[Evolution-hackers] Controlling Evo from an external program

[Tessa Lau <tlau-evolution tlau org>]

Hi,

I'm trying to integrate mairix (the search tool) into Evolution.  I have
mairix set up to create a virtual Maildir folder containing the results
of a search.  After doing a search, I want to programmatically tell
Evolution to do a Send/Receive, and then display the contents of the
"mairix" folder in my Maildir store.

This old thread on the evo-hackers mailing list indicates that the way
to script Evolution is via the CORBA interfaces:
http://www.mail-archive.com/evolution-hackers ximian com/msg01342.html

So, I'm trying do this from Python+ORBit, but I'm running into a few
problems.  First, trying to invoke sendReceive() causes a segfault with
Evo 1.4.6, GNOME 2.6, and Python 2.3.4 (on Debian unstable):

 import bonobo, ORBit
 evo = bonobo.activation.activate(
 	"repo_ids.has('IDL:GNOME/Evolution/ShellComponent:1.0')")
 evo.sendReceive(0)

(calling other methods, such as selectUserFolder and handleURI, does
cause Evo to do the right thing in response, so other things are working
correctly)

I also can't figure out (from reading the .idl files) how to make Evo
display a different folder in the main window.  I think I have to
construct a URI for the folder, but I haven't found that syntax
documented anywhere.  Am I on the right path?

Thanks,
--Tessa