14 - Archiving a message - Background Information
Click here for main text
First of all, since RexxMail messages are straightforward OS/2 files, they can be moved to any location on a system without affecting their functionality. The 'In Archive' and 'Out Archive' folders are simply there for convenience. The archive folders can contain as many subfolders (and sub-subfolders, etc.) as needed to keep track of outgoing mail messages.

Note however, that a reply generated (by dropping it on the 'Dispatch' program object, or through the object's pop-up menu) from a message stored in any of the RexxMail (sub-)folders will be created in the RexxMail 'Out' folder, whereas a reply to a mail message stored elsewhere will be created in the folder in which the original mail message is kept.

Although the example shows an incoming message file being moved by hand to a subfolder in the 'In Archive' folder, RexxMail will by default store incoming messages in the 'Read' subfolder after viewing. After sending outgoing messages, RexxMail's default behaviour is to store them in the 'Sent' subfolder (in the 'Out Archive' folder). This automatic storage process is controlled by a pair of special files in the configuration folder, 'mailsent.txt' and 'mailread.txt'.
These files contain a list of folder paths followed by e-mail addresses to indicate where messages should stored. A 'default' option is provided to store messages to or from unlisted addresses in a default folder (e.g. 'Sent' or 'Read'. By the way, the exclamation marks are there simply to make sure the folders appear at the top of an alphabetically sorted list). There is also a 'delete' option to indicate that any corresponding messages are to be deleted after processing. See the contents of the 'mailsent.txt' and 'mailread.txt' files for more information.


© 2001 M.C. de Geus
Last updated 20010920