this version: D1 [2001-12-10 12:54]

Greetings.

I've been thinking about basic minimums for implementing IM2000.  I don't
want to sound like I'm writing code while we're still pondering verbs and
protocols, but there are some basic minimums, like data structures for
pieces of internet messages.  Hopefully we can agree that mail has a body
and sender, and we can try to specify more from there. 

This discussion, I hope, could lead to a better idea of how the protocols
themselves will be implemented in the suite.

This is my basic pseudo-class for a piece of imail.  It does not reflect
the notice, the retrieved message, or anything else.  It is the piece of
mail considered as a gestalt.

class imail {
	string messageid		; this is unique per -server-
	string sender			; this is the sender's originating mail URN
	hash headers			; an associative array (name/value pairs)
	string body				; the message body
	time time_sent			; the time the message was queued for sending
	int sender_ip			; the IP from which the message was received
	string auth_key			; authentication key for message retrieval
	recipient recipients[]	; users who should receive this message
	bitfield flags			; management flags
}

messageid
	This string uniquely identifies any piece of mail per server for all
	purposes -- retrieval, management, etc.
sender
	This is the username of the user who sent the message.
headers
	These are the message headers, in full, in "Name: Values" pairs, hashed.
body
	This is the message body.  I'm not sure of how we want to handle
	attachments.
time_sent
	The time, UTC, when the message was received by the IMTP server.
sender_ip
	The IP from which the message was received, for auditing/security.
auth_key
	The key the recipient needs to retrieve the message given some secure
	method.
recipients
	This is an array of recipient structures.  This structure lists the
	destination address of each user, how many times they've read the
	message, whether they've been notified of the message, whether they've
	OK'd deletion of the message, and so on.
flags
	This is a bitfield (could be a hash) of various administrative
	variables such as "Can this message be autodeleted?" and so on.

Thoughts?

--
rjbs