Mail client

[Emdek]

This will be pretty big task on its own, so help would be welcomed (it possibly could have own maintainer). Mail client shall have all useful features of M2 plus support for useful stuff that everybody always wanted but was never added there (like PGP).

Mail client and RSS reader should be separated modules, but sharing single panel and similar UI design. Also all PIM related modules should use common storage for contacts, possibly using backends for integration with system wide contacts database (like for example KDEPIM). There used to be such modules available for Qt4 (as part of Qt Mobility) but their API was overcomplicated and as of now there is no direct replacement for them yet (but may be available in near future, so some research would be great).

There exists some pure Qt reference implementations for mail protocols (for example as plugins for QtMessaging - again, part of Qt Mobility), but if there is nice and clean library with proper Qt bindings around (and compatible license) then we could make use of it.

[Frenzie]

Fwiw, a while ago I read something about http://trojita.flaska.net/ (a Qt4-based mail client).

[Emdek]

Yeah, I've found that one too, while looking for Qt-friendly library. ;-)

[mrDueDate]

• SMTP Library: https://github.com/bluetiger9/SmtpClient-for-Qt
• IMAP Library (basic?): https://github.com/matteobertozzi/Qt-Widgets-Components-Library/tree/master/Imap
• Mail library for Qt: http://sourceforge.net/projects/lhmail/ (although old)
• Full client (?): http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtimc/

[kripz]

Is this really needed? I never understood why Opera had the mediocre mail client built in...

[srgloureiro]

@kripz: You are right that the Opera's email client was not so good. I always ended using Outlook or the webmail pages. The browser part of Opera suite had DISTINCTIVE features which made it great. The email client was different for the worse. The IRC client was enough for my use, but in the My Opera forums there were lot of posts saying the IRC was not cared enough. I agree, because the IRC client seemed always the same. In the latest versions, the user interface and functionality were so similar to the first ones, a fact that clearly indicated the lack of maintenance.

[Emdek]

@kripz, it is. ;-) But in our case it will be simply a module, not enabled by default, easy to remove or replace completely. Also it won't be exactly the same as in Opera anyway.

[Frenzie]

Opera's e-mail client was mediocre only in the sense that it hasn't improved much since Opera 7 (2003), although one might argue it didn't need many changes. Other e-mail clients, especially the Gmail online interface, but later also e.g. Virtual Folders in Thunderbird, more or less caught up with its unique features since.

http://www.markschenk.com/various/originalm2/m2tutorial.html

[Emdek]

@Frenzie, it changed quite recently (don't remember which version exactly, 11.x?) - that rich text variant (with nonsense bugs related to new line handling) and new views (I had issues in changing them back to old ones...). :-D

[Frenzie]

I know, but the only true improvement from my perspective was the fact that feeds could finally be organized in folders.

Edit: also, rich text is not an improvement. :P

[Emdek]

Well, feeds are separate thing, they might share storage and some UI concepts but that will be separate module anyway (they are more like a core feature).

[kripz]

Is it possible to leave it as a plugin so it's fully opt in (as in not part of the original install)?

Unless it's going to have unique features i don't see why a web browser should have a built in mail client when there's plenty of alternatives.

The only reason i see why you would add it is just so you can call otter a fully opera 12 clone.

[Emdek]

@kripz, yes, it could be, like some other non essential modules. All of them should be plugins (DLL or .so, depending on platform).

The reason to have it is that some people (including me) like to have all in one solutions. ;-)

[jadedgnome]

Could it be possible to run opera mail module as a daemon? if so it could fucntion both as a Browser client and Web interface Client.

RSS could have better functionality than what was in 12.X. in 12.X it was possible to save feeds in a folder but not save the opml in that same folder only globally.extensions or scripting for feeds. to do tasks when presented with a file-type from a certain url. i.e download or notify user in a myriad of ways, etc.

[Emdek]

@jadedgnome, if someone would create such module (or just client part, if there is already such solution available) then why not, but only as addon (shipped one should be "simpler", built in server is not usual functionality ;-)). Extra features for RSS reader could be considered after basic functionality will be in place.

[mrDueDate]

I still use Opera's M2 and IRC client. M2 was/is the lightest, and fastest mail client out there, and it integrated with browser nicely, with minimal memory footprint. Its unique features still make it one of the best email clients available (for me). Geary looks promising as alternative, but still I'm used to have email client in a browser.

[zakius]

I never understood why Opera had the mediocre mail client built in...

because running another mail client in bg, starting with OS is quite bad, and if you are using browser then (probably) you have enough free resources and won't forget t orun mail client when needed and close it when it would only bother you

[pierreporte]

The future of Mozilla products being quite uncertain since the end of 2015 (especially for Thunderbird) and considering the fact that good desktop mail client are pretty rare (at least under Linux), having a mail client in Otter will be a key feature for its adoption among users. Even if the browser part is not quite finished, it may be a good idea to have a fully functional mail client as soon as possible because it would draw more users, hence more people would hear of it and draw potentially new regular contributors.

[mariokamenjak]

What is the progress on this?

[Emdek]

@mariokamenjak, I haven't heard about any progress on that topic.

[chief-kh]

Somebody plan to work on this feature in 2018?

[ghost]

Including the fact that most people use web-mail I think this is not so necessary function as it may seem. Very necessary things I would like to note there are mail notify, this is very much lacking. As for the built-in mail client - my opinion: first need to bring the browser itself to an almost perfect state. Naturally, if someone else can develop this parallely to mainline - that will be perfect =)

[Emdek]

@chief-kh, @honza-c is working on initial implementation, standalone demo is ready.

[Emdek]

Another library that promises to support all three protocols: https://github.com/karastojko/mailio

[Jzarecta]

I dont understand why the mail client was called mediocre. What was mediocre about it? For me it was the lightest most easy to use email client. It was inspired from the Eudora mail client which was very praised across the computing community. Used SQLite backend which was incredibly fast and had a lot of nice features like quick reply. But more than that, it used plain text to store email so it was easily browsable, no binaries. Outlook and Thunderbird were both crappy applications that were unnecesarily bloated and had a very crude UI and heavy AF. It makes sense to have an email and RSS reader in the browser because you can get email notification straight away. Storing searches as virtual folders also help and a good organization to mailing lists also helped. Opera native shortcut editor was very powerful and allow you to browse through email with your keyboard which improved the quick check of email. Sorry for the rant but as reading this threat I really don't understand the lack of understanding of M2 as a user compared to other options. M2 and Opera impressed me on the speed it had even if I had 30+ tabs open and search through 50k emails. My only true frustration with M2 was the GnuPG lack of integration which in KDE is not as bad as I was able to assign a system-wide keystroke to 'select all' my content and invoke kleopatra to sign it in body.

[Frenzie]

To be clear, I was disagreeing with it being called mediocre. ;-)

Other e-mail clients, especially the Gmail online interface, but later also e.g. Virtual Folders in Thunderbird, more or less caught up with its unique features since.