Access (and success) to ZCS 5.0.2

[eMHa]

Hi,

i'm testing ZCS 5.0.2 right now and because i didn't find any documentation about the many possibilities to access a zimbra server i write down here my results. Because i intend to host zimbra with multiple domains, all access is done outside the default domain. This means you always have to include your domain in paths and authentications.

For better reading, my example user is USER and my example domain is DOMAIN.COM .

First of all, if you want access to your folders over https oder webavs you have to sahre your folders, no matter to whom. So i share all my folders i want to access to a fictive user with a generated password. You will never use this user, but its important to let zimbra know that it should offer this folder over https and webdavs. So do somethine like:
* right click on FOLDERNAME
* select "share FOLDERNAME"
* select "External guests (view only)"
* enter a fictive email address to "Email:", e.g. share@domain
* enter a generated password to "Password:", e.g. MKb7Y2SjNU
* choose "Do not send mail about this share"
* click OK

Your default calendar, no matter what language you've set resp. what name is displayed, can be accessed read only over
https://myserver.mydomain.com/home/U....COM/Calendar/
and read write with
webdavs://myserver.mydomain.com/dav/USER%40DOMAIN.COM/Calendar/
The program you use this urls with MUST ask you for your username and password, otherwise it wouldn't work!

For USER@DOMAIN.COM you have to write USER%40DOMAIN.COM (%40 is a url encoded @ sign) because most programs treat all before an add sign as usernameassword and AFTER the add sign the dns name of the server begins. So with webdavs://myserver.mydomain.com/dav/USER@DOMAIN.COM/Calendar/ a program would use the server "DOMAIN.COM" and as username it would use "myserver.mydomain.com/dav/USER". Also there would be problems with the certificate (tls and ssl).
Specifing your username and password with https://USER%40DOMAIN.COM:PASSWORD@m....COM/Calendar/ didn't worked for me (wrong authentication will show up in the server logs)!

The same with Contacts, Tasks and Briefcase:
https://myserver.mydomain.com/home/U....COM/Contacts/
webdavs://myserver.mydomain.com/dav/USER%40DOMAIN.COM/Contacts/
https://myserver.mydomain.com/home/U...AIN.COM/Tasks/
webdavs://myserver.mydomain.com/dav/USER%40DOMAIN.COM/Tasks/
https://myserver.mydomain.com/home/U...COM/Briefcase/
webdavs://myserver.mydomain.com/dav/USER%40DOMAIN.COM/Briefcase/

You also can access the IM-Server (which is xmpp aka jabber). If USER is in the default domain and DOMAIN.COM has correct "SRV" dns records you can access with your jabber client of choice with the jabber account:
USER@DOMAIN.COM
I've successfully done this with psi and Apple iChat.

I didn't get this to work if USER is not in the default domain or doesn't has an alias to the default domain, but perhaps with some other clients this is possible with the following jabber account:
USER%DOMAIN.COM@myserver.mydomain.com

I also get korganizer 3.5.8 and evolution 2.12.3 talk (read AND write) to my calendar. With korganizer you have to select "calendar on remote server" and use the https-url. With evolution you have to use the caldav plugin and use the webdavs url but write caldav instead of webdavs and choose secure connection (ssl). For evolution and korganizer (kmail) you have to setup an email account with the email address of your zimbra server. Otherwise an appointment has a different creator address and you will not be able to change this within the web client.

Also Apple iCal can be connected over caldav to the zimbra server. But you have to approve the certificate, if it's not a offical signed one (this was reported by a customer of mine and i didn't tested this by myself).

With evolution i've successfully connected my Tasks over https, but this is read only in evolution.

The briefcase is a nice thing to share files, and with webdav you really can easily upload and download files to it. I've successfully done this with the webdavs url in konqueror.
For firefox you can install the ZimbraDnD extension and drag and drop files from your desktop to the briefcase in the webclient. I've successfully tested this with iceweasel (debian version of firefox) and KDE (konqueror) as Desktop.

Next things to test are the access to the address book and the GAL. The GAL will be standard LDAP, hopefully my personal addressbook will also.

[eMHa]

The personal address book can be accessed over imap, folder Contacts. I didn't get any results over webdav. With ldap you only get the GAL but not your personal address book.

[uxbod]

Remember all dependant on which version of ZCS you are running. Since the original post new versions have been release which all offer new functionality and fixes.

[eMHa]

Ups, sorry. I'm now on ZCS 5.0.10.

Or is there a possibility to access my personal address book over ldap now?