wmmail1x

Usage

Overview

WMMail.app is a "mail-checker" like xbiff(1x). It indicates the status of the user's mailbox by showing animated XPM icons when incoming mails are detected. Additionally, it can be configured to execute a program on incoming mail and/or on mouse double-clicks, and can provide a count of emails in the user's mailbox.

WMMail.app is based on asmail, a similar applet designed for the AfterStep window manager. However, WMMail.app has been re-written to be compatible with the Window Maker Dock, i.e. WMMail.app can be dragged and dropped on (and off) the Dock dynamically. It also uses a different config file format, more consistent with the one used by Window Maker.

To use WMMail.app with the Window Maker Dock, simply drag the WMMail.app icon to the Window Maker Dock.

Options

-help, -h

Prints a help message

-quiet, -q

Suppress all error messages

-swallowed, -s

Show window as well as appicon (for swallowing with AfterStep)

<pathname>

Full path of defaults domain to use. If none is specified, a series of paths are searched for this file. See the FILES section for more information.

Configuration file

The configuration file consist of a single PropList dictionary, which in turn is composed of several PropList key-value pairs. The recognized keys is:

DisableBeep (Yes|No)

When set to `Yes', WMMail won't make an audible signal when new mail is found.

DoubleClickTime (Int)

WMMail will consider two clicks a double click event if they arrive in less than 'DoubleClickTime' milliseconds appart from each other.

DisplayMessageCount (None|NewOnly|TotalOnly|NewOverTotal)

None, no message count is displayed; NewOnly, only the new messages count is displayed; TotalOnly, only the total message count is displayed; NewOverTotal, the message count is displayed as 'New/Total'

DisplayColor (Color)

the string name of a color with respect to the screen associated with a colormap. An RGB Device specification is identified by the prefix ``rgb:'' and conforms to the following syntax: rgb:<red>/<green>/<blue>, where each component is of the form hhhh where `h' is a single hexadecimal digit. `h' is scaled to 4 bits, `hh' to 8, `hhh' to 12 and `hhhh' to 16 bits. The forms `#RGB', `#RRGGBB', `#RRRGGGBBB' and `#RRRRGGGGBBBB' are also accepted. An RGB intensity specification is identified by the prefix ``rgbi:'' and conforms to the following syntax: rgbi:<red>/<green>/<blue>, where each componet is a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0, inclusive.

DisplayFont (Font)

The font used for displaying the count information. `Font' is a standard structured format for font names string. Since it probably contains `*' and or `?', you have to enclose it in double quotes.

ExecuteOnNew (String)

The program (and arguments) to excecute when new mail is found.

ExecuteOnClick (String)

The program (and arguments) to excecute when a double click event is processed.

DisplayLocation (Coordinates)

Specifies the coordinates relative to the lower left corner where the message count is displayed.

Animations (Dictionary)

This dictionary consists in turn of three dictionaries: Empty, Old and New. Each of them can have two entries: Delay and Frames. Delay specifies the number of tenths of seconds to stop between each frame of the animation; Frames is an array that lists all the pixmaps in the animation. You have to specify the full path to the pixmaps. List the pixmaps in the order you want them to be shown. If you do not want an animation, list just one icon.

Mailboxes (Array)

Specifies all the mailboxes WMMail.app should monitor. Each element of the array is dictionary that varies according to the mailbox type. See the Mailboxes section. The generic keys for each mailbox are Name (string), the name of current mailbox; Type (string), the type of the mailbox; ExecuteOnUpdate (string), the name of the program to execute when the mailbox status is updated; UpdateInterval (int), the number of seconds between updates; Options (dictionary), options specific to each mailbox type.

