[Dovecot] OT: IMAP folder aliases

[Patrick Ben Koetter]

* Ed W <lists at wildgooses.com>:
> Patrick Ben Koetter wrote:
>> It seems that there is no standard for folder names that deal with typical
>> message classes such as drafts, outbox, sent, spam etc. At least there's no
>> common sense on a naming convention that tells how client should handle this.
>>
>> Worse than this, most IMAP clients auto-create folders according to their own
>> naming convention if they don't exist. Every client introduces its own view.
>>
>> Users OTOH expect a single view that makes it easy for them to find their
>> messages. They are unwilling to search in "sent", "sent-mail" or "Sent items"
>> for "messages that have been sent".
>>
>> I doubt that software producers will adopt a standard naming convention if it
>> was introduced within a useful time span.
>>
>> Has anyone seen an approach or a solution that solves the problem from a users
>> point of view? A server side alias list that maps to a server standard?
>>
>>   
>
> A crude workaround would seem to be symlinks.  Perhaps a cron job to  
> scan for likely aliases, then merge them into your preferred folder  
> names and symlink them.  This would mean if the user creates a "Sent"  
> folder, you would eventually find it, and symlink it to your "Sent  
> Items" folder and merge any items created so far. 

Been there...


> This is imperfect in that you end up with multiple folders visible in  
> the folder list (confusingly often showing the same data in each...).   
> Deletes are also going to be fun because deleting "Sent" will just kill  
> the symlink, deleting "Sent Items" will kill all your mail and leave the  
> symlinks broken...  Server side aliases would help here I guess?

Exactly. You get n views instead of one. The total opposite of what I am
aiming for at the moment.


> The XLIST extension as others have pointed out will help a lot.  Feature  
> request for Dovecot I guess?

XLIST should be a standard. I haven't found a reference or at least an attempt
to make it a standard yet.

p at rick


> Possibly there is some clever way to use namespaces to help hide these  
> duplicated folders..?
>
> Would love to see this solved myself also!
>
> Good luck
>
> Ed W