While working on a new device, I was looking at ways to update a display with a bunch of information, including my Unread Email count in my Gmail inbox.
I came across a BASH script which I placed in my mac’s chron file… it retrieves (you select how often) the current quantity of unread emails using Gmail’s Atom functionality. I am using it to curl the information to an Arduino device on my network…
curl -H "Accept: application/xml" -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -X GET 192.168.1.50/?emailCount="$MAILCOUNTER"&but you can easily modify it to put data into a variable container or even Text To Speech to your OS or SONOS device. The script is below. It runs on my mac, but I had to alter the original code. I included the original author’s info if your other linux or windows device won’t work with the curl and sed commands as edited.
Have fun with it, I hope some of you find it useful, it is set up for an initialization/error state for me (email count = -1) which you probably won’t need, but you can see where you can edit or add the curl instructions you wish to make…
#!/bin/bash
#SCRIPT_NAME="Arduino Gmail Checker"
#SCRIPT_VERSION="0.1"
#figlet $SCRIPT_NAME $SCRIPT_VERSION
#
#########################################
# #
# Modified for use with Vera Tool #
# BulldogLowell - January 2015 #
# Transmits eMail count to network node #
# #
#########################################################################################
# Description: Check Gmail for unread email and switch RGB LED on Arduino in accordance #
# Dependencies: sed, curl, #
# Author: Virtualmix #
# http://blog.trollmaker.com/article10/arduino-led-notification-for-gmail-on-linux #
# License: CC BY #
#########################################################################################
# Enter Gmail username and password below (Warning: Unsafe storage):
USERID="username"
PASSWORD="password"
# Enter number of seconds between email verification:
WAIT=60
########################################################################################
#set -xv
# Loop to check for new mail every X minutes
while [ "1" -eq "1" ]; do
# Command line to fetch the number of unread emails:
MAILCOUNTER=`curl -u $USERID:$PASSWORD --silent "https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom" \ | xmllint --format - \ | sed -n 's#<fullcount>\(.*\)</fullcount>#\1#p'`
if [[ "$MAILCOUNTER" = "" ]]; then
echo "ERROR: The program coulndn't fetch the account for user \"$USERID\"."
echo "- Are you connected to the Internet?"
echo -e "- Is the userid and password correct for \"$USERID\"?\n"
# I'm using this curl....
curl -H "Accept: application/xml" -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -X GET 192.168.1.50/?emailCount=-1\&
# you can do other curl here
elif [[ "$MAILCOUNTER" -eq "0" ]]; then
echo "* There is 0 new email for user $USERID."
# I'm using this curl....
curl -H "Accept: application/xml" -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -X GET 192.168.1.50/?emailCount=0&
# you can do other curl here....
elif [[ "$MAILCOUNTER" -gt "0" ]]; then
echo "* There is $MAILCOUNTER new email for user $USERID."
# I'm using this curl....
curl -H "Accept: application/xml" -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -X GET 192.168.1.50/?emailCount="$MAILCOUNTER"&
# you can do other curl here....
fi
echo "* Waiting $WAIT seconds before checking for emails again."
echo "* (^C to quit the program)"
sleep $WAIT
#set +xv
done