Universal AttachmentScannerPlugin for Mail.app
I’ve finally put together a Universal version of my AttachmentScannerPlugin for Mail.app. You can download it from the linked page.
Unfortunately, the Universal version weighs in at a whopping 7.3 MB (zipped to just under 3MB), because it has to include its own Universal version of Python. The version that ships with Mac OS X doesn’t have proper Universal support (even though it appears to). Thus, the hefty footprint on disk. If you don’t need Universal support, you can still download the PowerPC-only version and save yourself about 7 MB.
Oscar Said,
July 22, 2006 @ 4:19 pm
Hi!
Thanks a lot for a great plugin. I can’t get the swedish translation to work. Are there any special tricks? I have a Swedish OS and Swedish as the spell checking language.
James Eagan Said,
July 24, 2006 @ 11:55 am
Oscar: That’s strange. How is the plugin not working? When you start Mail, do you see a message on the console indicating that the plugin has been loaded?
Oscar Said,
July 25, 2006 @ 3:06 pm
Hmmm, I’m not sure which console I should be looking in. If I try the program with enlish words like “attached file” the warning dialog comes up. But when I try swedish words like “bifogar fil” or “bifogad”, the program just sends the e-mail away…
Oscar Said,
August 11, 2006 @ 7:49 am
I’ve been checking console.app. The only message I see is this when I start mail.app.
2006-08-11 14:43:45.475 Mail[430] AttachmentScannerPlugin registered with Mail
Still works for english but not for swedish. Does anybody have an example of words that should trigger the swedish version?
Harald Said,
August 21, 2006 @ 2:11 am
Hi James,
If you ever need help for a dutch translation, i’d be glad to help.
Because i could use this…
James Eagan Said,
August 21, 2006 @ 8:48 am
Hi Harald,
I currently have a Dutch translation, but its in the development version. I’ll try to go ahead and get a new release (with Dutch translation) out over the next week.
Harald Said,
August 22, 2006 @ 4:30 am
Thanks James for the effort!
I’m looking forward to the update.
Oscar Said,
August 31, 2006 @ 11:10 am
I have tried the new beta and the problems I had with the Swedish version is now gone!
Stefan Tilkov Said,
August 31, 2006 @ 1:07 pm
It works great for my English emails, but I often send German ones, too. That’s why I have set my spell checker to “Multilingual”. Is there a way to active two translations at once?
Nigel Said,
September 19, 2006 @ 6:23 pm
I am not a programmer, but I have had an idea for ages of creating something (?) that would read my emails, look for words like attached or enclosed and then whack me about the head when it didn’t find one, and now you’ve gone and created it, which is great because I couldn’t program my way out of a wet paper bag and would never have done it. I think it’s totally brilliant… and so, apparently, does MacWorld today (”Tame e-mail: 15 ways to master your inbox and eliminate spam” with your plug-in as the first listed).
john1 Said,
December 21, 2006 @ 5:15 am
This is a great plugin. I have used the code of Jame’s tutorial but it doesn’t work for my Intel Mac. I want to create a very simple universal plugin but I dont know how to start. James could you please publish the source code (or update your tutorial’s code for a universal version)? Thank you in advance.
Andreas Said,
January 2, 2007 @ 10:20 am
I am deeply in love with this plugin but never saw it alife and kicking: the link to the website of the plugin is broken. http://home.cc.gatech.edu/eaganj/MailApp returns a proxy error 502: The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server. Sad I am.
Adam Said,
March 27, 2007 @ 4:35 am
the download link’s broken
I really want this plugin too! can you fix it somehow please?
thanks
James Eagan Said,
March 27, 2007 @ 7:51 am
Adam, Andreas: The server that’s been hosting the plugin has been bouncing up and down recently. The server administrator assures me that he is working on a fix to the problem. If you try again in a few hours, it should be working again. I’m sorry about any inconvenience this has caused.
David Said,
March 27, 2007 @ 4:44 pm
Hi James
Great Plugin! But it would be even better if the keywords that trigger the plugin like “attachement” would also be translated. Or are they already? I couldn’t find them in the po-files.
And if they are translated, for me it would be great if i could combine for ex. the english and german translations of the triggers, because I send a lot mails in these two languages.
But it still is a great plugin and I really appreciate your effort.
thx
David
James Eagan Said,
March 27, 2007 @ 4:55 pm
David: They sure are! If you set your spellchecker language to Multilingual (compose and email and hit command-: ), then the plugin will look for trigger words in all of its languages. The only catch is that it will only display its alerts in English. Someday, I plan to make the triggers more easily user-customizable, but I don’t know when that will happen.
James
Jerome Sanes Said,
April 6, 2007 @ 9:52 am
Dear James,
Fine plug-in indeed, but I happened to need to re-install the plug-in, and I downloaded the latest version (0.9.4). I have a dim recollection that an earlier version, 0.9.3, ‘found’ the word ‘attach…” in the Subject field in addition to the message body. If that was not a feature, it would seem as very useful addition.
Yours,
Jerome
Adam Nash Said,
September 13, 2007 @ 10:55 pm
This plugin & tutorial are by far the best on the web. Thank you.
I’m just getting started here, and I’m finding the Python -> ObjC issues a little confusing. Do you know of any simple example code for a Mail.app plugin that is ObjC-based? I’d settle for a simple “hello, world” equivalent to help me map your Python source to a valid ObjC-project.
Adam
Manuel Said,
October 10, 2007 @ 8:18 am
The other day I was telling my girlfriend how helpful it would be to create a plug-in with the functionality yours have. I happened to found your in Macosxhints and I was very happy. I’ve even found how to use a multilanguage dictionary, thing I was unware of.
It’s even nicer that you have put it to support different languages. However, I wonder how I can add more keywords for scanning possible reference to attachments. In particular I’m interested in extending the Spanish, which is great, but ommits some modisms for Mexican Spanish.
I tried to modify the file messages.po under /Resources/Translations/es/LC_MESSAGES. But after restarting Mail, it didn’t succeed to apply the new strings. I noticed another file with other extension (.mo), which I am not sure if it’s a compiled version of the .po. Sorry I’m no so familiar with Python and Mail plug-ins conventions.
Any suggestions? I would really appreciate it.
Thanks a lot for it!
James Eagan Said,
October 10, 2007 @ 9:33 am
Hi Manuel,
Thank you! I’m glad that you find the plugin useful.
I do plan to eventually make it easier to customize the trigger words. Unfortunately, in the mean time, you’d have to jump through some ugly hoops to customize it. You’re exactly right about the po files and the mo files. You’ll need to run a program called msgfmt on the .po files to compile them. Once you’ve done that, if everything went well, the new triggers should take effect next time you start Mail.
I hope that helps!
James
Vaclav Gazi Said,
November 8, 2007 @ 4:37 am
Hello James,
I am one of the lucky ones, who upgraded to Leopard. On launch of Mail I got a message telling me that the AttachmentScannerPlugin is not compatible with the new Mail in Leopard.
Are they right or do I need to do something.
Your useful plugin saved me few embarrassment already. Thanks for your good woork.
Vaclav
James Eagan Said,
November 8, 2007 @ 11:28 am
Hi Vaclav,
If you take a look at
Cheers!
James
Eldridge Gory Said,
February 19, 2008 @ 4:17 am
I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do. — Joe Walsh