This interface is divided into three views: the top, for initial searching; the list page, for displaying search results; the display page, for displaying individual messages. You can reach this help page from any page.
This system is not designed to be pretty (at this stage). It is for fleshing out some ideas on how to access the messages contained in the database. Suggestions are welcomed at cdent@burningchrome.com.
Displays form elements allowing the user to input terms used to create SQL queries into the database. Results are displayed in the list display.
Displays lists of messages that are the results set of a query generated from the top display or from actions taken on the list display. Allows access to other message sets or to display of individual messages.
One or more messages is listed, each with the following links:
Displays one single message with From, Subject, Message-ID, In-Reply-To and the body of the message. The body includes purple numbers to allow a high granularity of access to content.
Messages are displayed by their database key OR their RFC 822 Message-ID. By default it is database key. Be aware of which is in use when you make reference by purple number URL. The Message-ID should be a unique persisitent identifier. The database key may not be, as data is dropped and re-entered during the prototyping phase of the system. (This inconsistency is the result of hasty development...)
When viewing a message:
clicking on the from address will raise a list display containing all the messages from that author
clicking on the subject will list all messages with that subject
clicking on the Message-ID will redisplay the message based on Message-ID instead of database key
clicking the In-Reply-To may display the message to which the current message is a response. This only works if the form of the In-Reply-To is good, which is frequently not the case.
clicking on the data performs the same function as the date in the list display
Effort has been made to get rid of mailing list system footers, but this has not always been successful. Non text/plain content has not been added to the database.