20.7.2 Message Types in IMAP Commands

When you configure the store.messagetype.x.flagname parameter for a message type, you create a unique flag that identifies the message type. This flag cannot be modified by end users.

Messaging Server presents the message-type flag as a user flag to IMAP clients. Mapping the message type to a user flag allows mail clients to use simple IMAP commands to manipulate messages by message type.

For example, you can perform the following operations:

• Use the IMAP FETCH FLAGS command to display a message-type flag name as a user-defined flag to the client.

  For a sample use of the IMAP FETCH FLAGS command, see Example 20–1, shown below.

• Use a message-type flag as a keyword in an IMAP SEARCH command.

  For a sample use of the IMAP SEARCH command, see Example 20–1, shown below.

The message-type user flag is read only. It cannot be modified by IMAP commands.

The following examples assume you configure the message-type configutil parameters with the values shown here:

store.messagetype.enable = yes

store.messagetype.1 = text/plain
store.messagetype.1.flagname = text
store.messagetype.1.quotaroot = text

store.messagetype.2 = multipart/voice-message
store.messagetype.2.flagname = voice_message
store.messagetype.2.quotaroot = voice

Example 20–1 IMAP FETCH Session Based on the Message-Type configutil Configurations

The following IMAP session fetches messages for the currently selected mailbox:

2 fetch 1:2 (flags rfc822)
* 1 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen text) RFC822 {164}

Date: Wed, 8 July 2006 03:39:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: bob.smith@siroe.com
To: john.doe@siroe.com
Subject:  Hello
Content-Type: TEXT/plain; charset=us-ascii


* 2 FETCH (FLAGS (\Seen voice_message) RFC822 {164}

Date: Wed, 8 July 2006 04:17:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: sally.lee@siroe.com
To: john.doe@siroe.com
Subject:  Our Meeting
Content-Type: MULTIPART/voice-message; ver=2.0

2 OK COMPLETED

In the preceding example, two messages are fetched, one text message and one voice mail.

The message-type flags are displayed in the format configured with the store.messagetype.*.flagname parameter.

The Content-Type header fields identify the message types. The message-type names are displayed as they were received in the incoming messages. They use mixed uppercase and lowercase letters and include the message-type arguments such as charset=us-ascii.

Example 20–2 IMAP SEARCH Session Based on the Message-Type configutil Configurations

The following IMAP session searches for voice messages for the currently selected mailbox:

3 search keyword voice_message
* SEARCH 2 4 6 
3 OK COMPLETED

In the preceding example, messages 2, 4, and 6 are voice messages. The keyword used in the search is voice_message, the value of the store.messagetype.2.flagname parameter.