bradmont.net Random stuff that Brad enjoys

Unity indicator applet: maildir check

UPDATE: My code was found by another mutt user and modified, his changes are here, and I've changed it a bit more here. It now integrates with the unity messaging menu and shows notifications like it should!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been transitioning to a local Maildir for my email. One downside to this is that the mail indicator included with Ubuntu's Unity desktop requires you to run Evolution to get mail updates. Now I know it also works with certain other MUAs (ie, Firebird), but I like Mutt, so I just wanted a simple indicator in Python to check my Maildir. So I did some googling and found some examples of indicator applets in Python, and coded up as simple applet. Voilà:

So all it does is poll my Maildir, and turn the icon red when I have messages; pretty simple. As you can see I currently have two little mail icons in my indicator; that's because I'm not integrating at all with the Ubuntu messages indicator. If I get a coding itch I'll investigate doing that. Other things I'd like to add are configurability for mailboxes as well as MUA of choice (the Config menu item is just a stub right now) and popup notifications for new messages. If I get those things done I might actually feel inclined to submit the code to someone, somewhere. For the moment, I'll leave the code here in case anyone wants example code of a really simple indicator applet. Feel free to do whatever you want with this code.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys, os, gtk, appindicator

CHECK_FREQUENCY = 60 # seconds
MAILDIRS = [ "/home/brad/Maildir/" ]
DEBUG_LEVEL = 0

class mailIndicator:
   def __init__(self):
      self.ind = appindicator.Indicator ("debian-doc-menu",
              "indicator-messages",
              appindicator.CATEGORY_APPLICATION_STATUS)
      self.ind.set_status (appindicator.STATUS_ACTIVE)
      self.ind.set_attention_icon ("new-messages-red")

      self.buildMenus()

      self.ind.set_menu(self.menu)

   def buildMenus(self):
      self.menu = gtk.Menu()

      self.mutt_item = gtk.MenuItem("Launch Mutt")
      self.mutt_item.connect("activate", self.launch_mutt)
      self.mutt_item.show()
      self.menu.append(self.mutt_item)

      self.maildir_item = gtk.MenuItem("Configure Maildir(s)")
      self.maildir_item.connect("activate", self.maildir_clicked)
      self.maildir_item.show()
      self.menu.append(self.maildir_item)

      self.quit_item = gtk.MenuItem("Quit")
      self.quit_item.connect("activate", self.quit_clicked)
      self.quit_item.show()
      self.menu.append(self.quit_item)

   def run(self):
      self.check_mailbox()
      gtk.timeout_add(CHECK_FREQUENCY * 1000, self.check_mailbox)
      gtk.main()

   def maildir_clicked(self, widget,data=None):
      # stub
      m = gtk.MessageDialog(None, gtk.DIALOG_DESTROY_WITH_PARENT, gtk.MESSAGE_INFO, gtk.BUTTONS_CLOSE, "STUB")
      m.run()
      m.destroy()

   def quit_clicked(self, widget,data=None):
      sys.exit(0)

   def launch_mutt(self, widget,data=None):
      os.system("gnome-terminal -e mutt &")

   def check_mailbox(self):
      DEBUG("Checking Maildirs")
      newmail = False
      for maildir in MAILDIRS:
         newmail = (newmail or (len( os.listdir(maildir + "new") ) > 0))

      if newmail == True:
         self.ind.set_status (appindicator.STATUS_ATTENTION)
         DEBUG("new mail detected.", 2)
      else:
         self.ind.set_status (appindicator.STATUS_ACTIVE)
         DEBUG( "no new mail detected.", 2)
      return True

def DEBUG(message, level = 1):
   if DEBUG_LEVEL >= level:
      print message

if __name__ == "__main__":
   indicator = mailIndicator()
   indicator.run()