Mailboxes

WMMail.app can monitor several types of mailboxes, namely mbox, mh, maildir, pop3 and imap. Each mailbox type takes different options:

mbox

Path (string), the path to the mailbox. CheckTimeStampOnly (Yes|No), the state of the mailbox changes according to the following rules: no mailbox or empty mailbox, no mail; smaller than last time but non-zero, old mail; read after most recent write, old mail; no read after most recent write and same size as last time, no change; bigger than last time, new mail. If CheckTimeStampOnly is set to `No', the status changes according to: no mailbox or empty mailbox, no mail; no new mails, old mail; same number of new mails or fewer, no change; more new mails than last time, new mail. MailboxHasInternalData (Yes|No), if set to `Yes' it means there's an "internal data" message stored in the mailbox and it should no be taken into account when computing the total mail count in the mailbox (IMAP daemons write this kind of message for bookkeeping purposes -- and yes, everyone hates them). This option defaults to `No'.

mh

Path (string), the path to the mailbox. The status changes according to: no folder or empty folder, no mail; no new mails, old mail; same number of new mails or fewer, no change; more new mails than last time, new mail.

maildir

Path (string), the path to the mailbox. The state is determined in the same way as for mboxes.

pop3

Not yet implemented.

imap

Hostname (string), the IMAP server. Username (string), the username on the server. Password (string), the password. Folder (string), the name of the folder.

Examples

Here is an example of a configuration file.

{
  DisableBeep = No;
  DoubleClickTime = 250;
  DisplayMessageCount = None;
  DisplayColor = "#FFFFFF";
  DisplayFont = "-*-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*";
  DisplayLocation = (0, 10);
  ExecuteOnClick = "wterm -name mail -e mutt";
  ExecuteOnNew = "play ~/GNUstep/Library/WMMail.app/Sounds/doorbell.au";
  ExecuteOnNewOnce = No;
  Animations = {
    Empty = {
      Delay = 10;
      Frames = ("~/GNUstep/Library/WMMail.app/Anims/NeXT/Mail1.xpm");
    };
    Old = {
      Delay = 10;
      Frames = ("~/GNUstep/Library/WMMail.app/Anims/NeXT/Mail1.xpm");
    };
    New = {
      Delay = 2;
      Frames = (
        "~/GNUstep/Library/WMMail.app/Anims/NeXT/Mail1.xpm",
        "~/GNUstep/Library/WMMail.app/Anims/NeXT/Mail2.xpm",
        "~/GNUstep/Library/WMMail.app/Anims/NeXT/Mail3.xpm",
        "~/GNUstep/Library/WMMail.app/Anims/NeXT/Mail2.xpm"
      );
    };
  };
  Mailboxes = (
    {
      Name = "Home";
      Type = mbox;
      UpdateInterval = 15;
      ExecuteOnUpdate = "/usr/bin/fetchmail";
      Options = {
        CheckTimeStampOnly = No;
        Path = "$(MAIL)";
      };
    },
    {
      Name = "MH Folder";
      Type = mh;
      UpdateInterval = 60;
      ExecuteOnUpdate = "";
      Options = {
        Path = "~bryan/Mail/inbox"
      };
    },
    {
      Name = "MailDir Folder";
      Type = maildir;
      UpdateInterval = 15;
      ExecuteOnUpdate = "";
      Options = {
        Path = "~bryan/MailDir";
      };
    },
    {
      Name = "School";
      Type = imap;
      UpdateInterval = 300;
      ExecuteOnUpdate = "";
      Options = {
        Hostname = "mailserver.school.edu";
        Username = "bryan";
        Password = "secret";
        Folder = "mail/INBOX";
      };
    }
  );
}

Files

~/GNUstep/Defaults/WMMail

WMMail.app defaults.

/etc/GNUstep/Defaults/WMMail

System wide defaults.

/usr/lib/GNUstep/Apps/WMMail.app/Anims

WMMail.app's animations are installed here.

/usr/lib/GNUstep/Apps/WMMail.app/Sounds

WMMail.app's sounds are installed here.

Environment

GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT

specifies the initial path for the Defaults directory. "Defaults/" is appended to this variable to determine the actual location of the databases. If the varialbe is not set, it defaults to "~/GNUstep"

GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT

specifies the location of the system-wide local GNUstep directory (this is useful, for example, in those cases where the system-wide location is really a network wide location). If this variable is empty, GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT is looked for.

GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT

specifies the location of the system-wide GNUstep directory. If this variable is empty, it defaults to /etc/GNUstep

Version

This man page is up-to-date for version 0.62 of WMMail.app.