Hello,
I'd like to announce a PostgreSQL-powered mail app I've been working on
for some time and that I think is now candidate for public use.
It comes up as three parts:
1) a PostgreSQL database for the storage of decoded mail contents.
2) a pure-SQL desktop app for the mail user interface.
3) a separate perl daemon program for the heavy mail processing
and streaming in and out of the database..
Those programs can run on the same machine or separate nodes.
Although more complex than traditional MUAs that do all in one,
this approach may have some appeal for database savvy users that
are willing to try something new for email processing:
- it's possible to access the mail contents with any sql
client, psql or whatever. The db schema is meant to expose
the contents as structured data as much as possible.
Everything is stored in the database, including things like filters
definitions or user preferences.
- the UI has built-in and user-definable sql queries to retrieve
messages with no limit on the complexity of the criteria. Users can also
add their own tables to enrich mail contents or hook it up to
other databases. Also the UI can be used by concurrent users without
mailbox locking issues.
- the perl program has user-made plugins to customize mail processing,
accepting a DBI connection and a MIME object as arguments. Sample
plugins include a spamassassin client and a attachments indexer.
- it's possible not to use the UI at all but just fork incoming mail into
the database in order to make a searchable archive, or run statistics.
Obviously, it makes much sense with large mailboxes or heavy mail activity.
- In general, SQL as a retrieval protocol is much more easy and
powerful than imap, the major drawback being that you can't use
a standard mail client. There are other projects like dbmail or decimail
that do sql<->imap<->MUA; manitou-mail on the contrary is really about
having the MUA talking SQL.
The server part is unix-oriented, it's meant to be hooked to a
sendmail-like MTA, but the UI runs under windows too (it uses the
graphical Qt library), with pre-compiled binaries available.
The project has a website with some documentation and download links
at http://www.manitou-mail.org and a sourceforge entry:
http://sf.net/projects/manitou-mail
Bug reports, ideas, help requests et all are welcome.
--
Daniel
PostgreSQL-powered mail user agent and storage: http://www.manitou-mail.org