Email Expiary Zimlet

[Cringer]

Hi All,

Anyone know if its possible to create a Zimlet to add a header to an email, and get the system to move all emails to trash once this header indicates the email as expired?

What I'm trying to create is the ability to set an age on all emails. This might be days, months, or even years in advance. But once the email goes past that date, it is automatically moved to trash, thus giving the user time to retrieve it.

I want the users to be able to see how much time is remaining on the email and change this easily. This could even be used when creating an email. We have plenty of all user emails, that aren't of any use after a few days. Especially to those on holiday.

[phoenix]

I don't really see why you would want to delete email (storage is cheap), are you sure there's no legal requirement for you to keep email communication (if this is a business use)? There is already a message lifetime setting in the Admin UI.

[Cringer]

Storage might be cheep, but backing it all up, can be a nightmare. As for a legal requirement, to keep messages, about "You have left your car lights on", or "can someone give me a lift tomorrow", I don't think there are too many. Lots of emails have a life time, weather it be a few days, or 50 years. I also get quotes for computer equipment, that after a year is of no use. Lets not mention system messages, that I for one don't want to keep indefinatly.

Having 1 time on the system for all emails, is very limiting, because of the fact that some emails need longer than others. But this could be used as the standard for all emails not already marked.

I don't want to bring up Outlook, but at least it is able to set an archive time on folders, and I always used these to archive system messages after 90 days to the bin.

I would like to see Zimbra set a new standard in email organisation. To many of us, just never tidy up after ourselfs.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Cringer

I would like to see Zimbra set a new standard in email organisation.

We already have.

Originally Posted by Cringer

To many of us, just never tidy up after ourselfs.

Then I suggest you search bugzilla for any RFE that addresses this problem, vote if you find anything and if you don't file an RFE.

[Cringer]

This leads me back to my first question. Is this possible by me creating a Zimlet? If so, any suggestions on where to start?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Cringer

This leads me back to my first question. Is this possible by me creating a Zimlet? If so, any suggestions on where to start?

If you want to go down the zimlet route then I'm not your man, I'm not a coder. Someone with a few more programming skills than me will be able to help.

[JoshuaPrismon]

Originally Posted by phoenix

If you want to go down the zimlet route then I'm not your man, I'm not a coder. Someone with a few more programming skills than me will be able to help.

It should be. The best way to figure it out will probably be to install firebug, enable it for Zimbra, and then watch for what SOAP command is issued when you press delete on a existing mail message.

The other piece of functionality is probably to use Zimbra's search functionality to get a record of which accounts fall into what date range. Again, you can isolate the SOAP command by doing a test search for articles older then a particular date.

Once you know the name of the soap command, check out a copy of the Zimbra source, and look at SOAP.txt to understand how the command is structured.

(And obviously back your data up before running it the first time ;-)