A small question about FM

Lvsheng · 15 Oct 2001, 06:27 PM

In the login page, I saw a big 'Preview' beside 'welcome to fastmail'. What is this preview mean? Or do I missed something that you geeks had previously discussed?

Jeremy Howard · 15 Oct 2001, 07:45 PM

It means that we're not charging yet! It's a 'preview release'. In practice, this means the upside that you get access to everything for free (whereas eventually free accounts will have a limited quota and restricted access to some advanced features), but the downside that we're constantly working on the system so you'll see occassional downtime (currently averaging 5 minutes per day according to our logs) while we commit new updates.

Lvsheng · 16 Oct 2001, 08:05 PM

The filter has a problem, perhaps it is still beta. Somehow it just doesn't move message after popped hotmail.

Some of the popped hotmail message will be moved to Trash. I set it to move junk message to trash, and it really did. But I doesn't move those message that I want to keep to other mailbox.

Jeremy Howard · 16 Oct 2001, 10:55 PM

Currently the filter only applies to email sent directly to your account. We haven't documented this, and we should. Sorry for the confusion.

I would like filters to apply to messages retrieved from POP/Hotmail accounts too, but I need to benchmark how much slower that makes our code before I decide whether to implement it. So no promises!

**Shelded** · 17 Oct 2001, 04:35 PM

PMJI, but I don't think you have a choice to filter some and not the others? That inconsistency is going to be horribly confusing isn't it?

Jeremy Howard · 17 Oct 2001, 05:25 PM

Yes, it's not ideal. The problem is that the filtering is done my our mail server delivery engine. But messages retrieved from POP/Hotmail accounts don't go through the delivery engine, but get directly injected into the IMAP store.

Hmmm... typing this has made me ask myself "Jeremy, why not just pipe the received messages into the delivery engine instead of direct injection?" Perhaps this inconsistency is easily fixed. Rob or I will take a look next week.

Lvsheng · 22 Oct 2001, 01:42 AM

Does FM support Sieve filtering? Or jeremy do you have any suggestion to this: In mulberry, i got about 20++ rules. Their trigger is when incoming mail account is FM. So for all Fm mailboxes, everytime I open a mailbox, it will execute these 20++ rules, which are time consuming. I just need it filter inbox. After that, for all other mailboxes, I don't want any filtering. Right now I manually disable FM trigger after I opened inbox. Well it is tedious to do so (i know i can set it to trigger on cabinet). Furthermore client site filtering still no match for server side filtering. I think the only way is to go for sieve, so how is everyone opinion?

Also does Fm has IMSP, ACAP for storing imap config? What about those address book? Any thing that FM can do using imap (or other protocol) on add book?

Jeremy Howard · 22 Oct 2001, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by abcd
Does FM support Sieve filtering?

Yes, we support Sieve indirectly. The Define Rules screen actually creates a Sieve script behind the scenes. I'd planned to add a screen to let you paste in your own Sieve script but wasn't going to make it a priority until someone requested it--which you've now done!

Quote:

Also does Fm has IMSP, ACAP for storing imap config? What about those address book? Any thing that FM can do using imap (or other protocol) on add book?

No, we don't support IMSP or ACAP for IMAP config or address synchronization, because Mulberry is the only client that supports it and it's not widely enough used to justify this.

Instead, I'm developing a new address book synchronization tool that already plugs in to Outlook Express, and we'll be adding plugins for Outlook, Eudora, Mulberry, and Pine assuming that we can access their address books programmatically. This tool is really cool, but currently anyone who wants to test it needs a reasonable understanding of Perl to use it. We'll be writing a nice graphical interface early next year when we'll officially release it. I'm really excited about this because synchronizing your contacts with FastMail.FM will be really handy, and is not something that anyone else offers AFAICT (Visto do something similar, but I don't think it's so flexible and cross-platform--although I haven't checked for a while). Once the contacts sync is working, we'll add favorites/bookmarks sync as well.

Lvsheng · 22 Oct 2001, 07:57 AM

Then about this Sieve, I must use IMSP right, if I wanna use it?

Great plan about the add book.

Jeremy Howard · 22 Oct 2001, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by abcd
Then about this Sieve, I must use IMSP right, if I wanna use it?

No, we'll provide a web interface to uploading Sieve scripts.

OK, I gotta go to a client now all day

Send Rob an email at webmasterATfastmailDOTfm if anyone needs urgent help.

neerav · 27 Dec 2001, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
Instead, I'm developing a new address book synchronization tool that already plugs in to Outlook Express, and we'll be adding plugins for Outlook, Eudora, Mulberry, and Pine assuming that we can access their address books programmatically. This tool is really cool, but currently anyone who wants to test it needs a reasonable understanding of Perl to use it.

Jeremy,

Has there been any progress on these modules? I have a "reasonable understanding" of PERL and would LOVE to help test out the Eudora plugin.

PM or email me.

--Neerav

Jeremy Howard · 28 Dec 2001, 05:25 AM

There's no Eudora plugin yet. You could help out by either digging up the details of Eudora's address book format and an API for accessing, or even writing this backend.

Backends are easy to write--the Outlook Express one is only 70 lines. However they do require an understanding of OO Perl.

neerav · 29 Dec 2001, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
There's no Eudora plugin yet. You could help out by either digging up the details of Eudora's address book format and an API for accessing, or even writing this backend.

I'll dig up that info. I'll do something productive in this vacation, yet!

Fortunately, Eudora addressbooks are text files (rather than resources), unfortunately, each entry takes upto three individual lines with each line scattered liberally and semi-randomly in the page.

Quote:

Backends are easy to write--the Outlook Express one is only 70 lines. However they do require an understanding of OO Perl.

