Open Source AJAX Webmail

scrasher writes "It seems AJAX webmail is all the craze. Right on the heels of both Microsoft and Yahoo launching beta versions of their new AJAX webmail clients, an Open Source startup RoundCube has released an alpha of a GPLed AJAX webmail client. While there are still many features missing (like search!), the demo they have is completely cross-browser compliant and overall very impressive."

Comments

Foldername length patch.

[suso]

For anyone who wants this fix, I made a q&d change to the folder listing code so that it truncates long folder names in the middle so that they don't run over and screw up your display. I submitted this patch to the author a month ago, but it hasn't made it into the trunk yet I guess.

http://suso.suso.org/programs/roundcube/

Roundcube is pretty neat, but it still has some bugs. The IMAP client caches everything so that it is faster on subsequent tries, but on large mailboxes it can be a real pain the first time. It makes for a good program to hack on though. Its just what I've been looking for to replace squirrelmail on suso.org.

Re:Foldername length patch.

[mottie]

I have just installed it for the first time, but it appears that the caching portion is completely optional.
 
// enable caching of messages and mailbox data in the local database.
// this is recommended if the IMAP server does not run on the same machine

$rcmail_config['enable_caching'] = FALSE;

Zimbra

[Cally]

There's also the Zimbra product, which is open source. It's on my list to eval - the Flash demo (see the webpage) looks pretty slick.

Ajax is the first genuinely new thing I can think of this century.

Re:Zimbra

[ExKoopaTroopa]

except that is just another fancy name for a bundle of not so recent technologies

Re:Zimbra

[fak3r]

Zimbra is pretty much full featured, and does allot more (AJAX wise and otherwise) than Roundcube. Give it a look too. Having said that, Roundcube is basically one person, and it's a very impressive project in that regards; nice clean UI, and a somewhat new way to deal with 'webmail'. I see Zimbra as being a great comapany (all stuff is 'ZPL' btw) but Roundcube should attract some devs now, and I expect it to be a real nice 'light' solution for us home mailserver folks.

Re:Zimbra

[Wornstrom]

I would recommend that you use a system that has some horsepower. I installed Zimbra on a p4 3.0 Ghz HT 1GB ram box (my workstation), and experienced some heavy load. Not only that but it takes the liberty of rewriting your firewall ruleset, so I wouldn't use an existing system without being prepared for service / connectivity interruptions (linux gateway/firewalls). Sure, it is still in beta, so I will give it that excuse, I couldn't imagine releasing the horde on it for production use yet. If this one doesn't require all sorts of backends, I might give it a try.

Re:Zimbra

[porneL]

Ajax is the first genuinely new thing I can think of this century.

AJAX is not a new thing. It's new name for technologies of last century. Read Hixie's post about how old and inappropriately named AJAX is.

Re:Zimbra

[AvitarX]

yeah, Zimbra is a collaborative suite, presumably a replacement for another one.

Roundcube is a nice client for IMAP email access that leaves everything in tact (probably a lot lower requirements too).

Re:Zimbra

[fak3r]

right, so I see it like this:

RoundCube = Squirrelmail = Horde != Zimbra = Hula Project = OpenExchange = Exchange

Ok I'm oversimplifying it, but that's how I'm thinking of the relation of the various projects now.

Re:Zimbra

[Thundersnatch]

Microsoft Outlook Web Access, included with Exchange Server, is widely recognized to be the first real AJAX application. The 2000 version was the first browser app I every used that made me say "wow, how the hell did they do that?". No Java applet or ActiveX, but it felt like a real, usable desktop application. Context menus and everything, with few full-page refreshes.

Google has done quite a bit to elevate the profile of AJAX with the Slashdot crowd, but other people were definitely "really using it" long before Google.

One comment and slashdotted!

[sootman]

A new record?

Free, open-source AJAX webmail--it seems we've discovered the secret formula to get slashdotters to read articles!

Re:One comment and slashdotted!

[sootman]

Ack! The one time I'm around early enough to make a comment like that and it turns out it's not down. (Or if it was, they recovered quickly.) In any case, it looks great. And being MySQL-based, the big missing feature--search--should be pretty easy to add. In fact, all I've ever wanted was an SQL query window I can run against my email--`select * from inbox where (sender='mom' or sender='dad') and date>20041225 and date20041230 and subject like '%party%'`

Irony

[karvind]

Does anyone else find it ironic ? The contact email address is : roundcube@AJAXgmail.comREMOVEAJAX

Re:Cross-browser?

[narrowhouse]

Actually that is a good question. AJAX is great but it needs to gracefully fall back to solid useable HTML for clients that can't handle javascript or whatever.

Re:Buggy

[Anonymous Coward]

In the demo, if you click on a message in the inbox it gets selected. How TF do you read it?

Double click.

It's not so much buggy as it needs some serious HCI help. Web applications should NEVER require double clicks, and even in regular applications they should be used only in very specific circumstances.

On the bright side, the application is very pretty. (Which is more than can be said for other OSS Webmail like SquirrelMail.)

Re:AJAX is a retarded term

[MankyD]

"AJAX" is a retarded and non-sensical name made up by a consulting company who wanted to make themselves sound important. I can't believe you people are falling for it.

And what would your rather we call it? And what magical consulting company is this? If they've done such a good job making themselves sound important then certainly you must be able to come up with their name off the top of your head. (oh wait, you didn't include their name in your post :P)

No one is "falling" for anything. It's a name that works for a useful technology.

Call me old fashioned...

[WhoDey]

...but am I the only one who still prefers pine?

Installed! Looks nice thus far...

[nuxx]

I just installed it, and it seems pretty slick thus far. I think they still have a few things to add beyond search, namely:

- Server-side sorting so that all messages don't need to be downloaded in order to view, say, the 15 newest.
- Special folder support, such as Junk, Sent, Trash, etc. Currently send mail just goes off into the ether.

Other than that, I'm pretty impressed. I personally currently use Squirrelmail for my webmail needs, but it feels a bit clunky. If they can meet Squirrelmail's features (at a minimum) I can see this being used all over the place. I find the use of a DB for things like user/session/whatever management to be a bit odd, but at least actual files don't have to be used then.

Re:Installed! Looks nice thus far...

[rabel]

I haven't yet installed it, but it sure looks slick. Damn, and the installation requirements are just this simple. 1. Decompress and put this folder somewhere inside your document root 2. Make shure that the following directories are writable by the webserver - /temp - /logs 3. Create a new database and a database user for RoundCube 4. Create database tables using the queries in file 'SQL/*.initial.sql' 5. Modify the files in config/* to suit your local environment 6. Done!

AJA not AJAX

[minddog]

Whats commonly confused in the community, if there is no client-side xsl transformations using the browser, their is still interface load. This is not a true AJAX imap client, it is an AJA, and the xml is rendered server-side to xhtml standards.

If you are interested in a pure implementation that has been around longer thats true ajax, check out http://www.communik8r.org/

Too Many Users!

[cbovasso]

From the Demo:

Too many users!
Please check back later!



I love how simple it is to navigate! The features leave something to be desired though. Hey check me out, I just wrote a CNet review!