Comment 116 for bug 119899

After reading the comments on this bug more thoroughly, I've come to the conclusion that the request in this bug is really to enable the use of IMAP server search functionality in offline filters, probably in combination with the offline store. That would allow after-the-fact filters to work reliably where users do not have folders selected for offline use.

I'm not really willing to do that work in the near future, so I am going to remove myself from being assigned to this bug.

I should point out that there are two workarounds for this issue. In the default TB configuration, messages are AFAIK now downloaded for offline use, and then this bug does not apply. For users that do not want messages offline, there is the workaround provided by the existing patch on this bug. That is to add the desired header to the mailnews.customDBHeaders preference, and compact all folders.

So I think what I will do in the short run is to use a new bug, to make sure that when custom headers are defined for filters, they are also automatically added to the message database. (Bug 363238 is close, and for now I'll continue there). That way, users can simply define a custom header in the filter editor, and it will then work on future messages. (To make it work on old messages, the would need to compact old folders manually).