FastMail beta server

robmueller · 19th December 2002, 10:13 AM

For those who like living "on the edge", we've now got the FastMail beta server setup. Basically new code that needs testing will go on this server. So feel free to try it out.

It's http://www.fastmail.fm/beta/

Things that work and things that don't.
1. Unlike the old beta servers, Secure Login does work
2. Changing your 'Define Rules' or 'Advanced Rules' does not work. It'll appear to work, but they won't actually be changed, so don't do it because you'll get confused.
3. Don't try a rename/consoldiate/imap migrate. I haven't tested it, and it probably won't work because of server assumptions.

Now for the new features on the beta server:
1. The IMAP /Answered flag is now correctly set on emails you reply to. There's also a new 'A' column to show if you have answered an email. Currently 'Forwarding' isn't tracked. There's no standard IMAP flag for this at the moment. We'll see what we can do.
2. On the message view screen, there's now 'Printer friendly' and 'Raw' message view modes.

Please feel free to try them out and report any issues here. And don't forget to thank Nico for his work in getting these done!

Rob

mvpittman · 19th December 2002, 10:18 AM

Cool, I'm pretty keen on having the A column to display an IMAP flag status on the web interface... that much closer to web-interface label support.

- Marland

sky · 19th December 2002, 10:43 AM

Nice to see new features being implemented.

By the way, what does the F column indicate? Also, the character in the F column does not display properly under Big5 encoding.

**psalzer** · 19th December 2002, 10:46 AM

These are really nice features and I've just looked at a few messages but they seem to work very well. I replied to one and got the answered flag. I love all the options for viewing the message. Thanks Nico!!!

o0o · 19th December 2002, 10:51 AM

Maybe "R" for reply/replied, as opposed to "A" for answered?

robmueller · 19th December 2002, 10:58 AM

Working on the charset problem right now. F is for 'Flags'. The aim is that eventually more stuff will go there.

Rob

masta · 19th December 2002, 11:15 AM

The encoding should be fixed now.

As rob mentioned, the F-field will maybe expanded in the future, to show more statusflags for the message.

We try to keep this field as small as possible, so not to much space is lost in the other fields.

Nico

**psalzer** · 19th December 2002, 11:25 AM

One thing I'm not liking is that I have plain text as my default view and I no longer get the text representation of HTML messages when I click on the message. I have to either choose the raw view and read in between the mark-up or view it in HTML. Will that be fixed when it's out of beta?

masta · 19th December 2002, 11:44 AM

@psalzer:

Just tried it again, and it works fine for me.

I disabled "View HTML" and it uses Plain text by default, when I enable it, it shows the message as HTML (either inline or framed).

nico

**psalzer** · 19th December 2002, 12:07 PM

What it is, is in the regular interface, it gives you some kind of text message even if there isn't a plain text alternative in the original message. This isn't present in the beta interface. At the moment I'm looking at the same message with both interfaces. In the regular one I get:

This message only has an HTML part -- this is a text generated representation

And then it goes on to the text of the message. In the beta I get

This message only has an HTML part -- this is a text generated representation and nothing follows.

That means you have to view the HTML to read HTML messages if they don't include their own text alternative. It's a really good feature in Fastmail that you don't need to do that.

rakhesh · 19th December 2002, 12:41 PM

Gee, thanks for that. Since the beta server didn't have SSL till now, there was no way I could use it (office -> snoopy admins -> not safe). Now I live on the bleeding edge securely.

I notice that for all my existing mails the "A" flag does not show anything. Is this flag only shown for mails that I answer from now on?

To test whether "A" shows for mails that I now answer, I sent a test mail to myself and answered it. The "A" flag still does not show anything, but now I find a "<<" in the "F" column next to the mail.

Is this the way things should be? Am I missing something?

- Rakhesh

rakhesh · 19th December 2002, 12:43 PM

A small interface suggestion: Would it be possible to include options to "Forward to people" and "Reply to sender" in the Action: drop down menu? Makes forwarding mails a lot easier.

Thanks,
Rakhesh

sjk · 19th December 2002, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by robmueller
Currently 'Forwarding' isn't tracked. There's no standard IMAP flag for this at the moment. We'll see what we can do.

rfc2060 says:

Quote:

A keyword is defined by the server implementation. Keywords do
not begin with "\". Servers MAY permit the client to define new
keywords in the mailbox (see the description of the
PERMANENTFLAGS response code for more information).

A flag may be permanent or session-only on a per-flag basis.
Permanent flags are those which the client can add or remove
from the message flags permanently; that is, subsequent sessions
will see any change in permanent flags. Changes to session
flags are valid only in that session.

PERMANENTFLAGS

Followed by a parenthesized list of flags, indicates which of
the known flags that the client can change permanently. Any
flags that are in the FLAGS untagged response, but not the
PERMANENTFLAGS list, can not be set permanently. If the client
attempts to STORE a flag that is not in the PERMANENTFLAGS
list, the server will either ignore the change or store the
state change for the remainder of the current session only.
The PERMANENTFLAGS list can also include the special flag \*,
which indicates that it is possible to create new keywords by
attempting to store those flags in the mailbox.

