CronosII A GNOME Email Application | ||
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![]() | This written for the final release of the original Cronos II. i.e. CronosII-0.2.2-mr2. Users ofi386 binary packages (DEB's and RPM's) should not need to manually install any of the plugins. The standard tarball release should also install the plugins for you. |
Included with the MR2 / Eclipse release of CronosII are four Plugins. These are:
![]() | A normal "./configure --prefix=/usr && make && make install" should now install the plugins. The binaries are, perhaps a little unusually, held as copies in the top source directory. This is a work around (that works) however they do need to be in that location to install correctly. Try
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The source code and installation instructions for the Plugins are included in the MR2 tar ball. Code for Fortune and Filters is also kept separately at the Cronos II home site.
The simplest way to install the Plugins is to copy the pre-built binaries to the //install-path/share/cronosII/plugins/directory on your system. Otherwise you will have to obtain the CronosII-0.2.1 version header files and build the binaries your self from source. (See the source code for the latest instructions).
All Plugins are finally loaded and configured from the Preferences dialog.
Settings ==> Preferences ==> Plugins ==> Load. |
If the Plugin binaries (the Plugin-name.so files) are installed to the correct place. CronosII will copy them to your CronosII configuration and mailbox directory. You may then go ahead and configure them by selecting the loaded Plugin and checking configure in the same dialog. Individual instructions are outlined below.
The Sample Plugin is included unpacked in the CronosII source. It provides an example for writers of Plugin and enables an alert when you receive mail from a particular sender.
Open Cronos II.
cronos & |
Open the Preferences Dialog and navigate to plugins
Settings ==> Preferences ==> Plugins ==> Load |
On selecting Load, a file navigation dialog opens to the default directory. Select "sample.so".
Once the selection dialog closes select sample from the configuration dialog.
(select)Sample ==> Configure. |
A dialog opens for you to enter an address into.
(enter) A properly formed email address. click OK ==> (Next on configure dialog:) Apply ==> OK |
That is it. Now you should get an alert when you recieve a mail from the sender you nominated.
The Fortune Plugin enables you to run a command (or two) when you send a mail. By default it is configured to append the results of the Fortune (game ?) to the end of your mail. Other commands or shell scripts may be used as well or instead.
Open the preferences dialog and Navigate to Load:
Settings ==> Preferences ==> Load |
Choose "fortune.so" from the list of installed plugins. Click OK and then Apply on the Configuration Dialog. Next select Fortune from the list, and then Configure:
(select) Fortune ==> Configure |
A smaller dialog opens with a default configuration and instructions. As a simple example,I am currently using this string:
cat $HOME/sigs/MR2-1.sig. |
Select OK to close the dialog, Apply on the configuration dialog and it should work the next time you send mail with CronosII.
This Plug in brings basic mailbox filtering to CronosII. Currently it supports moving and copying mail to different top-level mail boxes. Sorting is achieved through the use of string matching in mail headers and/or body. Support for wild-cards is enabled and this makes configuration reasonably simple. All you need do is find some unique combination of characters for any mail source to have it sorted to your preferred mailbox.
To load the Filters Plugin navigate to "load":
Settings ==> Preferences ==> Plugins ==> Load. |
Next select
"Cronos II Message Filters" and click on "Configure". |
select "New". |
The first page contains entry fields to build a rule. The second page, "Actions" tells Cronos II what to do with the mail once a match has been found.
Example 1. A simple example
By way of explanation, lets set up a simple example filter:
Select the "Match Rules" Tab.
In the top field ("Filter Name") enter a name for the rule. e.g. Test1
In the description field enter a description for this rule. e.g. Just a basic test. This finds my own mail to myself.
Now, enter a string you want to filter with.
e.g. *your-own-email-address*. |
![]() | You are advised to use wild cards (*) to find the string within a mail header or body. The string must match exactly or be allowed to not match some parts of the section being looked through. |
Next select which part of the Email you want to filter with. e.g. From:. Then ADD it to the list. The rule will be written to the display area below.
Now leaving the same string in place choose "TO" and add that to the list as well.
Now just because this is an example select
"Match Any Rules". |
Next select The "Action" tab. Here for example we could select to send the filtered Email to Drafts, Garbage, "My-Mailbox" or any other mailboxes we have configured.
The filter will now find any mail with "your-email-address" in the TO: or FROM: fields of the mail header.
Currently you may only move messages to those present on the pop-out list. Any top level mailboxes you add will appear on this list
OK, so we have made a filtering rule and given the application some action to take when it finds a mail that matches the rule.
Click OK to exit the "New Rule" dialog, then "Exit" "Cronos II Message Filters" |
"Apply" and "OK" |
To test it mail something to yourself and see if it ends up in the correct place. :) With just a little practice and thought you will be able to do all sorts of things with your mail. Don't forget, wild-cards make for a much simpler experience.
To set "NoHtml" up select the plugins configuration dialog:
settings ==> preferences ==> plugins |
The "select a file" dialog should go away leaving nohtml (and any other plugins you have loaded) on the list in the plugins window. Select:
nohtml ==> configure |
You will have 4 Checkbox Options:
Preview Mode: - This means that you want the nohtml plugin to parse messages when you click on a message in a Mailbox.
Viewer Mode: - This will parse messages when you Double click on them to bring up the "Message view" Window. Due to a bug or something, if you have Preview mode parsed, then Viewer Mode will be parsed too. Sorry.
Require <HTML> tag before parsing? - If selected, the nohtml plugin will search for <html> in a message before it parses it. This can be useful if you get email which contain HTML type tags which you want to view.
Replace &sym; type symbols? - If selected, the nohtml plugin will replace some HTML symbols (such as &) within messages. This currently supports a very limited subset of the full HTML symbol list.
Once you have selected your options click OK. (The dialog closes) then Apply on the remaining dialog.
To test it, send yourself an email with <b>Bold Text</b> in it somewhere. On viewing in the specified mode, you should see it without the B tags.
If you would like to get the "Stand Alone" Plugins or find out how to write your own, visit the Cronos Website < http://cronosii.sourceforge.net/ > and follow the links to Manuals and Plugin. A HTML how-to is included in the Source Tarball, look under the Plugin directory.The full source for all the above plugins is included in the tar releases and in the CVS tree.
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