Setting up the e-mail feed parser

In this task, we will learn to set up an e-mail feed parser and blink an LED. As an example, we will check new e-mails in a Gmail account.

Prepare for lift off

Since we already installed the python-feedparser module, we will get started with setting up the mail parser. We will build each module of our project as a separate example.

Engage thrusters

1. Using Python IDLE, let's get started with writing a python script to achieve this task. We will get started by importing the feedparser module:

   import sys
   import feedparser
   

2. We will define the function required to check e-mails:

   newEmail=""
   username="[e-mail]"
   password="password"
   proto="https://"
   server="mail.google.com"
   path="/gmail/feed/atom"
   def mail():
     email = int(feedparser.parse(proto+username+":"+password+"@"+server+path)["feed"]["fullcount"])
     return email

   Note

   The preceding function has been borrowed from the WonderHowTo website (http://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-gmail-notifier-python...