gmailr

Exposing the Gmail API from R.

Features

• retrieve data from your email
• drafts: my_drafts = drafts()
• history: my_history = history(start_num)
• labels: my_labels = labels()
• messages: my_messages = messages("search query")
• threads: my_threads = threads("search query")
• Create and send emails and drafts: see sending_messages vignette
• manage email labels programmatically: modify_thread(thread_id, add_labels=c("label_1"), remove_labels=c("label_2"))
• put things in the gmail trash
• messages: trash_message(message_id)
• threads: trash_thread(thread_id)
• take things out of the gmail trash
• messages: untrash_message(message_id)
• threads: untrash_thread(thread_id)
• delete directly without using the trash
• messages: delete_message(message_id)
• threads: delete_thread(thread_id)

Setup

By default gmailr will use a global project. However if you are going to be doing a heavy user and will do a lot of queries please setup your own project with the steps below.

• Register a new project at https://console.cloud.google.com
• Navigate to APIs
• Switch the Gmail API status to On, and other API status to Off
• Navigate to APIs & auth->Consent screen
• Name your application
• Select an email address for the application
• Other fields can be left blank
• Navigate to APIs & auth->Credentials
• Create a new client ID
  • Application Type: Installed Application
  • Installed Application Type: Other
• Download the Client ID JSON - can be renamed!

• Use the downloaded JSON file as input to gmail_auth()

  R gmail_auth('file.json')

Future Work

• More unit tests and better coverage
• More (complicated) examples
• Email statistics
• Programmatic emailing
• Returning data frames in addition to native Gmail API objects which are usually a nested list.
• Support all the formats of users.messages:get

Examples

• Send Email with R - Jenny Bryan (@jennybc)
• Gmail Stats - Ahmad Al-Kashef (@alkashef)