[Dovecot] Thinking Outside the Box - Extending IMAP

[Gabriel Millerd]

On 5/13/07, Marc Perkel <marc at perkel.com> 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.
>

Somewhat off topic.

I long time ago rather than making just a intranet/extranet website
that dealt out reports I made a imap daemon in perl that would also
serve the same report. Easily navigated virtual folders and subject
lines that helped with the content and attachments.

The backend would handle the authentication, new/read/flag, caching
the reports if needed, automatic folder subscription.

This was very useful for people that live in outlook, need to get
price lists on the road. The phrase 'awesome the noon call center
report is done' isn't something that you often think you would hear,
but is priceless.

I also made a imap front end to bugzilla in much the same manner for
people that couldn't handle bugzilla but that I wanted to be involved
(project managers / executives). Product Folder->Component
Subfolder->Threaded Bugs all coupled with a smtp2bugzilla gateway.

I find imap's ability to be secure and easy to integrate into the
personalized desktop. For some things its better than the browser.

Only thing that will get you in some of the above examples is a maniac
anti-virus administrator that wants all the outlook copies to rip
through your server frequently ... ouch.

-- 
Gabriel Millerd