On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 13:57:54 +1300, Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > After Jim and Volker's email presentations, I've been thinking. > > How hard would it be to write an MDA that stores mail in a database? > > I'm thinking of something gmailesque, with labels and conversations > > (threads) and stuff. > > > > Next, how hard would to be to write a mail client to use with this maildb? > > well to be sensible you would have a server that used sql as a back end > and served it up over imap, thereby allowing almost any existing mail > client to access it.
But imap doesn't support all the gmailesque features. Of course, you could have an imap feature that would present a view of the maildb that fits the traditional folders paradigm to an imap client. I would also want to make available a client that takes advantage of extra features. > needs to be fast, c probably. How fast? Assuming another MDA like procmail does some of the spam filtering etc, and adds headers that tells the maildb MDA what to do in some cases, so the maildb MDA processes the mail after procmail has done some stuff. I'm thinking small here, home user. pop3.clear.net.nz -> fetchmail (on my PC) -> procmail MDA -> maildb MDA -> mysql database. > > The mail client would ideally be a GUI app or a web app. I guess that > > might need something like PHP? > > > why restrict the clients to web based ones? there are fantastic email > clients out there that use the established protocols, what you are > suggesting changes the face of email, and is inflexible IMHO. Stick to > > 1. storing the mail in an effective manner > 2. serving it up over a known protocol But known protocols lack some features I'm interested in. > if you want a web client, use an existing one like squirrelmail or build > one in php (etc) that interfaces to imap > > > > > How big a project would this be? > > enormous if you are expecting every mail client to intriduce a new sql > based protocol. see above. Not every mail client. Just one for myself to use with _my_ mail database. I want things like gmailesque conversations, with collapsable quoted text, multiple labels instead of folders etc. Yuri
