Re: [Evolution-hackers] Patching Evolution to retrieve alist ofemails and calendar events through DBUS

[Jo Vermeulen <jo vermeulen uhasselt be>]

Op 23-feb-07, om 19:18 heeft Srinivasa Ragavan het volgende geschreven:

> On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 11:08 -0700, Veerapuram Varadhan wrote:
> > On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 17:15 +0100, Jo Vermeulen wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 08:58 -0700, Veerapuram Varadhan wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 21:06 +0530, Srinivasa Ragavan wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 16:12 +0100, Jo Vermeulen wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 18:28 +0530, Srinivasa Ragavan wrote:
> > > > > > > Hey Jo,
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 13:41 +0100, Jo Vermeulen wrote:
> > > > > > > > Hello,
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I was wondering how hard it would be to patch Evolution (or  
> > > > > > > > write a
> > > > > > > > plugin) to be able to retrieve a list of emails and calendar  
> > > > > > > > events
> > > > > > > > through DBUS?
> > > > > > > Shouldn't be that hard :). I think calendar has to be  
> > > > > > > interfaced via EDS
> > > > > > > than Evolution. This way even contacts can also take the  
> > > > > > > advantage.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I am looking into something that won't take me a week or so to
> > > > > > implement :-)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Is is possible to give me a few pointers on how I could do  
> > > > > > > > this? I have
> > > > > > > > no experience with Evolution whatsoever.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > What sort of pointers you need. Evolution has quite a few  
> > > > > > > hooks where
> > > > > > > you can plug code. We can add more hooks if required. But do  
> > > > > > > you have a
> > > > > > > plan of what you are trying to achieve through DBUS interface.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > What we want to do is create an application that enables you  
> > > > > > to link
> > > > > > your emails, contacts, calendar items and the like. For now,  
> > > > > > we could
> > > > > > use DBUS to interface with Gaim and Tomboy, but Evolution is a  
> > > > > > bit more
> > > > > > troublesome.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > In fact we would like to get a list of emails that have the label
> > > > > > "Todo", and a set of calendar events for a certain date.
> > > > > Wow. Sounds interesting :)
> > > > Calendar/Contacts can still be queried using Evolution#, which is
> > > > currently used by Beagle.  However, querying mails is not yet  
> > > > supported
> > > > in Evolution#.
> > >
> > > Indeed, that would be another possibility. However, Evolution#  
> > > has no
> > > documentation. If anyone could help me get started with  
> > > Evolution# that
> > > would be great!
> > If you check-out evolution-sharp, you would see evolution/ 
> > TestCal.cs and
> > evolution/TestBook.cs - these files help you to understand how to use
> > the basic APIs.
> >
> > Alternatively, you can checkout:
> > http://svn.gnome.org/viewcvs/beagle/trunk/beagle/beagled/ 
> > EvolutionDataServerQueryable/CalContainer.cs? 
> > revision=3170&view=markup - for Calendar APIs
> > and
> > http://svn.gnome.org/viewcvs/beagle/trunk/beagle/beagled/ 
> > EvolutionDataServerQueryable/BookContainer.cs? 
> > revision=3223&view=markup - for Contacts APIs
> >
> > > > > > > I think
> > > > > > > once you can close on that, we can easily expose hooks for the
> > > > > > > evolution-dbus-plugin. For some hints to start with, you can  
> > > > > > > looks at
> > > > > > > the new-mail-notification plugin in Evolution which uses DBUS.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I had a look at that indeed, but I'm not sure how these  
> > > > > > plugins can be
> > > > > > loaded dynamically. Is it possible for me to develop a plugin,  
> > > > > > load it
> > > > > > into Evolution and try it out? This would enable rapid  
> > > > > > prototyping which
> > > > > > would speed up development ;-)
> > > > > You can google at tnef plugin which Notzed wrote long back. It was
> > > > > written/compiled separately and loaded dynamically into  
> > > > > Evolution. So it
> > > > > is possible to load dynamically.
> > > > Even if a plugin is written, you cannot get the notification  
> > > > unless you
> > > > run Evolution - so, whatever your application is will have a
> > > > hard-dependency on a running version of evolution.  Just a thought.
> > >
> > > Yes indeed, but isn't this a problem for Evolution# as well?  
> > > Doesn't it
> > > also need a running instance of Evolution?
> > Evolution# doesn't need a running instance of Evolution - since,  
> > it is
> > confined to only Calendar and Contacts.  We had a mail-remote-glue
> > written in Evolution# that would talk to evolution using
> > bonobo-interface, but, we pulled it back.
>
> Alternatively, you can have a look at the mail-remote plugin under
> Evolution, which reads
>
>     <_description>A plugin which implements a CORBA
>       interface for accessing mail data remotely.</_description>

OK thanks! It might be useful as a base for a possible DBUS interface.

Cheers,

--
Jo Vermeulen
Expertise Centre for Digital Media - Hasselt University
Wetenschapspark 2
3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
tel: +32-11-268411
email: jo vermeulen uhasselt be
http://jozilla.be/