Could a FORWARDED keyword be used with FastMail? Looks like the Cyrus IMAP server supports it. Even if non-FM IMAP clients ignored it that would at least make it protocol-compatible.

I'm a bit rushed to finish researching this...my wife's interrupting to take me to dinner.

sjk · 19th December 2002, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rakhesh
Is this the way things should be? Am I missing something?

The 'A' column contains '*' if the message has attachments.

rakhesh · 19th December 2002, 01:25 PM

Quote:

From Rob's first post:

Now for the new features on the beta server:
1. The IMAP /Answered flag is now correctly set on emails you reply to. There's also a new 'A' column to show if you have answered an email. Currently 'Forwarding' isn't tracked. There's no standard IMAP flag for this at the moment. We'll see what we can do.

So is the "A" column for attachments (which seems to be the case upon checking mails with attachements) or for answered email?

- Rakhesh

19th December 2002, 10:13 AM	#1
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,098 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	FastMail beta server For those who like living "on the edge", we've now got the FastMail beta server setup. Basically new code that needs testing will go on this server. So feel free to try it out. It's http://www.fastmail.fm/beta/ Things that work and things that don't. 1. Unlike the old beta servers, Secure Login does work 2. Changing your 'Define Rules' or 'Advanced Rules' does not work. It'll appear to work, but they won't actually be changed, so don't do it because you'll get confused. 3. Don't try a rename/consoldiate/imap migrate. I haven't tested it, and it probably won't work because of server assumptions. Now for the new features on the beta server: 1. The IMAP /Answered flag is now correctly set on emails you reply to. There's also a new 'A' column to show if you have answered an email. Currently 'Forwarding' isn't tracked. There's no standard IMAP flag for this at the moment. We'll see what we can do. 2. On the message view screen, there's now 'Printer friendly' and 'Raw' message view modes. Please feel free to try them out and report any issues here. And don't forget to thank Nico for his work in getting these done! Rob

19th December 2002, 11:25 AM	#8
psalzer Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,650	just one thing.. One thing I'm not liking is that I have plain text as my default view and I no longer get the text representation of HTML messages when I click on the message. I have to either choose the raw view and read in between the mark-up or view it in HTML. Will that be fixed when it's out of beta?

19th December 2002, 10:18 AM	#2
mvpittman Essential Contributor Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 428	Cool, I'm pretty keen on having the A column to display an IMAP flag status on the web interface... that much closer to web-interface label support. - Marland

19th December 2002, 10:43 AM	#3
sky Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 69	Nice to see new features being implemented. By the way, what does the F column indicate? Also, the character in the F column does not display properly under Big5 encoding.

19th December 2002, 10:46 AM	#4
psalzer Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,650	These are really nice features and I've just looked at a few messages but they seem to work very well. I replied to one and got the answered flag. I love all the options for viewing the message. Thanks Nico!!!

19th December 2002, 10:51 AM	#5
o0o Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: May 2002 Location: California Posts: 612	Maybe "R" for reply/replied, as opposed to "A" for answered?

19th December 2002, 10:58 AM	#6
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,098 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	Working on the charset problem right now. F is for 'Flags'. The aim is that eventually more stuff will go there. Rob

19th December 2002, 11:15 AM	#7
masta Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 117	The encoding should be fixed now. As rob mentioned, the F-field will maybe expanded in the future, to show more statusflags for the message. We try to keep this field as small as possible, so not to much space is lost in the other fields. Nico

19th December 2002, 11:44 AM	#9
masta Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 117	@psalzer: Just tried it again, and it works fine for me. I disabled "View HTML" and it uses Plain text by default, when I enable it, it shows the message as HTML (either inline or framed). nico

19th December 2002, 12:07 PM	#10
psalzer Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,650	What it is, is in the regular interface, it gives you some kind of text message even if there isn't a plain text alternative in the original message. This isn't present in the beta interface. At the moment I'm looking at the same message with both interfaces. In the regular one I get: This message only has an HTML part -- this is a text generated representation And then it goes on to the text of the message. In the beta I get This message only has an HTML part -- this is a text generated representation and nothing follows. That means you have to view the HTML to read HTML messages if they don't include their own text alternative. It's a really good feature in Fastmail that you don't need to do that.

19th December 2002, 12:41 PM	#11
rakhesh Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Muscat, Oman Posts: 551	Gee, thanks for that. Since the beta server didn't have SSL till now, there was no way I could use it (office -> snoopy admins -> not safe). Now I live on the bleeding edge securely. I notice that for all my existing mails the "A" flag does not show anything. Is this flag only shown for mails that I answer from now on? To test whether "A" shows for mails that I now answer, I sent a test mail to myself and answered it. The "A" flag still does not show anything, but now I find a "<<" in the "F" column next to the mail. Is this the way things should be? Am I missing something? - Rakhesh

19th December 2002, 12:43 PM	#12
rakhesh Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Muscat, Oman Posts: 551	A small interface suggestion: Would it be possible to include options to "Forward to people" and "Reply to sender" in the Action: drop down menu? Makes forwarding mails a lot easier. Thanks, Rakhesh