Has anyone does this successfully? I searched a lot but didn't find anything which worked. Before spending time myself, I just want to ask if someone has done this and would be willing to share it. :)
For example, I would like to email the agenda to myself daily, reminders when a task is nearing deadline, etc.
If you're looking for a separate non-emacs application that will integrate well with emacs in org-mode, I would say no, you're probably not not going to find anything. If you really like the emacs way of doing things, I would suggest trying out Gnus for your email. If you've ever used any of the old terminal based emails, it's a pretty similar interface. It has POP and IMAP support, so you can get your email from exchange servers and gmail.
If you're using capture in org-mode (see http://orgmode.org/manual/Using-capture.html#Using-capture), you can easily add a Todo item (or really anything) with a link back to the email, and switching between your email and agenda views becomes seamless.
For IMAP support, see https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Using-IMAP.html
For Gmail support, see http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnusGmail
Related
I finally moved my old Outlook Express stuff to Thunderbird, and am downloading all emails stored on POP3 server.
But I don't want Thunderbird to download them all at once. I want 20 at a time, so I can see them and delete junk ones and move remaining to their proper folders before downloading more.
I can't find a button to stop downloading. Once I make Thunderbird download emails, it just keeps downloading and the only way I found to stop it is closing it.
Is there a better way?
NOTE: while the specific counts are not possible, you can switch back and forth between offline/not offline, but it's a pain, requires confirm click.
Otherwise:
Download all emails. Use spam emails to train your thunderbird spam filters once all the emails have downloaded. Start at the beginning of the list. It's a one time operation, don't overthink it. As you assign 'junk' status to emails, you can rerun the spam filters on the inbox until it's properly trained, and most of the subsequent emails will get moved to the Junk folder automatically after you've created a decent set of spam samples. If you give the junk filter a few hundred samples it will be pretty accurate. Check junk folder for false positives, mark not junk, repeat until it's good. Much less work than doing it 20 emails at a time.
Thunderbird's builtin spam filters are quite good once properly trained.
When viewing (including preview mode) spam emails, make sure that third party image view is disabled, otherwise you will be validating your email address in the spammer email databases (they use often images or links with unique id's in them that when loaded or clicked simply validate your email address as current). Ideally disable all html viewing and view in text mode only, no html.
As with training your spam filters, the same applies to email rules/filters, which are even easier to create and run.
Create filters that move the emails to the desired folders after you make the folders, and after you create each filter, run the filters on the inbox again.
Because the user is fairly stubborn in this case, here's the basics when interacting with a new piece of software:
Check to see if the desired feature that another similar program has is supported. If it isn't, and you're sure you didn't just miss it, the developers don't care about that feature, or the feature is not technically possible due to how the software is constructed. The users in general also don't care about that feature, otherwise someone would have filed an issue, and others would have piled on over time, until the devs got tired of that issue and made it happen. In this case, we can assume none of that happened.
Check to see if the program supports extensions of some kind. Thunderbird does, so look for an extension that extends the features of the software to do what you want. If nobody wrote this extension, this means that no person capable of programming cares about that feature, in most cases, or, that the software itself doesn't support it internally.
check on a site like here to make sure you didn't miss anything, and that actually that feature does exist somewhere somehow. If your results are negative again, that's about the end of the road in the quest for that personal favorite feature.
Check to see if there is another way that sort of emulates what you want. In this case, for example, you can go offline/online though it takes a few steps each time, and certainly isn't a feature intended to do what the OP asked, but it can be used in this way crudely.
If neither 1 nor 2 show support for the desired feature, decide how important that feature was to you. If it is very important, research the core codebase and see if you can extend it via extension to support the feature, or hire someone to write the extension for you, and maintain it over years, or don't use the software.
Now, if after these checks, you find that not one single person in the world cared enough to add support for the feature, it means there's not a whole lot of demand for it, and certainly no demand from the free software developers who in the case of thunderbird, wrote it, and its extensions, and probably not from the users either, which is a lot of people globally in this case.
Once you determine that there was and is no demand for the feature, move on to something more productive, and stop complaining that the feature that apparently nobody ever was willing to take the time to implement isn't implemented, it means nobody cared enough to do it, that's all. Complaining here about that won't change that fact.
If you have decided to use the new software anyway, then adjust your workflow to the fact that the desired feature is not going to be part of your life anymore. This is also known as being an adult in some societies.
Other similar things that don't support everything that another similar software does:
gimp does not support everything photoshop does
windows does not support everything gnu/linux does
gnu/linux does not support everything that windows does
claws mail does not support everything thunderbird does
thunderbird and outlook express are different pieces of software that are similar in function but internally quite unrelated, they don't even use the same mail storage format, for example.
Mac OSX is different from GNU/Linux, FreeBSD (although internally it's got some similarities), and Windows.
