Trigger event from gmail new mail

Question

Is there an API or events that can be trapped within gmail so that I can initiate a workflow or even fire a python script.

I am trying to automate a job which will extract a csv attachment from an email that has arrived in gmail. It will then ETL the csv into BigQuery.

Any thoughts ?

Answer 1

Recently did this integration:

1. Turn on watching for message events: https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/v1/reference/users/watch

2. When you get a new incoming messageId (messagesAdded history type) you ask for its information (in full format): https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/v1/reference/users/messages/get

3. In metadata you look for a payload.parts[i] where it has body.attachmentId and get an attachment using its id: https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/v1/reference/users/messages/attachments/get

Answer 2

Im not sure within gmail itself,

but one thing you try is to write a python script utilising IMAP lib to read gmail messages and load it to bigquery using googleclient python. Set it using cron to run every x minutes to check the gmail account.

This should give you a starter code to read gmail messages:

https://gist.github.com/baali/2633554

If you want just new messages, just replace the search param 'ALL' with 'UNSEEN'.

More info: https://docs.python.org/2/library/imaplib.html

Example python to load it to BigQuery: https://developers.google.com/bigquery/loading-data-into-bigquery

I am still waiting for IFTTT https://ifttt.com/wtf to provide the API for users to create their own channel or custom action. i.e. Google BigQuery channel.

Hope that helps.