What (currently unavailable) feature would you like to see soonest?

[jholder]

The Zimbra community is growing at an astonishing rate. This is thanks to the many contributors and forum posters.

As a community, we have the chance to work together to help Zimbra Open Source grow and morph into the type of e-mail server/service that we want. . .not simply what some company wants.

So the question is, "What (currently unavailable) feature would you like to see soonest?"

We have several people working in the development forum who have some great ideas.

If the idea isn't posted, feel free to post it here, and I'll or a forum mod, will edit the poll.

Thanks, and enjoy!

[DanielP]

I know most of these are on the way, but these are my personal most wanted:

* shared adressbooks
* share calendar and adressbooks/folders based on groups
* integration with sugarcrm (most important access to the contacts )
* full evolution integration and support

[FunkyPenguin]

A connector for Evolution similar to the Outlook connector and the Apple iSync would be invaluable for the Linux desktop, and a way of connecting GAIM to the IM side of things would also enhance the whole suite IMHO

[KevinH]

Ideally there should be a bugzilla entry for each of these if there isn't already. This poll is helpful but in the end we'll use the votes in bugzilla to help rank/guide development in the upcoming releases. The bugzilla voting allows you to vote for multiple issues so you don't have to pick just one.

Maybe we can update each poll item with it's bugzilla number and link to it in the initial post so folks have easy access to voting.

Here's the current Top Voted Bugs/Features

[jimbo]

I love Zimbra, it's changed the way I manage emails forever.

However there are some nagging issues with missing features that need to be addressed. I think before tackling some of these high profile bells and whistles some missing/incomplete featrures need to be addressed. Simple things like:

- Better navigation of the contact list. Having an alphabetic shortcut button list would go a long way in improving navigation through contacts. I realize that you can just type the first letter in the search bar but to many this is not all that intuitive or familiar.

- The ability to have email lists... this is crucial. Creating a contact and packing 20 to 50 email addresses into a field designed to accept one is frustrating and I have yet to see this method send a message to more than the first address in the list. I think this is a show-stopper for many folks. Outlook, Thunderbird, Evolution all support this simple feature. I'm just say'n

- Persistent selection of calendars... it is maddening to have to go into my calendar page every time I log in to put a check mark on all my calendars in order for them to be visible and display all appointments on mouse-overs etc.

- Functioning searches when pressing the "To:" button when composing an email. Only limited funtionality exists currently.

- More functional calendar reminders. Currently reminders only display within the Zimbra window. This is not very useful as you'd need to be looking at Zimbra all day in order to catch alerts. Also the ability set the notification time by event rather than globaly for all events.

- Better keyboard navigation would be really helpful.

I think spending a couple weeks cleaning up some of these lingering issues would go a long way in making this the killer app it deserves to be!

Keep up the great work!

[papaya74]

- More functional calendar reminders. Currently reminders only display within the Zimbra window. This is not very useful as you'd need to be looking at Zimbra all day in order to catch alerts. Also the ability set the notification time by event rather than globaly for all events.

YES, YES, YES: this feature will be a major GoGo !!! I agree 100%

For us it's an exclusion criteria for implementing Zimbra at the moment, because we put this on our requirement list and we know the users definitely want that feature !

Rock on, we'll wait for that ;-)

Impressive work !

/harry

[brwatters]

Jimbo,

You rock.. could not have said it better .. I fully agree that some of these basic issues are show stoppers and will keep us from deploying further any Zimbra solutions into our internal Enterprise much less our deployment into our client base .. Zimbra has got to step up to these basic features before they start bringing on other features stated in the online Poll ..

I hope to see more good news with the release of 3.2 and updated Outlook MAPI connector.

BRW

[unilogic]

I'd have to agree also. Maybe the zimbra team should spend a release just working through all bugs and minor enhancments listed in buzilla instead of adding new big features.

Just a quick look at the stats on bugzilla. New, Assigned, and Reopened bugs number in at 942. Plus theres a bout 72 unconfirmed bugs. Seems to me that the team should concentrate on working though everything before moving on to new features. If they can feel they can do both, resolve bugs as well as implement new features by all means do. Just my two cents.

Ben

[achow]

Hi,

Oh dear.. after reading Jimbo's comments, I know I will be in deep soup. I just bought zimbra and I thought it was the full suite with the features mentioned by jimbo at least covered.

Oh support team, pls patch up the requirements for jimbo's comments quickly or else my butt will be kicked real hard.... sigh...

Thanks

adrian

[ga-ds1]

Hey All --

When talking about "near term features" for Zimbra platform, I would recommend prioritizing based on competitive selling vs Exchange and Scalix (ie. M$ platform you want to displace, and competitor in Linux collab space).

While it's important that Zimbra maintain new innovative features/functionality to provide uniqueness in competitive market, it's important that the "core underlying Zimbra platform" needs to have specific features to provide "real-world" reason to WIN vs other similar products.

Summary: don't spend 100% on evangelizing new "wiz bang" features. "Win bang" and evangelizing don't WIN you new business -- they only provide marketing uniqueness. I would suggest 25% dev effort focus on WizBang and remaining resources on evenly playing field with Exchange and Scalix.

Specifically:
Shared folders and other groupware-specific features that will help Enterprise and EDU sales. The workflow module may provide tangible value to some customers.

Based on my experience doing competitive selling of collab platforms vs. M$, we always encountered major hurdles where end-user wanted the "calendar pop reminders" (ala Outlook). Thus, the Toaster should be high on priority list as well.

My opinion only... -G