Export of settings in text based format?

[engelhro]

Hello,

I'd like to know whether it's somehow possible to export AquaMail's configuration in a human readable format?

I'm curious and being a new user of AquaMail, I'm currently playing with its configuration and would like to see later which options I've changed. I know I can export the whole configuration at once for backup (but only in a binary blob) and that I can also see the recently touched settings (but only with limited history).

I like the idea of e.g. Mozilla's Thunderbird and Firefox – one can simply take two pref.js configuration files (different installations, same installation but different points in time, etc.) and compare them with each other. It's even possible then to partially transfer information (e.g. account settings, layout settings) from one file to another.

Is there any way to export AquaMails settings like this? Either as full export (then I could use an initial export with fresh settings as baseline) or even better just as a delta with only those settings included which I've explicitly altered and which now deviate from the defaults? That would enable users to recreate a certain configuration later by merging the delta with an existing configuration (even if that happens manually, just looking at the file).

If not, what would be the closest workaround (except noting down every setting myself each time I change it)?

Thanks for any ideas!

[StR]

The short answer is "no", that is not possible.

The backup is intended to restore the complete setup of Aquamail after a hard reset, incident, or on a new device. Besides just the options, it preserves account passwords, and that is the reason why it is encrypted and password protected.

Since the overarching paradigm of Android and its apps is that you are not editing configuration in an editor (or command line) as it can be done, say on Unix or even on Windows, I believe that is the reason (or at least one of them) why there is no direct access to the app setting in a text form.

Being a computer enthusiast myself, I see the rationale behind what you want, and there were moments when I would have probably preferred editing an XML for AM's configuration. But since there are very few people who would ever have used that even if it were available, I do not expect it being implemented. (And I wouldn't even hold it against the developer: it is much less important than many other things in this case.)

PS.
I should mention that when I had to edit Thunderbird configuration manually recently, when I needed to change the order of the account, I was sincerely surprised why that is not implemented via a menu... (And if you are familiar with that, - that XML is implemented in a very convoluted way.) And that's despite many users asking for the possibility to change the order of the accounts in Thunderbird.