Preannounce: Kroupware Project started

[Roberto H. Alsina]

On Thu, Sep 12 2002 at 11:37:17am +1000, Don Sanders wrote:
> On Thursday 12 September 2002 00:06, Roberto H. Alsina wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 11 2002 at 06:40:32pm +1000, Don Sanders wrote:
> > > > Thanks!
> > > >
> > > > > Now, already the first technical question: why did you choose
> > > > > Cyrus IMAP instead of Courier IMAP?
> > > >
> > > > Again, I will unfortunately have to pass the ball to Martin or
> > > > the other Erfrakon guys; I am just one of the client guys :-o
> > >
> > > Just a thought but I think it makes sense to try to add
> > > functionality to IMAP (proprietrary at first but try to get it
> > > into the IMAP standard via the IETF and RFCs).
> > >
> > > For instance, I don't think it's completely the right thing for
> > > the MUA to implement virtual folders. Instead for IMAP users that
> > > should be implemented in the IMAP server. So when they change
> > > from one machine to another they don't lose their virtual
> > > folders.
> >
> > There is nothing on the IMAP standard saying folders are not
> > virtual ;-)
> 
> Well how do I (efficiently) create a virtual folder on an IMAP server?
> 
> That is a folder that is equivalent to the results of a search 
> expression being executed and being updated dynamically whenever new 
> mail is discovered or deleted.

I know what they are, I implemented them in 1999 ;-)

The short version is: 

a) No IMAP server does it yet
b) There is no reason why a IMAP server shouldn't do it
c) The tricky part is specifying the query criteria. Maybe using ugly encoded folder names?
d) You would have to hack a IMAP server to do it
e) You would probably have to reimplement the message storage to make it remotely efficient
f) Exchange uses around 800MB of RAM to provide this sort of functionality for 30 users ;-)

> It's not much good to me if the system used to support this is 
> restricted to one particular file system as a central idea behind 
> IMAP is to allow roaming.
> 
> > > Also stuff like multiple identities fall into the same category.
> >
> > Hm? IMAP is not for sending, how can it implement multiple
> > identities?
> 
> Yes, but if I have 10 different email addresses. Then KMail stores 
> those addresses in a local kmailrc file. It would be better if as 
> much information as possible is taken out of the kmailrc file stored 
> in some other reusablerc file and if it is possible to use a kioslave 
> to determine where this information is stored. So that instead of 
> storing it locally it is stored on the IMAP or LDAP server. Thus when 
> I travel from location A to location B I still have all my mail 
> settings intact.

LDAP, please, not IMAP!

> Furthermore this concept can be generalized to all KDE settings so 
> that when I travel from an office in Australia to an office in Norway 
> for example and login at the Norway office I'll get to use all my 
> Australian settings.

KConfig-over-LDAP was discussed once, and, I think, declared "a neat idea".

 ("\''/").__..-''"`-. .         Roberto Alsina
 `9_ 9  )   `-. (    ).`-._.`)  ralsina at kde.org
 (_Y_.)' ._   ) `._`.  " -.-'   Former KDE Developer (MFCH)
  _..`-'_..-_/ /-'_.'           
(l)-'' ((i).' ((!.'             Buenos Aires - Argentina
"You can't be an emperor because some moistened 
bint lobbed a scimitar at you!" Monty Python.