I invoke mapisend.py I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "mapisend1. py", line 85, in <module>
SendEMAPIMail(S endSubject, SendMessage, SendTo,
MAPIProfile=MAP IProfile)
File "mapisend1. py", line 23, in SendEMAPIMail
mapi.MAPIInitia lize(None)
pywintypes.com_ error: (-2147467259, 'Unspecified error', None, None)

But what is a MAPI profile? I left this variable blank. Do I need MS
Exchange Server to run this demo?

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Mon, 07 May 2007 18:00:06 -0300, lu********@gmai l.com
<lu********@gma il.comescribió:

On May 7, 10:28 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <[e-mail].a r>
wrote:

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

Thanks for the hint, Gabriel.
Wow, that's heavily spiced code! When I invoke mapisend.py I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "mapisend1. py", line 85, in <module>
SendEMAPIMail(S endSubject, SendMessage, SendTo,
MAPIProfile=MAP IProfile)
File "mapisend1. py", line 23, in SendEMAPIMail
mapi.MAPIInitia lize(None)
pywintypes.com_ error: (-2147467259, 'Unspecified error', None, None)

But what is a MAPI profile? I left this variable blank.

You can register several profiles (or users, or accounts); leave it blank
to use the default profile.

Do I need MS
Exchange Server to run this demo?

No. But this simple example used to work fine for me, but not anymore :( .
Perhaps it has to do with my Eudora configuration. I've never used Outlook
nor OutlookExpress btw.
You may find this thread interesting:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/pyt...er/003985.html

--
Gabriel Genellina

[Leo Kislov]

On May 7, 2:00 pm, "luc.saf...@gma il.com" <luc.saf...@gma il.com>
wrote:

On May 7, 10:28 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <[e-mail].a r>
wrote:

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

Thanks for the hint, Gabriel.
Wow, that's heavily spiced code! When I invoke mapisend.py I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "mapisend1. py", line 85, in <module>
SendEMAPIMail(S endSubject, SendMessage, SendTo,
MAPIProfile=MAP IProfile)
File "mapisend1. py", line 23, in SendEMAPIMail
mapi.MAPIInitia lize(None)
pywintypes.com_ error: (-2147467259, 'Unspecified error', None, None)

But what is a MAPI profile?

It's an abstraction of incoming and outgoing mail accounts. In UNIX
terms it's kind of like running local sendmail that forwards mail to
another server and fetchmail that fetches mail from external inboxes,
e.g. it's a proxy between you and outgoing/incoming mail server.

I left this variable blank. Do I need MS
Exchange Server to run this demo?

No, but you need an account on some mail server and some email program
should create a MAPI profile to represent that account on your local
computer. As I understand creation of MAPI profiles is not a common
practice among non-Microsoft products, for example my computer with
Lotus Notes doesn't have any MAPI profiles.

-- Leo