Check unread count of Gmail messages with Python

Question

How can I check the number of unread Gmail message in my inbox with a short Python script? Bonus points for retrieving the password from a file.

Answer 1

I advise you to use Gmail atom feed

It is as simple as this:

import urllib

url = 'https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom/'
opener = urllib.FancyURLopener()
f = opener.open(url)
feed = f.read()

You can then use the feed parse function in this nice article: Check Gmail the pythonic way