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gmail 2.2.1 various issues

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gmail 2.2.1 various issues
Hi,

I have gmail 2.2.1 and Pop_Server plugin installed on freebsd/mod_perl/mysql system and have a few questions.

first: regarding the popserver plugin. the plugin seems to work ok, except that when a user logs in using pop to check their mail, it downloads ALL mail from ALL folders in their account--read, unread, sent--not just unread mail. (even stuff in the trash if the account is not set to delete trash on logout). is this the default behavior? if so, is it possible to modify the plugin to only download unread mail (and not trash, even if unread)?

second: short of a complete re-install (which isn't what I want to do), what is the best way to "purge" all existing user data from the system, including database records and files on disk--attachments--everything. I realize you can delete user accounts from the admin interface, but how can I verify that all data has in fact been deleted? for example, what happens when a user uploads an attachment when preparing to send an email, and then decides not to send the mail or loses their connection or moves to another section in the interface, etc. is this uploaded attachment left "in limbo" somwhere on the system? what would be very helpful is some kind of software architecture/database diagram that provides an overall look at the way in which gmail stores email data and attachments. I think this would be of great assistance in administering the system. it would perhaps allow me to write a script to delete "uploaded but not sent" attachments after a certain time period or something of this nature.

third: regarding the consistency.pl script in .../batch/tools/ it includes this readme excerpt:

"This script will check your Gossamer Mail installation and make sure
messages on disk are in the database, and messages in the database are
also on disk. It also performs a few other database integrity checks."

what are some of the possible underlying causes of the types of inconsistencies that "consistency.pl" is designed to fix? (so perhaps I can perform some other system checks to prevent them from occurring in the first place). for example, what would cause messages to be "on disk and not in the database" or "in the database but not on disk?" should this script be run on a regular basis and is there a recommended interval for doing so? what is the potential for undesireable results when running this script (ie, any known bugs)?

fourth: has anyone had success in writing a plugin to check remote mail from other webmail services that have http user interfaces, but not POP access?

fifth: anyone know anything about this company or used their services? http://www.agriya.com. they are listed in the gmail help section under customization
thanks for your help.
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Re: [zeke] gmail 2.2.1 various issues In reply to
In Reply To:
first: regarding the popserver plugin. the plugin seems to work ok, except that when a user logs in using pop to check their mail, it downloads ALL mail from ALL folders in their account--read, unread, sent--not just unread mail. (even stuff in the trash if the account is not set to delete trash on logout). is this the default behavior? if so, is it possible to modify the plugin to only download unread mail (and not trash, even if unread)?
Yes, that looks like incorrect behaviour. The correct behaviour should be to just list all emails in their inbox (read or unread - it's the mail client's responsibility to distinguish between emails which have been downloaded and which haven't). I'm currently working on the Gossamer Mail 2.2.2 release, so once I'm done with that (in a few days), I'll work on getting this behaviour fixed.

In Reply To:
second: short of a complete re-install (which isn't what I want to do), what is the best way to "purge" all existing user data from the system, including database records and files on disk--attachments--everything. I realize you can delete user accounts from the admin interface, but how can I verify that all data has in fact been deleted?
If you want to do that, it'd be just easier to reinstall. Move your current installation to another directory, and install a new copy to where the old copy was. Then just copy over your Config/Data.pm and your templates.

Otherwise, to purge the database, just go into Setup => SQL, and recreate all your tables (overwrite them). That will purge all your users and emails from the database. The purge things from disk, you'll have to remove everything inside of data/msgs and everything in the domains in data/users.

In Reply To:
for example, what happens when a user uploads an attachment when preparing to send an email, and then decides not to send the mail or loses their connection or moves to another section in the interface, etc. is this uploaded attachment left "in limbo" somwhere on the system?
These files are cleaned up automatically the next time they visit the compose page.

In Reply To:
what are some of the possible underlying causes of the types of inconsistencies that "consistency.pl" is designed to fix? (so perhaps I can perform some other system checks to prevent them from occurring in the first place). for example, what would cause messages to be "on disk and not in the database" or "in the database but not on disk?" should this script be run on a regular basis and is there a recommended interval for doing so? what is the potential for undesireable results when running this script (ie, any known bugs)?
Generally, you shouldn't get any inconsistencies, but if your server crashes while Gossamer Mail is performing some operation, it could become inconsistent. For example, if it receives an email, and it writes the email to disk and just as it begins writing the associated information to the database, your machine crashes, then you may get an inconsistency (not entirely true, but you get the point). Running it shouldn't cause any undesireable results.

In Reply To:
fourth: has anyone had success in writing a plugin to check remote mail from other webmail services that have http user interfaces, but not POP access?
I don't believe anyone has written anything for Gossamer Mail, but I know there is code out there to do so for hotmail and such. This is one of the things on my wanted list for Gossamer Mail 3.x.

Adrian
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Re: [brewt] gmail 2.2.1 various issues In reply to
thanks Adrian for your complete and helpful response. one follow-up below

In Reply To:
In Reply To:
first: regarding the popserver plugin. the plugin seems to work ok, except that when a user logs in using pop to check their mail, it downloads ALL mail from ALL folders in their account--read, unread, sent--not just unread mail. (even stuff in the trash if the account is not set to delete trash on logout). is this the default behavior? if so, is it possible to modify the plugin to only download unread mail (and not trash, even if unread)?
Yes, that looks like incorrect behaviour. The correct behaviour should be to just list all emails in their inbox (read or unread - it's the mail client's responsibility to distinguish between emails which have been downloaded and which haven't). I'm currently working on the Gossamer Mail 2.2.2 release, so once I'm done with that (in a few days), I'll work on getting this behaviour fixed.

that would be much appreciated. one issue I can see regarding only listing email in the user's "inbox" is if the user has filters setup on their webmail account. in this case, they may have new mail on the server that has been filtered into other mailboxes--in fact they may have new mail and all of it ends up in folders other than the inbox. also, let me clarify what I meant regarding "unread" vs. "read" mail. by this I mean mail that the user has already viewed using their webmail interface--thus marking the mail as "read." this is opposed to the email client determining whether a particular email has been previously downloaded (I think this may be what you were talking about). perhaps in your revision there could be an added option in the webmail interface for the user to decide whether when checking mail with a remote client the popserver will download all their mail from their various folders, or only download "unread" mail (and never mail from the trash or sent folders in either case).
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Re: [zeke] gmail 2.2.1 various issues In reply to
I think only listing unread (to Gossamer Mail) messages would be a very strange thing to do. Anyone using Gossamer Mail through POP3 is going to be using it through POP3 normally (on a day to day basis), so this means it should work like a normal POP3 server. Anytime the user would be using the web interface would be when they're not using their mail client.

Only listing unread messages would only make sense if the opposite was the case - normally use Gossamer Mail, but use POP3 when they're on the road.

Adrian