Topic: Ismail to replace IMP

[Robert Boardman]

Hi I have been searching for a webmail program to replace IMP on my SME 5.6 box,
I have found an excellent (looks very polished) client called Ismail
URL - http://www.insidesystems.net/projects/project.php?projectid=4

The requirements are

PHP 4.2+ compiled with IMAP and sessions
And c-client libraries

I cannot get it to work?

The requirements above I think are already installed on sme5.6.

Has anyone ever tried to install this on SME and got it working, could they share their experiences

Thanks in advance for your help

Robb

[Tom Haynes]

5.6 has PHP 4.1.2, and I am pretty sure that 6.0 does as well.

[Dan Brown]

You're right, it does look very slick, though I'm not sure it adds anything to the functionality of IMP.  In any case, I'm also running into some trouble with it (blank screen on logon).  I've e-mailed the author for suggestions; I'll see what happens.

[Robert Boardman]

Themain improvement for me personally is the preview pane, and the alround polish, I just think it brings the webmail closer to the look of OWA, than any other webmail I have seen

could you email me if you have any luck?

Robb

[Bob Todd]

After logging in, the screen is blank. What's up with that?
This generally means that you don't have IMAP support compiled into your PHP. Now, don't be fooled by it being a configure arg, that won't do it on it's own. You also have to have the cclient libraries installed.


Assume you did read the FAQ Dan before contacting the author

[Dan Brown]

Yep, I read the FAQ.  The fact that IMP works perfectly strongly suggests that IMAP support is actually working, the phpinfo() page indicates IMAP support, and the error messages showing in the server log indicate some kind of issue with XML.

[Dan Brown]

OK, got it working.  Its URL parsing code is a little more primitive than IMPs (it considers the > at the end of the URLs sent with messages from this forum as part of the URL, which doesn't work), but it does look very nice.

The problem was a missing compile-time option for PHP which I hadn't realized from the documentation (or maybe it wasn't there when I first looked--not sure), namely DOM XML support.  Updated PHP RPMs supporting this will be in my contrib area on your favorite e-smith.org mirror tomorrow night.  You'll also need to install the latest libxml2, which will be available from the same place.

Other than that, installation is about the same as for the howtos I've written for phpbb and gallery--make /ismail in /opt/, unpack ismail there, create a httpd.conf template fragment following the pattern of the others, and you should be set.

[Dan Brown]

Well, got it partially working--turns out there are still some issues that need addressing.  Like that it assumes my domain is example.net, and I'm not quite sure how to change that (I changed it to my actual domain in ismail.conf and it wouldn't let me log on at all), and that it's not sending any messages.  However, for reading, it's great!  Looks like a bit more tinkering is in order, though.

[Dan Brown]

OK, I can now send messages, messages look fine, and it seems to be a pretty nice UI.  The buttons are a bit bigger than I like, but that's a minor nit to pick.  Here's a _very_rough how-to:

1.  Download the latest PHP contribs (currently 4.3.2-4db) from my contrib directory at your favorite e-smith mirror, and install them.

2.  Create /opt/ISMail, and untar ISMail there.

3.  Create /opt/ISMail/include/ismail.conf, with the following contents:

default:

        imapflavor = uwimap

        sentitemsfolder = sent-mail

        server          = 127.0.0.1

        usernameprefix  =
        usernamesuffix  =

        email           = $username@$domain

        mailprogram = "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t"

        extensionblacklist      = php:php4:phtml:phps:pl:asp:rb:py:pyc

        addressbookstorage      = xml

:

4.  chown www:www /opt/ISMail/users

5.  Create /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf/93ISMail, with the following contents:

#-------------------------------------------
# ISMail
#-------------------------------------------

Alias /ismail /opt/ISMail


    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .php3 .phtml
    Options Indexes +Includes FollowSymLinks
    order deny,allow
    deny from all
    allow from all
    php_flag  magic_quotes_gpc  off



    order deny,allow
    deny from all


#------------------------------------------

6.  /sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

7.  /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S85httpd-e-smith restart

[Dan Brown]

Sorry, forgot a step:

1a.  Download and install the libxml2-2.5.8 RPM from my contrib directory.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully someday the new horde/imp will be ready.  Here are some shots of the CVS version I have on my old 5.1.2 box.  CVS as of a few days ago....
http://82camaro.netfirms.com/horde_cvs.htm
Some of the added features I like:
short previews in the inbox(you can change the size, turn them on for only new messages or all messages, etc...)
forward from the inbox
mark messages as important(or anything else) while you view them.
create html email(haven't messed with it much)
improved menu bar
'report as spam' will send it to spamassassin
it's own fetchmail(it can pull email from any number of pop/imap accounts--at login or on demand)
administration via the web interface
shared calendars, tasks, etc...
invite people to an event (calendar) It sends an email with a 'special' attachment that auto-adds the event to their calandar upon clicking it.
file manager (ftp client)
many selectable themes ("the one shown is blue and white")
It will be a nice webmail system once it's all done.  Hopefully it will then be integrated with SME.  It does require some additional php stuff 4.2 is the minimum, domxml, ctype to name a couple.  The amount of modules is huge, I don't have 1/3 of them on my CVS version.
The released version of IMP is pretty good, especially if you add the calendar, tasks, and vacation to it(all we use here is Horde/Imp for email).
Ismail is alright if you must have the 'outlook' look to it.  You may also look at atmail.com.  With IE6 it even has drop down menus...looks very much like outlook express.  Our users got used to not seeing all the folders all the time and having them available with a simple drop down menu.  They really like the power of the expand names addressbook search--getting the addresses they need without opening up an additional window.

[hordeusr]

previous post should be hordeusr....not guest

[Robert Boardman]

Hi all

The progress of Ismail havs been slow so Last week I went in seach of another webmail client, and I have found the perfect replacement Its called Overlook. the back end is squrrelmail so its nice and stable, and the front end is  well the frontend is what I hoped Ismail would of progressed to be but it hasn't as yet (pity).

Check it out http://gforge.openit.it/projects/overlook/

If you Like it I have created a less brown theme that I can email you.

Robb