[MlMt] applying Rules to inbox

[Benny Kjær Nielsen]

On 9 Oct 2014, at 20:50, Luca Allodi wrote:

> I have a smart box, "Default Archive", that all it should do is to 
> keep my inbox clean by archiving messages older than 10 days (where 
> they get sorted and marked if I should have probably replied to them 
> and still haven't.. I just love MailMate :-)) ).
>
> Anyway, that rule never really worked for me 100%. Sometimes it does, 
> sometimes I find tons of emails in the smartbox (that should be always 
> empty).

The problem is probably the same problem which makes the smart mailbox 
necessary in the first place: MailMate only has the “add” event 
implemented, that is, a rule is only triggered when a message is added 
to a mailbox. This is why the rule cannot be added to the Inbox. The 
condition is fulfilled *after* messages arrive in the mailbox.

The separate smart mailbox partly solves this problem by making the 
messages arrive in the smart mailbox when the condition is fulfilled. 
This doesn't work however if the condition is fulfilled while MailMate 
is not running. More precisely:

* Quit MailMate
* A message becomes older than 10 days.
* Launch MailMate.

When launching MailMate then the message is already in the smart mailbox 
and it doesn't arrive to trigger the rule. Confused? :-)

Do you think this can explain what you see?

A solution to this problem would also make the smart mailbox 
unnecessary. Some kind of “dynamic” event type is needed, that is, a 
rule with conditions where MailMate always keeps track of the conditions 
and always applies the action(s). Implementation-wise this is not so 
hard although it is not quite clear what MailMate should do if the rule 
does not have the side-effect of making the message no longer match the 
condition after the action(s).

I guess the main point is that I'm aware of this problem.

-- 
Benny
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