Description: qCheckGMail is a yet another KDE application that uses gmail atom feed to report if a user has new email in their gmail accounts
More screenshots are on the project's page.
Supported features:
-The application can be build as a pure Qt tray application or a KDE status item notifier tray application.
-Multiple accounts.
-GMail hosted domains.Normal gmail accounts can be added without the "@gmail.com" part(recommended).Hosted domain addresses must be added with the "@ABC.XYZ" part.
-Multiple labels.
- Multiple profiles(see USE_INSTRUCTIONS) for information on how to set this up.
-tray pop up bubble can show accounts by their account names or by an alternative display name.
-Operations not blocking the UI and plasma-desktop.
-Accounts information are securely stored in kwallet,libsecret or in an internal storage system powered by libgcrypt.
-Automatic new email checking with configurable time interval.
-Manual email checking.
-Ability to pause and unpause automatic email checking.
-An audio notification using KDE notification system when a new email is found.
-The tray icon is the primary way the application informs the user of the state of the application and of the email accounts.
On any error encountered,the tray icon will turn red and the tray pop up bubble with have an explanation of the error.
After an update check,if new emails are found,the tray icon will turn bluish and the tray pop up bubble will have an explanation of what accounts have new email.The icon will change its state to need attention and plasma desktop will unhide it by default.
After an update check,if all accounts have no new email,the icon will turn greyish and will change its state to normal and plasma desktop will hide it by default.
Links to external packages ---------------------- archlinux package can be obtained from: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/qcheckgmail/Last changelog:
Hi, please change link for System Gentoo linux
https://github.com/mrbitt/mrbit-overlay/blob/master/kde-misc/qCheckGmail/qCheckGmail-1.2.9.ebuild
for new version of qCheckGMail
Thx
I intentionally did not include the ebuild because it seems to create a dependency on Qt4/KDE4 while version 1.2.9 requires Qt5/KF5. The ebuild will have to first be updated before i can officially support it.
That ebuild looks like its not correct,cmake has to be called with "-DKF5=true" option to build a plasma5 tray application.Absence of this option will cause a pure Qt5 application to be build which seems incorrect in your case since the application seems to exist in a kde section in your grouping of applications.
Today I installed qCheckGMail and liked it. It works very well. Two suggestions:
(1) share/icons isn't a good place for putting the icons unless they're included in share/icons/hicolor. You could put them in share/pixmaps instead. (I replaced share/icons with share/pixmaps in CMakeLists.txt for myself.)
(2) Also in the desktop files, please use:
Icon=qCheckGMail
instead of:
Icon=${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/share/pixmaps/qCheckGMail.svg
In this way, the icons will be chosen from the user theme.
Thanks a lot for this nice app. I use it instead of gmail-plasmoid (which causes serious problems sometimes). I think many KDE users haven't discovered it yet, otherwise they'd surely vote it up.
thanks for the suggestions.I just made a commit to reflect them.
gmail-plasmoid was one of my favorite applications but it has a very annoying bug that freezes the desktop everytime my internet connection became shaky.I made a bug report and it went for a very long time without being fixed,it still isnt fixed as of this writing and i then decided to create this application to solve gmail-plasmoid problems i was having and i then decided to share the program with the community at large.
i am glad you have found my effort useful.
For me, gmail-plasmoid caused a segfault in the plasma desktop today. I was lucky that I got suspicious about it because otherwise I might waste a lot of time for finding the cause. It has two problems: it isn't updated for a long time; and it's in python. You made a wise choice to write qCheckGMail in C++.
BTW, qCheckGMail seems to notify the existence of new mails it had recognized in its previous update intervals again and again. I'll check the source as soon as I have more free time but I'm sure you'll fix that sooner ;)
isnt that how its supposed to work?Your description is a bit ambiguous to me as i can read it to mean different things.
The icon and icon bubble reflects the state of the email account the last time the check was done.
If the state of the email account changes(eg new email arrived) and qCheckGMail does not reflect the change then there is a bug in it.What version of qCheckGMail are you using?
Sorry for not being explicit enough. Here is my explanation:
A new mail arrives and qCheckGMail correctly notifies its presence with three methods: (1) its tray icon changes; (2) a sound is played; and (3) a message is popped up. The latter two methods depend on the user settings, of course. The user doesn't read the mail and after the next update interval, qCheckGMail uses all of the three methods above again. In my opinion, it should just keep using the icon qCheckGMail-GotMail (as it correctly does) but not use a popup or sound again UNLESS additional new mails are arrived, i.e. the state of email account has really changed since the last update.
qCheckGMail does not pop up a message when new emails are found,it only changes its icon and plays a sound.A pop up bubble is produced only when a user mouse over the icon.
With my use case,i read email i get as soon as qCheckGMail notifies me of their presence and hence it currently doesnt account for noticing the same new email it noticed on the previous check.
