Re: [RFC] : New features (search, filters, virtual folders...)

[Carlos Morgado <chbm chbm nu>]

On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 07:16:59PM +0100, Emmanuel wrote:
> 	Hi all,
> yeah we approach 1.3.x developpement release so I can't help it, I want to 
> share ideas about new features for Balsa. I began to talk with Carlos 
> about it in private, and find it natural to bring it to the list.
> 
> First of all, ASA the filters patch will be incorporated in 1.3.x dev 
> cycle (that will be soon, or even for the first release, please confirm 
> that Carlos :). So we will have an (rather basic, and we will have to fix 

pawel does the releases but yes, i think we are unoficially in 1.3 now and
1.2 is behind us. i'm ready to start breaking instead of fixin :)
anyway, filters are due for merge into 1.3.0 (btw, i expect 1.3.0 to be very
broken :))

> all the design flaws and weird bugs :) infrastructure that will allow us 
> to implement all these new features :
> 	* filtering on demand or automatic filtering (eg on reception, on 
> exit, that's what is planned for now, but this is extensible) : this is 
> what is in place for now and work pretty well (at least for me and few 
> others, though I don't use automatic filtering and this part is not really 
> well tested, isn't it Carlos ;-)

well, i just applied it to cvs, compiled and played like 2 minutes with the
UI. it didn't break imediatly :)

> 	* search functions : using the "matching functions" (we'll have 
> perhaps to split the current API to have more flexible funcs) we can 
> implement a "classical" search func, ie search in place that is you enter 
> a matching rule, click the button and you are moved to the first (or last, 
> or next...) message matching this rule, but also we could have something 
> different : something like an "out of place" search, I think of a popup 
> window with a list of message that match the rules, you browse it and 
> double-click on whatever message will let you see the message (eg it will 
> select the message in the mailbox, or simply open a new window that will 
> print the whole message like when you now double-click on a message in the 
> list; this should certainly be choosable by prefs).

"out of place" is the same as the next point as far as i'm concerned
'in place' can be implemented pretty much the same way, but it's a transient
bindex and "out of place" may get saved across balsa incarnations

and then there is procmail style filtering, but that sounds easy :)

and then there is knowing what messages you already filtered and which are
new ones for copy/move rules. this scares me.

> 	* virtual folders (I don't know Evolution but everyone speaks 
> about it, shame on me :) : as I have thought about it, it is a "fake" 
> mailbox, and, when you launch it, it will be filled in by all messages 
> (from one or several mailboxes) matching the rules you had set up. Also 

iirc evolution uses the neat-o mbox indexing system to do vfolders. i'm not
sure how they deal with invalidation and ugly stuff like that.
for starters we could prolly calculate the vfolders on startup (oh that
blows dead bears - and it's utter crap on imap) and then try to manage them
when the mailboxes are changed (ref counting fun!)

> each message in the virtual folder will be like "symlinks" in file 
> systems, that is I think like the search func when double-clicking a 
> message in the v. folder you will be either moved to the actual message, 
> or the message will be pop-uped in a new window, or whatever other 
> possibility you can think of.
> 

la la la the joys of searching on imap boxes and constructing
vfolders/virtual-indexes/whatever based on that.

> OK here it is, comment, flame war, whatever welcome :) before I try to 
> code one or another.

dude, i talk too much :)


-- 
Carlos Morgado - chbm(at)chbm(dot)nu - http://chbm.nu/ -- gpgkey: 0x1FC57F0A 
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