Re: [art] Auto-configuring Email Clients via WebFinger

["John R Levine" <[e-mail]>]

> The first query in my draft is the WebFinger one where the client would receive a list of URLs to then query to get various mail server configurations.
>
> Using my wife's use case, the web server is maintained by a different team than the mail server. The only thing the web server team needs to know is where to direct the client for email configuration for each user, thus one static entry in WebFinger.  I'd expect the team managing mail server to deal with the actual mail configuration data and any authentication requirements.

As you say, it needs info for each user.  I'd think that would be a 
problem in a place where the web and mail departments don't like to 
talk to each other.

> The example in the draft with two addresses is to show that a single 
> account identifier could have multiple named email accounts behind it. I 
> suspect that would be unusual, but the possibility exists. If people 
> don't want that flexibility, we could require that only one link 
> relation be returned of the mail configuration type.

> Does that help clarify my point?

Not really.  What is an "account identifier" if it's not an e-mail 
address, and why would an MUA need to know about it?

R's,
John