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Mail::Webmail::Gmail(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Mail::Webmail::Gmail(3)

Mail::Webmail::Gmail - An interface to Google's webmail service

    # Perl script that logs in to Gmail, retrieves the user defined labels
    # Then prints out all new messages under the first label

    use Mail::Webmail::Gmail;

    my $gmail = Mail::Webmail::Gmail->new( 
                username => 'username', password => 'password',
            );

    my @labels = $gmail->get_labels();

    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $labels[0] );

    foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
        if ( $_->{ 'new' } ) {
            print "Subject: " . $_->{ 'subject' } . " / Blurb: " . $_->{ 'blurb' } . "\n";
        }
    }

This perl module uses objects to make it easy to interface with Gmail. I eventually hope to implement all of the functionality of the Gmail website, plus additional features.

Because Gmail is currently in Beta testing, expect this module to break as they make updates to thier interface. I will attempt to keep this module in line with the changes they make, but, if after updating to the newest version of this module, the feature that you require still doesn't work, please contact me with the issue.

The standard call for starting a new Gmail session is simply

    my $gmail = Mail::Webmail::Gmail->new( username => 'username', password => 'password', );

This module does support the use of a proxy server

    my $gmail = Mail::Webmail::Gmail->new( username => 'username', password => 'password', 
                proxy_username => 'proxy_username',
                proxy_password => 'proxy_password',
                proxy_name => 'proxy_server' );

By default, this module only encrypts the logon process. To encrypt the entire session, use the argument encrypt_session

    my $gmail = Mail::Webmail::Gmail->new( username => 'username', password => 'password', encrypt_session => 1 );

After that, you are free to start making requests for data.

Returns an array of all user defined labels.

    my @labels = $gmail->get_labels();

There are five actions that can currently be preformed on labels. As a note, this module enforces Gmail's limits on label creation. A label cannot be over 40 characters, and a label cannot contain the character '^'. On failure, error and error_msg are set.

    #creating new labels.
    $gmail->edit_labels( label => 'label_name', action => 'create' );

    #renaming existing labels.
    $gmail->edit_labels( label => 'label_name', action => 'rename', new_name => 'renamed_label' );

    #deleting labels.
    $gmail->edit_labels( label => 'label_name', action => 'delete' );

    #adding a label to a message.
    $gmail->edit_labels( label => 'label_name', action => 'add', msgid => $message_id );

    #removing a label from a message.
    $gmail->edit_labels( label => 'label_name', action => 'remove', msgid => $message_id );

The following are the seven preferences and the allowed values that can currently be changed through Mail::Webmail::Gmail

    keyboard_shortcuts = ( 0, 1 )
    indicators         = ( 0, 1 )
    snippets           = ( 0, 1 )
    max_page_size      = ( 25, 50, 100 )
    display_name       = ( '', string value up to 96 Characters )
    reply_to           = ( '', string value up to 320 Characters )
    signature          = ( '', string value up to 1000 Characters )

Changing preferences can be accomplished by simply sending the preference(s) that you want to change, and the new value.

    $gmail->update_prefs( indicators => 0, reply_to => 'test@test.com' );

To delete display_name, reply_to, or signature simply send a blank string as in the following example.

    $gmail->update_prefs( signature => '' );

To star or unstar a message use these examples

    #star
    $gmail->edit_star( action => 'add', 'msgid' => $msgid );

    #unstar
    $gmail->edit_star( action => 'remove', 'msgid' => $msgid );

To archive or unarchive a message use these examples

    #archive
    $gmail->edit_archive( action => 'archive', 'msgid' => $msgid );

    #unarchive
    $gmail->edit_archive( action => 'unarchive', 'msgid' => $msgid );

By default, get_messages returns a reference to an AoH with the messages from the 'all' folder. To change this behavior you can either send a label

    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => 'work' );

Or request a Gmail provided folder using one of the provided variables

    'INBOX'
    'STARRED'
    'SPAM'
    'TRASH'

    Ex.

