Mail::Summary::Tools - Tools for mailing list summarization.
# 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
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.
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.
edit
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 Out of date threads will be marked as long as you use the --dates option (if a thread is summarized and it's end date is extended by the update then it is marked out of date).
create --update
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.
totext
tohtml
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.
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:
\n---\n
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.
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 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.
<divs>
--h2 p,b --h3 p,i
These are the main components of this distribution:
The model for summary objects
Export and load Mail::Summary::Tools::Summary fields from a convenient flatfile format.
The various output formats, like plain text, HTML.
The App::Cmd based components
Classes for creating links to mailing list archives (google groups, gmane, etc).
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.
Mail::Box, App::Cmd, Template, Proc::InvokeEditor, YAML, YAML::Syck.
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.
Yuval Kogman, <nothingmuch@woobling.org>
Ann Barcomb
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.
To install Mail::Summary::Tools, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Mail::Summary::Tools
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Mail::Summary::Tools
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.