On 12/23/02 3:02 AM, "George Clark" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 12/23/02 01:05, Paul Berkowitz wrote: > >> On 12/22/02 9:42 PM, "Ken Gordon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> It does not appear to be possible to create rules based on an IMAP message's >>> content. In Apple Mail, I created a number of rules that were based on >>> content - messages that contained, for example, "We are strongly against >>> sending unsolicited emails" were immediately deleted, as were other similar >>> things like messages mentioning H.R. 4176, etc. This turned out to be >>> enormously successful in eliminating a very large part of the spam I was >>> receiving. Now since I moved to Entourage X I am getting those messages once >>> more, and when I went to recreate those rules in Entourage X it appears to >>> be impossible. Am I missing something? >> >> I suppose it may have something to do with the having to read the whole >> cache, but it's equally possible that it's a bug: no "Message body" >> criterion for IMAP Rules. You're quite right. Let's see if an MBU person has >> an answer. > > I'm not 'an MBU person', but my guess is that it's because only the headers > are downloaded for an IMAP message, so a Rule can't check the message body. That's right. That's what I think too. > A workaround might be to use a Rule to 'retrieve from server', then run an > AppleScript that checks the message's content and takes appropriate > action...but that assumes the script would actually be getting the complete > message to work with. You'd probably want to limit it to messages where the > recipient isn't in your Address Book. I don't think that will work. Rules are run immediately as the message headers arrive in the IMAP INBOX representation on the computer. I think they'd have do a special implementation to go fetch the content while the rule was running. That might not only slow down the rules but create some sort of traffic jam. Perhaps that's why they haven't done it, although if Mail.app can run rules on IMAP messages based on content, I guess it's possible. IMAP actions must be incredibly complicated - all the actions which we ask for actually have to be carried out on a remote server and then get mirrored back on our computers after they've completed. We like it to behave as if all the actions are local and can just happen as we click, but of course there's a lot more to it than appears. -- Paul Berkowitz MVP Entourage PLEASE always state which version of Entourage you are using - 2001 or X. It's often impossible to answer your questions otherwise. -- 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/>
