Refactor html->plaintext conversion (for bulk email) into separate library

common/lib/html_to_text.py

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+"""Provides a function to convert html to plaintext."""
+from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
+
+def html_to_text(html_message):
+    """
+    Converts an html message to plaintext.
+    Currently uses lynx in a subprocess; should be refactored to
+    use something more pythonic.
+    """
+    process = Popen(
+        ['lynx', '-stdin', '-display_charset=UTF-8', '-assume_charset=UTF-8', '-dump'],
+        stdin=PIPE,
+        stdout=PIPE
+    )
+    # use lynx to get plaintext
+    (plaintext, err_from_stderr) = process.communicate(
+        input=html_message.encode('utf-8')
+    )
+
+    if err_from_stderr:
+        log.info(err_from_stderr)
+
+    return plaintext