Will add new code shortly to play a sound only when the number of new emails went up since last check.
By popup I just meant what the user can add with System Settings > Application and System Notifications.
I don't think the number of new mails alone is enough because it's possible that the user reads the last mail and immediately after that a new one arrives.
i cant seem to be able to add new comment at the end of this thread since the "reply to this" link is gone so i am adding it here,hope you can follow.
I just made a commit that will audio notify only if the number of new emails from just finished check is greater than the one from previous one.This check is easy to do and should do for now.
To account for a scenario where a user may read one email and get another to give different emails in their inbox but with the same number of email count will take some doing and its for another day.
If you are curious,the problem is two folds.
1. I will have to see a recognizable pattern from output returnd by google,you can see the output by running qCheckGMail from the terminal with "-d" option.
2.qCheckGMail handles arbitrary number of accounts with arbitrary number of labels.Keeping track of individual account state from previous check and compare them from current check may require a bit more effort.
The code from git should be sufficient for your use case for now.
Thanks for your efforts and also for the info.
> If you are curious....
I'm so curious that I want to read the source. Reading the source codes of other programmers is a bit tricky, as you may know. And as you said, that's a job for another day.
The git version now does this.The audio notification will be triggered only when there is a new email in an account.Will appreciate if you could test and comment if it works as you expect it to
It worked as intended. There was no problem as far as I could test with my two gmail accounts.
In future, I'll report probable issues at GitHub directly.
qCheckGMail asks KDE to open a web browser and KDE does so using its default web browser.If you want firefox to be used instead,change KDE default browser to firefox.
you can change the setting at: "system settings->workspace appearance and behavior->default application->web browser"
Ok, I have no web browser, but I find other method.
system settings->workspace appearance and behavior->default application->text>html and put firefox on top of list.
I do not see how it is doing that,the build system is controlled by CMakeLists.txt file in the source folder and it doest not have any of those words and hence can not be responsible for creating them.You can look at the file from this link: https://github.com/mhogomchungu/qCheckGMail/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt
Do you have zuluCrypt installed?old version automatically created those groups,newest version does not.zuluCrypt is hosted at: http://code.google.com/p/zulucrypt/
I have not zuluCrypt installed.
The problem is not in your CMakeLists.txt file, but in the PostInstall.cmake file in your directory. It includes :
#
# at install time create "zulucrypt-write" and "zulucrypt-read" groups
#
EXEC_PROGRAM( /usr/sbin/groupadd ARGS -f zulucrypt OUTPUT_VARIABLE foo RETURN_VALUE bar )
EXEC_PROGRAM( /usr/sbin/groupadd ARGS -f zulumount OUTPUT_VARIABLE foo RETURN_VALUE bar )
EXEC_PROGRAM( /usr/sbin/groupadd ARGS -f zulucrypt-write OUTPUT_VARIABLE foo RETURN_VALUE bar )
If it's not important, please remove this file.
aaah,ok.
Thanks for the report,i based the build process in this project from my other project and those just carried over.They are not even needed there and i just forgot about them.
Will remove them and make a new release shortly
Ratings & Comments
36 Comments
Hi, please change link for System Gentoo linux https://github.com/mrbitt/mrbit-overlay/blob/master/kde-misc/qCheckGmail/qCheckGmail-1.2.9.ebuild for new version of qCheckGMail Thx
I intentionally did not include the ebuild because it seems to create a dependency on Qt4/KDE4 while version 1.2.9 requires Qt5/KF5. The ebuild will have to first be updated before i can officially support it.
Sorry . ok, correct ebuild, now
That ebuild looks like its not correct,cmake has to be called with "-DKF5=true" option to build a plasma5 tray application.Absence of this option will cause a pure Qt5 application to be build which seems incorrect in your case since the application seems to exist in a kde section in your grouping of applications.
Ok, correct ebuild , test now
Today I installed qCheckGMail and liked it. It works very well. Two suggestions: (1) share/icons isn't a good place for putting the icons unless they're included in share/icons/hicolor. You could put them in share/pixmaps instead. (I replaced share/icons with share/pixmaps in CMakeLists.txt for myself.) (2) Also in the desktop files, please use: Icon=qCheckGMail instead of: Icon=${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/share/pixmaps/qCheckGMail.svg In this way, the icons will be chosen from the user theme. Thanks a lot for this nice app. I use it instead of gmail-plasmoid (which causes serious problems sometimes). I think many KDE users haven't discovered it yet, otherwise they'd surely vote it up.
thanks for the suggestions.I just made a commit to reflect them. gmail-plasmoid was one of my favorite applications but it has a very annoying bug that freezes the desktop everytime my internet connection became shaky.I made a bug report and it went for a very long time without being fixed,it still isnt fixed as of this writing and i then decided to create this application to solve gmail-plasmoid problems i was having and i then decided to share the program with the community at large. i am glad you have found my effort useful.
