Ability to manually run filters on a specific folder

[MayeulC]

I often wish there was a way to run a newly created filter, instead of having to manually apply the actions myself for already-received mails.

For instance, I hit #5123, and had to move around the mails myself after fixing the rule.

It can also be interesting to note that Thunderbird has an "apply filter" button on its filter editor.

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Additionnal thoughts:

• Sometimes, the filter is a one-off. It could be interesting to have an "execute" button next to "save" in the filter assistant
• A filter preview could be useful, launching a search that match the criteria
• To build on the previous point, it could also be interesting to be able to promote a search to a filter, or perform some "advanced search" with the same filtering options as the filter interface.

Of course, making all of this possible while keeping a sane UX is challenging.

[alecpl]

Writing client-side sieve engine will not be an easy task, and that will probably have bad performance. Some servers (dovecot only?) have tools to re-filter a folder (standalone sieve-filter command or imap_filter_sieve plugin).

[spinus]

@alecpl is it possible to trigger this filter on server side through API/protocol?

[alecpl]

It's possible via IMAP if the server supports FILTER=SIEVE extension. See the link in my previous comment.