    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $Mail::Webmail::Gmail::FOLDERS{ 'INBOX' } );

The Array of hashes is in the following format

    $indv_email{ 'id' }
    $indv_email{ 'new' }
    $indv_email{ 'starred' }
    $indv_email{ 'date_received' }
    $indv_email{ 'sender_email' }
    $indv_email{ 'subject' }
    $indv_email{ 'blurb' }
    @{ $indv_email{ 'labels' } }
    @{ $indv_email{ 'attachments' } }

Returns a scalar with the amount of MB remaining in you account.

    my $remaining = $gmail->size_usage();

If called in list context, returns an array as follows. [ Used, Total, Percent Used ] [ "0 MB", "1000 MB", "0%" ]

There are two ways to get an individual message:

    By sending a reference to a specific message returned by get_messages

    #prints out the message body for all messages in the starred folder
    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $Mail::Webmail::Gmail::FOLDERS{ 'STARRED' } );
    foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
        my $message = $gmail->get_indv_email( msg => $_ );
        print "$message->{ $_->{ 'id' } }->{ 'body' }\n";
    }

    Or by sending a message ID and Label that the message resides in

    #retrieve specific email message for review
    my $msgid = 'F000000000';
    my $message = $gmail->get_indv_email( id => $msgid, label => 'label01' );
    print "$message->{ $msgid }->{ 'body' }\n";

returns a Hash of Hashes containing the data from an individual message in the following format:

Hash of messages in thread by ID

    $indv_email{ 'id' }
    $indv_email{ 'sender_email' }
    $indv_email{ 'sent' }
    $indv_email{ 'to' }
    $indv_email{ 'read' }
    $indv_email{ 'subject' }
    @{ $indv_email{ 'attachments' } }

    #If it is the main message in the thread
    $indv_email{ 'body' }
    %{ $indv_email{ 'ads' } } = (
        title       => '',
        body        => '',
        vendor_link => '',
        link        => '', );

This will return an individual message in MIME format.

    The parameters to this function are the same as get_indv_email.

    #prints out the MIME format for all messages in the inbox
    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $Mail::Webmail::Gmail::FOLDERS{ 'INBOX' } );
    foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
        my $message = $gmail->get_mime_email( msg => $_ );
        print $message
    }

    returns a string that contains the MIME formatted email.

The get_contacts method returns a reference to an AoH with all of the Contacts. This can be limited to the 'Frequently Mailed' contacts with a flag:

    my $contacts = $gmail->get_contacts( frequent => 1 );

The Array of hashes is in the following format

    $indv_contact{ 'id' }
    $indv_contact{ 'name1' }
    $indv_contact{ 'name2' }
    $indv_contact{ 'email' }
    $indv_contact{ 'note' }

The basic format of sending a message is

    $gmail->send_message( to => 'user@domain.com', subject => 'Test Message', msgbody => 'This is a test.' );

To send to multiple users, send an arrayref containing all of the users

    my $email_addrs = [
        'user1@domain.com',
        'user2@domain.com',
        'user3@domain.com', ];
    $gmail->send_message( to => $email_addrs, subject => 'Test Message', msgbody => 'This is a test.' );

You may also send mail using cc and bcc.

To attach files to a message

    $gmail->send_message( to => 'user@domain.com', subject => 'Test Message', msgbody => 'This is a test.', file0 => ["/tmp/foo"], file1 => ["/tmp/bar"] );

Use the following to move a message to the trash bin

    $gmail->delete_message( msgid => $msgid, del_message => 0 );

To permanently delete a message, just send a msgid

    $gmail->delete_message( msgid => $msgid );

To act on multiple messages at once send an array ref containing all of the message IDs you with to act on. This is useful because Gmail may temporarily ban you if you send too much traffic in a short amount of time (for instance deleting all of the messaging in your SPAM folder one at a time).

    ### Delete Many Messages at once ###
    $gmail->delete_message( msgid => \@msgids, search => 'spam', del_message => 1 );

    ### Applying a label to multiple messages at once ###
    $gmail->edit_labels( label => 'label_name', action => 'add', msgid => \@msgids );

There are two ways to get an attachment:

    By sending a reference to a specific attachment returned by get_indv_email

    #creates an array of references to every attachment in your account
    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages();
    my @attachments;

    foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
        my $email = $gmail->get_indv_email( msg => $_ );
        if ( defined( $email->{ $_->{ 'id' } }->{ 'attachments' } ) ) {
            foreach ( @{ $email->{ $_->{ 'id' } }->{ 'attachments' } } ) {
                push( @attachments, $gmail->get_attachment( attachment => $_ ) );
                if ( $gmail->error() ) {
                    print $gmail->error_msg();
                }
            }
        }
    }

    Or by sending the attachment ID and message ID

    #retrieve specific attachment
    my $msgid = 'F000000000';
    my $attachid = '0.1';
    my $attach_ref = $gmail->get_attachment( attid => $attachid, msgid => $msgid );

Returns a reference to a scalar that holds the data from the attachment.

