Eudora 3 EMS API stuff

[Dave Del Torto <ddt@lsd.com>]

Anyone interested in creating plug-ins for Eudora 3.x that provide
encryption/remailer/etc support needs this information.

   dave

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ABOUT THE API
The EMS API is one of several complimentary facilities available for
integrating 3rd party applications and services with Eudora email.
"Plug-ins" interface with Eudora via the EMS API. For Windows the plug-ins
are DLL's and on the Macintosh they are Components.

Abstractly speaking, the EMS API is most suited for performing
transformations, conversions and some other forms of processing on email
messages as they are sent and received by Eudora.

In practice it is very useful for encryption, digital signatures, and
compression. These are all processes that involve encapsulating a message
attachments and all. The EMS API is also very useful for text processing
and conversions. These might include simple formatting and sorting
utilities, or human language translation, and some forms of text-based
encryption. EMS API plug-ins can be used to do data format conversions on
things ranging from graphic images in attachments to international
character sets.

Another interesting category are plug-ins that process messages in some
way, but don't necessarily change them. For example, a plug-in could be set
up so that it scans certain messages for updates to a database like a
catalog and automatically makes the change in the local database. Another
could be used to scan incoming message attachments for viruses. In a sense,
plug-ins can function as filters.


DOCUMENTS AND SDK
As of the end of July we have documentation and support available at
<ftp://ftp.eudora.com/quest/emsapi> as follows:

  emsapi1.pdf     - Adobe Acrobat document describing  API version 1
                    (current on Mac)
  emsapi2.pdf     - Acrobat document describing the API version 2
                    (current for Windows)
  chngs2.pdf      - Acrobat document showing changes between version 1 & 2

  EMS-API-SDK-1.0b3.hqx   - Macintosh developer's kit

  ems1b2.zip              - The Windows software developer's kit

The developers kit includes a number of support utilities and source code
for four sample plug-ins.


CURRENT STATUS
As of the end of August, Macintosh Eudora Pro 3.0 is shipping and supports
the EMS API version 1. The current Macintosh Eudora Lite (the free version)
does not support the EMS API, but it will and a beta version is expected in
early September if not sooner. Version 1.0b3 of the SDK for the Macintosh
is currently available from our FTP site.

Windows Eudora 3.0 is in beta test right now and supports EMS API version
2. A copy can be obtained from our ftp site. Version 1.0b2 (a public beta
release) of SDK for the API is also now available from our ftp site.


MAILING LIST AND MORE INFORMATION
If you have specific questions about the API you can write to
<mailto:emsapi-info@qualcomm.com>.

If you'd like to keep up to date on the API you can join a mailing list we
have for announcements and discussions. To join, send a message to
<mailto:msapi-dev-request@qualcomm.com>. This mailing list is manually
administered and is not a listserv, majordomo or listproc, so no special
formatting is needed in the request message.