Convert emails into textfiles

[ziotegolina]

Hi guys,

I have been asked from a company to create a mechanism to send a text message (sms) when a email is sent to an internal email address (like "smsalert at mycompany dot com).

In order to do it, I needed a text-based email client to convert the email into a plain text file. Then I need an application to read the file and send it to a 3G dongle.

I can't find a good solution to read the emails via command line. I've tried "mutt" but it is badly documented and I can't get how to run a macro.

Any idea?

Thanks,
Dario

[Gjordis]

Depends on protocol and security. And where the mailbox is located.

Remote imap mailbox is easy to read via normal tcp-socket on any programming language.

Local mailservers store mails differently. If its a file, you just read the file. Some use databases, if unencrypted, you just read the database.

Just some ideas I thought i'd throw there without knowing more spesifics.

[ziotegolina]

Depends on protocol and security. And where the mailbox is located.

Remote imap mailbox is easy to read via normal tcp-socket on any programming language.

Local mailservers store mails differently. If its a file, you just read the file. Some use databases, if unencrypted, you just read the database.

Just some ideas I thought i'd throw there without knowing more spesifics.

Hi Gjordis,

I have to interface with a local MS Exchange server so fortunately I have not any security concern. Unfortunately Exchange runs only on Windows so I have somehow to read the emails via IMAP. Just I have to find the right application to connect from Debian, read the body message and save it to local file (on Debian).

Any idea?

Thanks,
Dario

[Gjordis]

Well the operation is simple and very custom, so i would simply make a Python/C++/C/Java/*choose language* , which retrieves the mails of that box with imap via normal TCP socket. Imap protocol message-tables can be found allover the web.
Most email clients have UIs and too much functionality for this task, so a custom application would be my choice.

If you want to create this "mechanism" without doing any programming, it can be very tricky.

[ziotegolina]

Done via PHP. Thanks guys