Windows 98 is different from Windows 2000 which is different from Windows XP which is different from Vista which is different from Windows 7 which is different from 8 and 8.1 which is different from Windows 10.
Outlook is different from every email client known to man and woman alike. As is its mail storage format. Be very glad you are not trying to find software that is similar, you'd be out of luck, since nobody else is crazy enough to produce such a mess.
And so on. The software I write does similar things to other software, but is different, quite different, from all of them. This is why people use it and like it. If it were the same, there would be no reason to use it. If someone posts an issue asking for a feature a similar but different piece of software has, I'd think: Ok, is it a good idea? Does it meet a valid need? If so, is it hard? Is it possible at all (the other software may not even be right for example)? Is it possible within my software's framework? Did I receive a patch (always a great way to motive a developer)? If the first condition, it being a good idea, was never met, then you can forget about the rest, they are irrelevant.
I agree this isn't a great stackoverflow question.
I am using Lync 2010 (4.0.7577.4356), which we use on my small development team for IM'ing. Lots of technical Q&A are handled through this program and lots of other items that need to be documented. Unfortunately, our parent company has a policy that turns off "Converation History", so once the window is closed, it's gone.
I've done a fair bit of research and I haven't found a way to save this data since the settings have been made at our parent Corporation's level (through Active Directory, or whatever). This is information that we need and even my boss has tried finding a way to save this information (everything short of copy-pasting everything before closing the window or computer).
How can I accomplish this task? Are there any programs out there (freeware or otherwise) that can save these conversations? Does anyone know of a way that I can hook up Lync (the instant messaging module) to another instant messenger (GTalk, Jabber, ICQ, Yahoo, or whatever) -- then record each message from there? I'm a software developer, so if anyone knows of a means of communicating with Lync, and is able to access the messages, that would help too!
Anything at this point would help... thanks in advance!!!
-Panuvin
Try this https://github.com/bujocek/LyncIMLocalHistory. I've used the Tom Morgans answer and created own local lync (Skype for Business) conversation history tracker.
You can build it from source or just unpack and run latest release here: https://github.com/bujocek/LyncIMLocalHistory/releases
There's a client-side Lync SDK, which is pretty easy to use if you're already a .NET developer.
It's easier to do something like this and have it running on every member of your small dev team's machine alongside Lync - easier than trying to re-invent a central conversation store.
I recently blogged about recording the length and status of Conversations, and also about identifying different sorts of Call within the Conversation (you'd be looking for Instant Message Call type).
After that, you'd need to subscribe to the Flow and catch every message to and fro, and log them to a database or whatever. There's a really good book which could help you with this: Unified Communications with Microsoft Lync. If you're serious about doing Lync development, this is definitely the book for you!
With Lync 2013, CTRL+S will save the current tab to your Outlook/Exchange Conversation History folder. I'm not certain if this works with 2010.
You may try this: https://github.com/PhilippeRaemy/LyncLog.
This tool saves the conversations in text files, using a file naming convention that makes it easy to identify the time and participants.
I'm def not looking for someone to do this project for me, just bouncing off some ideas with a guru or two.
I have emails going into a global box that is shared by a few employees. I need to find a better way to assign the work out. In the past, it was grab and go. Today, an employee assigns the work out.
I'm trying to find a simple way using maybe Excel or Access, that I could copy/drag the email and it would provide who should work it and how much work they have done by week/month/year.
It's not possible to use an inhouse ticketing system, because it is non employees that send mail to this inbox, so they would not have access to using the in house ticketing system.
Would it be easily possible to design something like this or is this a more daunting task? What software would you recommend or method would you use?
Thanks for your time.
I recommend converting emails to Tickets, using a CRM/ticketing system with such feature. It would save you the hassle of developing and mantaining custom code, for a commom feature needed not only by you, but many other firms:
A quick search for "convert emails to tickets" yielded:
https://wiki.vtiger.com/index.php/Mail_Converter
http://community.geminiplatform.com/blogs/15/how-to-convert-emails-to-tickets-with-gemini
Both vTiger and Gemini are free to use.
I'm new to programming, and my only area of expertise is web design/simple development on platforms like wordpress/expression engine. (Yea, you guys can laugh).
I have a new client who currently receives medical faxes through an online form (the user fills out a form concerning their prescriptions and once submitted, it faxes the info).
I'm completely redesigning their site, and I'm not sure how online faxing works.
Has anybody dealt with internet faxing? How does it work? Does/can it go through email?
And is it possible to send a fax through a form with javascript/php or route it through email?
Don't pay for it! All you need is a modem on the server and a standard phone line. Then set up a fax print driver under your os (you can do it on windows and unix).
The unix way is mgetty/sendfax : http://mgetty.greenie.net/doc/mgetty_3.html#SEC3
The Windows way : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306657
There are other ways but unless you can't get a phone line you'd be mad to pay fees for it.
