http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=334474

murugu has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

Im using outlook express for my mails in windows operating system. I want to know is there any module available, in such a way that whenever a new mail comes an message box should interrupt my other process and it has to alert me about new message received.

If not in perl, then suggest any other way to do it

Thanks in advance

-Murugesan

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: outlook express mail alert.
by arden (Curate) on Mar 06, 2004 at 09:12 UTC
    Take a look at Mail::Box::Dbx and Mail::Transport::Dbx to access your email, from there it's up to you on how you want to alert yourself and the frequency to check etcetera. . .

    - - arden.

      using the above modules in a perlTk daemon would allow you to send a popup window to the user.
      I have tried to CPAN> install Mail::Transport::Dbx but just get error messages about nmake FATAL error G not valid??? So you may also have problems. I am sure it is because of the C library. The rest seems ok. If I could figure out what library and where to put it this might solve the problem.. Any Perl modules that can read Outlook Express without a C library?? Astro
Re: outlook express mail alert.
by Popcorn Dave (Abbot) on Mar 06, 2004 at 20:33 UTC
    Something else you might want to take a look at is Pop Tray. I use this at work to notify me when I have e-mail and I can just delete the spam from there rather than download it all.

    The bonus is that, besides being free, the source code is available for download so you can see what the author did. Granted it is in Delphi, but you have a leg up to study if you do decide to write your own in Perl.

    Hope that helps!

    There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling now.

Re: outlook express mail alert.
by RolandGunslinger (Curate) on Mar 06, 2004 at 21:26 UTC
    I'm sorry but doesn't outlook already do this? If you're just wanting to alert yourself from the desktop, then use the function in outlook. If you have a script that needs to know if email is coming in then I'm not the one to ask...I'm still learning perl myself
Re: outlook express mail alert.
by ghettofinger (Monk) on Mar 07, 2004 at 05:47 UTC
    Personally, I like to go out to the AT&T Text to Speech site and create .wav files to describe mail that has just arrived. For example:

    I create and download a .wav file that says "You have a new e-mail from your wife". I then create a rule within outlook to play said .wav file whenever my wife sends me something.

    If you use your imagination, you can start to get a little more complex with this and not interrupt your work every time the default e-mail notification goes off. This is also really cool to use for other uses beside e-mail notification, such as firing off a .wav file whenever there is a certain syslog event, snort event, etc. Nothing to do with perl, but I hope you find it helpful.

    I hope this helps,
    ghettofinger

Re: outlook express mail alert.
by astro (Initiate) on Mar 22, 2007 at 17:04 UTC
    Outlook Express is also not OLE. So I dont know how to get at the Dbx files if the Mail::Transport::Dbx c library will not make! Has anyone got a solution? Astro
      Outlook Express notifies when you get email if you select the proper option. Do this; To receive audio notification of new messages Go to the Outlook Express screen. On the Tools menu, click Options. On the General tab, select the Play sound when new messages arrive check box.
        Hi.

        ghettofinger++

        That was a very clever idea. Unfortunately, the Windows machine I'm currently using only has Outlook Express 6.0 installed and will not allow one to play custom sound files. It also doesn't permit programmers to use the benefits of OLE for such things as automation, etc.

        Thanks again for the clever idea / source of .wav file creation.

        ~Katie
Re: outlook express mail alert.
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 14, 2007 at 04:18 UTC
    outlook express mail alert sound & display