PolyPoll

Introduction

PolyPoll is a quick hack to automate getting mail from multiple POP3-accounts under BeOS R3 and R4. It should be seen as a preliminary solution until Be comes up with multiple account management built into the MailKit.

Configuration

Configuring PolyPoll works via Tracker attributes. When started, PolyPoll looks for a folder named "Accounts" that resides in the same folder as the PolyPoll executable. This folder should contain files of the mime-type "application/x-vnd.f3c.polypoll.account". For each of these files you can specify a username, a pop host and a password, which will be used to poll mail from this account. The file name itself is ignored, files of other types or subdirectories in the Accounts folder are equally ignored.
If you want to add an account, just duplicate an existing account file and adjust the attributes; if you want to disable an account, just move the file into a different directory.

The Default Account

The account file called "Default" (not the capital D) receives special attention: it will be set at the end of the polling process and in addition to be polled the way all other accounts are, it will be used to send pending mail. It also will remain set in the E-Mail-Preferences panel, so the sender data configured here will be used when you create new mail. You must have an account file called Default, i`m not even sure what will happen if you don`t (PolyPoll might crash).

Relation to E-Mail preferences

The new version of PolyPoll totally ignores your E-Mail-Preferences settings. After going through all normal accounts, it will set the BeOS Mail System to the data configured in the Default account.

Caveats

PolyPoll uses the BeOS mail deamon. That means, it will configure your E-Mail settings and initiate a "get mail" for each configured account. When all accounts are polled, the Default will be set and a "send queued mail" will be initiated. Your old E-Mail settings are not restored as in earlier versions of PolyPoll (they got lost too often). If you kill PolyPoll while it is running, your E-Mail settings get stuck with the last account PolyPoll configured.

Updates:
http://f3c.com/software/polypoll/
Author:
Daniel Fischer

PolyPoll is copyright © 1999, f3c - Nicolas and Daniel Fischer. All rights reserved.
PolyPoll is Freeware. You might copy and distribute it as you want, as long as the original archive remains unchanged. Neither the actual author nor f3c will give any warranty whatsoever. It is okay to include PolyPoll in a bundled distribution, as long as we receive a copy of this distribution.


f3c development
October 27, 1999