Open Source Developers Promise New API for Dovecot Email Data

As a technology that predates even the Web by nearly two decades, email may not seem like something with a lot of room left for improvement. But the recently announced Dovecot Rest API (DAPI), which presents new ways for apps to interact with email data on the Dovecot open source IMAP email platform, could have a significant impact on enterprise computing and the way we use email.

DAPI was announced on July 23 by Dovecot OY, a Finnish company that provides support for Dovecot. Dovecot itself is an open source project that develops an email server platform widely used in enterprises and beyond today. You may not know it, but chances are good that you've used a Dovecot server many times when sending or receiving email.

The new API is particularly important because it is compatible with the Gmail API that Google (GOOG) recently introduced. That means apps written to interact with Gmail data can very easily do the same with email stored on a Dovecot server.

And more broadly, the idea of presenting new ways for apps to work with data stored in email stands to have big implications for the way people use computers and mobile devices by integrating email more seamlessly into application stacks and workflows.

Dovecot OY puts it this way in a statement regarding the new API: "Closer integration of new third-party applications and message data will offer email users valuable new services to improve the way data is handled and presented in mobile and web apps and in the 'Internet of Things' devices. The Dovecot REST API complements existing email protocols such as IMAP and POP3, and gives users control over how applications access email data for dedicated functions instead of giving complete access to their email account."

DAPI is currently under development, with no specific indication yet of when it will become generally available. The developers say it will be integrated into the core open source codebase of the Dovecot server when complete, however.