Documentation

Documentation for emailCellUsage 1.2

I am declaring the software release ready!!
That being said, the carrier plugins can be fragile based on changes in
the providers web site, variations in individual account setups, and
many other factors. If the software is missing data that should be 
present, or does not function as desired PLEASE file a bug via sourceforge
and work with me to resolve the issue. I may ask you to save the HTML on 
certain URL's on your cell providers web site, or work with me in other 
ways to resolve  the issue without compromising your web site password. 
If you don't reachout to me and work with me, I can not fix issues. I also 
can't have 2 or three accounts per carrier to represent various configurations. 
I am a single developer, carrier issues can only be resolved with the help of
people encountering issues, and working with me to resolve. Thanks


What is emailCellUsage

This application is designed to help you manage your cell phone usage and
avoid overage charges. It will send you a daily email report of your cell phone
usage.

    * Supports multiple phone numbers associated with the same account
    * Supports multiple accounts from AT&T,Sprint, or Verizon, and potentially others via Plugins
    * Offers flexibility in when and how often these email reports go out
    * Shows the usage, the estimate monthly usage, and the limit in the email report
    * Shows color coding in email, yellow or red if estimates show potential issues

The estimated usage is based on an assume 30 days billing cycle and just takes the number
of days you have usage and extrapolates that across the entire billing cycle.

To get AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint data usage the tool logs into your account via the public web site
for your provider using your provided credentials. No data is stored anywhere but on your machine. 
Your credentials will be stored on your machine, in your home directory, readable only by you.
Credentials are not stored in plain text, but they are not strongly encrypted either.

Since neither AT&T, Verizon, nor Sprint offer any API or 'blessed' way to programmatically access their sites,
this code could easily be broken by them making changes to their site UI or authentication
methods. Since this tool uses there public web site to pull down your data, future 
compatibility with these sites is not guaranteed by myself, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or anyone else.

This project is not endorsed or affiliated with AT&T,Sprint, nor Verizon in any way.

The current tool uses cron to schedule the notification job on Linux, and launchd on the Mac.
For Windows users a service is installed and runs that handles the email going out. Your machine
still has to be awake at the scheduled time though.

The tool is written in Python/Tkinter and is available as the python source as well
as a compiled Mac, and Windows.


Installing a Plugin

WARNING!!!! Plugin code is given your cell phone web site credentials. There is no way
around this without major support from the cell phone companies, and I am not holding my breath for that
to happen. The ATT, Sprint, and Verizon plugins distributed with the default package were written by myself and 
the data is ONLY used to authenticate with the cell provider web site and retrieve your data. Plugins 
not written by me, but posted to http://sourceforge.net/emailcellusage have been reviewed by me and
should be considered safe. That being said, I can not be held liable for any harm that may come from
using code written by others, or even written by myself.

To use a plugin, quit the application and place the plugin file in the following directory

Compiled OSX, the plugin must also be compiled for OSX
{right click and select 'Show Package Content'}
    emailCellUsage.app/Contents/MacOS/communicationPlugins/

Compiled Windows, the plugin must also be compiled for Windows
    /Program Files/emailCellUsage/communicationPlugins/

Native Python
    emailCellusage/lib/communciationPlugins


When you relauch emailCellUsage you should now see that cell provider listed as available when you create or modify an account
Ron Dorn