Re: Mail Cookies

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 22:44:08 +0100 Hadmut Danisch <[email protected]> 
wrote:
 
> When a message comes in with a cookie, this might e.g. affect 
> the way the message is treated, maybe given higher priority, 
> routed differently. Maybe a simple authentication method for 
> mailing lists. Maybe a hint for sorting messages into folders.
> Maybe to automatically include your customer number for mails 
> sent to any company. 

To what general purpose?   I see some "maybe" scenarios of use but they 
seem somewhat amorphous.   You need to define the use in more general 
terms of enabling functionality.

Such as ...

Mail cookies (like Web cookies) are provided for storing multistep 
application contextual state in a stateless protocol.   The state is 
application specific but is usually associated with the concept of a 
"session".   Mail applications that use multiple messages exchanged 
between two or more recipients can use the cookie to hold higher level 
application state across the set of mail message transactions.

(Pompous sounding isn't it).

I can see a use for multi-message mail applications -- we actually 
implement some in closed systems that are layered on top of standard 
Internet mail using custom multipart/related payloads.   What you are 
talking about is including it in the base mail system (optionally I 
presume).   

I know that it could be layered on top of the mail system and you could
manage the state by making the "cookie" part of the application specific 
payload -- because we've done it.  I'm not sure that it should be included
in the base mail system layer.

An interesting idea, which is the mode we are in.   It needs to be defined
as an enabling service function though that higher level usages can be 
layered on.   

Cheers.

---
Steve Hole
Chief Technology Officer
ACI Worldwide
<mailto:[email protected]>
Phone: 780-424-4922