Minor alterations to @yellowcap's pull request submission:

* Using a query parameter argument (rather than the entire query string)
  to specify the folder into which e-mail messages should be archived.
* Duplicating the IMAP tests; this could probably be a bit more simply
  done, but we'll at least be verifying both archived and non-archived
  use cases.
* Simplifying some aspects of the documentation to include references
  to this new feature.

django_mailbox/models.py

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ from django_mailbox.transports import Pop3Transport, ImapTransport,\
     MMDFTransport
 from django_mailbox.signals import message_received
 import six
-from six.moves.urllib.parse import unquote, urlparse
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import parse_qs, unquote, urlparse
 
 from .utils import convert_header_to_unicode
 
@@ -115,6 +115,10 @@ class Mailbox(models.Model):
     def _protocol_info(self):
         return urlparse(self.uri)
 
+    @property
+    def _query_string(self):
+        return parse_qs(self._protocol_info.query)
+
     @property
     def _domain(self):
         return self._protocol_info.hostname
@@ -148,7 +152,10 @@ class Mailbox(models.Model):
 
     @property
     def archive(self):
-        return self._protocol_info.query
+        archive_folder = self._query_string.get('archive', None)
+        if not archive_folder:
+            return None
+        return archive_folder[0]
 
     def get_connection(self):
         if not self.uri:

django_mailbox/tests/test_transports.py

@@ -6,6 +6,47 @@ from django_mailbox.transports import ImapTransport, Pop3Transport
 
 
 class TestImapTransport(EmailMessageTestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.arbitrary_hostname = 'one.two.three'
+        self.arbitrary_port = 100
+        self.ssl = False
+        self.transport = ImapTransport(
+            self.arbitrary_hostname,
+            self.arbitrary_port,
+            self.ssl
+        )
+        self.transport.server = None
+        super(TestImapTransport, self).setUp()
+
+    def test_get_email_message(self):
+        with mock.patch.object(self.transport, 'server') as server:
+            server.search.return_value = (
+                'OK',
+                [
+                    'One',  # This is totally arbitrary
+                ]
+            )
+            server.fetch.return_value = (
+                'OK',
+                [
+                    [
+                        '1 (RFC822 {8190}',  # Wat?
+                        self._get_email_as_text('generic_message.eml')
+                    ],
+                    ')',
+                ]
+            )
+            actual_messages = list(self.transport.get_message())
+
+        self.assertEqual(len(actual_messages), 1)
+
+        actual_message = actual_messages[0]
+        expected_message = self._get_email_object('generic_message.eml')
+
+        self.assertEqual(expected_message, actual_message)
+
+
+class TestImapArchivedTransport(EmailMessageTestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         self.arbitrary_hostname = 'one.two.three'
         self.arbitrary_port = 100
@@ -18,7 +59,7 @@ class TestImapTransport(EmailMessageTestCase):
             self.archive
         )
         self.transport.server = None
-        super(TestImapTransport, self).setUp()
+        super(TestImapArchivedTransport, self).setUp()
 
     def test_get_email_message(self):
         with mock.patch.object(self.transport, 'server') as server:

docs/topics/mailbox_types.rst

@@ -7,25 +7,26 @@ POP3 and IMAP as well as local file-based mailboxes.
 
 .. table:: 'Protocol' Options
 
-  ============ ============== ===============================================================
+  ============ ============== =================================================================================================================================================================
   Mailbox Type 'Protocol'://  Notes
-  ============ ============== ===============================================================
+  ============ ============== =================================================================================================================================================================
   POP3         ``pop3://``    Can also specify SSL with ``pop3+ssl://``
-  IMAP         ``imap://``    Can also specify SSL and archive with ``imap+ssl://?myarchive``
+  IMAP         ``imap://``    Can also specify SSL with ``imap+ssl://``, or specify a folder to save processed messages into by appending ``?archive=my_archive_folder`` to the end of the URI.
   Maildir      ``maildir://``
   Mbox         ``mbox://``
   Babyl        ``babyl://``
   MH           ``mh://``
   MMDF         ``mmdf://``
   Piped Mail   *empty*        See :ref:`receiving-mail-from-exim4-or-postfix`
-  ============ ============== ===============================================================
+  ============ ============== =================================================================================================================================================================
+
 
 .. warning::
 
-   This will delete or move any messages it can find in the inbox you specify;
+   Unless you are using IMAP's 'Archive' feature,
+   this will delete any messages it can find in the inbox you specify;
    do not use an e-mail inbox that you would like to share between
-   applications. For the IMAP protocol you can specify an archive folder where
-   emails are moved to.
+   applications.
 
 
 POP3 and IMAP Mailboxes
@@ -40,22 +41,25 @@ Basic IMAP Example: ``imap://username:password@server``
 Basic POP3 Example: ``pop3://username:password@server``
 
 Most mailboxes these days are SSL-enabled; 
-if yours is, add ``+ssl`` to your URI.  
+if yours is, add ``+ssl`` to the protocol section of your URI.  
 Also, if your username or password include any non-ascii characters,
 they should be URL-encoded  (for example, if your username includes an
 ``@``, it should be changed to ``%40`` in your URI).
 
 If you are using an IMAP Mailbox, you can archive all messages before they
 are deleted from the inbox. To archive emails, add the archive folder
-name as a queryparemeter to the uri (for example, if your mailbox has a
-folder called myarchive, add ``?myarchive`` to the uri).
+name as a query paremeter to the uri.  For example, if your mailbox has a
+folder named ``myarchivefolder`` that you would like to copy messages to
+after processing, add ``?archive=myarchivefolder`` to the end of the URI.
 
-If you have an account named ``youremailaddress@gmail.com`` with a password
-of ``1234`` on GMail, which uses a IMAP server of 'imap.gmail.com', requires
-SSL and you want to archive all emails, you would enter the following as 
-your URI::
+For a verbose example, if you have an account named
+``youremailaddress@gmail.com`` with a password
+of ``1234`` on GMail, which uses a IMAP server of ``imap.gmail.com`` (requiring
+SSL) and you would like to archive all processed emails
+into a folder named ``Archived``, you
+would enter the following as your URI::
 
-    pop3+ssl://youremailaddress%40gmail.com:1234@pop.gmail.com?[GMAIL]/All Mail
+    pop3+ssl://youremailaddress%40gmail.com:1234@pop.gmail.com?archive=Archived
 
 
 Local File-based Mailboxes