Gmail：同步收件箱（已禁用IMAP和POP3）

Question

Problem

There is a need to read my sent items from my gmail account between two dates and that follows a similar text pattern on the subject, this is all in order to segregate the sent items that has been answered (stored in a excel file) and re-send one reminder to those that hasn't answered.

Real World

The problem described above seems to be easy to handle and a good task to perform with the usage of a scripting language, except for the statement below:

• IMAP & POP3 are disabled from my account.

So, the IT folks of the place that I work decided to disable IMAP & POP3 from every single account of the company. Believe it or not this is for a good reason, In order to avoid the usage of an email client (in this case MS Outlook) and save some money --- I've always believed in open source ---.

Then, I was wondering on How would it be possible to syncronize the inbox of my gmail account knowing that the company that I work had disabled both IMAP & POP3.

But SMTP...?

As far as I know SMTP is only for sending email but not for retrieving them.

What I've tried?

Being a little bit stubborn and blinded by the idea of avoiding the usage of Sockets in order to accomplish this ridiculous task, I've ended up playing with the following ruby gems:

• mail
• ruby-gmail

Above two gems are awesome for sending/retrieving emails, but only if your account have IMAP or POP3 enabled.

Facts

How come that my devices can syncronize my inbox even if IMAP & POP3 are disabled.

• The Android device, syncs via it's gmail application.
• The iOS device, syncs via Microsoft Exchange Server.

Questions

• Is there any other way to implement this and avoiding the use of Sockets (for web-crawling my sent items) at the same time?

Answer 1

Without IMAP you're really left with no options. I don't see a way to do it without making some kind of screen scraping bot, and then parsing that information is going to be a huge mess. Is there a reason you can't use the label and filter system built into Gmail to make a label with the emails you're after?

Answer 2

Solution

In order to avoid the usage of sockets for this assignment I've tried to build an Chrome extension/apps, but this would become as riduculous as using sockets.

Thanks god Google Apps Script exists.

Code

var VENDOR_NAME_INDEX = 0;
var CONTACTS_INDEX = VENDOR_NAME_INDEX + 1;
var HAS_REPLIED_INDEX = CONTACTS_INDEX + 1;
var COMMENTS_INDEX = HAS_REPLIED_INDEX + 1;

var VENDORS_SPREADSHEET_URL = "https://docs.google.com/a/jabil.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aj7MWNXx-gzsdHJQbGhQZUVkMjBFeVNZX0dXdDZjYWc#gid=0";
var VENDORS_GMAIL_QUERY = 'in:sent has:attachment after:2013/06/26 before:2013/06/28 subject: "*Jabil CUU /// Shipping Letter*"';

// http://flesler.blogspot.mx/2008/11/fast-trim-function-for-javascript.html
String.prototype.trimLeft = function() {
  var pivot = -1;
  while (this.charCodeAt(++pivot) < 33);
  return this.slice(pivot, this.length);
}

// http://flesler.blogspot.mx/2008/11/fast-trim-function-for-javascript.html
String.prototype.trimRight = function() {
  var pivot = this.length;
  while (this.charCodeAt(pivot--) < 33);
  return this.slice(0, pivot);
}

vendors = [];
function processSentItems() {
  var threads = GmailApp.search(VENDORS_GMAIL_QUERY);  
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(VENDORS_SPREADSHEET_URL);

  var data = ss.getDataRange();
  var rows = data.getNumRows();
  var values = data.getValues();

  for (var i = 0; i < rows; ++i) {
    var row = values[i];

    var vendor = row[VENDOR_NAME_INDEX];
    var contacts = row[CONTACTS_INDEX];
    var replied_back = row[HAS_REPLIED_INDEX];
    var comments = row[COMMENTS_INDEX];

    vendors.push({
      name: vendor,
      contacts: contacts,
      replied_back: replied_back,
      comments: comments
    });

  }

  threads.forEach(function(thread) {
    var id = thread.getId();
    var subject = thread.getFirstMessageSubject();
    var vendorName = subject.split("-")[0];

    vendorName = vendorName.trimLeft();
    vendorName = vendorName.trimRight();

    var vendor = getVendorByName(vendorName);

    if (typeof vendor == "object") {
      if (vendor.replied_back.toLowerCase() != "yes") {
        thread.replyAll("Friendly reminder...")
      }
    }
  });

};

function getVendorByName(vendorName) {
  for (var i = 0; i < vendors.length; ++i) {
    if (vendors[i].name == vendorName) {
      return vendors[i];
    }
  }
};