On 5/13/07, Marc Perkel <marc@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