| 12 | | Okay, got that out of the way! :-) Now here's what you've been waiting for... The whole point of [milestone:2.0] is to implement that major architectural change! It'll take a while to finish, since I do this in my spare time. However, the end goal is to support anything and everything (within reason) related to the common feature requests mentioned above. If you are at all curious how that is coming together from a developer's perspective, I'm trying to keep some level of design documentation on the [wiki:design] page, and some status updates in the Blog section. |
| 13 | | |
| 14 | | === What is the code signing issue? === |
| 15 | | ''a.k.a. Why won't you implement <cool device integration feature> in !LogicMail?''[[BR]] |
| 16 | | There are portions of the [http://www.blackberry.com/developers/docs/4.1api/index.html BlackBerry API] that cannot be used in software on an actual !BlackBerry device, unless the binary for that software is digitally signed with a key from [http://www.rim.com/ RIM]. These portions mainly cover potentially invasive device integration and cryptography. Up to this point, !LogicMail has explicitly avoided using any interfaces that would require signed code. However, moving forward, there will be an increasing number of user feature requests that require use of signed interfaces to implement. |
| 17 | | |
| 18 | | At this point, you are probably wondering why I am avoiding use of signed APIs. Even though the code signing privilege costs money, the cost isn't a prohibiting factor. The issue is that !LogicMail is an open-source project. What that means is that anyone can, and should, be able to download the source code, compile it themselves, and run the output on their device. If I were to use signed APIs, everyone would be forced to only use official builds. If they wanted to build it themselves, they would have to purchase their own code signing privileges from RIM, or only be able to run the application on the simulator. |
| 19 | | |
| 20 | | That all being said, I've decided that LogicMail [milestone:2.0] will be using the signed APIs. The reason is that too many project goals require those APIs to satisfy, and being able to use them opens up a lot more flexibility. |
| 21 | | |
| 22 | | === Is HTML message display supported? === |
| 23 | | LogicMail '''''1.x''''' does not support displaying HTML messages. If someone wants to contribute a patch that does basic tag-stripping as a workaround, I'll consider merging it in. I've heard that [http://louistang0811.wordpress.com/ Louis Tang] may have implemented a basic tag-stripper in his Vietnamese-specialized variant of LogicMail 1.x, but last I heard he didn't think it was very robust. |
| 24 | | |
| 25 | | LogicMail [milestone:2.0] will include correct HTML rendering using the built-in HTML display capabilities of the BlackBerry API. The implementation of this feels quite awkward in comparison to other UI elements, so it may take a while to get all the bugs worked out. |
| | 9 | This is a surprisingly common question, however, and it appears the [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Autoconfiguration Mozilla Thunderbird] project is working on building a [https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailServerList mail server list] that they can eventually use to automate client configuration. When and if they finish implementing it, I may consider integrating support for the list into LogicMail. |
| | 64 | == Other questions == |
| | 65 | === What about new message notification? === |
| | 66 | ''a.k.a. How can I get my BB to buzz when I get a new message?''[[BR]] |
| | 67 | ''a.k.a. Can you implement an auto-refresh feature? It should be easy, right?''[[BR]] |
| | 68 | ''a.k.a. Can I have it check for new mail automatically?''[[BR]] |
| | 69 | |
| | 70 | I get this feature request often enough, that I figured I might as well provide a general explanation. As of the '''''1.x''''' versions, LogicMail is a very synchronous application. That means it only does things when you interact with it. Nothing is running in the background, and there is no easy way to have something running in the background. The state of the application's interaction with the mail server is always directly in line with what you are doing with it. There is no easy way for it to go off and do other things while you have the device in your pocket. To do otherwise would require a major architectural change in the application. |
| | 71 | |
| | 72 | Okay, got that out of the way! :-) Now here's what you've been waiting for... The whole point of [milestone:2.0] is to implement that major architectural change! It'll take a while to finish, since I do this in my spare time. However, the end goal is to support anything and everything (within reason) related to the common feature requests mentioned above. If you are at all curious how that is coming together from a developer's perspective, I'm trying to keep some level of design documentation on the [wiki:design] page, and some status updates in the Blog section. |
| | 73 | |
| | 74 | === What is the code signing issue? === |
| | 75 | ''a.k.a. Why won't you implement <cool device integration feature> in !LogicMail?''[[BR]] |
| | 76 | There are portions of the [http://www.blackberry.com/developers/docs/4.1api/index.html BlackBerry API] that cannot be used in software on an actual !BlackBerry device, unless the binary for that software is digitally signed with a key from [http://www.rim.com/ RIM]. These portions mainly cover potentially invasive device integration and cryptography. Up to this point, !LogicMail has explicitly avoided using any interfaces that would require signed code. However, moving forward, there will be an increasing number of user feature requests that require use of signed interfaces to implement. |
| | 77 | |
| | 78 | At this point, you are probably wondering why I am avoiding use of signed APIs. Even though the code signing privilege costs money, the cost isn't a prohibiting factor. The issue is that !LogicMail is an open-source project. What that means is that anyone can, and should, be able to download the source code, compile it themselves, and run the output on their device. If I were to use signed APIs, everyone would be forced to only use official builds. If they wanted to build it themselves, they would have to purchase their own code signing privileges from RIM, or only be able to run the application on the simulator. |
| | 79 | |
| | 80 | That all being said, I've decided that LogicMail [milestone:2.0] will be using the signed APIs. The reason is that too many project goals require those APIs to satisfy, and being able to use them opens up a lot more flexibility. |
| | 81 | |
| | 82 | === Is HTML message display supported? === |
| | 83 | LogicMail '''''1.x''''' does not support displaying HTML messages. If someone wants to contribute a patch that does basic tag-stripping as a workaround, I'll consider merging it in. I've heard that [http://louistang0811.wordpress.com/ Louis Tang] may have implemented a basic tag-stripper in his Vietnamese-specialized variant of LogicMail 1.x, but last I heard he didn't think it was very robust. |
| | 84 | |
| | 85 | LogicMail [milestone:2.0] will include correct HTML rendering using the built-in HTML display capabilities of the BlackBerry API. The implementation of this feels quite awkward in comparison to other UI elements, so it may take a while to get all the bugs worked out. |
| | 86 | |
