Re: [cobalt-users] Qube 3, IMAP, MySQL, PHP question from inexperienced new owner: be gentle!

["Gary Melendez" <gmelendez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Nanian" <dnanian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2001 9:28 AM
> > 1. On my system, my IMAP client (Outlook) can't create folders. Is
> this
> > a property of the IMAP server that I didn't enable, or do I always
> have
> > to create folders on the Qube in WebMail?
>
> To answer my own question here, and get the answer in the log, the
> problem is that you can't create subfolders of Inbox. Creating folders
> off the main store works OK (though I've found a message that says,
> sometimes, you have to append a slash at the end of a subfolder name to
> get it to be created).
>
> Hope this helps someone else, someday.
> --
> Dave Nanian

Dave,

I've had a bit of experience with this. It boils down to this:
For IMAP, folders that contain other folders cannot be mail folders
themselves (i.e., a folder that has other folders in it cannot be a mail
folder itself). This can be bothersome to POP users who are used to using a
tree'd or outlined structure for storing emails in local mail boxes.

Some mail clients cannot create folders within folders on IMAP at all - that
includes OE 5 and NS 4.7x. If I remember correctly, the same limitation
holds true for NS 6, although I've found it difficult to keep NS 6 running
long enough to find out what it can do <g>.

Eudora can create folders within folders but then it doesn't seem to be able
to tell them apart - i.e., it will not tell you that a folder containing
other folders is not a mail folder until you try to open it, then it will
give you some sort of error message. But, in the left pane you can expand
such a folder and then open the subfolders within it OK.

You can also go out to the user's mail directory using either FTP or file
system sharing and create regular directories that can contain mail folders.
So what happens is that mail folders are actually files and folders that
contain other folders must be actual directories.

So ... while you can create an outline or tree'd structure for your IMAP
email, you can only have actual mail boxes at the lowest branches.

What I've settled on for my users is that they can create IMAP mail boxes at
the same level as the Inbox, Outbox, etc. - and I just have them stick to
that one level, much as you have described. If they want to keep a history
or filing system for older emails, I tell them they have to move those to
local mail boxes which accomodate tree'd structures quite nicely.

Hope I've made things clearer rather than murkier. ;-)

Gary