Protocol Action: IMAP4 UIDPLUS extension to Proposed Standard

[The IESG <iesg-secretary at ietf.org>]

The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft 'IMAP4 UIDPLUS extension'
<draft-myers-imap-optimize-03.txt> as a Proposed Standard.  This
document is not the product of an IETF Working Group.
The IESG contact persons are Keith Moore and Patrik Fältström.


Technical Summary
 
 All three of the functions UIDPLUS adds are related to disconnected client
 operation.  These functions not only optimize client operations, but
 actually eliminate some race conditions which could result in
 unsatisfatory results for users.  If this extension is deployed, it is
 likely to be helpful.  Whether it will prove useful enough to merit the
 deployment expense remains to be seen.

 The APPENDUID and COPYUID response codes may be tricky to implement on
 server architectures which append messages via a path external to the IMAP
 server itself.

 The specification is clear enough to implement and of solid technical
 quality.

Working Group Summary

 This is not the product of a current working group, but the proposal
 has been debated on the IMAP mailing list for more than a year,
 and experimentation with at least one server implementation exists.
 The IMAP list generally thinks this proposal will be helpful for
 disconnected clients, although there is little community experience
 with disconnected clients to date.

Protocol Quality

 Chris Newman reviewed the spec for IESG.


Note to RFC Editor:

Please include the following as an IESG Note:

 IESG NOTE:  The IMAP extension described here assumes a particular
 means of using IMAP to support disconnected operation.   However,
 this means of supporting disconnected operation is not yet documented.
 Also, there are multiple theories about how best to do disconnected
 operation in IMAP, and as yet, there is no consensus on which one
 should be adopted as a standard.

 This document is being approved as a Proposed Standard because it
 does not appear to have technical flaws in itelf.  However, approval
 of this document as a Proposed Standard should not be considered
 an IETF endorsement of any particular means of doing disconnected
 operation in IMAP.