J.A.V.A. Mail Reader Design Document

The JAVA applet is a means for users to gain access to their mailboxes from any location where they have access to the World Wide Web and Netscape 2.0 or other Java Beta capable browser. The benefit of using the IMAP architecture is that it allows you to read mail messages without downloading them to the local client. Therefore when a user switches between machines to check their mail, they don't have to worry about whether a certain message they need to read/reread is on that particular machine.

The users of the JAVA mail reader only need two things: Netscape 2 (Java capable browser) and the desktop metaphor JAVA mail applet. Whenever the user makes a request for the mail message information, the JAVA mail applet accesses Ian Smith's IMAP classes which actually produces requests for the IMAP server. The request travels through the NIC (Network Interface Card) to the network. When a response is received, the data is passed back to the JAVA mail interface throughthe IMAP classes. The data is then displayed to the user via the JAVA interface classes.

But what happens from the server's view? There are two type of requests to the server that we are concerned with: IMAP, and HTTP protocol requests. The HTTP requests that we are going to take advantage of are those that request the JAVA binary executable be sent to the client. When these are received, the server will send the executable to the Netscape client via the HTTP protocol. The IMAP requests that come in are handled by the IMAP daemon. When they are recognized, the IMAP daemon goes to the file system to retrieve the requested information. The server then returns the message information to the client. The server then waits for another request from any IMAP client.

Desktop_Frame

• Constructors

  • Desktop_Frame(): creates the desktop frame
  
  

• Methods

  • public int initialize_physical() searches the local file system for existing folders (such as a ./Mail directory) and creates a physical representation of the folder on the desktop and an instance of a physical folder
  • public int initialize_virtual() reads in the configuration email and if it exists, creates a virtual folder representation on the desktop, as well as generating a new instance of the Virtual_Folder class

JMail_Frame

• Attributes

  • public int background_color
  
  

• Methods

  • public int add_button (int x, int y, String Button_Title, String Frame_Name) adds a button to the specified frame at the x, y coordinates sent in as parameters, and places the button text on the button
  • public int add_label (int x, int y, String Label_Text, String Frame_Name) adds the form title label to the specified form and at the location passed into the add_label method.
  • public int add_logo (int x, int y, String Frame_Name) adds the J-Mail logo to the frame Frame_Name at the specified x, y location

FolderList_Frame

• Attributes

  • public int Mailbox_ID
  • public String Mailbox_String
  
  

• Constructors

  • FolderList_Frame (String FolderName) creates the FolderList_Frame and puts the FolderName on the Title Bar of the frame
  
  

• Methods

  • public int initialize() fills in the list box with the name of all available physical folders
  • choose_folder(int index) sends the message to the chosen folder from the old folder and deletes the message from the previous folder

Folder

• Attributes

  • public String Name
  • public int Mailbox_ID
  
  

• Constructors

  • Folder(String Name) creates a new folder and puts the title under the bitmap representation
  
  

• Methods

  • public int drag() drags the bitmap representation of the folder around the desktop window

Virtual_Folder

• Attributes

  • vector int Message_Index
  
  

• Constructors

  • Virtual_Folder (String Name) creates a new virtual folder representation on the desktop and puts the name under the bitmap image

The User interface for the JAVA email reader is to resemble a desktop metaphor where the user can have multiple folders, and messages open all at the same time. The interface is going to be made to resemble the Macintosh OS more than any other type of Desktop. Prototypes for all of the windows except for the desktop have been prototyped under Unix in a GUI designer called XForms. The final interface will not look exactly the same because the widgets have a different appearance than the AWT widgets.