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IMAP still works though right? It's strange that IFTTT would use some non-standard interface and that's why I'm asking. I don't think I can keep using gmail i
by swiley 8y ago
IMAP still works though right?
It's strange that IFTTT would use some non-standard interface and that's why I'm asking.
I don't think I can keep using gmail if IMAP breaks.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoDisclaimer: Worked someplace that does something similar to IFTTT, but not IFTTT. You do not want to use IMAP for integrations at scale. You run into all sorts of weird issues retrieving and deduplicating messages. It’s a terrible black box to troubleshoot. The Gmail REST interface was a huge improvement over IMAP. If you can get access to the REST interface, you want to use it. While IMAP is a legacy compatibility mode, I would not call it a “standard” interface for this purpose.
- Endy 8y agoPlease define 'at scale' - I use IMAP + SMTP to download all of my personal emails, I avoid REST because it's Google-led. Are you saying my ~5K/mo emails or my employers ~100K/mo emails are "scale"?
- toomuchtodo 8y agoYour personal use case is fine. I’m referring to when 100k+ customers are using it on your platform. FastMail has been championing a new standard (JMAP) for mail messaging; hopefully it gets traction.
- zaphirplane 8y agoWhat is at scale mean? every account has its own connection There is nothing inherently scalable in the imap vs rest layer
- toomuchtodo 8y agoIt’s not about performance scaling (although you do have to contend with those issues, as you’re network and not CPU bound), but about data integrity workload management. Each time a customer submits a ticket because you couldn’t catch an edge case when IMAP polling, that’s someone digging through logs to understand why, and determine if a patch provides ongoing resolution (or if nothing can be done other than an apology). That’s not scalable past a certain point. Hence, (hopefully well supported and documented) REST interfaces.
- dboreham 8y agoI think this is mostly a grass is greener scenario : you'll end up debugging that REST interface, and no two email providers supports the same REST interface. At least IMAP is reasonably well supported.
- dboreham 8y agootoh I've worked on a platform that does exactly this with flawless reliability. Yes it's a heavy lift, but not impossible.