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Mail-Summary-Tools-0.06
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/ Mail::Summary::Tools

NAME

Mail::Summary::Tools - Tools for mailing list summarization.

SYNOPSIS

# create a summary from anything Mail::Box can open.
# you may also programatically create summary objects and serialize
# them if you don't have the threads in a standard mail format.

% mailsum create --dates --posters --clean -i foo.mbox -o summary.yaml


# edit the text in your editor, if you don't like YAML files

% mailsum edit --skip --dates --posters --links --archive gmane summary.yaml


# create pretty outputs

% mailsum totext --shorten -a google summary.yaml > summary.txt
% mailsum tohtml --archive google summary.yaml > summary.html

DESCRIPTION

This distribution contains numerous classes useful for creating summaries, and an App::Cmd based frontend to those classes.

The main usage is illustrated in the "SYNOPSIS" section.

WORKFLOW

In the first step Mail::Summary::Tools takes a mail box of any sort as input, and creates a YAML file for the summary. This file contains a hierarchal structure whereby every thread belongs to exactly one list (cross posts should not be summarized twice), and lots of meta data is also maintained.

This file may be hand edited if you're comfortable with YAML, but typically you use the flat file format, exposed using the edit command to alter the summary texts, hide threads, assign threads to a different list, etc. This can be done either interactively (with Proc::InvokeEditor) or using --save and --load.

If any updating of the summary is necessary you should load all the changes you have using the edit command, and run create --update (it needs a better name). Out of date threads will be marked as long as you use the --dates option (if a thread is summarized and it's end date is extended by the update then it is marked out of date).

When you are done you can emit using totext and tohtml. The default outputs assume that the summary text is written in the markdown language. This translates well to HTML, and looks pretty good as-is in plain text.

SAMPLE FILES

YAML Summary

The YAML summary will look something like this:

	---
	title: Mailing list summary
	extra:
	  header:
	    - title: A Header Section
          body: fooo bar gorch
	  see_also:
	    - name: Foo
	      uri:  http://www.example.com/
	    - name: The Perl Foundation
	      uri:  http://www.example.com/
	lists:
	  - name: oink
	    title: The Oink Mailing list
	    threads:
	      - message_id: 69d3ac770606131947r55708fc0g139242e5a989ae4e@mail.gmail.com
	      posters:
	        - email: user@example.com
	          name: User One
	        - email: user2@example.com
	          name: User Two
	        - email: user3@example.com
	          name: User Three
	      subject: 'The Message Subject'
	      summary: >-
	        Somebody asked whether or not monkeys like to eat cheese, at which
	        points the monkey subscribed to the list said that they did not
	        like cheese at all where he lives, but that he eats it anyway.

Most fields are optional. The summary bodies should be written in the Markdown language.

Flat File

The flat file format can be generated using the edit command. It's optimized for ease of editing. The basic structure is a list of threads separated by the string \n---\n. Right after the separator is some YAML for meta data, and then an ignored paragraph, and then the summary data:

The first chunk is ignored, and has instructions

---
message_id: foo@bar.com
subject: Moose
hidden: 0 # can be used to omit a thread from the output
out_of_date: 1 # added by create --update
thread_uri: http://..../ # hard code a link to a different archive than the default

# these lines are ignored, and are provided for the summarizers
# convenience, including random links, posters names, the thread's date
# range, etc
<rt://perl/1234>
Some Guy
Some Other Guy

In the thread Titled Moose, Some Guy conjectured on the nature of Some
Other Guy's mother's profession. Some Other Guy then replied with a witty
retort. A flamewar ensued.

Text Output

The above summary converted to text (using the totext command) should look like this:

Mailing list summary

 A Header Section

    fooo bar gorch

 The Oink Mailing List

  The Message Subject <http://xrl.us/moose>

    Somebody asked whether or not monkeys like to eat cheese, at which
    points the monkey subscribed to the list said that they did not
    like cheese at all where he lives, but that he eats it anyway.

 See Also

     * Foo <http://www.example.com>>
     * The Perl Foundation <http://www.example.com/>

The text is emitted in utf8.

Example output can be seen here: http://groups.google.com/group/perl.perl6.announce/msg/7d65491507dda589 (autolinkified by google)

HTML Output

HTML output is also available using the tohtml command.

A real summary is probably a better example, since HTML source is not easily readable: http://pugs.blogs.com/pugs/2006/08/perl_6_mailing__2.html#more

The HTML is ASCII, with all non ascii characters escaped by HTML::Entities.

<divs> are emitted for easy restructuring of the file, and the heading tags are customizable. For example, for use.perl.org Ann emits with --h2 p,b --h3 p,i since h tags are not allowed, and the <divs> are stripped by HTML::Element to keep the size down.

COMPONENTS

These are the main components of this distribution:

Mail::Summary::Tools::Summary

The model for summary objects

Mail::Summary::Tools::FlatFile

Export and load Mail::Summary::Tools::Summary fields from a convenient flatfile format.

Mail::Summary::Tools::Output

The various output formats, like plain text, HTML.

Mail::Summary::Tools::CLI

The App::Cmd based components

Classes for creating links to mailing list archives (google groups, gmane, etc).

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Here are a few possible extensions to this project which we may or may not get around to:

  • Long term persistence of thread status - what has been summarised, what needs revisiting, etc, based on a config + state file per mailing list.

  • Archive downloading tools, for backlogging, possibly based on Net::NNTP or WWW::Google::Groups.

    This is important for offline viewing.

  • A local running webapp to streamline summarization.

  • Posting interface - Atom (for blogs), use.perl.org, and to various mailing lists.

SEE ALSO

Mail::Box, App::Cmd, Template, Proc::InvokeEditor, YAML, YAML::Syck.

VERSION CONTROL

This module is maintained using Darcs. You can get the latest version from http://nothingmuch.woobling.org/Mail-Summary-Tools/, and use darcs send to commit changes.

AUTHORS

Yuval Kogman, <nothingmuch@woobling.org>

Ann Barcomb

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright 2006 by Yuval Kogman <nothingmuch@woobling.org>, Ann Barcomb

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.