Re: [Jmap] simpler future release & unsend without outbox (was Re: Best vs Good enough - adoption of JMAP)

[Neil Jenkins <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, 26 Apr 2017, at 05:54 PM, Chris Newman wrote:
> I'll describe a model that achieves my goal […]
> 1. Get rid of the server-side outbox. We only have a drafts folder
>    and a> sent folder.
> 
> 2. Add a submission command with envelope (same structure as SMTP
> envelope but JSON syntax and quoting). We pass this command a
> reference> to a draft message in the drafts folder, and if the submission
> succeeds,> the message is moved to the sent folder with the envelope as an
> annotation. The envelope can include the already-standard
> future release> extension.
> 
> 3. Add an unsend command which takes a reference to a message in the
> sent folder. If the unsend succeeds, the message can be moved back to> the drafts folder as part of this action. How the server correlates a> message in the sent folder with a message in the mail queue is an
> implementation detail; the spec need not specify that detail in
> order to> provide the functionality with this model.
> 
> 4. Add a way to search/select messages in the Sent folder that may be> possible to unsend.

>From a protocol perspective, this model is basically identical to the
outbox model proposed. The only difference is that rather than put the
messages that can still be recalled in a separate "outbox" mailbox, you
put them in the sent mailbox and require some kind of search. The only
extra component your server will need is something that moves the
message from outbox to sent when it can no longer be recalled; I
seriously don't think this is a huge implementation burden. As Brandon
has pointed out, modern mailstores need this kind of "scheduled events"
plumbing for a number of user-facing features, and it has already been
implemented at scale in a number of systems.
>From a user interface perspective, I maintain it is clearer for the user
for these to be two separate mailboxes, and it also has the advantage
that mailboxes have a message count so MUAs can more easily see if there
are any messages waiting to be sent still. (I would expect most MUAs to
hide the outbox when empty.)
Neil.