Would it not be helpful to look at how it is currently being done, that way you can learn a thing or two about the process before trying to go do it again? That way you can find if it is using any special libraries or techniques or services to send the fax and you can then either duplicate the code or use it as a template to get started on your own solution.
All of what your asking is possible. I would recommend finding a service provider who can send the fax for you. They all have different interfaces requirements and pricing. I used to use DataOnCall which is now called Fax.com
They had a web service which we would post the document to be faxed plus additional information. They were a preety reasonable service. This was several years ago so I can't speak how they currently fair.
Take a look at eFax's SDK. I haven't used it, but it looks like it might be useful to you.
Yes, you can send faxes via email through several services; this link seems to have some useful information. I worked at a company previously that did this same sort of thing, and while I don't recall the exact service we used, most of them are very similar, and they work reasonably well.
I would like to write a plug-in that will allow a custom written CRM to read and write to their local Outlook client. I know that this poses a security concern. But, my clients are asking that their CRM "be connected" to Outlook. They would like to be able to do the following:
A) When a contact sends them an email (reply or free standing email), they'd like the details of this email to go INTO the CRM. Yep. They would like me to save the body, time and date it was sent, etc.
B) They want to be able to send new emails (or replies to existing emails) from within the CRM itself. Basically, "a form that looks like Outlook's send/reply email form".
C) Want the ability to search for contacts and the related emails with a search for tags/keywords facility. (i.e. if a product name or code appears in an email then they want the email returned in the search).
D) Having performed a search of many contacts, they will want to prepare a mailer and shoot out some sort of email announcement to their qualified leads. This could be 50, 100, or more persons. So its got to be able to allow bulk mailing.
E) Given a list of new prospects, that arent currently contacts in the CRM, they will want to do the same and if they get replies from this mailer to the prospects, the will want the replies to be saved in the DB and contacts be inserted into the DB.
F) They would like to be able to utilize the calendar and task list facilities of Outlook from the CRM, as well.
More or less, they want this pretty basic (as it is today) CRM that I created to integrate with Outlook and have it do so seamlessly as if it was an add-on to the CRM. A plug-in is what I am thinking...
But, I dont know where to begin. My environment is Windows XP/Vista and is going to be ASP.NET and I am going to use the VB.NET language to accomplish this. What do I need? Are there resources out there that can describe how to build a plug-in to Outlook as I have been asked to? This is not Exchange, none of the clients use exchange (not so far). They all run Outlook. Mostly 2003. Most clients are XP right now but some are upgrading to Vista.
For some reason I cant seem to wrap my head around this. I think the whole security issue is thwarting my ability to see past what is probably a simple thing. The client doesnt want to be prompted by any security messages asking them if they are sure they want to send 382 emails to their contacts. Not once and certainly not 382 times.
Where do I begin? I've searched the internet for similar but mainly what I found are already-written products and I've got to write this from scratch.
I was part of the team that created the original Outlook Plug-In for Frankley Covey time management tools. It was quite an adventure!
The first thing I would do is make your client pick a version of Outlook, and stick with it. DO NOT let the client add support for additional Outlook versions, unless they are willing to pay for it, and willing to have the delivery time pushed back to a reasonable date.
The team I was with swore by the Slipstick website. There are several solutions to the Outlook security prompts in there.
If you can, talk to Microsoft and see if they can get you the object model for the specific version of Outlook you will be working with. We had this model printed on a large scale color printer and put it on a large wall. IIRC, it was something like 7'x5' object map. This helped tons.
You might end up creating specific classifications/namespaces for your Outlook code. It's been a while, but I remember something about a dot notation like .Email, .Task, and several others. I had to create a couple new dot namespaces for the Outlook Task object.
As razorfish noted, look up the new Visual Studio For Office Tools. This has made some stuff a lot easier.
Talk to your client and find out if they will need to connect to Exchange servers. There were two distinct ways of building Plug-ins. One mode only worked with Outlook itself, while the other talked with Exchange. This is very important to your development efforts. The models are VERY different and will cost you extra time if you pick the wrong one.
EDIT: There are a couple books that were helpful with this. The books are for Outlook 2000, so you might want to see if there are updated versions.
Building Applications with Microsoft Outlook 2000 Technical Reference
Building Applications using Outlook 2000, CDO, Exchange, and Visual Basic
Both have a lot of information on how to do deep integrations with Outlook.
You should take a look at the Visual Studio for Office Tools. You can easily create add-ins for Outlook, Word, Excel ... pretty much the entire Microsoft Office family of products.
You can also take a look at Add-In Express, but I didn't have much luck with their controls, and the VSTO for 2008 is extremely easy to use.
Check out Kayxo Insight. It's a framework for creating the kind of solution you are describing.
Check out www.softomate.com they offer plugins and integration solutions for various projects.