HELP: Using Evernote as Gmail archive

[dbotters 2]

Hi All,

I'd like to implement a specific workflow using Gmail and Evernote, but don't know if it's possible.

Here's the ideal scenario...

1) Receive an email

2) Apply a specific label (say "test")

3) If the email has been labeled with "test", then I'd like to forward the email to a different email address

4) *For Extra Credit *...When forwarding the email, I'd like to append a static text string to the end of the subject line

Here's what I'm wanting to accomplish with this workflow, in case anyone has an alternate suggestion...

I want to use Evernote for an (alternate) Gmail Archive. If I receive an email that I want to save to Gmail, I'd like to be able to quickly apply a label ("Gmail Archive"), and then have Gmail automatically forward the email using my Evernote email address. Additionally (this is the extra credit step 4), I'd like to append "@Email Archive" as the name of my Evernote notebook, so that the email is automatically routed to the appropriate notebook.

Any suggestions or alternate workarounds would be appreciated.

Also also, I use Sparrow as my Gmail client. I'm assuming that any rules applied based on labels (assuming this is even possible) would work in Sparrow as well as the Gmail web client?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion!

David

[heather 604]

I think you can do this with a service like IFTTT or Zapier - it will scan your Gmail box for specifically "Tagged" items and then process based on the rules you've set.

[jefito 5,589]

For IFTTT, I think that this recipe should do the trick: http://ifttt.com/recipes/35551. Going to set it up and try it out for myself.

[Anubha 10]

Do post back if the recipe works...

[jefito 5,589]

Yes, it did. Looks like the email, which was in rich text, was "textified", but it went to the correct notebook, with the tag that I specified.

[Anubha 10]

Yeah, right! I tried too, it works fine. Atleast reaches the targetted notebook w/o any problem.

[skellam 114]

Hi All,

I'd like to implement a specific workflow using Gmail and Evernote, but don't know if it's possible.

Here's the ideal scenario...

1) Receive an email

2) Apply a specific label (say "test")

3) If the email has been labeled with "test", then I'd like to forward the email to a different email address

4) *For Extra Credit *...When forwarding the email, I'd like to append a static text string to the end of the subject line

Here's what I'm wanting to accomplish with this workflow, in case anyone has an alternate suggestion...

I want to use Evernote for an (alternate) Gmail Archive. If I receive an email that I want to save to Gmail, I'd like to be able to quickly apply a label ("Gmail Archive"), and then have Gmail automatically forward the email using my Evernote email address. Additionally (this is the extra credit step 4), I'd like to append "@Email Archive" as the name of my Evernote notebook, so that the email is automatically routed to the appropriate notebook.

Any suggestions or alternate workarounds would be appreciated.

Also also, I use Sparrow as my Gmail client. I'm assuming that any rules applied based on labels (assuming this is even possible) would work in Sparrow as well as the Gmail web client?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion!

David

I've tried to find a service that does this well for years. IFTT seemed to work somewhat but, as you said, it seems to "textify" the email and doesn't forward attachments well when I tried it. It's hard to find a service that will just take an incoming e-mail and forward it with an alternate subject.

The only way I could find to do it was to set up my linux computer at home with procmail and fetchmail. It was more work to set up but it works great. I set up Gmail rules to forward any type of mail that I want to send to Evernote on a regular basis. It tags the mail with 'To Evernote'. Procmail logs in to my gmail account, finds the mail tagged 'To Evernote' then uses pre-defined recipes to forward the email based on certain search criteria to my Evernote account with the appropriate @notebook and #tagging information added to the subject line of the email. The entire email is forwarded with html information and attachments intact.

