bbdb/message-auto-create-p proposal [was Re: BBDB problem]

[Michael R. Wolf <MichaelRunningWolf@att.net>]

Reiner Steib <4.uce.03.r.s@nurfuerspam.de> writes:

> On Tue, Jun 17 2003, Pieter Laeremans wrote:
>> Pieter Laeremans <pieter@laeremans.org> writes:
>>> Is it possible to configure gnus so that it will only use BBDB for my
>>> INBOX and not for real newsgroups ?
>
> See the variables `bbdb/mail-auto-create-p' and
> `bbdb/news-auto-create-p' which can be set via group or topic
> parameters in Gnus.

This all reminds me of a project I started, completed, and have been
field trialing for a bit.....

A few weeks ago, I requested help for *outbound* auto-create to
balance the *inbound* auto-create. I find *outbound* to be much more
useful. [I'm in a business development phase, and am sending new mail
to an increasing number of new contacts.] I'm much more interested in
capturing email addresses of people I spend time composing a message
for than of folks whose message I happen to read, however casually. Of
course, I love capturing inbound email addresses too, even if there
are too many of them. The problem I found wasn't capturing too many
inbound messages, rather capturing too few (i.e. zero) outbound
messages. I started a piece of code, then iterated it with Benjamin
Rutt to get the following solution.

After using it for a while, I've found it to be *very* effective and
*very* useful. Because the code remembers to capture the email address
for me, I no longer need to remember to add the address to BBDB
*before* I start composing the message. That prevents me from loosing
the email address, a common occurrence in the past.

I how have symmetry. I capture an email address if they send me email
first or if I send them email first. That facilitates future
correspondence. It's great for business.

I think this is such a useful construct that I'd like to propose
bbdb/message-auto-create-p as a way to encapsulate all this behavior.

How would I make a formal proposal regarding this? And who would I
follow up with to make sure that it happened?

Thanks,
Michael Wolf

;;; ================================================================

;;; It works.
;;; TODO -- remove the mapconcat addition of commas, that get removed by m-t-h
(defun wolf3-bbdb-add-recipients-to-bbdb ()
  "Add all recipients to BBDB, using this list of headers:
	from, sender, 
        to, cc, bcc,
        resent-from, resent-to, resent-cc, resent-bcc."
  (let ((fields '("from" "sender" 
		  "to" "cc" "bcc" 
		  "resent-from" "resent-to" "resent-cc" "resent-bcc")))
    (mapc 
     (lambda (address)
       (bbdb-annotate-message-sender address t t t))
     (save-restriction
       (message-narrow-to-headers)
       (message-tokenize-header (mapconcat 'message-fetch-field fields ","))))))

;;; Could go into many hooks:
;;;        message-send-mail-hook	# too restricted
;;;        message-send-news-hook	# too restricted
;;;        message-send-hook		# just right!!!
;;;        message-sent-hook		# too late
(add-hook 'message-send-hook 'wolf3-bbdb-add-recipients-to-bbdb)


-- 
Michael R. Wolf
    All mammals learn by playing!
        MichaelRunningWolf@att.net