Re: [Jmap] Submission

[Neil Jenkins <[e-mail]>]

Yes, the intention is the server will build the RFC5322 message, add and
strip headers as appropriate and set the SMTP envelope information.
After sending, the server moves the message from the Outbox to Sent, or
deletes it and writes a new one if it adds in extra information (since
the message is immutable with the same id). This covers everything
normal email clients need to do. There are other niche use cases, but
JMAP doesn't have to deal with everything. SMTP Submission will still
exist, but this simplifies things in the overwhelmingly common case.
> * It requires the client and server clocks to be in synch

Almost every device these days uses NTP or equivalent to set their
system clock. We have not observed significant clock skew issues with
our client for years.
> * it delays the message (who ever wants to do this?)

You're joking, right? The ability to "undo send" is *enormously*
popular. Being able to do this in a standardised way for desktop clients
would be a huge win over the current situation. Normally you would use a
window of something like 30 seconds in the future. Scheduled send is
also moderately popular in a certain niche.
> * opening a window to cancel the message before it's sent seems a bit
>   nonsensical / contrived to me sorry.  A UA using this is just mainly
>   going to make itself useless for mail conversations by unnecessarily
>   delaying mail.
The UA does not *have* to delay the send. It can omit setting an
explicit date on the message, in which case the server will set the date
to now(), and immediately send the message. But the ability to do so for
clients that want to make use of this is very important.
> I think submission should be a separate command so that the client can
> specify needed envelope information independently of the message
> content.  Even if this were an additional option.
The trouble is options increase complexity and testing requirements. The
current spec does not *require* servers to support delayed send. The
canDelaySend capability property lets clients know if it does. Servers
that don't support it could even not have a real "outbox" folder but
just a synthetic one as anything moved to it is sent immediately (or the
move is rejected if the message is invalid).
Neil.