Ugh. I learned PERL in two intensive days, but 18 months later... OOP just doesn't sink in. It's all the "blessing" and "objects, methods, classes, inheritance".....

If I learn OOP by next week, I'll give you a holler!

--Neerav

Jeremy Howard · 29 Dec 2001, 06:59 AM

Is the Eudora address book the same on Mac and Windows? Is is the same format for v4 and v5? Does it include a 'last modified date' for each entry?

BTW, for learning OO Perl I strongly recommend Damian Conway's Object Oriented Perl. It's thorough, readable, witty, and quite brilliant. It's literally one of the best technical books that I've ever read. And I'd say that even if Damian didn't come from my home town (Melbourne, Australia)!

PS: Damian is also the guy responsible for the engine behind that nifty 'format' action on the FastMail.FM Compose screen.

neerav · 29 Dec 2001, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
Is the Eudora address book the same on Mac and Windows? Is is the same format for v4 and v5? Does it include a 'last modified date' for each entry?

I've finally given in. I'm going to install Eudora on someone's Win machine so I can learn about these differences. AFAIK, addressbooks did not change between v4 and v5 in terms of format, though there were additions such as virtual business cards, more phone numbers, etc. When you see one of the files, you'll realize it's not a problem.

As for last modified date, there is not such a feature for each entry. If it is, it's not obvious. There is a Mac resource which contains an NToc with is a Names Table of Contents, which appears to have some information, but I will have to try to hash out the code. Again, I'll look into the Win side in a couple of days.

Quote:

[i]BTW, for learning OO Perl I strongly recommend Damian Conway's Object Oriented Perl. It's thorough, readable, witty, and quite brilliant. It's literally one of the best technical books that I've ever read.[/b]

All right, then. It's on the top of my list! Now, to see if it's available off the shelf in my tiny corner of the world....

--Neerav

15 Oct 2001, 06:27 PM	#1
Lvsheng Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Kuala Lumpur, MY Posts: 392	A small question about FM In the login page, I saw a big 'Preview' beside 'welcome to fastmail'. What is this preview mean? Or do I missed something that you geeks had previously discussed?

15 Oct 2001, 07:45 PM	#2
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	It means that we're not charging yet! It's a 'preview release'. In practice, this means the upside that you get access to everything for free (whereas eventually free accounts will have a limited quota and restricted access to some advanced features), but the downside that we're constantly working on the system so you'll see occassional downtime (currently averaging 5 minutes per day according to our logs) while we commit new updates.

16 Oct 2001, 08:05 PM	#3
Lvsheng Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Kuala Lumpur, MY Posts: 392	The filter has a problem, perhaps it is still beta. Somehow it just doesn't move message after popped hotmail. Some of the popped hotmail message will be moved to Trash. I set it to move junk message to trash, and it really did. But I doesn't move those message that I want to keep to other mailbox.

16 Oct 2001, 10:55 PM	#4
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Currently the filter only applies to email sent directly to your account. We haven't documented this, and we should. Sorry for the confusion. I would like filters to apply to messages retrieved from POP/Hotmail accounts too, but I need to benchmark how much slower that makes our code before I decide whether to implement it. So no promises!

17 Oct 2001, 04:35 PM	#5
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	PMJI, but I don't think you have a choice to filter some and not the others? That inconsistency is going to be horribly confusing isn't it?

17 Oct 2001, 05:25 PM	#6
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Yes, it's not ideal. The problem is that the filtering is done my our mail server delivery engine. But messages retrieved from POP/Hotmail accounts don't go through the delivery engine, but get directly injected into the IMAP store. Hmmm... typing this has made me ask myself "Jeremy, why not just pipe the received messages into the delivery engine instead of direct injection?" Perhaps this inconsistency is easily fixed. Rob or I will take a look next week.

22 Oct 2001, 01:42 AM	#7
Lvsheng Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Kuala Lumpur, MY Posts: 392	Does FM support Sieve filtering? Or jeremy do you have any suggestion to this: In mulberry, i got about 20++ rules. Their trigger is when incoming mail account is FM. So for all Fm mailboxes, everytime I open a mailbox, it will execute these 20++ rules, which are time consuming. I just need it filter inbox. After that, for all other mailboxes, I don't want any filtering. Right now I manually disable FM trigger after I opened inbox. Well it is tedious to do so (i know i can set it to trigger on cabinet). Furthermore client site filtering still no match for server side filtering. I think the only way is to go for sieve, so how is everyone opinion? Also does Fm has IMSP, ACAP for storing imap config? What about those address book? Any thing that FM can do using imap (or other protocol) on add book?

22 Oct 2001, 07:57 AM	#9
Lvsheng Essential Contributor Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Kuala Lumpur, MY Posts: 392	Then about this Sieve, I must use IMSP right, if I wanna use it? Great plan about the add book.

28 Dec 2001, 05:25 AM	#12
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	There's no Eudora plugin yet. You could help out by either digging up the details of Eudora's address book format and an API for accessing, or even writing this backend. Backends are easy to write--the Outlook Express one is only 70 lines. However they do require an understanding of OO Perl.

29 Dec 2001, 06:59 AM	#14
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Is the Eudora address book the same on Mac and Windows? Is is the same format for v4 and v5? Does it include a 'last modified date' for each entry? BTW, for learning OO Perl I strongly recommend Damian Conway's Object Oriented Perl. It's thorough, readable, witty, and quite brilliant. It's literally one of the best technical books that I've ever read. And I'd say that even if Damian didn't come from my home town (Melbourne, Australia)! PS: Damian is also the guy responsible for the engine behind that nifty 'format' action on the FastMail.FM Compose screen.