MMS2R 2.3.0, now with exif, used in Rails apps and Y Combinator startups
Posted by Mike
I just published a minor point release of the MMS2R Gem version 2.3.0 (http://mms2r.rubyforge.org/). If you were not aware, MMS2R is really just a generic multi-part mail processor. If you have a Ruby application ( Rails, Sinatra, Camping, etc.) and it is processing attachments out of email and/or MMS data, then MMS2R is the gem you should be using. MMS2R has many convenience methods to fetch the most likely image attachment, text attachment, etc. It now gives access to any JPEG or TIFF's exif data using the exifr (http://exifr.rubyforge.org/) reader gem. For instance, MMS2R uses the exif data to detect if the source of the message is from a smartphone like an iPhone or BlackBerry, it could be used for other logic as well.
Back in the summer of 2007 I almost wrote a twitpic.com app using MMS2R, but I couldn't make time for myself to do so. MMS2R would have processed the email extracting images that I had taken with my phone, I would then have posted those to S3 referenced with tiny url links (using Camping Hurl http://github.com/monde/hurl/) into my Twitter feed. I had written MMS2R even earlier than that time, but the emphasis has always been to make it easy to get at MMS data so that it can be used easily in all kinds of applications, social applications in particular.
There are two places to start looking for ideas on how to use MMS2R in a Rails application as I've just described. The first is the PeepCode book Luke Francl (http://justlooking.recursion.org/) and I wrote about it: "Receiving Email With Ruby" http://peepcode.com/products/mms2r-pdf
Another is a recent Rails Magazine article by By Jason Seifer (http://jasonseifer.com/) is titled "Receiving E-Mail With Rails" http://railsmagazine.com/articles/3
There are a number of startups and web sites listed on the MMS2R RubyForge page (http://mms2r.rubyforge.org/) that are using the Gem in their application stack. One of those is Luke's FanChatter (http://www.fanchatter.com/). At the beginning of the summer Fan Chatter received startup funding from Y Combinator (http://ycombinator.com/). So if you use MMS2R in your social Rails application, it might improve your chances of being funded by Y Combinator. Congratulations Luke.