This could be accomplished MUCH easier if Evernote ever implements more useful mail forwarding that allows for multiple incoming addresses that each have pre-defined notebook and tagging information. Then you could just use Gmails powerful filtering and forwarding to send the email to a specific Evernote incoming e-mail address that would add the notebook and tagging. For example, you receive a newletter every week that you want to save in Evernote. You could use Gmail to filter subject line that matches the mail. Then you could have Gmail forward the email to Evernote to an e-mail address like -- skellam.news1@m.evernote.com. 'news1' would be a tag that you set up beforehand that pre-defines which notebook and tagging information to apply to all e-mails received at this address. I would find this functionality in Evernote very useful and would use it all the time if they ever made something like it available.

I never tried Zapier for this but it looks like tarpipe and they both have pricing structures which are prohibitive for this kind of personal email forwarding.

[gadams999 0]

There is another option if you are setup for Google Apps. You can create a script to check for certain labels and act upon them. For instance, you may setup a filter to apply the label 'Process' to all new emails. Then have the script run, append information to the subject line (e.g., notebook and/or tags), send the email to evernote, and finally remove the 'Process' label and apply another label (maybe like 'Archived').

New scripts can be created from Google Drive, Create -> More -> Script

Here's my script. Make sure that the labels are created prior to running:

// Set up multiple labels/sub-labels and add one or more email addresses
function forwardEmails() {
// @xxx is notebook, #tag is the tag, or multiple tags
forwardThreads("Process", "evernote-email@m.evernote.com", "@Filtered Email Archive #archived");
// Additional forwards can be placed here. Need to ensure source label exists, the email will
// have the source label removed and "Archived" added
}
function forwardThreads(label, addr, subjSuffix) {

var maxSubjLength = 250;
var applylabel = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName("Archived");

// Send individual and threaded emails.
var msgs, msg, i, j, subject, options, labels, page;
labels = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(label)
var threads = labels.getThreads()
for (i=0; i < threads.length; i++) {
msgs = threads[i].getMessages();
for (j=0; j < msgs.length; j++) {
	 msg = msgs[j];
	 subject = msg.getSubject();
	 if (subject.length + subjSuffix.length > maxSubjLength) {
	 subject = subject.substring(0, maxSubjLength - subjSuffix.length);
	 }

	 options = { htmlBody: msg.getBody(), attachments : msg.getAttachments() };

	 GmailApp.sendEmail(addr, subject +" "+ subjSuffix, msg.getBody(), options);

}
}

while(!page || page.length == 100) {
page = labels.getThreads(0, 100);

// Apply new label; move the thread out of other label
	 applylabel.addToThreads(page);
	 labels.removeFromThreads(page);
	 }
}

I found out that IFTTT's recipe doesn't work if you turn off IMAP. Since I archive everything, this was doubling my local message store under OS X's Mail.app. Also, the Google script method will preserve formatting, unsure about attachments.

I don't know if this will work on non-Google Apps accounts or not. However, a Google App account for up to 10 10GB accounts is free.

Hope this helps out those looking for more flexibility with Gmail (especially to Evernote)!

[smaviglia 12]

How do you automate the execution of the Google Drive script?

[gadams999 0]

How do you automate the execution of the Google Drive script?

**Update: Scripting appears to be available to regular non-Google Apps accounts. I logged into my old gmail account and have the option to create scripts. Simply goto Google Docs or Drive, then select Create -> Script. Select "Blank Project", then copy/paste the script above. I love other features of IFTTT, but this made my email archive to Evernote so much easier and complete.

Once the script is created, select the Resources -> Current script's triggers...

Then select the function to run and the time to run it. I've set it at 15 minutes, but you can select pretty much anything from every minute to once weekly.

Let me figure out to upload a couple screen shots.... (this forum software seems a bit buggy right now). Here you go.

And the function and trigger times:

[smaviglia 12]

That's great. Thank you!

