Version: (using KDE KDE 3.4.3) Installed from: SuSE RPMs OS: Linux It would be useful, to have the possibility to get message-lists via dcop. A list of all unread emails, a list of all new emails, a list of all emails in the current view, a list of all emails from a certain folder. Obviously it should also be possible to get only a list of x messages. Following the list-commands that supply an ID one should be able to get the message-text, sender, date and so on of a certain ID or just the currently selected message. Using these functions, desktop-apllets or IM-apps could provide a summary of email or show information realated to the currrently selected message.
I find this a little delicate, to give all applications acess to all email. There should be some kind of application-specific authorization (possibly using KWallet, but this would also have to become more secure), or at least access to email should be disabled by default.
On the one hand, every application running has either root-rights or was started by the user. On the other hand you are right that restricting access would be very useful. Yet, what would stop an application started by the user or root from accessing the mail-dir in .kde directly? In that case it could even manipulate the data.
A user's mail does not necessarily reside in his home directory, it might be accessible on a remote IMAP account only, for example.
While I do not see the necessity to disallow reading IMAP-accounts, when POP can be accessed via the file-system anyway, this could be solved by a switch to only allow the dcop for POP or both IMAP and POP.
dIMAP would be a candidate too
KDE4 doesn't use DCOP anymore.