[MlMt] How do changes to tag setup in MailMate affect messages in Gmail?

Mailmate pc8xtebtkw at snkmail.com
Mon Jan 25 14:42:08 EST 2016


I'm not sure everyone would want this to be a manual operation. My use 
of tags/labels is minimal and I find MailMates automatic handling works 
just fine.

Perhaps a preference to select whether the user wants MailMate to handle 
the tags (like today), or the user to handle the tags (manually).

__*Richard Rettke*__
*Laus Deo*
*Non sibi sed patriae*

https://about.me/rerettke


On 25 Jan 2016, at 5:39, Jody Foo jody.foo-at-gmail.com |MailMate Freron 
Software/RER>Vendor>Software| wrote:

> On 22 Jan 2016, at 21:57, Benny Kjær Nielsen wrote:
>
>> If you assign a tag mapped to a Gmail label to an email then it'll 
>> trigger the creation of the label in Gmail.
>
> Ok, thanks for the confirmation.
>
>>> 1. Am I correct that the above is the same thing as specifying a 
>>> label path without the path existing in gmail? This would mean that 
>>> I _do not_ have to create the label in (at least one of) the gmail 
>>> accounts I have configured in MailMate before adding it as a Tag in 
>>> the MailMate Preferences?
>>
>> I believe that is correct.
>
> Ok, makes using new Tags with Gmail label mappings easier! Am I 
> correct however to understand that the *creation only happens when 
> trying to apply the label for the first time*? *Not* when the text is 
> entered in the *Tag preferences* right?
>
>>> 2. If I change the mapping of an existing tag in MailMate, what 
>>> happens on the gmail side?
>>>
>>> 	3. only future tag assignments are affected and the old tagged 
>>> messages are no longer considered to be tagged with the previous 
>>> gmail label is again shown as a mailbox in Mailmate, or
>>
>> I'm pretty sure it's number 3.
>
> Ok, I'll have to keep that in mind. So one should think of the *Tag 
> panel* in the preferences as "*Tag configuration*" rather than "*Tag 
> Management*"?
>
>>> 3. With regard to the previous question, what steps should I perform 
>>> to
>>> 	1. Change the mapping of a previously used tag to a new one? E.g. 
>>> the tag "#todo" has been mapped to messages with the gmail label 
>>> "todo" and now I want to use the label !todo in gmail?
>>
>> In order to remap existing messages then you have to create a new tag 
>> to apply the new label. Then untag with the old label. Delete the old 
>> tag. Rename the display name of the new tag.
>>
>>> 	2. Change the IMAP flag used for a tag? E.g. if the flag `todo` has 
>>> been used but now I want to use the flag `#todo` and therefore 
>>> replace all occurrences of the flag `todo` with `#todo`?
>>
>> Ah, now I can see my previous answer did not take the IMAP keyword 
>> into consideration. It might be tricky to change an IMAP flag 
>> (keyword) without also changing the Gmail label. I cannot give you a 
>> clear answer on that one.
>
> Ok, so again, the best way is to *approach the tag preferences like a 
> config file*? I.e. that I'm never "renaming" a tag, or even "changing" 
> any properties of anything, I'm simply editing the config file?
>
> In that case, since it's a config file, I would be doing the following 
> to edit something?
>
> 1. Config the new Tag+label you want to use
> 2. Add that Tag+label to all messages you want to have it
> 3. Remove the old Tag+label from the messages that have the new 
> Tag+label
> 4. Remove the old Tag+label from the Tag preferences
>
>
>>> 	3. Change the displayed string used by MailMate for a tag
>>
>> This should always be safe since it really is just a display name. It 
>> doesn't affect anything on the server.
>
> Ok!
>
>>> 4. Finally, what would happen if I did two or more of the above 
>>> operations? E.g. if I changed the display string to `TODO`, the flag 
>>> used to `#todo` and the gmail mapping to `tags/todo`? Is it _always_ 
>>> "sort of" safe (I did this and no data was lost but there were some 
>>> glitches)?
>>
>> I think the safe approach is to create a new tag and then apply that 
>> to existing messages with the old tag. Then get rid of the old tag.
>
> Ok, I'll see this as a confirmation of the steps I wrote above as 
> well. (I think it should be included in the documentation in that 
> case).
>
>> Well, I have learned that “mailbox” is often mis-interpreted as 
>> being an account. I think this is because with POP3 there is no 
>> difference between account and mailbox. In other words, even though 
>> MailMate uses the word “mailbox” then it's often safer to use the 
>> word “folder”. To me there is no difference between mailbox and 
>> folder (in the context of an email account).
>
> Sounds reasonable, thanks for the explanation.
>
>> As a general comment: It may seem that MailMate should be better at 
>> automatically re-labeling/tagging emails when making changes, but 
>> it's not straightforward when and how to do it. (I think, at least, 
>> that MailMate should ask before doing anything.)
>
> I don't think this should be done automatically because of the many 
> steps involved. An updated screen for Tag management would be better I 
> think. E.g. I do not think it should be possible to edit the list 
> directly (inline) because of the complex sequence of changes that one 
> might expect or MailMate might have to perform. An 'Edit' action 
> beside the '+' and '-' buttons with a separate dialog would be better 
> I think. Perhaps having one action called "Modify tag configuration" 
> and one called "Manage Tag" would be even better.
>
> Creating a tag I guess should also pop up a dialog box.
>
> I know that having one that is "attached" to its parent is a 
> possibility, but I prefer those that are free floating since they 
> allow me to view the contents of the parent window.
>
> The title of the dialog would reflect the chosen action: "Change tag 
> configuration" or "Manage Tag" depending on the actions it provides? 
> Perhaps the "Manage Tag" dialog could have a button called "Apply to 
> all messages" which would then lock the interface and show a progress 
> bar until the changes have been made?
>
>> MailMate does a few things automatically, e.g., if something is 
>> labelled without the corresponding IMAP keyword or vice versa then 
>> MailMate tries to “clean it up” by adding the missing keyword or 
>> label. It's not unlikely that this was involved in the observed 
>> glitches/issues.
>
> Ah, ok. What if that too was made into a manual action from a "Tool" 
> menu or something? "Validate & Repair Message Tags" that would first 
> identify the number of messages that would need fixing and then if the 
> user says "Go ahead and fix them", it would again, lock the interface 
> and show a progress bar until it was done?
>
>> Based on crash reports I've observed an issue with the handling of 
>> Gmail labels. If you are able to reproduce such a crash then please 
>> let me know.
>
> Ok, I'll do that!
>
> /jody_______________________________________________
> mailmate mailing list
> mailmate at lists.freron.com
> http://lists.freron.com/listinfo/mailmate
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.freron.com/pipermail/mailmate/attachments/20160125/1a73fe12/attachment.html>


More information about the mailmate mailing list