Re: [Imap-protocol] Gmail and IDLE flags changes

On 2014-01-24 04:17, Benny Kjær Nielsen wrote:
> On 24 Jan 2014, at 11:50, Alexey Melnikov wrote:
>
>>> On 23 Jan 2014, at 21:32, Brandon Long <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Yes, gmail currently only notifies of new messages and expunged 
>>> messages during idle.
>>
>> Can you add an IMAP capability (or can an existing one be used) so 
>> that client can detect this behaviour?
>
> I second that! I've played with a simple workaround for Gmail in which 
> I regularly check for flag changes when in the IDLE state, but I 
> haven't enabled it because I don't like that the workaround is not 
> automatically disabled when/if Gmail IDLE is improved.
>
> I've also been wondering: The RFC on IMAP IDLE does not state it as a 
> requirement that servers must (or even should) report flag changes 
> when in the IDLE state. Has anyone done any experiments showing 
> whether or not this is a widespread IMAP server limitation (beyond 
> Gmail)?

Exchange has some "quirks" when it comes to updating an IDLE client; 
like Gmail, it flawlessly notifies when a new message is added to a 
folder, but on the Exchange side, flag changes and even deletes are 
either not sent by IDLE, or at least not done so consistently.

I've not investigated the actual IMAP implementation, but as a IMAP 
user, I see folders get out of sync until I force the client to refresh 
-- The only IMAP client-side code I interact with actually only cares 
about new messages, so I've never taken the time to investigate further.

Speaking as a user, the lack of working IMAP IDLE is extremely 
frustrating, and is a significant part of why hireahit.com is a Google 
Apps domain, but we don't use Google Apps mail, and instead host mail 
ourselves, so I'd appreciate a CAPABILITY flag that indicates to clients 
what IDLE will and will not notify, allowing clients to resort to 
polling without completely disabling IDLE for new messages.

-- 
Dave Warren
http://www.hireahit.com/
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/davejwarren


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