Can I do this with the registry?

Can I do this with the registry?

[David Abrahams]

I was just reading the documentation on the way-cool registry feature
(thanks, Ted!) and my head started to explode.  It *sounds* as though
one might be easily able to use the Registry to accomplish something
I've long wanted.  It goes something like this:

For various reasons, I need to delete messages from my INBOX when I'm
done with them.  Often someone will send me a reply and fail to quote
important context, or I'll simply need to go back and review earlier
messages in the thread.  I keep a "history" folder that essentially
accumulates everything that's passed through my email flow, so I have
the messages, but to find them I have to do lots of navigation.  Oh, and
sometimes I don't "have" all the messages, but they're available on some
NNTP group I subscribe to, because threads get "taken offline" (or the
opposite).

I'd really like a way to collect all the messages connected to a thread,
no matter which groups the thread has passed through.  Can the registry
help with that, and if so, how?

TIA,

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: Can I do this with the registry?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:50:32 -0700 David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> wrote: 

DA> For various reasons, I need to delete messages from my INBOX when I'm
DA> done with them.  Often someone will send me a reply and fail to quote
DA> important context, or I'll simply need to go back and review earlier
DA> messages in the thread.  I keep a "history" folder that essentially
DA> accumulates everything that's passed through my email flow, so I have
DA> the messages, but to find them I have to do lots of navigation.  Oh, and
DA> sometimes I don't "have" all the messages, but they're available on some
DA> NNTP group I subscribe to, because threads get "taken offline" (or the
DA> opposite).

DA> I'd really like a way to collect all the messages connected to a thread,
DA> no matter which groups the thread has passed through.  Can the registry
DA> help with that, and if so, how?

The registry can give you the following for a message ID: sender,
subject, mtime, and groups for that message.  You can also associate
persistent flags with a message.

What you need can be done by looking at the group for each message ID
you need, looking for the message itself, and putting it in a list.
Then you can get the References for the parent message and recurse.  

I think you're asking for the list of messages to be interpreted as a
virtual thread inside the current group, which is pretty hard and I
don't know how to do it.  Displaying the message contents in some way,
though, is not too hard.

Ted

Re: Can I do this with the registry?

[David Abrahams]

on Fri Mar 20 2009, Ted Zlatanov <tzz-AT-lifelogs.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:50:32 -0700 David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> wrote: 
>
> DA> For various reasons, I need to delete messages from my INBOX when I'm
> DA> done with them.  Often someone will send me a reply and fail to quote
> DA> important context, or I'll simply need to go back and review earlier
> DA> messages in the thread.  I keep a "history" folder that essentially
> DA> accumulates everything that's passed through my email flow, so I have
> DA> the messages, but to find them I have to do lots of navigation.  Oh, and
> DA> sometimes I don't "have" all the messages, but they're available on some
> DA> NNTP group I subscribe to, because threads get "taken offline" (or the
> DA> opposite).
>
> DA> I'd really like a way to collect all the messages connected to a thread,
> DA> no matter which groups the thread has passed through.  Can the registry
> DA> help with that, and if so, how?
>
> The registry can give you the following for a message ID: sender,
> subject, mtime, and groups for that message.  You can also associate
> persistent flags with a message.
>
> What you need can be done by looking at the group 

Heh, /which/ group?

> for each message ID you need, looking for the message itself, and
> putting it in a list.  Then you can get the References for the parent
> message and recurse.

Sounds pretty compute-intensive unless I maintain some other index.

> I think you're asking for the list of messages to be interpreted as a
> virtual thread inside the current group, which is pretty hard and I
> don't know how to do it.  

Not necessarily.  I might be very happy with something that works like
nnmairix, by creating a "virtual" group on my client containing all the
messages of interest.

If you think you understand how to approach this problem and wouldn't
mind pointing me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful and very
willing to hack up the solution myself.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: Can I do this with the registry?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:07:58 -0400 David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> wrote: 

DA> on Fri Mar 20 2009, Ted Zlatanov <tzz-AT-lifelogs.com> wrote:

>> On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:50:32 -0700 David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> wrote: 
>> 
DA> I'd really like a way to collect all the messages connected to a thread,
DA> no matter which groups the thread has passed through.  Can the registry
DA> help with that, and if so, how?
>> 
>> The registry can give you the following for a message ID: sender,
>> subject, mtime, and groups for that message.  You can also associate
>> persistent flags with a message.
>> 
>> What you need can be done by looking at the group 

DA> Heh, /which/ group?

The first one returned should be OK.  There's a
gnus-registry-fetch-groups that returns all the groups, but since you
want the article and don't care about where it comes from, you can just
go with the first one:

(let ((id "<m3u08y9g37.fsf@quimbies.gnus.org>")
      (group (gnus-registry-fetch-group id)))
    (debug id group)
    (gnus-activate-group group) ;; is this needed?
    (gnus-request-article id group (current-buffer)))

This doesn't work in this raw form, sorry, but it can get you started.
I couldn't work on it more right now.  Also look at the function that
runs for `^' in the summary buffer, it gets the parent article in the
current group and is close to what you want.

>> for each message ID you need, looking for the message itself, and
>> putting it in a list.  Then you can get the References for the parent
>> message and recurse.

DA> Sounds pretty compute-intensive unless I maintain some other index.

It wouldn't be hard to modify the registry to store the references for
every article it sees, like it stores the subject and sender right now.
Then it's just a quick lookup to find any article's parents.

>> I think you're asking for the list of messages to be interpreted as a
>> virtual thread inside the current group, which is pretty hard and I
>> don't know how to do it.  

DA> Not necessarily.  I might be very happy with something that works like
DA> nnmairix, by creating a "virtual" group on my client containing all the
DA> messages of interest.

I don't know if that will work well, because you'd have to make a new
one for every article and you'd have to leave the group you're currently
visiting.  But if it works for you...

DA> If you think you understand how to approach this problem and wouldn't
DA> mind pointing me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful and very
DA> willing to hack up the solution myself.

I'll be glad to help further when I have the chance.  I hope this info
is somewhat useful.

Ted