Dokumentation: concepts/mail
CONCEPT:
mail
DESCRIPTION:
This document describes the mail system used in Nightfall.
The idea is to make a central mail handling object which
accepts and distributes mail between users. Mail is stored in
the /mail directory. save_object is used to save mail
information in mail files in this directory. Only the mail
demon object and the owner of the mail file can access it.
A number of mail readers will probably available which access
the mail files. A typical mail user agent has commands to
read mail contained in the user's mail file, to reply to
messages, to forward, delete, save them. A folder structure
can be implemented. Outgoing mail is given to the mail demon
object by the user agent for distribution. The mailreader
should implement multiple recipients - carbon copy, cc and
blind carbon copy, bcc. Carbon copy means alternate recipients
to which the message should be sent. Blind carbon copy is the
same, but the recipients won't be listed in the received
message.
Save file format (sort of formal notation):
mixed *folders = ({
({ string name1; string name2; ... string nameN; })
({ mixed *msgs1; mixed *msgs2; ... mixed *msgsN; })
})
The array variable folders contains a number of folder
structures containing the actual messages. There are special
folders which are reserved: mail, newmail. New mail will
be delivered into the newmail folder. This is the only hard
coded requirement (the mail demon will simply deposit new
mail there). The folder name 'mail' should be used for read
mail. Other folders can be dynamically created by the user
agent.
Each msgs field is an array of messages:
mixed *msgs = ({ mixed *message1; ... mixed *messageM })
A message is represented as an array with the following fields:
mixed *message = ({
string from;
string sender;
string recipient;
string *cc;
string *bcc;
string subject;
string date;
string id;
string body;
})
The mailer demon (/secure/mailer, or /obj/mailer) provides
the following functions:
DeliverMail(mixed *message)
Hand a mail message over to the mailer demon. The mailer
demon extracts recipients from the recipient, cc and bcc
fields and removes the bcc information. It then deposits
the message to the mail files of all recipients. A valid
message is shown above.
int FingerMail(string user)
Gives the number of unread messages a user has.
SEE ALSO:
