[squirrelmail.git] / doc / tree.txt

So what is this tree stuff?
===========================

In order to get correct folder deletion across the board for all
different RFC2060 compliant IMAP servers, deleting of folders 
needed to work by deleting subfolders (inferiors) first, working
up to the top folder that is desired to be deleted.

The best way to do this was to use a tree, and walk the thing in
preorder to get subfolders first (leaves), working our way up the 
tree.  I chose to use an array for the tree structure.

The array has the following elements:
$tree[0]["value"]             = <full folder name>
$tree[0]["doIHaveChildren"]   = boolean
$tree[0]["subNodes"]          = indexes of the array that are
                                  child nodes of this node

The trickiest part was finding the correct parent node when creating
a new node in the tree.  Check the documentation in the code for
more info on this.

Basically all we had to do was loop through each of the items that
need to be in the tree (folders, subfolders), find their parent,
let their parent know it has a new child, and insert the values
into the child.

Once the tree is generated, a simple preorder or postorder walk
of the tree can be done doing whatever function you desire (delete,
create, etc).

Preorder walking gives you the tree from the leaves up.  Postorder
walks the tree from the root node down to the leaves.
Commit	Line	Data
36bb3d7c	1	So what is this tree stuff?
	2	===========================
	3
	4	In order to get correct folder deletion across the board for all
	5	different RFC2060 compliant IMAP servers, deleting of folders
	6	needed to work by deleting subfolders (inferiors) first, working
	7	up to the top folder that is desired to be deleted.
	8
	9	The best way to do this was to use a tree, and walk the thing in
	10	preorder to get subfolders first (leaves), working our way up the
	11	tree. I chose to use an array for the tree structure.
	12
	13	The array has the following elements:
	14	$tree[0]["value"] = <full folder name>
	15	$tree[0]["doIHaveChildren"] = boolean
	16	$tree[0]["subNodes"] = indexes of the array that are
	17	child nodes of this node
	18
	19	The trickiest part was finding the correct parent node when creating
	20	a new node in the tree. Check the documentation in the code for
	21	more info on this.
	22
1e63b430	23	Basically all we had to do was loop through each of the items that
36bb3d7c	24	need to be in the tree (folders, subfolders), find their parent,
	25	let their parent know it has a new child, and insert the values
	26	into the child.
	27
	28	Once the tree is generated, a simple preorder or postorder walk
	29	of the tree can be done doing whatever function you desire (delete,
	30	create, etc).
	31
	32	Preorder walking gives you the tree from the leaves up. Postorder
	33	walks the tree from the root node down to the leaves.