Re: [Evolution] Question about IMAP folders

[Patrick O'Callaghan <poc usb ve>]

On Mon, 2008-01-28 at 08:49 -0500, Patrick M. Kelecy wrote:
> I'm using Evolution for my email client and have some questions about
> how Evolution handles IMAP folders (up until now I've been using POP
> only).  I created a test IMAP account over the weekend, and noticed that
> when I did that Evolution created three folders under that mail account
> heading: Inbox, Junk, and Trash.  I also noticed that within the Inbox
> folder were subfolders (Drafts, Sent, and Trash) that matched folders on
> the IMAP server. I assume these are the "subscribed" folders that stay
> synchronized. This leads to my questions:
>
> 1. Organizationally, this is a little confusing.  Why are the imap
> folders (drafts, sent, and trash) listed under inbox, rather than at the
> same level with it?  Having those within the inbox folder doesn't seem
> logical.  On the IMAP server (looking at it via a webmail client,
> Hordemail) it shows the main IMAP account with *four* folders under it:
> inbox, drafts, sent, and trash. That's how I would expect Evo to handle
> it as well.

The default presentation for Cyrus IMAP servers is for everything to
hang from Inbox, however the server admin can set a flag (system-wide
unfortunately, not per-user) for the alternative layout, known as
"anonymous root", where Inbox is at the same level as the other folders.
My Cyrus server does this so I get the view you prefer, but it's the
server admin who has to make the change. Evo simply follows the server
layout.

The webmail client of course can do whatever it likes regarding
presentation.

> 2. Are the folders, Junk and Trash (the ones listed at the same level as
> Inbox) local only?

Junk and Trash are virtual folders, i.e. they do not exist on the
server. They are simply views into your other folders which select
messages which are deleted or marked as junk. Note that if you have a
Trash folder on the server (perhaps beacuse of some other client) you
will see both Trash folders in Evo. They have different icons so you can
tell which is which, but Evo will not use the server-side folder for
deleted messages. AFAIK there's no way to change this.

> 3. I have a couple of POP mail accounts I would like to switch to IMAP.
> To do this, do I just create new IMAP accounts with the same name and
> folder structure and then drag mail from one to the other?

Basically yes, but see my earlier message on this.

poc