On 2002-08-19 12:22 AM, "Paul Berkowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 8/18/02 6:36 PM, "Justin Mayer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Right now I'm on a train and am working in off-line mode, trying to pare >> down my IMAP in-box. I drag a message from my soon-to-be-discarded Mac.com >> account's IMAP message list to a local "Archives" folder. Entourage throws >> up a dialog and asks if I want to connect to the Internet to complete this >> action. Why? Is there some action performed or some flag written to the IMAP >> mail store when copying an IMAP message to a local folder? Even if so, is >> this action something that cannot be recorded and performed during the next >> connection? *snip* >> >> While this appears to me like a bug, I can only assume that there is a good >> reason for this behavior. Can anyone enlighten me? I agree with Justin. If Entourage wants to ask once if you'd like to connect, fine. After that, it seems that Entourage should "remember" that messages have been moved, and treat them like other offline actions (e.g. "delete"). If a message hasn't been totally downloaded, perhaps Entourage should refuse to move the fragment, and put up a dialog explaining why. > The whole point about IMAP is that it allows you to pretend that the server > is on your computer: IMAP "folders" in Entourage represent regions of remote > mail servers that you can access at will. You're supposed to forget that > there's a separate cache on your machine and just move things around as you > like - there's a degree of synchronicity built in, although more extreme > manifestations (LiveSync) are options, partly dependent on the ability of > the server to play along. Paul's IMAP description is good. > One thing all IMAP accounts have is that when you select a folder, and in > particular a message, on your computer, and do things with it - like move it > to other IMAP folders or to delete it - the real message on the server > follows suit. And simply selecting the header of a message downloads it: > most people are set up so just selecting the folder downloads all unreceived > messages. So when you select a message and drag to a local folder, it > accesses the message on the server first: after all, you nay have only a > header locally. When you're offline, you get that error message since it > can't connect to the server to verify that it's really got the whole thing. It seems to me that Entourage *already* keeps track of whether it's received the entire message or not - on a message-by-message basis. That's how it knows what kind of icon to draw to the left of each message in the message list. If I'm working offline and move a message as Justin described, Entourage already knows if it has the whole message on my local computer. It still needs to let the server know that I moved the message next time I connect - but please see below. > I guess you're saying that when you're offline, it should just copy the > cached copy to a local folder. that makes sense, but what should it do if > you try to do the same thing with just a header? For simplicity, I think Entourage should refuse to copy partial messages when in Offline mode. *snip* > But who knows? Maybe it could be done. Perhaps an MS person can answer. Okay, so I did a test. Bad idea. I set Entourage to download the entire message - not just headers - for most of my e-mail (Partially receive messages over 256K). I set Entourage to "Work Offline", then for good measure I switched my "Location" to one with no network connection. I moved three messages (which had been totally downloaded when they were first received) from my online mailbox to a folder "On My Computer". Entourage asked me if I wanted to connect, and I said "Cancel". Entourage told me it would record my offline actions. The messages were moved, as expected. I selected three more messages, and moved them in exactly the same way. Same results, only this time Entourage did not bother telling me it was recording my offline actions. But it *did* ask me once again about connecting, which I cancelled as before. I checked the folder "On My Computer", and verified that the messages were, indeed, where I moved them. Okay, now the fun begins. NOT! I re-established my network connection, then un-checked Entourage's "Work Offline". Of course, Entourage remembered that it had recorded some actions for later, so it put up the dialog that said it was "Synchronizing Offline Actions". The dialog said "0 of 6". Well, 6 made sense, since I had moved 6 messages. Unfortunately, the dialog just stayed there, and never got past zero. Not only that, but the button marked "stop" in the synchronize dialog seemed broken. I clicked the button, I tried CMD-. and "Esc", to no avail. These each caused the "Stop" button to flash blue, suggesting that Entourage noticed that I wanted to cancel the operation, but the dialog stayed up. After a while, it stopped trying to synchronize. I'm guessing some internal timer stopped the operation after, perhaps, 5 minutes or so. So now, every minute or two, I get the "You have actions that you performed offline" dialog - twice! I presume I'm seeing the dialog once for each 3-message "move" operation. Why isn't Entourage smart enough to display this only once? I have gone through the failed "Synchronizing Offline Actions" dialog three times, now. I have wasted close to 1/2 hour - and still Entourage persists in telling me "You have actions that you performed offline". Okay, so I have a few questions. 1. Why won't Entourage synchronize these simple actions? 2. Why won't Entourage notice when I ask it to "Stop"? 3. How do I get Entourage to "forget" these offline actions so I don't have to "Cancel" two dialogs every minute or so? I guess I haven't contributed much to the original question, but I *have* added some food for thought! Oh, and I'm still getting these dialogs every minute or so... :-) Enjoy! -- Jim -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
