On 16 Jul 2003 04:31:13 +0300 Timo Sirainen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm wondering if there's any problems with creating a message store that > doesn't support atomic changing of multiple message flags. I don't think > IMAP spec itself requires it, but are there any clients relying on this? > If I did it, would it badly break some things? Or in general, is it a > bad idea? If you ever want to implement the CONDSTORE extension, then it is probably a good idea to put the effort into atomicity. Basically you will have to implement write locking mechanisms in your store. The reason that you may want to implement CONDSTORE is if you ever want someone to use your store in an internet messaging queueing system. If you are familiar with IBM's MQSeries messaging middleware, then you can see the advantages of using Internet messaging in interorganization messaging schemes -- especially with the advent of SOAP over eMail messaging. Use of IMAP stores for this purpose is new and is purely directed at "messaging" not just "email". There are clearly uses for this in email as well, in particular with annotations. Our experience developing stores very clearly indicates that the sooner you think about threading, sharing and synchronization issues in your design, the better off you will be. To be perfectly frank, if your store architecture doesn't support this kind of thing with well thought out design, then you can be reasonably sure that you are going to be second tier implementation from a performance, reliability and functionality point of view -- at least in a serious commercial use arena. If you are building something that is intended for public domain use by small-middle sized enterprise email systems, then you probably don't have to worry about. It will seriously complicate your design. Cheers. --- Steve Hole Chief Technical Officer - Electronic Billing and Payment Systems ACI Worldwide Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 780 424 4922
