[Pythonmac-SIG] Controlling Mail.app from Python

[Daniel Lord]

On May 28, 2006, at 10:58, David Warde-Farley wrote:

> Maybe for such complicated interactions a plugin would do the  
> trick? (I'm not totally sure, I haven't explored their full  
> capability).
>
> If you're interested see the tutorial at
>
> http://www.bazza.com/~eaganj/weblog/2006/03/29/demystifying-mail- 
> app-plugins
>
> Coincidentally, the author uses Python.

Thanks David. Just read through it. Its a cool hack, but  
unfortunately the author claims to uses a private API so it remains  
just a hack which may break suddenly with no deprecation warnings. I  
need to look at the GPG plugin since its open source to if its author  
used the private API as well.

I want an official, non-hack if I can that won't break on me and I  
can run spam and other filters reliably . My ugly, coarse hack won't  
break with changes since it uses the official AppleScript method, it  
is just ugly and slow but how much mail do I filter at a time anyway?  
I could (big 'could' given all the other things to do) create a  
Python script to accept AE and send the message id and rule name as  
parameters via AE--cleaner and lighter in foot print perhaps  
particularly if I set the Python script up as a faceless background  
server that stays open as long as mail does once it is activated the  
first time. A project for a rainy day perhaps.

Daniel

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which  
differ from the prejudices of their social environment.  Most people  
are not even capable of forming such opinions."
- Einstein