tivo_mail

tivo_mail is a TiVO mail fetcher plugin. tivo_mail is a hack I threw together after reading about a stock quote hack written by G.R. Souther (Zirak).

It requires the new osd writer by cwingert ( http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=550677 ) renamed as color_text (I have included this file in case it is no longer available in the future).

It requires that you have access to a web site that can run CGI and a hacked TiVo. I wont get into the details on how to get these working, since there are many HOWTOs out there for them both. The web server will need a copy of Perl installed, which 99% of Unix servers have.

There are two files you need, both named tivo_mail. Lets start with the CGI.

You need to use your favorite text editor to configure the CGI file. The first four are the lines that start with "use constant". The first three are your ISPs mail server IP
address, your user name, and your password. The last of the four is the sorting value that all e-mail gets if the source address isnt in your "address book." The lowest
numbers are the most important, and the highest the least important. This becomes important because only 16 lines can be shown on the screen, so you want unimportant e-mail to drop off the bottom of the screen.

Last in the CGI file is the address book. The formatting is kinda weird, but you should be able to see from the examples included the format. Please take note that the e-mail address must be lower case! The brackets are required, and the last entry does NOT have the trailing comma. The numbers can be in any order, as shown. Copy this file somewhere that the web server can execute it (usually "cgi-bin").

The other file needed to modify is tivo_mail.tcl, which is installed on the TiVo when done. Nearly at the top is an IP address that need to be the IP of the web server - names
are NOT allowed, so it must be numerical. Just under that update the path to the CGI file, you can test the address first in your regular web browser.

I know my original colors are pretty bad, but they work for me. You can modify the line that called color_text to change the foreground and background colors. Also not too hard to change the keystrokes on the remote used to display the mail list, and all the way at the bottom you can change how often the update occurs (defaults to one minute).

Log into the TiVo and copy the file in whatever way you usually do (HTTP, FTP, whatever) and make sure it is executable. Then run it into the background. Give it a few seconds to get the mail and you should be able to cat /tmp/tmpmail and see what would go to the
screen. Then on the TiVo remote, hit Clear-Zero-Clear to check your e-mail!

If you have any problems, I am very weak when it comes to TCL (read: I faked my way thru it) so I probably wouldnt be able to help you out much, but I can try.