• Requirements
  • Compose
  • View
  • Settings
  • Documentation
  • Outstanding Questions
• Alternative Design
  • Work Summary
  • Overview
    • Interface
    • Mark
    • Poll

Requirements

Compose

• adds form to with followup checkbox and date/time of follow up (defaulting to x weeks out)
• on submit creates a google calendar event at that date time
• stores record of subject line, recipient(s), and calendar event details

View

• checks Subject and sender against stored reminders and on match deletes the associated calendar event

Settings

• default x weeks out reminder
• default to remind or not to remind

Documentation

• http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/
• http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/gs.html
• Directory of gadgets : http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&q=gmail
• Gadgets API Reference : http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/reference/
• Developing Google Gadgets with the Eclipse GWT plugin : http://groups.google.com/group/gwt-google-apis/browse_thread/thread/cbf58897c8549609
• Gadgets fundamentals : http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/fundamentals.html
• gadgets.util : http://wiki.opensocial.org/index.php?title=Gadgets.util_%28v0.9%29

Outstanding Questions

• If a google gadget is in an iframe does it have access to the DOM of the gmail page?

Alternative Design

Work Summary

• Develop greasemonkey script which has a checkbox and text field that when checked fills in the BCC field with a pre formulated string
• Create followup.jdoe.example.com domain
• Enable forwarding by MTA of all email destined for followup.jdoe.example.com to sender email address
• Develop polling script which
  • queries via API and deletes followup emails if a reply exists
  • labels emails that have exceeded the “follow up time window”
• Establish cronjob to call polling script daily

Overview

Interface

• Create and enable a greasemonkey script which adds a button of form to flag for followup and optionally designate a “follow up time window”
  • http://code.google.com/p/gmail-greasemonkey/wiki/GmailGreasemonkey10API
• Have this button and or form fill in the BCC field as described below

Mark

• BCC a special email address for emails that require followup (e.g. john.doe+r@example.com)
  • ALTERNATIVE : BCC an email address at a domain which forwards everything to a single address (e.g. anything@followup.jdoe.example.com)
    • Perhaps embed the follow up time window if it’s not default in the email address name (e.g. 5+days@followup.jdoe.example.com)
• Have this email address be delivered to the same mail account as the sender
• Have the sender’s email system filter and store emails containing the “+r” designator in a special “Follow Up” email folder
  • ALTERNATIVE : Have the sender’s email system filter and store emails destined for the special domain (e.g. *@followup.jdoe.example.com) in a special “Follow Up” email folder

Poll

• Create a script which runs via cron and :
  • Connects via IMAP to the sender’s email system
    • ALTERNATIVE : Queries gmail via something other than IMAP for example http://libgmail.sourceforge.net/
  • Reads in all emails in the “Follow Up” folder
    • grabs the following fields :
      • “Subject”
      • “To”
      • “Date”
  • For each “Follow up” mail do a substring search for other mail in the whole IMAP account
    • Which was not sent by the sender
    • For each match, delete the corresponding “Follow Up” email in the “Follow Up” folder
  • For each “Follow up” mail remaining parse the “To” field and look for a non-default “follow up time window” encoded in the address
    • else use a default
  • For each mail if (now() - the “Date” field) > “follow up time window”
    • Take some action like :
      • Email the sender an example reminder email that they can then tweak and forward to the non-responsive recipient
      • Insert a calendar event to follow up on the sent email
      • Update a webpage of outstanding unresponded to emails
      • Flag the followup email with a star or label