[skellam 114]

The solutions above seemed difficult to implement but I just stumbled across this solution this week from Harry Osterveen and I have to say it is working better than any other Gmail to Evernote solution I've tried.   It does take a little upfront work in creating the appropriate tags in your Gmail account and installing the Google scripting code.   Using this script in addition to the native Gmail filters creates a powerful productivity tool.  You can forward selected emails based on Gmail filtering rules to your Evernote account and store them in the appropriate Notebook with pre-defined tags applied.   As a bonus, it puts includes important header information and a link in the new Evernote note that links directly back to the original email from Gmail.    I have tried the IFTTT service but not ideal for this task because it removes all formatting and attachments from Gmail messages forwarded in to Evernote and doesn't allow you to select notebook or tagging.   

[Anubha 10]

The solutions above seemed difficult to implement but I just stumbled across this solution this week from Harry Osterveen and I have to say it is working better than any other Gmail to Evernote solution I've tried.   It does take a little upfront work in creating the appropriate tags in your Gmail account and installing the Google scripting code.   Using this script in addition to the native Gmail filters creates a powerful productivity tool.  You can forward selected emails based on Gmail filtering rules to your Evernote account and store them in the appropriate Notebook with pre-defined tags applied.   As a bonus, it puts includes important header information and a link in the new Evernote note that links directly back to the original email from Gmail.    I have tried the IFTTT service but not ideal for this task because it removes all formatting and attachments from Gmail messages forwarded in to Evernote and doesn't allow you to select notebook or tagging.   

I think what you are looking for is this service called Inqloud! It meets my needs of forwarding emails from gmail to particular evernote notebooks, along with the tags.... I have been using it for months now and havn't had the need to look anywhere else again (IFTTT/Zapier/Blah Blah Blah)!

It is simply flawless  

[gadams999 0]

The solutions above seemed difficult to implement but I just stumbled across this solution this week from Harry Osterveen and I have to say it is working better than any other Gmail to Evernote solution I've tried.   It does take a little upfront work in creating the appropriate tags in your Gmail account and installing the Google scripting code.   Using this script in addition to the native Gmail filters creates a powerful productivity tool.  You can forward selected emails based on Gmail filtering rules to your Evernote account and store them in the appropriate Notebook with pre-defined tags applied.   As a bonus, it puts includes important header information and a link in the new Evernote note that links directly back to the original email from Gmail.    I have tried the IFTTT service but not ideal for this task because it removes all formatting and attachments from Gmail messages forwarded in to Evernote and doesn't allow you to select notebook or tagging.   

I think what you are looking for is this service called Inqloud! It meets my needs of forwarding emails from gmail to particular evernote notebooks, along with the tags.... I have been using it for months now and havn't had the need to look anywhere else again (IFTTT/Zapier/Blah Blah Blah)!

It is simply flawless

 Incloud has a cost associated with it (assuming from the "Free 30 day trail"). For general archiving, the free solutions described above work 99.999% of the time. The flexibility of Google Apps is compelling for a variety of workflows between PaaS's.

 

Always good to see other solutions, especially for people that don't wish to mess with scripting on the back end.

[Trisk 1]

The solutions above seemed difficult to implement but I just stumbled across this solution this week from Harry Osterveen and I have to say it is working better than any other Gmail to Evernote solution I've tried.   It does take a little upfront work in creating the appropriate tags in your Gmail account and installing the Google scripting code.   Using this script in addition to the native Gmail filters creates a powerful productivity tool.  You can forward selected emails based on Gmail filtering rules to your Evernote account and store them in the appropriate Notebook with pre-defined tags applied.   As a bonus, it puts includes important header information and a link in the new Evernote note that links directly back to the original email from Gmail.    I have tried the IFTTT service but not ideal for this task because it removes all formatting and attachments from Gmail messages forwarded in to Evernote and doesn't allow you to select notebook or tagging.   

 

 

I also use the Harry Online solution.  Have been using it for months (They just released a version 3) to do this exactly.  There are many good things, fowards the emails, including attachments, and data as date, subject and CC.....and the best is that creates a hiperlink to the original email so after reading it in evernote I can go directly to the email in Gmail to reply it.  It is fantastic, very easy to setup and totally free.   Fully recommended!

