Simple Email Check

Kiko has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi All, I wrote this very simple script to check your email over the web. Unfortunately, it is not working and i don't know if it's because i'm sitting behing a firewall at work. Please play with it and let me know what you guys think. Thanks, Kiko

#!/perl/bin/perl
use CGI qw(:standard);
use Net::POP3;
use strict;

print header();

#Get CGI parameters
my $hostname=    param("hostname");
my $account=    param("account");
my $password=    param("password");

#Connect to Host
my $connect = Net::POP3->new($hostname) or die "Unable to establish a 
+POP3 connection to $hostname.\n";

#Authenticate User
defined($connect->login($account, $password)) or die "Unable to authen
+ticate ($account, $password) at $hostname.\n";

#Retrieve Messages
my $messages = $connect->list or die "Unable to retreive list of avaib
+le mesages.\n";

#Display Messages
my $msg;
my $grab;
foreach $msg (keys %$messages) {
    $grab .="<tr><td>$connect->top($msg)</td></tr>";
}

print<<HTML;

<html>
<head><title>Web Mail</title>
</head>
<body>

<table width=700>
$grab
</table>

</body>
</html>

HTML
[download]

Comment on Simple Email Check Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Simple Email Check by Henri Icarus (Beadle) on Jun 07, 2001 at 05:49 UTC
Three things: 1) For testing purposes use `use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);` This will show you your errors in the browser instead of making you have to look in the error logs 2) Add in lots more print statements as you go along. For example you'll want to print out: `$message_count = scalar keys (%$messages);` to see if you actually have any messages! 3) And finally `$connect->top($msg)` doesn't return a string, it returns an array ref, so your loop should look like this instead: `foreach $msg (keys %$messages) { my $r = $connect->top($msg); my $m = join ("<BR>",@$r); $grab .="<tr><td> $m </td></tr>"; }` [download] I ran your script with those changes and it worked just fine. Good luck!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: Simple Email Check by Kiko (Scribe) on Jun 07, 2001 at 17:10 UTC
Hi, I've made the changes you told me and it works fine from home, thanks. Now the reason i wrote this script was so that i can check my pop3 emails from work since they block access to yahoo, hotmail, and any other pop3 emails out there. I'm sitting behind a firewall and i think that's what's preventing me from connecting from work. It say's "Unable to establish a POP3 connection to pop.mail.yahoo.com." If you guys know a way around this maybe by connecting through a proxy or something let me know. That will be very helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks, Kiko	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Simple Email Check by Anonymous Monk on Jun 07, 2001 at 19:54 UTC
What you wrote is a proxy. If you install it on a server not behind a firewall you should be able to use it from work.	[reply]
Re: Simple Email Check by petdance (Parson) on Jun 07, 2001 at 01:45 UTC
Define "not working". Do you get an error? Does your server catch fire? Do you get the wrong person's email? Does the password fail? Without knowing what "not working" means, we can't help. Also, remember Question #1 of non-working CGI scripts: Does it work when you run it from the command line? xoxo, Andy %_=split/;/,".;;n;u;e;ot;t;her;c; ". # Andy Lester 'Perl ;@; a;a;j;m;er;y;t;p;n;d;s;o;'. # http://petdance.com "hack";print map delete$_{$_},split//,q< andy@petdance.com >	[reply]
Re: Re: Simple Email Check by Kiko (Scribe) on Jun 07, 2001 at 01:51 UTC
Hi, I guess i was a little vague. When i run the script i get a blank page. And it does work when i run it from the command line. Here is the login script: #!/perl/bin/perl use CGI qw(:standard); print header(); print <<HTML; <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> Check email </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <form name"email" method="post" action="check_email.pl"> <table align="center" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="1" width +="275" height="150"> <tr><td bgcolor="#999999"> <table width="265" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" height +="145"> <tr> <td bgcolor="#ccff99"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size +="2">Hostname:</font></td> <td><input type="text" name="hostname" width="20"></td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#ccff99"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size +="2">Account:</font></td> <td><input type="text" name="account" width="20"></td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#ccff99"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size +="2">Password:</font></td> <td><input type="password" name="password" width="20"></td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td><input type="submit" value="Check">  <input type="re +set" value="Reset"></td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> </table> </form> </BODY> </HTML> HTML [download] Thanks for your help, Kiko	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Simple Email Check by xphase_work (Pilgrim) on Jun 07, 2001 at 01:29 UTC
What is the error that you are getting? If it is due to a firewall, you should get the "Unable to Establish a POP3 connection" error, but this error could also be because your POP3 server is down. --xPhase	[reply]