[Dovecot] Pigeonhole sieve re-filter extension?

[T.B.]

> On 05/06/2014 01:05 PM, Stephan Bosch wrote:
>
> I proposed something like this in the past, but it didn't catch much attention.
The only reason I can imagine is the classic chicken-and-egg problem. 
IMHO the demand is there!

Sieve is still hard to use ... the integration in many MUA's is not 
end-user friendly.
No normal user wants to learn a new complex language just to sort some 
mails to sub-folders.
Many interfaces just allow preconfigured Sieve scripts, e.g. for 
vacation absence.
So at the moment- sieve is mainly used by administrators and enthusiasts.
Few Managesieve clients already have some user-friendly kind of point 
and click or drag and drop GUI - But they are coming!

The wish to move or filter mail comes from EXISTING mails - usually you 
have a big INBOX and want to do something with it because you lost the 
overwiew - you want to delete mails or restructure them in sub-folders.
But there is NO solution atm.
The normal user now has two possibilities: Run to the administrator an 
beg him to start re-filtering [ -> unacceptable] - or he uses some other 
client side filtering which you can find in Outlook or Thunderbird. To 
do client side filtering he has to re-create filter rules with the MUA's 
own filter GUI.
Both is not an acceptable workflow - not at all. No normal user will do 
that.
A third manual alternative would be to use the search function to do 
something with the mails - but also in addition to the sieve rules, 
which is also an additional step.

An Managesieve protocol extension to trigger refiltering is THE "missing 
piece" for an consistent and acceptable workflow in the modern world 
where multiple devices use the same IMAP account.

IMHO the implementation would be relatively easy: The functionality is 
already implemented ("sieve-filter"). And call parameters of 
"sieve-filter" like -e and -W need an equivalent in the Managesieve 
protocol.
Of course everything should be cast in a RFC :)
What do you think?


Am 06.05.2014 13:29, schrieb A.L.E.C:
> There are some similarities, but I think this is not what we want here.
> We don't need imap events, we don't need new sieve extensions, we don't
> need metadata. All we need is one simple imap (or managesieve) command
> that executes current (or specified) script on specified folder (or
> maybe later a set of messages, like in IMAP SEARCH). The implementation
> then would be much simpler.

Exactly - nothing left to be added.


Kind Regards,

T.B.