[skellam 114]

I also use the Harry Online solution.  Have been using it for months (They just released a version 3) to do this exactly.  There are many good things, fowards the emails, including attachments, and data as date, subject and CC.....and the best is that creates a hiperlink to the original email so after reading it in evernote I can go directly to the email in Gmail to reply it.  It is fantastic, very easy to setup and totally free.   Fully recommended!

I had said before that it was difficult to set the script up. I should say the new version 3 makes the set up a snap. the script automatically finds your evernote email address and let's you configure the script from a web based form. much easier. If you run the script from his server, it automatically updates itself when new versions one out.

[cinthia 1]

 

The solutions above seemed difficult to implement but I just stumbled across this solution this week from Harry Osterveen and I have to say it is working better than any other Gmail to Evernote solution I've tried.   It does take a little upfront work in creating the appropriate tags in your Gmail account and installing the Google scripting code.   Using this script in addition to the native Gmail filters creates a powerful productivity tool.  You can forward selected emails based on Gmail filtering rules to your Evernote account and store them in the appropriate Notebook with pre-defined tags applied.   As a bonus, it puts includes important header information and a link in the new Evernote note that links directly back to the original email from Gmail.    I have tried the IFTTT service but not ideal for this task because it removes all formatting and attachments from Gmail messages forwarded in to Evernote and doesn't allow you to select notebook or tagging.   

I think what you are looking for is this service called Inqloud! It meets my needs of forwarding emails from gmail to particular evernote notebooks, along with the tags.... I have been using it for months now and havn't had the need to look anywhere else again (IFTTT/Zapier/Blah Blah Blah)!

It is simply flawless

 

 

Thank you Anubha!! I'm a creative writer and the only scripts I write are for TV, not computer. For me, it's well worth $1.66 a month to keep thousands of documents automatically filed. $20 a year to save the huge PITA of weeding forwarding receipts and confirmation eMails. Thanks for the recommendation! 

[Earth 0]

 

I also use the Harry Online solution.  Have been using it for months (They just released a version 3) to do this exactly.  There are many good things, fowards the emails, including attachments, and data as date, subject and CC.....and the best is that creates a hiperlink to the original email so after reading it in evernote I can go directly to the email in Gmail to reply it.  It is fantastic, very easy to setup and totally free.   Fully recommended!

I had said before that it was difficult to set the script up. I should say the new version 3 makes the set up a snap. the script automatically finds your evernote email address and let's you configure the script from a web based form. much easier. If you run the script from his server, it automatically updates itself when new versions one out.

 

 

Just wondering about the security of this script.  Is it from a trusted source?  Since it has access to my email, I just want to be sure it's not sending all my stuff elsewhere.  Can anyone with more scripting fluency than me comment, please.  Cheers!

[JohnDM 122]

 

 

I also use the Harry Online solution.  Have been using it for months (They just released a version 3) to do this exactly.  There are many good things, fowards the emails, including attachments, and data as date, subject and CC.....and the best is that creates a hiperlink to the original email so after reading it in evernote I can go directly to the email in Gmail to reply it.  It is fantastic, very easy to setup and totally free.   Fully recommended!

I had said before that it was difficult to set the script up. I should say the new version 3 makes the set up a snap. the script automatically finds your evernote email address and let's you configure the script from a web based form. much easier. If you run the script from his server, it automatically updates itself when new versions one out.

 

 

Just wondering about the security of this script.  Is it from a trusted source?  Since it has access to my email, I just want to be sure it's not sending all my stuff elsewhere.  Can anyone with more scripting fluency than me comment, please.  Cheers!

 

 

 

 

Hi Earth,

 

I am not really sure what your trying to do, but if its just forwarding gmail to evernote there is certainly a much easier way and safer -- Gmail has had filters for years that would let you filter what you want, broken out and sent someplace and that is right in Gmail settings -- also I would think the ITTT app can do it too -- again much easier