py-email-reminder

Set up a very simple python function call to send yourself an email reminder at some future time from a remote server

Introduction

This set of scripts has a very simple purpose: Provide an optimally simple Python command to set up an email reminder to be sent at a future time from a remote server. The python command provided has interface:

reminder("Message of email body text", "Natural language date string")

Easy peasy! The command then will print a descriptive message indicating the outcome of the call.

Installation Instructions

1. Local dependencies: Python with the parsedatetime package (see https://pypi.python.org/pypi/parsedatetime/), ssh

2. Server dependencies: Python, the at Unix scheduler utility, ssh access

3. Place schedule_reminder.py and send_mail.py on a server with the at command and ssh access

4. Set up public key encryption for password-free ssh access to the server from your local machine

5. Replace location parameters in reminder.py, schedule_reminder.py and send_mail.py to accurately reflect the system configuration of the server; modify format strings to configure desired preferences for the emails to be sent

6. Either set up reminder.py to run as part of a special python session for use via console, or set up a GUI to input data to it on the Desktop (not implemented)

7. (Optional, but recommended) Set up SPF verification for your server IP address (a setting in the DNS records) to send mail from your domain. Gmail, for instance, will auto-spam emails if this is not set up properly--a filter detecting all email from your domain will bypass this behavior, but it's better to get it set up properly once and for all. :)

8. Enjoy!