Whether the sent data is set or not may depend on whether or not your mail
client (Thunderbird in this case) sets the Date header of messages it sends.
Normally I would expect it to do so.
The received data is probably being set to the date on which the copy of
the sent message is appended to the Sent folder.
I don't know of a way to definitively tell whether a message was appended
to a folder because it was "sent" or for some other reason, especially
since you can move messages between the INBOX and Sent folders without
"sending" or "receiving" them.
xoot123_at_yahoo.it wrote on 05/31/13 06:56:
> Hi,
> I'm reading from the Sent folder of IMAP server an email I wrote and sent with
> Thunderbird - to avoid any possible error that could come from my application.
> Is it correct that both the received date and the sent date are not null in the
> obtained IMAPMessage?
> In particular, I'm seeing that the sent date is some seconds earlier than the
> received date.
> If that's fine, what's the most reliable way to tell if an email is sent or
> received?
>
>
> Thanks
> M. R.
>