Thunderbird:Backend Hacking Guide For Newbies: Difference between revisions

=== Major Thunderbird Entities ===  

Currently, Thunderbird supports four different incoming (IMAP, POP3, NNTP, RSS) and one outgoing messaging protocols (SMTP). Each incoming protocol provide its own implementation (i.e. [http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Emre/tb/architecture/diagrams/imap/static#nsImapProtocol imap protocol]).  

Each message source (url+logininfo+protocol) is represented by an <code>Account</code> entity, and all accounts are managed by [http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Emre/tb/architecture/diagrams/accountmanager <code>AccountManager</code>]. Each account has an associated [http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Emre/tb/architecture/diagrams/messageincomingserver <code>IncomingServer</code>] entity that is implemented by the corresponding account [http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Emre/tb/architecture/diagrams/imap/static#nsIImapIncomingServer <code>protocol</code>].  

Thunderbird uses a folder-based hierarchical representation to organize messages. [http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Emre/tb/architecture/diagrams/messagefolder <code>Folder</code>] (or <code>MsgFolder</code>) is the logical entity that contains message contents belong to the same hierarchical level. Message content consists of message headers and message body including attachments. These two entities are stored in different physical stores to improve the system performance. Every <code>Account</code> has a root folder, which has several subfolders (each potentially with their own subfolders, ad infinitum) which are actual folders on the hosting operating system.