User Interface MTMs

Users interact with different message types in different ways. For example, a messaging protocol that supports attachments needs a more feature-rich editor than one that only supports text. User Interface MTMs allow developers to produce user interface components to suit these differing requirements. Some messaging protocols may even not need any user interaction at all: in such cases, a User Interface MTM component does not need to be implemented.

User Interface MTMs offer some or all of the following capabilities:

• viewing messages

• editing messages

• folder manipulation

• editing service settings

• providing pre-transfer/connection settings UI

• providing pre-transfer preparation of messages before sending

• interpreting and displaying mail transfer progress

• interpreting and displaying error conditions

A User Interface MTM need not supply all these functions. The Fax User Interface MTM, for example, would not supply folder manipulation, since folders are not appropriate within a fax service, but does provide pre-transfer preparation, as a fax may need to be rendered before transmitting.

Functionality to edit and/or view messages may be one of the larger programming tasks in creating an MTM. Such functionality is typically implemented in separate DLLs that the User Interface MTM loads as required, to reduce the memory footprint of a User Interface MTM.