Re: questions about how to do multiple IMAP sessions to the server in c-client

2004-10-28 Thread DavidDDaveg 



In a message dated 2004/10/28 12:44:49 Eastern Daylight Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
 
  "Connection" refers to the entire sequence of client/server interaction 
  from the initial establishment of the network connection until its 
  termination. Could I compare it with login 
  complete?That's like saying "can I compare a drive in my car to 
  starting the motor".
I agree the compassion is not appropriate. What I really want is to make 
sure that after log-ed in until logout, it is counted as in one connection. 

If this is true, then after login until logout there can only be one 
mailbox being selected (one session there).

Regarding why thinking about keep multiple mailbox selected using 
c-client:
 If 
  the IMAP client which uses c-client wants to show the list of mails 
  from all of the mailboxes after login complete, then user 
  could select the mail interested, does it mean that there must 
  be multiple "connections" (multiple login's) in order to 
  maintain multiple mailboxes to be SELECT'ed, so that the data in 
  c-client's cache could be used later.Only one mailbox is 
  SELECTed at a time, and c-client only caches data from the currently 
  SELECTed mailbox.You can have multiple MAILSTREAMs open, each with 
  a separate mailbox selected. It is your choice whether 
  you want to do that or to go through each mailbox 
one-by-one.

"can have multiple MAILSTREAMs 
open, each with a separate mailbox selected", I believe you mean 
the mail boxesfor theMAILSTREAMs might be SELECT'ed before and not 
closed, but only one is SELECT'ed at the moment. 

Also if the MAILSTREAM s1's mail 
box had been SELECT'ed before but now another mail box is SELECT'ed. Could we 
still call this MAILSTREAM s1 open until it is closed?Will the data 
downloaded into cache while it was open be still in the c-client cache, until s1 
is closed even if other mail box is SELECT'ed now (i.e. can still use some of 
the mail_xxx() functionagainst this stream s1, such as get msg 
number..)?
HOWEVER!It is an exceedingly poor idea for a client to 
  attempt to list messages from all mailboxes. The list of mailboxes 
  may be extremely long with long servers. You will run out of memory 
  and disk space on your client long before you complete gathering the 
  entire list.It is also a misuse of IMAP. The entire reason why 
  IMAP has all these features to collect individual data items is so the 
  client can access data on demand by the end user, and not have to download 
  everything at startup.

Totally agree your comment on thinking about the resource limitation 
issue.
I saw some of the commercial IMAP client(e.g. Communicator), one of basic 
feature is to list all of the mail entries (sender, subject, time)from 
different mailbox after log into the server.Then user could brows around, 
doing a quick local search to see if there is mail from someone or have certain 
subject, and thenclick on the interested mail from different mailboxes(I 
used to call it folders).
If the mailbox is not selected at clicking time then it will have to be 
re-selected at the clicking time. From the nature of IMAP I guess your 
suggestion is to prefer to reselect than to keep multiple mailbox SELETC'ed in 
multiple connections.
But we still have problem if the client really want get the 10,000 mails to 
be listed in UI after login. It might take a while on dial up connection

Again, thanks for your response and it is really great help!

Re: questions about how to do multiple IMAP sessions to the server in c-client

2004-10-28 Thread Mark Crispin 
I strongly suggest that you buy a copy of the book Internet Email 
Protocols: A Developer's Guide, by Kevin Johnson, published by Addison 
Wesley, ISBN 0-201-43288-9.

Your questions indicate a very basic misunderstanding of the IMAP 
protocol.  Until that misunderstanding is clarified, you are going to have 
a very long and frustrating experience.

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
What I really want is to make
sure that after log-ed in until logout, it is counted as in one connection.
It's one connection from the point that the initial TCP interchange is 
made (even before authenticated).

If this is true, then after login until logout there can only be one  mailbox
being selected (one session there).
There can only be one mailbox selected at a time.  If you select mailbox2
while mailbox1 is selected, then mailbox1 is automatically unselected and 
mailbox2 is now selected.  This forms a new session within the same 
connection.

can have multiple MAILSTREAMs  open, each with a separate mailbox selected,
I believe you mean   the mail boxes for the MAILSTREAMs might be SELECT'ed
before and not  closed, but only one is SELECT'ed at the moment.
No.  I mean that you can have multiple connections, each with a different 
mailbox SELECTed.  This is the only way that you can have more than one 
mailbox SELECTed at a time.

Also if the MAILSTREAM s1's mail  box had been SELECT'ed before but now
another mail box is SELECT'ed. Could we  still call this MAILSTREAM s1 open until
it is closed?
Any existing MAILSTREAM is not affected by opening a new MAILSTREAM.  Each 
MAILSTREAM is completely independent of any other MAILSTREAMs.

By passing a non-null MAILSTREAM to mail_open(), you can do a new SELECT 
on a MAILSTREAM, without closing the connection.

Will the data  downloaded into cache while it was open be still
in the c-client cache, until s1  is closed even if other mail box is SELECT'ed
now (i.e. can still use some of  the mail_xxx() function against this stream
s1, such as get msg  number..)?
Each MAILSTREAM has its own cache.  The cache is destroyed when the 
MAILSTREAM is closed, or if the MAILSTREAM is passed to mail_open() to 
SELECT a new mailbox.

-- Mark --
http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.