Chapter 5. Web-Based IMAP Clients
One of the major selling points of IMAP, its ability to provide ubiquitous email access, begs an obvious question. If Internet access itself is ubiquitous, but IMAP client installations are not, how do you get to your email? One good answer is to use a web-to-IMAP gateway. Such a gateway presents your IMAP-based mail through a web-based interface, usable with a web browser. IMAP web gateways run the gamut of interface complexity, from interfaces that use standard HTML exclusively to those that generously use JavaScript and Java to present the mail to the user.
Such a gateway permits you to retain the benefits of IMAP when IMAP clients are available, or to use any web browser as an IMAP client when a conventional IMAP client isnât handy. In fact, web-to-email interfaces are used not only by the increasingly popular free email sites, but also by hand-held devices like cellular phones and PDAs, which are using web browsers to connect their owners to their mailboxes.
Whatâs a Web-Based IMAP Client?
A web-based email system is sometimes referred to as a webmail system. Two popular examples of such systems are Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail. A typical webmail system that uses IMAP would consist of the webmail server, on which a web-based IMAP client is run, the IMAP server, and a mailstore.
A web-based IMAP client is software that runs on a web server and enables traditional IMAP email access and functions from within a web browser. Many of the best-known ...
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