Plugging into the imap system

[Rob Banz]

On Dec 20, 2007, at 02:24, Gabriele Bulfon wrote:

> Hello,
> I would like to know if there is some way of plugging into the  
> system with custom agents to be notified of any event happening on  
> the imap server.
> For example, I would like some code of mine to be called when new  
> messages are: written into mailboxes, deleted from mailboxes,  
> modified etc. etc.
>
> The main reason for this is to implement a synchronization code.
> We're using the cyrus imap server not only for mails but also for  
> other informations stored as attachments into emails (agenda events,  
> contacts and others) into specific folders, and these objects are  
> handled by client softwares.
> It would be great to be able to implement our servers with add on  
> software of ours being able to intercept objects modifications and  
> mantain event synchronization informations (for example to deliver  
> the same data to mobile devices).
>
> Thanx for any help
> Gabriele Bulfon.
>

Let me just say that I think this approach is a really bad idea.  Not  
only because Cyrus has no built-in API to handle this in the way  
you're thinking, but it will simply create the same problem we have  
with all of these "integrated suites" such as Zimbra, Exchange, and  
OCS, by tying the implementation of the mail message store to the  
functionality of your entire suite.

For the love of <insert diety here>, be forward thinking and keep them  
separate.

(wow, and you're using an IMAP store for your calendar information?   
That's kind of like using a database as a filesystem, or ... oh well,  
what IS this world coming to.)

-rob