New 'mail' event & Why auto 'Mark as Read' ? about node-imap

[mscdex]

@gkrcode set the markSeen property of fetch()'s second argument to false (e.g. fetch(12345, { markSeen: false, ... }); )

markSeen defaults to false anyway though....

[andris9]

The answer for 2) is that you should set the readOnly parameter for openBox to true

imap.openBox('INBOX', true, cb);

[gkrcode]

Thanks andris,

But it stops me from making changes to the opened box, Is there any other way to stop the auto 'Mark as Read' ?

[gkrcode]

Thanks @mscdex, still looking for answer for the question no 1 too :)

[mscdex]

@gkrcode I don't quite understand your first question. The mail event should only fire when new mail comes in while you're connected.

So if the mail event is emitted one time for 5 new emails and then a short time later is emitted for 10 new emails, those previous 5 are not included in the 10 that just arrived. Assuming you had no other unseen emails during this time, a search() then for unseen emails would result in a total of 15 new messages.

[gkrcode]

thanks @mscdex

Please let me explain it more clearly,

As for as I know about IMAP we cant send new commands while in IDLE state. I guess node-imap get out of IDLE state before emitting 'mail' event so how it will know about new mails the openedBox received before it getting back into IDLE state again or It just miss those mails ?

[mscdex]

Correct, you cannot issue commands while in IDLE, but the module takes care of all of that for you so you don't have to worry about it. However, because of the way IDLE works, the module does not have to exit or re-establish IDLE mode when emitting the 'mail' event.

The IDLE IMAP extension lets the server tell you when changes to the currently open mailbox have occurred (new emails, deletions, etc). When the server does notify the client, the server sends the client the total number of deleted and/or new emails. However, the module internally keeps track of all of these counts and always calculates the difference so that you know how many new emails came in since the last notification or since opening the mailbox for example.

There is another IMAP extension that is starting to become adopted among the more widely used IMAP servers, and that is the NOTIFY extension (rfc 5465). This is a much more flexible mechanism that can monitor multiple boxes simultaneously with the ability to use filters for such notifications (e.g. only flag changes, mailbox creation/deletion/renaming events, new messages, message deletions, etc). Support for this extension is already on my todo list, but I need to think about the best way to implement this since there is no way to emulate this extension for servers that do not support it yet.

[gkrcode]

Thanks @mscdex

"but the module takes care of all of that for you so you don't have to worry about it. However, because of the way IDLE works, the module does not have to exit or re-establish IDLE mode when emitting the 'mail' event."

If possible can you explain little more on how it does that magic :)

"the module internally keeps track of all of these counts and always calculates the difference so that you know how many new emails came in since the last notification or since opening the mailbox for example."

Now I understood node-imap wont miss mails.

"is the NOTIFY extension (rfc 5465)"

Great extension looking forward.

[andris9]

@mscdex do you know any IMAP server implementations that support NOTIFY? I checked the capabilities for Gmail IMAP server, a Dovecot and a Cyrus installation but none of them supported it.

Currenlty the "industry standard" seems to be STATUS polling + opening several connections to achieve the same result as with NOTIFY.

[mscdex]

@gkrcode Well, basically if there are no commands queued up (to be sent to the server), IDLE mode is entered automatically (if the server supports it of course). When you call a function like fetch() or anything else that needs to contact the server, IDLE mode is exited first, then the command(s) are sent, then repeat (go back to IDLE mode).

@andris9 The ones I know of that support it so far (as of this writing) are: Dovecot (at least some support exists in the dev repo, full implementation slated for 2.2?) and Archiveopteryx. Most other servers currently only have other methods for doing push mail, such as custom out-of-band protocols and/or ActiveSync, etc.

[gkrcode]

@mscdex, thank you very much :)

[azharuniverse]

Tried all solutions. Nothing working. marking all my incoming emails as read automatically.