This is included so you can get an idea of what the underlying HTML looks like for Gmail. It is also included to somewhat document what the current interface needs to manipulate to extract data from Gmail.

    <html><head><meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="content-type"></head>
    <script>D=(top.js&&top.js.init)?function(d){top.js.P(window,d)}:function(){};
    if(window==top){top.location='/gmail?search=inbox&view=tl&start=0&init=1&zx=VERSION + RANDOM 9 DIGIT NUMBER&fs=1';}
    </script><script><!--
    D(["v","fc5985703d8fe4f8"]
    );
    D(["p",["bx_hs","1"]
    ,["bx_show0","1"]
    ,["bx_sc","1"]
    ,["sx_dn","username"]
    ]
    );
    D(["i",0]
    );
    D(["qu","0 MB","1000 MB","0%","#006633"]
    );
    D(["ds",1,0,0,0,0,0]
    );
    D(["ct",[["label 1",1]
    ,["label 2",0]
    ,["label 3",1]
    ]
    ]
    );
    D(["ts",0,50,10,0,"Inbox","",13]
    );
    D(["t",["MSG ID",1,0,"\<b\>12:53am\</b\>","\<span id=\'_user_sender@domain.com\'\>Sender Name\</span\>
    ","\<b\>&raquo;\</b\>&nbsp;","\<b\>Subject\</b\>","Blurb &hellip;",["label1","label 2"]
    ,"attachment name1, attachment name2","MSG ID",0]
    ]
    );

    D(["te"]);

    //--></script><script>var fp='';</script><script>var loaded=true;D(['e']);</script>

below is a listing of some of the tests that I use as I test various features

SAMPLE USAGE

    my ( $gmail ) = Mail::Webmail::Gmail->new( 
            username => 'username', password => 'password', );

    ### Test Sending Message ####
    my $msgid = $gmail->send_message( to => 'mincus@gmail.com', subject => time(), msgbody => 'Test' );
    if ( $msgid ) {
        print "Msgid: $msgid\n";
        if ( $gmail->error() ) {
            print $gmail->error_msg();
        } else {
            ### Create new label ###
            my $test_label = "tl_" . time();
            $gmail->edit_labels( label => $test_label, action => 'create' );
            if ( $gmail->error() ) {
                print $gmail->error_msg();
            } else {
                ### Add this label to our new message ###
                $gmail->edit_labels( label => $test_label, action => 'add', 'msgid' => $msgid );
                if ( $gmail->error() ) {
                    print $gmail->error_msg();
                } else {
                    print "Added label: $test_label to message $msgid\n";
                }
            }
        }
    } else {
        if ( $gmail->error() ) {
            print $gmail->error_msg();
        }
    }
    ###

    ### Move message to trash ###
    my $msgid = $gmail->send_message( to => 'testuser@test.com', subject => "del_" . time(), msgbody => 'Test Delete' );
    if ( $gmail->error() ) {
        print $gmail->error_msg();
    } else {
        $gmail->delete_message( msgid => $msgid, del_message => 0 );
        if ( $gmail->error() ) {
            print $gmail->error_msg();
        } else {
            print "MSG: $msgid moved to trash\n";
        }
    }
    ###

    ### Delete all SPAM folder messages ###
    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $Mail::Webmail::Gmail::FOLDERS{ 'SPAM' } );
    if ( @{ $messages } ) {
        my @msgids;
        foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
            push( @msgids, $_->{ 'id' } );
        }
        $gmail->delete_message( msgid => \@msgids, search => 'spam', del_message => 1 );
        if ( $gmail->error() ) {
            print $gmail->error_msg();
        } else {
            print "Deleted " . @msgids . " Messages\n";
        }
    }
    ###

