Vulpes Velox wrote:
On Sun, 13 May 2007 06:55:59 -0700
Marc Perkel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Here's some thoughts I'd like to throw out there. I know it's not
standard IMAP protocol but someone has to try new ideas first and I
want to see what people (Timo) think of this.
IMAP establishes a connection between the client and the server.
Wouldn't it be great if it could be a conduit to let custom
Thunderbird plugins talk to custom server application over the IMAP
interface? For example, personalized server settings. Suppose for
example I want Thunderbird to edit my server side white lists or
black lists or any other setting? Wouldn't it be nice if IMAP
supported these changes? The connection is made. It's a secure
connection that's been authenticated. Lets use it!
Here's my initial thoughts on this. Suppose we extended IMAP to
include an EXECUTE command as follows:
EXECUTE command parameter, parameter ....
On the server side is a config file that has the commands that
execute will allow and what programs they run. When the execute
command is seen by Dovecot then Dovecot runs the program in the
list with the parameters passed. For example, suppose there is a
command to add a user to a server side blacklist.
100 execute blacklist add [EMAIL PROTECTED]
100 ok
I like the idea of having to and from added to the w/b list. That way
it would be way nicer to use with SpamAssassin.
Dovecot would open a two way connection to the server application
allowing the client to talk to any application that is configured
and can send and receive text. The connection persists until the
server end terminates or the client closes the connection.
With a tool like this one can write generic applications easily
that would greatly expand what email clients can do interacting
with the server. Not only can setting be changes but you could
interact with server side calendars, pick up voice messages from
phone systems, run any sort of groupware, all over a generic IMAP
connection with this simple extension.
Example:
100 EXECUTE calendar
100 ok
100 list schedule today 8:00 10:00
100 8:00 make coffee
100 9:00 meeting with boss
100 9:30 Call Joe Blow at 415-555-1212
100 ok
100 quit
100 ok
One thing I'd like to use it for is an outgoing SMTP connection to
send outgoing email over IMAP. A session might look like this:
999 EXECUTE smtp
999 220 darwin.ctyme.com ESMTP Exim 4.67 Sun, 13 May 2007 06:52:26
-0700 999 helo ctyme.com
999 250 darwin.ctyme.com Hello localhost [127.0.0.1]
999 mail from:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
999 250 OK
999 rcpt to:dovecot@dovecot.org
999 250 Accepted
......
999 quit
999 OK
Who likes this idea?
I love that idea. Especially if it could run it through a specified
program for deliver as well as passing the username, from, and
password to the program. It may seem like a silly idea to pass that
to the program, but it does have a awesome usage. That way the
backend program can fetch the outgoing SMTP server through some
method and figure out how to send it. Been kicking around writing
something like that for QPSMTPD. It would be nice for with
squirrelmail.
I would think that when Dovecot executed the server end program that
they would pass through in environment variables all the user name and
connection info so that the server had that info for lookups.
