[Mailman-Developers] Silly mailman question

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Fri, Apr 05, 2002 at 12:24:38PM -0500, Barry A. Warsaw wrote:
> >>>>> "JRA" == Jay R Ashworth <jra@baylink.com> writes:
>     JRA> The problem is that they're already in a database (filePro
>     JRA> for Unix on SCO 5, on a machine behind a Linux 7.1 firewall),
>     JRA> and they want to be able to selectwhom to mail on an adhoc
>     JRA> basis.
> 
>     JRA> This seems to suggest to *me* that I need to be able to
>     JRA> either 1) set up and strike lists on the mailman side with
>     JRA> some dispatch, or better 2) wire mailman atop the extant
>     JRA> database... which I would prefer to do because I *don't* want
>     JRA> to lose the web-based signoff stuff, etc.
> 
> Can you use MM2.1?  If so, then your options are many.

Ghod I love the net.

At the moment, the only requirement is that it *work* when I'm done.
:-)

Is the Member Adaptor stuff *in* 2.1?   Cool; I thought that was 3.0
stuff.

> If the membership list needs to change on the fly, then use the new
> "virtual list" feature.  I.e. create a list that all the message will
> appear to come from but build the recipient list on-the-fly.  The
> easiest way to do this is, use a Python program to suck the data out
> of filePro (I've no idea how to do that), and build a Python list of
> recipients addresses.  Then, make sure the installed Mailman package
> is in your sys.path (so your driver script can import Mailman
> modules).

This is precisely what I needed; with one exception.

> Assuming you've got the listname, the list of recipients, and the
> message as plain text, it might be as simple as:
> 
>     from Mailman.Post import inject
>     inject(listname, msgtext, recipients)
> 
> Note that Mailman/Post.py can also be run as a command line script.

Noted.  :-)

> Alternatively, you might want to use the new extend.py interface to
> hook into the MailList instance for your list.  If there's a file
> called extend.py in your lists/listname directory, it will be
> execfile()'d and a function extend() will be called, passing in the
> MailList instance.
> 
> Your extend() function can do something like, overload the Load() and
> Save() method so that membership data is funneled to your database.
> You probably just need to re-implement the MemberAdaptor.py interface
> and set the mlist._memberadaptor attribute to your customized
> version.  Then everything else should Just Work.

Oh yeah; like it's gonna be that easy.

This is what I really need, assuming as I do that it will allow the
"unsubscribe" web page to link back into my live data...

But I'm not sure how to get there from here.

>     JRA> This is, of course, a paying gig... and it's not impossible I
>     JRA> might sub out the "interface the back of Mailman to my
>     JRA> database" part, particularly if it can be done generally
>     JRA> enough to make accessing filePro data from Python easy, since
>     JRA> that's something I'd find generically useful.
> 
> It would be nice if this was spec'd as being releasable under the
> Python license, so it could be donated back to Python.

Lvoe to go there if I can.  If it gets someone a discount, that will
make it easier.  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra@baylink.com
Member of the Technical Staff     Baylink                             RFC 2100
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