[Dovecot] Thinking Outside the Box - Extending IMAP

[Dave McGuire]

On May 13, 2007, at 9:55 AM, Marc Perkel 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 joe at smith.com
> 100 ok
...

   I think this is a fantastic idea!  I'm always opposed to  
proprietary extensions to standardized protocols, but in this case,  
it may be useful enough to gain acceptance.  With Dovecot (as far as  
I can tell) quickly becoming the dominant IMAP server, it probably  
has the "push" to be able to pull this off.

   Of course to make it useful you'd need some client  
support...that's even more work than implementing it in the server,  
multiple clients 'n all..

            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL