Subject: Re: any way to use my addressbook on my IMAPd server from remote?

From: [email-masked] (Malcolm L. Carlock)
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 18:50:31 -0700 (PDT)

I would like to suggest a possible workaround for the remote addressbook
issue, which is a big issue at our site as well:

What about changing the addressbook format to that of a standard mail
folder with dummy headers at the top, then standard addressbook format
below?  This would permit remote addressbooks using the folder operations
that IMAP already knows about, without having to wait for someone to
finish implementing an all-new protocol.

PINE could be programmed to:

1.	Keep that folder in the usual folder-collections directory, i.e.,
	mail/[], or even a local folder if the user preferred

2.	Not show that folder in the list of available folders, since it
	is a "special" folder

3.	Prohibit the user from creating his/her own folder called "addrbook"
	(though few users would be likely to do this)

The first time such a version of PINE were run, it would copy any
existing addressbook data to the new addrbook folder.

Thoughts?  I might be willing to volunteer for this programming task
if the CAC guys are interested, and if they think it will be a while until
the newer remote-addressbook-capable protocol(s) and associated version(s)
of PINE appear.

Malcolm

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From: Terry Gray <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 19:55:02 -0700 (PDT)

Malcolm,
On more than one occasion, we have discussed the possibility of using
IMAP or FTP to access a remote addressbook, as an interim solution until
ACAP is ready for prime-time.  Indeed, the UW IMAP server can already
present an arbitrary file as a MIME attachment to a pseudo-message...

The thing that has usually quenched that idea is the realization that 
we wouldn't have a good way to provide full read-write access with
appropriate safeguards against multiple sessions smashing addrbk data.
Also we still hold the view that the "correct" (ACAP) solution is just
around the corner... :)

We've definitely learned that people get cranky if they don't have
write-access to their address book: in a recent PC-Pine version we had
a bug that made addressbooks accessed via a remote filesystem protocol
read-only, and campers were not happy...

One possibility for an interim solution in the *Unix* Pine context where
NFS access is not available would be to put a wrapper around Pine that did
an rcp of the addressbook.  For PC-Pine users, we have some folks using
SMB (the Microsoft remote file access protocol) to get at address books
stored on Unix servers, but not everyone can use that solution.

-teg