Call an external mail program like Evolution from Pan
I'm using the newsreader Pan. Unfortunately, this
newsreader doesn't have an option yet to use external mail programs
(like, in my case, Evolution) to forward a
message or to reply by e-mail. It just has an option to define a smtp
server and sends the mail itself. For me, that was quite
unsatisfactory: e.g., there's no security like ssl, and I like to have
the convenience of Evolution, such as the address book or the possibility
to archive the sent messages.
Now I didn't want to immerse myself in the code of Pan itself and add
the option there. I found a much simpler solution, with the only
drawback of having to make one click or press two keys more when
sending a mail: I implemented a pseudo-SMTP server that takes the data
from Pan when you hit 'send' there and calls Evolution to open a new
message window with the data. This solution has the additional
advantage that it also works perfectly with the option to send a mail
and post to a newsgroup at the same time; just one step more to
confirm the mail in Evolution.
The program is written in and can be run by Java 1.4. Command line parameters are
the port where it shall listen (default 25) and the command to start
the mail program (default: evolution
mailto:%r?subject=%s&cc=%c&bcc=%b&body=%t). You can add CC
and BCC lines in Pan on the 'custom headers' page, if you like, but I
find it easier to add them later in Evolution ;-). Unfortunately, I
couldn't find out whether Evolution somehow supports the reply-to
field in its command line. If you happen to know, please drop me a line. The only
configuration change necessary in Pan is to name localhost (or the
computer running Evolution and the Adapter, of course) as the SMTP
Server in the 'Mail' preferences.
The files: SMTPEvolutionAdapter.class
(compiled) and SMTPEvolutionAdapter.java
(Source).
