MBOX-Line: From MRC at CAC.Washington.EDU  Wed Jun 13 15:41:14 2007
To: imap-protocol@u.washington.edu
From: Mark Crispin <MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU>
Date: Fri Jun  8 12:34:39 2018
Subject: [Imap-protocol] namespace ?
In-Reply-To: <fc2c80ae0706131530i398f2611if55f13acffb9f00f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <fc2c80ae0706131530i398f2611if55f13acffb9f00f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <alpine.WNT.0.99.0706131531550.3260@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washignton.EDU>

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007, DINH Vi?t Ho? wrote:
> I would like to understand what is the point of namespace.
> Since, for separator for the first level, it can be returned with
> requesting LIST "" "%".

Not correct.

Namespaces are independent hierarchies, and may even have a completely 
different hierarchy delimiter.  They are NOT top-level items in the 
default hierarchy.

For example, in UW imapd, the default namespace has a delimiter of "/" in 
the default ("") hierarchy, but can also access newsgroups in the "#news."
hierarchy with the "." delimiter.

> I don't understand how it should be shown in a user agent.
> Why LIST would not be sufficient for that ?

LIST only lists within a single namespace.

> What I was planning to do for a user agent was to request NAMESPACE
> and do a LIST on each namespace so that the user can choose which
> mailbox of any NAMESPACE to subscribe.

Please don't.  You should only list a namespace if the user specifically 
asks to do so.  Some namespaces may be huge.

Just add the namespace to a menu, opened when the user requests it.

> Since NAMESPACE won't give a description of what the namespace is, I
> don't know how the user would choose a specific NAMESPACE to show for
> the subscription.

That's like writing a file browser that says "since the directory won't 
give a description of what the directory is for, I should list all the 
directories."

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
