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Automation interface for external applications.
better, if I can define for '''some''' of the filters that it shall be executed
in inbox '''after''' reading the message. --[[User:Celald|Celald]] 02:54, 26 October 2006 (PDT)
==Establish a standard COM/OLE interface for automation from external programs.==
An automation model loadable thru the standard component methods from Borland Delphi and C++, VBscript, VBA, etc would allow Thunderbird (and Firefox if you must) to act as a component of a larger system. Current methodology seems to be to try and focus all development within Thunderbird, almost like an O/S within and O/S. Outlook offered plugins, but also offered the Outlook Object Model and MailItem/Folder interfaces and Imessage interface. I personally prefer to just have an external app launched or messaged by the mail client and to then automate the mail client, keeping all of the automation logic in the backend processor instead of in the mail client or its add-ins. This allows programmers to perform tasks within the application from languages and environments with which they are already familiar and to easily integrate application functionality into existing system. For example, message sorting into folders based on business rules, and triggered by external events, like shipping system updates. This external approach also seems to limit the impact that individual application changes have to system operation.
Example of what I do now: Outlook launches an external Windows app (order manager) with every new message (via Rules Wizard). The external order manager app uses msoutl9.olb type library imported as components into Borland C++. This app opens the inbox and reads the new messages, looking for order confirmations sent from a website. The order confirmations are XML attachments and are processed into a MySQL database. The emails are sorted into folders based on order number, for easy retrieval later if needed. The UPS shipper program exports data into the same MySQL database. The order manager program scans the shipping tables for tracking numbers as orders come in, or when an operator tells it to update. Once the orders are in shipment status the order manager generates email messages in the outlook drafts folder and then sends them. This has the added benefit of archiving both inbound and outbound emails for each order within the outlook folders.
What I'd like to do:
Use Thunderbird instead of Outlook.
Additional automation such as calendaring, memos, and to do lists are also possible with the OOM.
