Hacking Gmail

Gmail Libraries

I

n the previous chapters, you discovered how Gmail works: how

it loads into your browser, and how it handles your mail

through a series of JavaScript tricks and the passing of data in

the background. You can use this newfound knowledge to take

control of the application from within your own programs.

To do that, you need to use a library— a piece of code that

encapsulates the nitty gritty of the interaction between your pro-

gram and Gmail itself in such a way that it makes writing that

program very easy. Instead of, for example, having to write code

that requests the Inbox’s JavaScript array, parses it, finds the mes-

sage identity, requests the thread, parses that, and finally displays

it on the screen, you can simply run the function to download the

next unread mail.

This approach, of wrapping complex activities up into their own

simpler-to-use functions, is one of the bases of software engineer-

ing, so it’s not surprising that there are already many such mod-

ules for Gmail. This chapter examines examples for PHP, Perl,

And Now

As with all of the code in this book, these libraries are

dependent on Gmail’s code standing still for a while.

Google, on the other hand, likes to keep improving

things. You may find that the APIs don’t quite work

when you try them. Usually this is because Google has

changed the login procedure to Gmail, or something

simple like that. Give it a few days, and you will proba-

bly find that the API’s authors or user community has

hacked up a run-around.

̨What is a library?

̨Accessing Gmail

with PHP

̨Accessing Gmail

Sending Mail with Perl

̨Accessing Gmail

with Python

chapter

in this chapter