def connect(self):
self.trace('Connecting...')
self.getPassword() # file, GUI, or console
server = poplib.POP3(self.popServer)
server.user(self.popUser) # connect,login POP server
server.pass_(self.popPassword) # pass is a reserved word
self.trace(server.getwelcome()) # print returned greeting
return server

use setting in client's mailconfig on import search path;

to tailor, this can be changed in class or per instance;

fetchEncoding = mailconfig.fetchEncoding

def decodeFullText(self, messageBytes):
"""
4E, Py3.1: decode full fetched mail text bytes to str Unicode string;
done at fetch, for later display or parsing (full mail text is always
Unicode thereafter); decode with per-class or per-instance setting, or
common types; could also try headers inspection, or intelligent guess
from structure; in Python 3.2/3.3, this step may not be required: if so,
change to return message line list intact; for more details see Chapter 13;

an 8-bit encoding such as latin-1 will likely suffice for most emails, as
ASCII is the original standard; this method applies to entire/full message
text, which is really just one part of the email encoding story: Message
payloads and Message headers may also be encoded per email, MIME, and
Unicode standards; see Chapter 13 and mailParser and mailSender for more;
"""
text = None
kinds = [self.fetchEncoding] # try user setting first
kinds += ['ascii', 'latin1', 'utf8'] # then try common types
kinds += [sys.getdefaultencoding()] # and platform dflt (may differ)
for kind in kinds: # may cause mail saves to fail
try:
text = [line.decode(kind) for line in messageBytes]
break
except (UnicodeError, LookupError): # LookupError: bad name
pass

if text == None:

try returning headers + error msg, else except may kill client;

still try to decode headers per ascii, other, platform default;

blankline = messageBytes.index(b'')
hdrsonly = messageBytes[:blankline]
commons = ['ascii', 'latin1', 'utf8']
for common in commons:
try:
text = [line.decode(common) for line in hdrsonly]
break
except UnicodeError:
pass
else: # none worked
try:
text = [line.decode() for line in hdrsonly] # platform dflt?

970 | Chapter 13: Client-Side Scripting