GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 575666
Evolution should perform operations locally first and then synchronize in case of IMAP
Last modified: 2013-08-19 14:18:05 UTC
Please describe the problem: I think currently if we have IMAP account and even if synchronize remote mails option enabled, evolution performs operations like copy, move, delete, etc. in real time. Sometimes if internet is down, the operation fails and we have to try again. I think in case of IMAP, it should do the operations locally and then synchronize on server while checking for mails. This improves speed a lot. Steps to reproduce: 1. Open evolution 2. Make internet unavailable 3. Move mail to some folder Actual results: Operation failed. Expected results: Mail should be moved to folder locally and when evolution can get connection, it synchronizes with server so changes are reflected there. Does this happen every time? N/A Other information:
Basically you want to queue folder operations until Evo is online (but show the effects locally as if they had really been executed). I think you'd need to think carefully about the possible failure modes, e.g. what happens if another client also queues off-line operations on the same folders (or even on-line ones)? There would need to be conflict resolution or a rollback facility (not that there's anything wrong with that :-), i.e. you're getting into transactional database territory. Note that in IMAP the effect of concurrent operations from multiple clients is explicitly undefined. It's true that these things can already happen online, but with your proposed enhancement they'd be a lot more likely.
Patrick, your points definitely make sense. But generally I access my mailbox from one place at a time so there are less chances of conflicts. How about introducing new option which if enabled, causes evolution to behave this way? I've asked for feedback about this option from mailing list also.
I saw it on the mailing list but posted here since I thought that's what you wanted. I'll copy to the ML as well.
I think this type of enhancement is needed for other reasons as well. I am highly conscious of delays from 5-60 seconds when trying to see the first email when I change folders. All the folders are locally synchronized. Various aspects of Evolution's behaviour suggests that it is drawing on data over the internet, even though all the data is already available locally. By using this data, speed would be greatly improved. Changes would then be passed on during synchronising. I realise this is an enhancement request. And yes I realise that the possible use of multiple clients demands conflict resolution processes. I suspect this sort of enhancement is well worth the effort. I use Evolution 2.28.3 to connect with MS Exchange Server 2003.
Not worth the mind-boggling complexity this would introduce. Offline support basically gives you read-only access to the messages you have cached locally. No folder or message modifications allowed.
*** Bug 696686 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***