CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-apps-scriptgmailcrmgoogle-gadget
derQuestions
derQuestions

Reputation: 3

Auto-fill gmail BCC line based on To field

I am trying to augment my CRM that I have. The high level problem is that I've to enter multiple email addresses every time I want to write a message. This becomes a particular problem when replying to a message and forgetting to enter a special BCCed email address. I'd like to not have to remember to do that. I want, when I am using gmail, for an address in the To/CC line to trigger an auto-population of an address in the BCC line.

Here is how I think I would do this now:

My idea is to do, implement a map/dict/whatever by using two columns in a google spreadsheet (sheet) document. (Using the sheet means an easy visualization to my dict and an easy ability to share with permissions etc.) The first column would be the To/CC email address and the second column would be the auto-populated BCC email address.

Then I'd like to have code run on my computer that allows me to use gmail as you would without having to think about whatever will automatically go into the BCC field. (Bonus points for figuring out a way for me to code something up that allows me to not have to think about this when sending email from the gmail app on my iPhone.)

It may seem from my abstract description that I would need to hire someone to do this but I know I can code this myself. I just need to be pointed to the correct APIs and be notified of any gotchas that I should avoid.

Currently I was going to write a google contextual gadget to handle auto populating the field. Is that the best way? Or is a greasemonkey/whatever script better? What is the general approach I should take to tackling the problem?

To fix the phone/other-email-frontend problem would a Google Apps Script that acts like a cron job to check the most recent sent emails and if they don't have the proper bcc then just forward those emails with an appropriate bcc be reasonable?

Basically, am I off base or on track with my solution? If I am on track give me a bit more information on appropriate plan of attack. If I am off base then point me in the right direction.

I would appreciate your help.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 706

Answers (2)

Fuhrmanator
Fuhrmanator

Reputation: 12922

Your question would be more understandable with a concrete example of the problem (I'm not sure I entirely understand it). But Gmail supports mailto: URLs quite well. Perhaps that is the answer to what you want to do.

There are various scripts to help you generate a mailto: the way you want, so have a look at something like http://sislands.com/coin70/week6/mailtoCreator.htm

Upvotes: 0

Alan Wells
Alan Wells

Reputation: 31300

I don't think you are going to be able to do this inside of gmail. You could save a bunch of Drafts with the correct BCC emails, and put the TO: email in the subject line so that you could see who that draft was meant for, then change the subject line.

You could have a dialog box in your spreadsheet that you designed to look like an email compose screen. That would be the most straight forward approach. You could have a stand alone App, that had an input screen that was designed to look like an email compose screen.

Basically, you'd need to design your own user interface rather than using gmail. But the gmail compose window isn't anything very complicated, so if it's just a plain text email, it should be easy enough.

Upvotes: 1

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