[horde] Imp/Dimp Inbox incorrectly shows 0 emails

[D G Teed]

On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Michael M Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org> wrote:
> Quoting Andy Dorman <adorman at ironicdesign.com>:
>
>> On 12/03/2010 08:56 AM, Joe Besko wrote:
>>>
>>> If you try to change the default sorting options without deleting the
>>> user's sortpref, it won't have any affect. The user's sortpref will
>>> override the system's defaults. You need to delete the user's sortpref,
>>> have the user log out, if logged in, then log in after deleting the
>>> preference. We use mysql to store our user's prefs, and the sql code
>>> looks like:
>>>
>>> Verify the preference:
>>> select * from horde_prefs where pref_uid='<userid>' and pref_scope='imp'
>>> and pref_name='sortpref';
>>>
>>> Deleting the preference:
>>> delete from horde_prefs where pref_uid='<userid>' and pref_scope='imp'
>>> and pref_name='sortpref';
>>>
>>> I'd be curious to know what the user was sorting his messages on.
>>>
>>> Good luck.
>>>
>>
>> OK, Joe and Michael, thank you for all your suggestions.  But I would love
>> to know WHY this fixed the problem.  :-)
>>
>> We use OpenLDAP for the prefs because it is lightning fast and very
>> scalable. However, the tradeoff is that raw edits like you suggested are not
>> nearly as easy to do as they are with SQL.
>>
>> So I ended up writing a short script to find and clear the impPrefs:
>> sortpref attribute.  AND THE PROBLEM VANISHED WHEN THE ADDRESS sortpref WAS
>> REMOVED.
>>
>> The value I removed in OpenLDAP was this
>
> The pertinent part of the sortpref (the value was PHP serialized and then
> base64 encoded, btw) for the INBOX was:
>
>    [INBOX] => Array
>        (
>            [b] => 3
>            [d] =>
>        )
>
> In the sortpref, 'b' is the value for sortBy.  And 3 is the c-client IMAP
> constant for SORTSUBJECT.  So the user was sorting by subject.
>
>> We have asked the user to try and "recreate" his sort settings when he has
>> some time.  And if he can cause the problem again, now that I KNOW what to
>> look for, I will try the exact same settings on another address.
>
> Ask the user to sort by subject.
>
>> And in the meantime, if anyone can explain why removing the address
>> sortpref fixed this, I would love to understand.  Is it possible we have an
>> option in the address sort prefs that we should not allow for Cyrus IMAP?
>
> By default, mailboxes are sorted by arrival (SORTARRIVAL php constant; see
> 'sortby' IMP pref).  There is a possibility that there is a message in his
> INBOX that is wonky - meaning it has something such as 8-bit header
> characters (which is invalid).  it is also possible that this header is
> causing the internal sorting algorithm in c-client (or, less likely, cyrus
> itself) to fail which results in an empty list of messages in the mailbox.
>  So it requires the combo of a certain sort coupled with a specific kind of
> message to see this behavior (which is why most/all users never experience
> this).
>
> michael
>
> --
> ___________________________________
> Michael Slusarz [slusarz at horde.org]

I've just experienced a similar case like this, except with default
sorting of by date or arrival.
The user does not have an entry in horde_prefs at all.

I was able to go into their webmail, use DIMP to select sort by thread,
and then back to IMP all messages appear.  I can then click on another
column header like message # and the mailbox messages display OK.  If
I click on the date column header to sort by date, all of the messages
dissappear
from view.  These column headers also cause all messages to disappear from
view :  Size, From

It would appear one of the 40 messages in their inbox triggers the
problem.  Again
there is no problem viewing this in thunderbird over imap.

I'm using the cyrus from Redhat 5: cyrus-imapd 2.3.7-7.el5_6.4

--Donald