    ### Print out all user defined labels
    my @labels = $gmail->get_labels();
    foreach ( @labels ) {
        print "Label: '" . $_ . "'\n";
    }
    ###

    ### Prints out all _New_ messages attached to the first label
    my @labels = $gmail->get_labels();
    unless ( $gmail->error() ) {
        my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $labels[0] );
        unless( $gmail->error() ) {
            if ( defined( $messages ) ) {
                foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
                    if ( $_->{ 'new' } ) {
                        print "Subject: " . $_->{ 'subject' } . " / Blurb: " . $_->{ 'blurb' } . "\n";
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            print $gmail->error_msg();
        }
    } else {
        print $gmail->error_msg();
    }
    ###

    ### Prints out all attachments
    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages();

    foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
        my $email = $gmail->get_indv_email( msg => $_ );
        if ( defined( $email->{ $_->{ 'id' } }->{ 'attachments' } ) ) {
            foreach ( @{ $email->{ $_->{ 'id' } }->{ 'attachments' } } ) {
                print ${ $gmail->get_attachment( attachment => $_ ) } . "\n";
                if ( $gmail->error() ) {
                    print $gmail->error_msg();
                }
            }
        }
    }
    ###

    ### Prints out the vendor link from Ads attached to a message
    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $Mail::Webmail::Gmail::FOLDERS{ 'INBOX' } );

    foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
        print "ID: " . $_->{ 'id' } . "\n";
        my %email = %{ $gmail->get_indv_email( msg => $_ ) };
        if ( $email{ $_->{ 'id' } }->{ 'ads' } ) {
            my $ads;
            foreach $ads ( @{ $email{ $_->{ 'id' } }->{ 'ads' } } ) {
                print " - AD LINK: $ads->{vendor_link}\n";
            }
        }
    }
    ###

    ### Shows different ways to look through your email
    my $messages = $gmail->get_messages();

    print "By folder\n";
    foreach ( keys %Mail::Webmail::Gmail::FOLDERS ) {
        print "KEY: $_\n";
        my $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $Mail::Webmail::Gmail::FOLDERS{ $_ } );
        print "\t$_:\n";
        if ( @{ $messages } ) {
            foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
                print "\t\t$_->{ 'subject' }\n";
            }
        }
    }

    print "By label\n";
    foreach ( $gmail->get_labels() ) {
        $messages = $gmail->get_messages( label => $_ );
        print "\t$_:\n";
        if ( defined( $messages ) ) {
            if ( @{ $messages } ) {
                foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
                    print "\t\t$_->{ 'subject' }\n";
                }
            }
        }
    }

    print "All (Note: the All folder skips trash)";
    $messages = $gmail->get_messages();
    if ( @{ $messages } ) {
        foreach ( @{ $messages } ) {
            print "\t\t$_->{ 'subject' }\n";
        }
    }
    ###

    ### Update preferences
        if ( $gmail->update_prefs( signature => 'Test Sig.', max_page_size => 100 ) ) {
            print "Preferences Updated.\n";
        } else {
            print "Unable to update preferences.\n";
        }
    ###

    ### Show all contact email addresses
    my ( @contacts ) = @{ $gmail->get_contacts() };
    foreach ( @contacts ) {
        print $_->{ 'email' } . "\n";
    }
    ###

    ### Print out space remaining in mailbox
    my $remaining = $gmail->size_usage();
    print "Remaining: '" . $remaining . "'\n";
    ###

Copyright 2004-2005, Allen Holman. All rights reserved.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

Address bug reports and comments to: email: mincus \at cpan \. org AIM: mincus c03 Website: http://code.mincus.com

When sending bug reports, please provide the version of Gmail.pm, the version of Perl and the name and version of the operating system you are using.

I'd like to thank the following people who gave me a little direction in getting this module started (whether they know it or not)
Simon Drabble (Mail::Webmail::Yahoo)
Erik F. Kastner (WWW::Scraper::Gmail)
Abiel J. (C# Gmail API - http://www.migraineheartache.com/)
Daniel Stutz (http://www.use-strict.net)

Please report them.
2006-08-11 perl v5.32.1

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