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

["Paul E. Jones" <[e-mail]>]

John,

>>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.

I did not mean to suggest they will not talk, but it's always best to 
minimize touch points, as coordination can be difficult. I've found that 
particularly true with larger companies, but I suspect that's why so 
many just use Outlook and Exchange.

>>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?

That's a WebFinger thing. When querying a WebFinger server, you ask it 
"tell me about acct:[e-mail]", for example. The account 
identifier looks like an email address, but doesn't fully conform to the 
syntax of an email address. It would for 99% of the users out there, I 
suspect, but somebody somewhere might still use some UUCP-style 
addresses. WebFinger would still work for that, as the account ID would 
be different from the email address. That's why I put the email address 
into the mail server config JSON document.

Paul