[Design] Chandler as an email client? Another idea...

[Mimi Yin]

Hi Oren,

I don't think you'll find anyone who disagrees with that sentiment on  
the list. I think the point Morgen is trying to make (Morgen please  
jump in if I misrepresent) is given that "replacing my email client"  
is a rather high bar to hit with most users (especially our info- 
centric target users)...

Is there something between what we have today and a usable 1.0 PIM  
with fully integrated, fully functional email client that can be:

+ more than just "experimentally usable" to users, yet still
+ communicates Chandler's "integrated" approach to information  
management

Mimi

On Jan 18, 2006, at 4:37 PM, Oren Sreebny wrote:

> One thing I'll note is that at least here at the University of  
> Washington, one thing we hear constantly from our users that they  
> *do* want a PIM to integrate email and calendaring into a single  
> application - that's one of the main attractions of Outlook for  
> people (no matter how good or poor the integration actually is).
>
> - Oren
>
> On Jan 13, 2006, at 3:52 PM, Morgen Sagen wrote:
>
>> I was thinking about where on the scale from "none-at-all" to  
>> "full-blown" Chandler should be when it comes to our email  
>> implementation.  It would take one heck of a Chandler email client  
>> to make me stop using the application I use now.  If we have an  
>> incomplete implementation that tries to be an email client, then  
>> I'll probably end up dealing with email in two places (in Chandler  
>> and in my other email app) which I'm not sure is optimal.  If we  
>> want to instead embrace existing clients and figure out how  
>> Chandler can interoperate with them, one possibility would be to  
>> embed an IMAP server inside Chandler.  People could then stick  
>> with their favorite email client, connected to their usual IMAP  
>> server and *also* connect to the Chandler IMAP server running on  
>> their local machine.  What does this enable:
>>
>> 1) A way to get items into Chandler:  We could use IMAP folders  
>> being served from Chandler itself as a mechanism to create  
>> Chandler items.  Say an email comes in and I want to make a task  
>> out of it -- just drag the message into a Tasks folder in the  
>> Chandler account (all within my email app's UI) and Chandler  
>> automatically generates a Task Item in the repository containing  
>> the body of that email.  Attachments would be extracted an  
>> converted to items, etc.
>>
>> 2) A way to get items from Chandler to email client:  Items within  
>> Chandler could appear as emails within the Chandler IMAP folders.   
>> They could then also be forwarded to other people just like any  
>> other email message, using your mail client.  The Chandler IMAP  
>> folders could be 'virtual', meaning you could create a folder  
>> named OSAF, and all Chandler items which have the OSAF tag would  
>> automatically appear there.  Or there could be folders per  
>> collection, etc.
>>
>> 3) A way to generate/send email messages from Chandler:  I believe  
>> it would be easy to have Chandler trigger a mail client to open up  
>> a message-authoring window, complete with To: and Subject: (and  
>> maybe the body too?) pre-populated, ready for the user to edit/ 
>> send.  Or an alternative would be for Chandler to directly create  
>> an email message in the local Chandler Drafts folder, ready for  
>> the user to edit/send.
>>
>>
>> Chandler would also continue to have (internal) IMAP/POP/SMTP  
>> client support:
>>
>> 4) Simple emails such as sharing invitations don't really require  
>> a full blown email client UI, and thus could be sent using  
>> something akin to the current detail view, not using an external  
>> client.
>>
>> 5) Chandler could monitor the user's real IMAP/POP inbox, watching  
>> for special emails that are Chandler specific (like sharing  
>> invitations) and processing them.
>>
>>
>> My understanding is that Twisted has server-side IMAP support  
>> already, so we wouldn't be starting from scratch.  This is  
>> something I might tinker with...
>>
>> ~morgen
>>
>> P.S.  There are other scenarios like having Chandler actually be  
>> an IMAP proxy between your email client and your IMAP server...   
>> another possiblity.
>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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