IMAP folders & clients

[Duboux]

Hello,

It seems to me, that when a mail account is made, there's no folders (other that the Inbox folder) automatically made.
Folders like Trash, Sent, Concepts/drafts, and such..

Which I believe results into every client that uses it, will automatically create it's own folders and names for these.
I know that Outlook and roundcube webmail have their own opinion on what this should be like. (haven't tested any further)
And when my phone is using IMAP and sends an email, it just stores the sent email somewhere local in a new folder, because there's no sent-folder yet.

Does this mean that to get some form of standard, every mail user needs to login into webmail first, to send an email, save a draft and delete one...
In order to have his/her other mailclients setup correctly (to point to the correct folders) ?

Thanks

 

[toml]

Every email client has their own opinion of what the folders should be named (other than INBOX). I normally have to tell the client which folder to use for everything (i.e. Sent instead of "Sent Messages" or Trash instead of "Deleted Messages"). You would think they could have standardize on something as simple as this. In most cases, if the folder(s) don't exist, the email client will create them

 

[Duboux]

In most cases, if the folder(s) don't exist, the email client will create them

Yes, and that's exactly what's bothering me.
You will have to change all the other clients to the settings of the first client you've used.
Plus, some clients create local folders, instead of server-folders.

It can even get messed up worse, when client A first sends an email, and creates a sent-folder named "INBOX.SENT", a second client first saves an email concept and creates a folder named "Concepts".
Having you end up with a bunch of irregular named folders, that can differ per mailbox...
Asside from that, 99% of my clients has no technical knowledge of this, and just wants to use and see their email, with all the clients they use, without having to even click on the settings-button. Hasslefree !
And I agree that this is how software of the 21st century should work.


Questions:

1. Do all the widely used webmails amounst DA users (squirrel, at, roundcube, etc..) use the same folder-names, by default ?
2. Is there a way to create these folders when a mailbox has been created ?
   (and have all the installed webmails use these of course)
3. Is there perhaps a way to automatically change non-default folders into sym-links to the default ones that webmail clients use ?
   That way, users may still see their clients' own created folder for - for example - Sent Mail, and when they use the webmail clients, still see both types of folders created for the same thing (storing sent email), but they won't have half of their sent mail in 1 folder and the other half in the other.
   They could click on just any of those folders and see all the sent mail.

 

[SeLLeRoNe]

Actually when i setup i client i just need to go to advance options and say that default path is .INBOX

So client take the folders already present in Inbox as main

Regards

 

[toml]

Actually when i setup i client i just need to go to advance options and say that default path is .INBOX

So client take the folders already present in Inbox as main

Regards

That is fine if a user only uses one email client. I personally use 3 different email clients, Thunderbird at work, Mail.app at home and Mail.app on my iPhone. Thunderbird defaults to using Drafts/Sent/Trash as defaults while Mail.app defaults to using "Sent Messages" instead of "Sent" like Thunderbird and most "normal" IMAP clients. Even if a folder already has a "Sent" mail existing, if you connect to that IMAP server account with Outlook for example, it will now have a "Sent Items" folder and then if you connect with Mail.app on a Mac you will have "Sent Messages". So, just using three popular IMAP clients, you now have 3 different Sent folders created "Sent/Sent Messages/Sent Items", unless you configured each of the clients to use an existing folder layout.

It is really a client issue and not a server issue, you can make links to accommodate all those folder names, but then the clients still show all those folders as separate and it can clutter your folder view.

 

[nobaloney]

Do all the widely used webmails amounst DA users (squirrel, at, roundcube, etc..) use the same folder-names, by default ?

No.

Is there a way to create these folders when a mailbox has been created ?
(and have all the installed webmails use these of course)

You can create them. But short of rewriing all the clients your users may use, the only way you can get your clients to use them is to create links, which as has already been mentioned, will simply clutter your folders view and confuse your users even more.

Is there perhaps a way to automatically change non-default folders into sym-links to he default ones that webmail clients use ?
That way, users may still see their clients' own created folder for - for example - Sent Mail, and when they use the webmail clients, still see both types of folders created for the same thing (storing sent email), but they won't have half of their sent mail in 1 folder and the other half in the other.
They could click on just any of those folders and see all the sent mail.

I don't think DirectAdmin has a script defined to run when an email account is created; check these forums or wait for someone to disagree with me . But it really doesn't matter, in my opinion. See above; I believe you'll confuse your users even more.

Some things you can do if you're so inclined:

Don't even mention IMAP anywhere; that way only those who already know about (and who hopefully will have already run into the problems) will use it.

Write and submit your own RFC, and maybe in ten years there will be a standard (if you want to wait that long). Anyone can create an RFC, and some really strange ones have been ratified. For example, have you seen the one for TCP/CP (TCP over carrier pigeon)? You can find it here (faqs.org). It's RFC1149.

Jeff

 

[Duboux]

Thanks for the answers everyone

I thought that POP3 was getting old (even back in the day ) and the world was moving to IMAP.

 

[nobaloney]

Imap may work better if you need to keep the same email store from multiple locations, but as you've already found out, because there's no standard you should probably use the same client or be ready to look in all your files.

While clients generally prefer to keep all their email in one place, the problem for the hosting provider then is that it can use a lot of space on the server, and the client might want to hold the hosting company responsible if email is ever lost.

So while we're happy to support Imap, we prefer to not have to teach it, but rather let those who know how to use it, do so.

Jeff