For me, gmail-plasmoid caused a segfault in the plasma desktop today. I was lucky that I got suspicious about it because otherwise I might waste a lot of time for finding the cause. It has two problems: it isn't updated for a long time; and it's in python. You made a wise choice to write qCheckGMail in C++.
BTW, qCheckGMail seems to notify the existence of new mails it had recognized in its previous update intervals again and again. I'll check the source as soon as I have more free time but I'm sure you'll fix that sooner ;)
isnt that how its supposed to work?Your description is a bit ambiguous to me as i can read it to mean different things. The icon and icon bubble reflects the state of the email account the last time the check was done. If the state of the email account changes(eg new email arrived) and qCheckGMail does not reflect the change then there is a bug in it.What version of qCheckGMail are you using?
Sorry for not being explicit enough. Here is my explanation: A new mail arrives and qCheckGMail correctly notifies its presence with three methods: (1) its tray icon changes; (2) a sound is played; and (3) a message is popped up. The latter two methods depend on the user settings, of course. The user doesn't read the mail and after the next update interval, qCheckGMail uses all of the three methods above again. In my opinion, it should just keep using the icon qCheckGMail-GotMail (as it correctly does) but not use a popup or sound again UNLESS additional new mails are arrived, i.e. the state of email account has really changed since the last update.
qCheckGMail does not pop up a message when new emails are found,it only changes its icon and plays a sound.A pop up bubble is produced only when a user mouse over the icon. With my use case,i read email i get as soon as qCheckGMail notifies me of their presence and hence it currently doesnt account for noticing the same new email it noticed on the previous check. Will add new code shortly to play a sound only when the number of new emails went up since last check.
By popup I just meant what the user can add with System Settings > Application and System Notifications. I don't think the number of new mails alone is enough because it's possible that the user reads the last mail and immediately after that a new one arrives.
i cant seem to be able to add new comment at the end of this thread since the "reply to this" link is gone so i am adding it here,hope you can follow. I just made a commit that will audio notify only if the number of new emails from just finished check is greater than the one from previous one.This check is easy to do and should do for now. To account for a scenario where a user may read one email and get another to give different emails in their inbox but with the same number of email count will take some doing and its for another day. If you are curious,the problem is two folds. 1. I will have to see a recognizable pattern from output returnd by google,you can see the output by running qCheckGMail from the terminal with "-d" option. 2.qCheckGMail handles arbitrary number of accounts with arbitrary number of labels.Keeping track of individual account state from previous check and compare them from current check may require a bit more effort. The code from git should be sufficient for your use case for now.
Thanks for your efforts and also for the info. > If you are curious.... I'm so curious that I want to read the source. Reading the source codes of other programmers is a bit tricky, as you may know. And as you said, that's a job for another day.
The git version now does this.The audio notification will be triggered only when there is a new email in an account.Will appreciate if you could test and comment if it works as you expect it to
Thanks! I'll test it and tell you about the result soon.
It worked as intended. There was no problem as far as I could test with my two gmail accounts. In future, I'll report probable issues at GitHub directly.
When I clik on qcheckGmail icon, that open with konqueror. But I want that open with firefox. Is it possible ?
qCheckGMail asks KDE to open a web browser and KDE does so using its default web browser.If you want firefox to be used instead,change KDE default browser to firefox. you can change the setting at: "system settings->workspace appearance and behavior->default application->web browser"
Ok, I have no web browser, but I find other method. system settings->workspace appearance and behavior->default application->text>html and put firefox on top of list.
Just one question. At install time, qCheckGMail create 3 new groups : zulucrypt , zulumount and zulucrypt. Why ?
I do not see how it is doing that,the build system is controlled by CMakeLists.txt file in the source folder and it doest not have any of those words and hence can not be responsible for creating them.You can look at the file from this link: https://github.com/mhogomchungu/qCheckGMail/blob/master/CMakeLists.txt Do you have zuluCrypt installed?old version automatically created those groups,newest version does not.zuluCrypt is hosted at: http://code.google.com/p/zulucrypt/
I have not zuluCrypt installed. The problem is not in your CMakeLists.txt file, but in the PostInstall.cmake file in your directory. It includes : # # at install time create "zulucrypt-write" and "zulucrypt-read" groups # EXEC_PROGRAM( /usr/sbin/groupadd ARGS -f zulucrypt OUTPUT_VARIABLE foo RETURN_VALUE bar ) EXEC_PROGRAM( /usr/sbin/groupadd ARGS -f zulumount OUTPUT_VARIABLE foo RETURN_VALUE bar ) EXEC_PROGRAM( /usr/sbin/groupadd ARGS -f zulucrypt-write OUTPUT_VARIABLE foo RETURN_VALUE bar ) If it's not important, please remove this file.
aaah,ok. Thanks for the report,i based the build process in this project from my other project and those just carried over.They are not even needed there and i just forgot about them. Will remove them and make a new release shortly