Forum OpenACS Q&A: Newbie WebMail questions

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1: Newbie WebMail questions
Posted by Ayman M on 08/12/02 03:04 PM
Hi,

Im currently doing a thesis project at Sydney University under Dr
Rafael Calvo. The thesis is to develop a WebMail system and Im
planning on doing it over IMAP. Im just slightly confused and need
some direction/guidance.

In building such a system, I will need to utilise external open
source software (such as an IMAP server, etc) - am i allowed/meant to
do it this way?

I was initially thinking of using UW IMAP however I was advised by a
friend of mine that UW IMAP has too many security risks and it would
be better to use something like Courier-IMAP. Im still confused on
how this will all work but hopefully ill pick it up. (any help would
be appreciated)

Im also thinking of the possibility of a later stage integrating LDAP
into the WebMail system for authentication, user profile,
preferences, etc but ill take one step at a time. (using OpenLDAP?)

Another thing is that when a user wishes to obtain a webmail account,
they may not already have an existing email account and hence how
would they be able to register in OACS? Does OACS allow users to
register without using an email address? possibly a username only?

I'll leave it at this for now and ill continue posting my
messages/questions in this thread if there are responses.

Oh, last thing, is there are places where i can get more information
on designing the webmail system or links to previous OACS webmail
information or any suggestions on how i should tackle it?

Thanks in advance.

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2: Response to Newbie WebMail questions (response to 1)
Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 08/13/02 11:35 AM
Hello Ayman,

my suggestion is that you take a look at what has already been acomplished so far in other projects.

If you look around searching for Webmail you will stumble across squirrelmail and IMP. We installed the later one using OpenLDAP, Cyrus IMAP daemon, Postfix. You can savely take these three programms to have a start for your scripts. Using the ns_ldap you can have one password for both the Cyrus/ACS.

Once you have the basics up I'd strongly encourage you to take a look at IMP or squirrelmail, as they already have a lot of features implemented and would allow you to take some of what they have done already and reimplement it within OpenACS. Especially interesting would be the connection between IMAP and OpenACS itself.

On the other hand you can take a completly different approach and implement an IMAP server within AOLserver which stores the emails in the database. This has some benefits, if you look around in the bboards you should see some postings dealing with it.

Hope this gives you a lead where to start

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3: Response to Newbie WebMail questions (response to 1)
Posted by Jonathan Ellis on 08/13/02 06:44 PM
check out Vlad's posts on his imap module... he was going to do some kind of webmail app with it; you might want to email him.
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4: Response to Newbie WebMail questions (response to 1)
Posted by Ayman M on 08/15/02 04:39 PM
Thanks for your replies.

I have recently been thinking more about implementing a WebMail client which can access different imap servers and not necessarily setting up my own imap server. I currently have 8 weeks til when my thesis is due (in conjunction with 3 other subjects) and I thought that with that time restriction, it would be best to do a WebMail client. This wouldnt of course be able to have administrator access for the imap servers but i thought it would still be a good project. That is, it could be used in conjunction with already set up imap servers with users already created and the WebMail provides a web interface for users to retrieve/send their mail. (Forgive me if im not making much sense)

Is this a good project to work on and will it be useful to the community?

Depending on time, I am planning to hopefully add features such as spell checking, possibly including SMS alerts (in conjunction with another group member's thesis) and some other features. Please provide some feedback. Thanks.

PS: the database to be used is Postgres.

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5: Response to Newbie WebMail questions (response to 1)
Posted by defunct defunct on 08/15/02 04:50 PM
We have all the software and stuff you need to integrate SMS. The SMSBroker version on our site is now out of date, but the new one will be up shortly. You can get it from www.open-msg.com, as I don't think its found its way into the CVS tree yet....

It just plugs in onto the side of ACS, so its pretty simple to integrate.

Regards
Simon

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6: Response to Newbie WebMail questions (response to 1)
Posted by Jonathan Ellis on 08/15/02 04:53 PM
I know if there were an ACS IMAP interface such as you describe, I would use it.  Currently I use IMP but it's quite slow.
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7: Re: Response to Newbie WebMail questions (response to 2)
Posted by nemuel salvador on 12/08/03 09:21 AM
hi there mr. ayman... hi im nem from Philippines, i took ages to find out how am i going to caontact since we are having our thesis subject..and I and my proponent would like to enhance3 your IMAP webmail system ifever you would allow us so we could pass our subject...we hope to get a copy of your sample thesis project as well as with the source code...and i would like to ask ...what programming language did you use to develop the webmail system and  what operating system does it require?...thanks and god bless....hope i could here right away from you thjanks again..
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9: Re: Response to Newbie WebMail questions (response to 7)
Posted by Ayman M on 12/09/03 12:26 AM
Hi Nemuel,

Please feel free to use any part or all of the Webmail system which I developed. All is ask is that you reference what parts you have used in your work.

The site which Alfred pointed you to above contains all information you will require. It contains my thesis as well as all supporting code and instructions.

A good contact is Vlad Seryakov (vlad@crystalballinc.com). I used his IMAP module (ns_imap) to complete my thesis. He may be able to give you some extra assistance with regards to his code. He may have updated his code since I completed my thesis so check with him about that.

Some other threads which may be helpful:
https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=31601
https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=27782
https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=30436
https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=58099
https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=52403

I hope that helps getting you started. Make sure you use the forums since there are a lot of experience people in here as well as using the IRC chatroom.

Best of luck with your work and keep me updated on how you go.

Kind regards,
Ayman