Networking

Kiruna

This section presents the projects on network programming, and mailing that I have compiled during my stay in Kiruna/Sweden from February until July 2007.

Some projects were originally designed as a small exercise. But, then I put more effort into them.

BombMaster SpaceBomber

WebScan Boten-Anna

AuroraAlert using Kiruna All-Sky camera

VectorMail Quokka

No two people are more than six degrees apart.
xing.com

VectorMail Quokka

content of csv-file

one of the mails

To keep my friends informed, on what is going on in the north of Sweden, I made a program that helps me sending personalized newsletters. Marcel Koch reviewed the code and suggested modifications, that are implemented in the latest version VectorMail Quokka, named after the endangered animals that live on Rottnest Island, an islet close to Perth/Australia.

The input to the program are

• a semicolon-seperated-value file vector.csv with email addresses and variables that you wish to use in the email text

  djtony2030@yahoo.de;Hi Tony,;Ciao
  pastacook@gmx.net;Hello Sam!;cu later,
  geek_here@googlemail.com;Hi there;Cheers
  ...
  

• a file auth.properties that specifies the account name of the sender

  user=jan2009@googlemail.com
  

• a file server.properties to configure the smtp communication to the mail server. To use VectorMail with googlemail, specify

  mail.smtp.host=smtp.gmail.com
  mail.smtp.auth=true
  mail.smtp.port=587
  mail.smtp.starttls.enable=true
  

• the file mail.tex, which encodes the collection of emails that you wish to send. The command syntax is similar to LaTeX

  view a sample mail.tex file
  

We summarize the available commands for mail.tex:

\title{ X }                   subject X of email
\\                            enforces line feed
\space                        insert space character
\bigskip                      separator between two paragraphs
\to{ X }{ Y }                 sends content Y to a selection of people X (see example above!)
\appendix{ X }                attaches file X
#1                            is a placeholder for an entry from the csv-table
#2                            the digit defines the column (also use #3,#4,...,#9)
\#                            produces the character #
\emptyset{ X }{ Y }{ Z }      if X produces any output parse Y otherwise parse Z

The file mail.tex is parsed for each recipient address that is listed in the file vector.csv.

To send the first email via the account specified in auth.properties, the program prompts for the password to the account. You do not need to enter the password again, until you restart the program.

Program, source, and example (Java 1.6) *

VectorMail.zip

430 kB

* a helpful reference for sending emails in Java by Sudhir Ancha.

Im Leben lernt der Mensch zuerst gehen und sprechen.
Später lernt er dann, still zu sitzen und den Mund zu halten.
Marcel Pagnol