Roaming personal information items across multiple computing devices using an imap server

A system for roaming personal information items across multiple computing devices using an IMAP server, the system comprising:

• a PIM program executing on a first computing device and operative to maintain personal information items in a local information cache on the first computing device;
• and
• an IMAP client extension module executing on the first computing device and operative to
• detect a changed personal information item maintained by the PIM program, and
• upload data representing the changed personal information item from the first computing device to the IMAP server, wherein the data representing the changed personal information item is stored as a message in a user mailbox designated to hold personal information items on the IMAP server, and wherein the message in the user mailbox containing the data representing the changed personal information item is made available to be downloaded by a second computing device and provided to a PIM program executing on the second computing device.

A computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

• receive data representing a first personal information item from a PIM program executing on the computing device;
• convert the data representing the first personal information item from a first format native to the PIM program to a second format for storage on an IMAP server;
• upload the data representing the first personal information item in the second format from the computing device to the IMAP server, wherein the data representing the first personal information item is stored as a message in a user mailbox designated to hold personal information items on the IMAP server;
• detect a new message in the user mailbox on the IMAP server, the new message storing data representing a second personal information item in the second format;
• download the new message from the IMAP server to the computing device;
• extract the data representing the second personal information item from the new message;
• convert the data representing the second personal information item from the second format to the first format native to the PIM program;
• and
• providing the data representing the second personal information item to the PIM program.