seephar.com

One of the LCDproc clients running on my wifi radio is a python script which grabs the atom feed from Gmail to find out if there are any unread messages in my inbox. LCDproc is a project that produces server software that drives those small lcd displays on a Linux/BSD machine. The Gmail notifier script is inspired by two different sources:

http://www.stefanomanni.it/arduino/2009/12/07/ardugmailnotifier-an-arduino-based-gmail-notifier/

Which depends on python-feedparser.

and also:

http://mydogsbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/01/lcdprocpy.html

Which depends on Jingleman’s Python OOP Wrapper Library for LCDproc Telnet API (lcdproc0.02).

Here is the result: lcdgmail.py.tar.gz

* Sept. 20, 2010 – added some exception handling to toughen the script up a bit. I found that feedparser doesn’t like to read things sometimes.

* Sept. 21, 2010 – modified the script to read feed once per iteration of the main loop.

* Sept. 29, 2010 – added simple GNU all-permissive license to code.

#!/usr/bin/env python

# This is a fusion of two different scripts:
#
# 1) http://mydogsbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/01/lcdprocpy.html
#
# requires lcdproc0.2 from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/lcdproc
# Also see http://github.com/jingleman/lcdproc/
# Based on http://github.com/jingleman/lcdproc/blob/master/examples.py
#  sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
#  sudo easy_install lcdproc

# 2) Python script for ArduGmail Notifier
#
# AUTHOR: Stefano Manni | http://www.stefanomanni.it/arduino | ::FREE SOFTWARE::
# ATTENTION: First install python-feedparser available in Ubuntu Repository or at http://www.feedparser.org/
#  sudo apt-get install python-feedparser

# Checks the Gmail atom feed to see how many messages in inbox and displays a bit of info about
# the first few in the queue and sends the the info out as a lcdproc client (16x2 LCD)

# Copyright 2010, Peter Harding, seephar.com
# revised 20100920 - added exception handling
# revised 20100921 - modified to read feed once per iteration
#
#     Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
#     are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
#     notice and this notice are preserved.  This file is offered as-is,
#     without any warranty.

import time, commands, string, sys, feedparser, time
from time import strftime

from lcdproc.server import Server
USERNAME="gmail username"		# Change to match your username!
PASSWORD="gmail password"		# Change to match your password!
PROTO="https://"
SERVER="mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom"	

def main():

	try:
		lcd = Server("127.0.0.1", debug=False)
		lcd.start_session()
	except:
		print "Unexpected error:", sys.exc_info()[0]
		raise SystemExit("LCD didn't start, no need to continue")

	screen1 = lcd.add_screen("Screen1")
	screen1.set_heartbeat("off")
	screen1.set_duration(12)

	screen2 = lcd.add_screen("Screen2")
	screen2.set_heartbeat("off")
	screen2.set_duration(12)

	ddow = strftime("%A")
	ddate = strftime("%d %b %Y")

	display_sc1_ln1 = screen1.add_string_widget("sc1_ln1", text= "Wait 90 Secs...", x=1, y=1)
	display_sc1_ln2 = screen1.add_scroller_widget("sc1_ln2", text="for Network", left=1, top=2, right=16, bottom=2, speed=3)

	display_sc2_ln1 = screen2.add_scroller_widget("sc2_ln1", text=ddow, left=1, top=1, right=16, bottom=1, speed=3)
	display_sc2_ln2 = screen2.add_scroller_widget("sc2_ln2", text=ddate, left=1, top=2, right=16, bottom=2, speed=3)

	# wait 90 seconds for networking to be fully active on startup otherwise script will break
	time.sleep(90)

	while True:

		try:
			gfeed = feedparser.parse(PROTO + USERNAME + ":" + PASSWORD + "@" + SERVER)
		except:
			gcounter = 0
			display_sc1_ln1.set_text("Gmail: ?")
			display_sc1_ln2.set_text("Feed not read!")
			ddow = strftime("%A")
			ddate = strftime("%d %b %Y")
			display_sc2_ln1.set_text(ddow)
			display_sc2_ln2.set_text(ddate)
		else:
			gcounter = int(gfeed.feed.fullcount)
			if gcounter == 0:
				display_sc1_ln1.set_text("Gmail: 0")
				display_sc1_ln2.set_text("No mail!")
				ddow = strftime("%A")
				ddate = strftime("%d %b %Y")
				display_sc2_ln1.set_text(ddow)
				display_sc2_ln2.set_text(ddate)

		if gcounter == 1:
			display_sc1_ln1.set_text("Gmail: 1")
			try:
				gtitle = str(gfeed.entries[0].title)
			except:
				gtitle = "Couldn't read title"
			if len(gtitle) > 25:
				display_sc1_ln2.set_text(gtitle[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc1_ln2.set_text(gtitle)
			try:
				gsummary = str(gfeed.entries[0].summary)
			except:
				gsummary = "Couldn't read summary"
			if len(gsummary) > 25:
				display_sc2_ln1.set_text(gsummary[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc2_ln1.set_text(gsummary)
			try:
				gauthor = str(gfeed.entries[0].author)
			except:
				gauthor = "Couldn't read author"
			if len(gtitle) > 25:
				display_sc2_ln2.set_text(gauthor[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc2_ln2.set_text(gauthor)

		if gcounter == 2:
			display_sc1_ln1.set_text("Gmail: 2")
			display_sc1_ln2.set_text("")
			try:
				gtitle = str(gfeed.entries[0].title)
			except:
				gtitle = "Couldn't read title"
			if len(gtitle) > 25:
				display_sc2_ln1.set_text(gtitle[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc2_ln1.set_text(gtitle)
			try:
				gtitle = str(gfeed.entries[1].title)
			except:
				gtitle = "Couldn't read title"
			if len(gtitle) > 25:
				display_sc2_ln2.set_text(gtitle[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc2_ln2.set_text(gtitle)

		if gcounter > 2:
			display_sc1_ln1.set_text("Gmail: " + str(gcounter))
			try:
				gtitle = str(gfeed.entries[0].title)
			except:
				gtitle = "Couldn't read title"
			if len(gtitle) > 25:
				display_sc1_ln2.set_text(gtitle[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc1_ln2.set_text(gtitle)
			try:
				gtitle = str(gfeed.entries[1].title)
			except:
				gtitle = "Couldn't read title"
			if len(gtitle) > 25:
				display_sc2_ln1.set_text(gtitle[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc2_ln1.set_text(gtitle)
			try:
				gtitle = str(gfeed.entries[2].title)
			except:
				gtitle = "Couldn't read title"
			if len(gtitle) > 25:
				display_sc2_ln2.set_text(gtitle[0:24])
			else:
				display_sc2_ln2.set_text(gtitle)

		time.sleep(900) # check every 15 min should be often enough, wouldn't want to be a pest

if __name__ == "__main__":
	main()

Download script here: lcdgmail.py.tar.gz