328418 - before going offline, pop should download smallest messages first

Status: NEW

(MailNews Core :: Networking: POP, enhancement)

Description

[Mark Shuttleworth]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060210 Ubuntu/dapper Firefox/1.5.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060210 Ubuntu/dapper Firefox/1.5.0.1

When going offline, it makes sense to download the smaller email
messages first. This means you will likely receive more messages if you
can only connect for a short period of time. It would avoid the common
case of having to download messages in a hurry, and getting "stuck" on a
huge message early in the list which locks up the connection for longer
than you have online. I am willing to pay a $50 paypal bounty for this
feature.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install offline extension.
2. Get new mail.
3. Go offline.

Actual Results:  
You will see the messages downloaded, in what appears to be the order they arrived. If there is a huge message early on, it will block downloading of later messages.

Expected Results:  
The messages should be downloaded smallest-first, so that the maximum number of messages can be retrieved in a given period of time.

This bug is also filed in Launchpad at https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/32624

Comment 1

[Thomas Butter]

the correct launchpad url is: https://bugs.launchpad.net/thunderbird/+bug/32624

Comment 2

[Emre Birol]

Default download strategy does this for imap accounts: bug 436615.

Comment 3

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

So, is this actually resolved? Or is it open for for pop3 too?

Comment 4

[Emre Birol]

Not resolved. But, with the patch 436615, downloading before going offline becomes less important for imap folders since TB downloads every message in the offline imap folders during idle time, and doing this using the smallest first strategy. 

There is no behavioral change for pop3 folders. I just wanted to point this new feature to the reporter.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Emre Birol from comment #2)

Default download strategy does this for imap accounts: bug 436615.

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