Class FetchProfile

Messages obtained from a Folder are light-weight objects that typically start off as empty references to the actual messages. Such a Message object is filled in "on-demand" when the appropriate get*() methods are invoked on that particular Message. Certain server-based message access protocols (Ex: IMAP) allow batch fetching of message attributes for a range of messages in a single request. Clients that want to use message attributes for a range of Messages (Example: to display the top-level headers in a headerlist) might want to use the optimization provided by such servers. The FetchProfile allows the client to indicate this desire to the server.

Note that implementations are not obligated to support FetchProfiles, since there might be cases where the backend service does not allow easy, efficient fetching of such profiles.

Sample code that illustrates the use of a FetchProfile is given below:

  Message[] msgs = folder.getMessages();

  FetchProfile fp = new FetchProfile();
  fp.add(FetchProfile.Item.ENVELOPE);
  fp.add("X-mailer");
  folder.fetch(msgs, fp);