How customizable is Zimbra?

[brianvic]

Hi. I had a look at Zimbra a few years ago and didn't really pursue it. But now I have a specific requirement for an application that is based around emails and calendars, both desktop and online.

Without going into too much detail the app will be similar to a CRM, but geared more towards managing bookings for services. I have a specific design in mind.

I don't want to re-invent the wheel and I wondered if anyone can shed some light on just how customizable Zimbra is? Can its components be edited a lot or a little? For example, I would like to have an email list view that also has a pane showing related contacts and bookings.

I will need to utilise some kind of backend database to tie everything together so that an email can show all related contacts and bookings, a booking can show all related contacts and emails and contacts can show all related emails and bookings.

Is this the kind of thing I could use Zimbra for as a starting point and mould it to how I need it? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Any advice would be gratefully accepted. Cheers!

[Krishopper]

Well, the short answer is: the source code for Zimbra is available, so you can customize it to your dear hearts liking.

There are Zimlets to quickly and easily add additional functionality to the web interface.

Finally there is the API so you can access things from external systems. I have used the API to create a booking system which checks free/busy schedules within Zimbra and automatically adds appointments to calendars. I also created a Zimlet that works by looking at said calendar entries and pulling information from the external system which created the booking.

If you have any more specific questions, I might be able to point you in some better directions.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Krishopper

Well, the short answer is: the source code for Zimbra is available, so you can customize it to your dear hearts liking.

I must point out that it's subject to the terms of the licence: Licensing for open source server & client technology: enterprise messaging and collaboration software by Zimbra

[brianvic]

Thanks for the post, Kris. That sounds as though I am looking in the right place. What I would like to be able to do is modify the actual front-end to display different panes. eg inbox, quickview, associated contacts, associated bookings. I will obviously have to tie this together using a database. For the Zimbra desktop what does it use as its database and can I link into it? Also what language is Zimbra written in/based on?

Thanks for your time and sorry if these are obvious questions. I have yet to delve beneath the 'hood'.

[Krishopper]

I haven't written any Zimlets for Zimbra Desktop, so I'm not sure what the differences are, if any. Hopefully someone else can speak up to this.

Zimbra Desktop uses sqlite for the database, but I don't think it's proper to access it directly.

Most everything is written in Java.