Re: problem in connecting to Exchange 2007

[Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org>]

Yair Friedman <yif@iskoot.com> writes:

> On Thu, 7 Jun 2007 16:29:19 +0300, 
> Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> writes:
>
>> Yair Friedman <yif@iskoot.com> writes:
>>
>>> On Thu, 7 Jun 2007 12:05:03 +0300,
>>> Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> Yair Friedman <yif@iskoot.com> writes:
>>>> As far as I can tell, the server is simply buggy, there is nothing wrong
>>>> with the simple command:
>>>>
>>>> 50 FETCH 1,* UID
>>>>
>>>> to which the server responds (in several mailboxes):
>>>>
>>>> 50 BAD The specified message set is invalid.
>>>>
>>>> I suggest debugging the server further, possibly report it as a bug, or
>>>> change to some other software.
>>>
>>> This is Microsoft Exchange we're talking about... The server is out of
>>> my control, The only software I can change is the client :(
>>> Thunderbird seems to be working fine.
>>>
>>> Is there any way we can try and bypass this?
>>
>> Not trivially, you'll have to rewrite parts of (nn)imap.el after
>> experimenting with what the server supports.  It may be difficult, and I
>> suspect that if one command doesn't work, others will work poorly as
>> well...  Sorry.
>>
>> It would be useful to know if anyone else has ever seen this.
>>
>> /Simon
>
> I suspect it would be a problem for those poor of us who are forced to
> use Exchange as this version would become more popular in the corporate
> world.
>
> The only other reference to such a problem I found is this Message-ID:
> <m0hcpu1n3s.fsf@bar.nemo-project.org>
>
> I am willing to help in any necessary testing, but my elisp writing
> skills are not too good, and my IMAP protocol knowledge is non-existent.
>
> Would tracing what Thunderbird do can help? Or do you find the usage
> patterns too far away?

No, it won't help, at least not unless you are ready to re-write large
portions of nnimap.  The problem is that nnimap need to get the data
that Gnus request, and that is historically somewhat nntp-centric.
Other IMAP-clients doesn't need to get the same data from the IMAP
server, and will thus never send similar queries.

It might be possible to find some other way in IMAP to get the same data
as 'UID FETCH 1,* UID' that the server handles.  But you'll need to
learn some IMAP and elisp to experiment with that.  For example, you
could use 'telnet' against the server and login and test various
commands.  For example, if 'UID FETCH 1 UID' and 'UID FETCH * UID' works
as separate commands, that together would return the needed data.  But
to be able to come up with inventive ideas of commands to try, you'll
need to know IMAP.

I'm sorry that I don't have time to help you more that this.

/Simon