offline storage file format

[ziggyjr]

I was just wondering what file format Zimbra Desktop uses for its offline storage, msg, eml, mbox, pst ....?

[ziggyjr]

Hmmm... been 8 month and still no answer and I still have not installed Zimbra because no one from Zimbra can answer a simple question.

[JoshuaPrismon]

Originally Posted by ziggyjr

Hmmm... been 8 month and still no answer and I still have not installed Zimbra because no one from Zimbra can answer a simple question.

Just curious, why does it matter? Or if it does matter, why not try it, and install it, and find out yourself?

[ziggyjr]

Well it does matter. I am wanting an email client that does not store every single email as its own file on the hard drive. I want the client to store the emails in one file, kinda like what Outlook does with it's .pst file and Thunderbird does with it's mbox file that can be password protected.

I believe that if an email client stores every email as a separate file then that can lead to trouble because if your computer is hacked then anyone can read your email.

[LMStone]

Originally Posted by ziggyjr

Hmmm... been 8 month and still no answer and I still have not installed Zimbra because no one from Zimbra can answer a simple question.

Hi ZiggyJr.,

Sounds like you need disk encryption for your laptop users running Zimbra Desktop.

BTW, pst files aren't encrypted, they are just binary, and very easy to hack.

Hope that helps,
Mark

[5to9]

Dear Mr. Stone,

That answer probably helped Ziggy Jr. but it didn't actually answer his/her original question!

I have the same question: In what format and in which default location are Zimbra Desktop's emails stored on the computer?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by 5to9

I have the same question: In what format and in which default location are Zimbra Desktop's emails stored on the computer?

The location of the files is mentioned in the installation FAQ in the wiki (link at the top of this page), it's location is dependent on whether you're talking about Windows or Linux.

Why is it important to know the format of the files? Look at one of them in the Store folder in the install location, they're simple plain text files.

[LMStone]

Originally Posted by 5to9

Dear Mr. Stone,

That answer probably helped Ziggy Jr. but it didn't actually answer his/her original question!

I have the same question: In what format and in which default location are Zimbra Desktop's emails stored on the computer?

The messages look like maildir-format messages to me, but remember that Zimbra wrote their own message store system. I would expect they could be RFC822-compliant, but I can't say for sure.

Like on the Zimbra server itself, the messages are all stored in the "store" subdirectory.

As Bill mentioned, I am curious why this information is important to you?

Hope that helps,
Mark

[5to9]

I frequently move around and use different public access computers. I want to keep my email client and all of the stored mail on a USB key (along with other data and applications).

I am used to using Outlook which has everything (email, contacts, notes, calendar and ATTACHEMENTS) all store in a single PST file. This is actually very convenient - you can copy or move the file to another location, you can store it on your SkyDrive or Dropbox, or wherever.

I like the idea of having all information items stored in ONE self-contained file for personal use. I am not concerned so much about security. The only security issue for me is if I lose my USB key.

So, regardless of anything else -- security, tendency to lose more data if there is a disk error, or any other 'negative' or 10 other reasons you can think of -- this single characteristics of the PST file is valuable to me (whether it makes sense or not), in my particular circumstance.

That is why the question was asked.

Also, regarding the suggestions to "look at the files in the store folder"...the point is that I am evaluating whether or not to even download and TRY the product based on my ability to obtain information about it before trying it out!. If one is deciding between 10 or 20 competing products one should not have to download and install them all, then go and hunt down the information on their drives in order to be able to short-list the contenders. That is time-consuming. I want to be able to make an initial comparison grid that compares several different aspects of each mail client - both from the usability perspective and the data storage/data format - before installing anything. The easier it is to obtain that info, the more likely that app will get on my grid and the faster it will get installed and tested.

If we cannot obtain the critical specs that we need BEFORE installing the app, then that app may get scratched off the list of contenders, simply for failing to provide the info needed for the evaluator to present his case and make a decision.

So, that being said, I will now go read the Zimbra Installation FAQ and see if the information is in there. Thanks for all the suggestions

[LMStone]

Zimbra's view is that for public access computers, the web browser is the best way to go. Zimbra can be configured to do everything over https, and unlike Outlook Web Access, the Zimbra Web Client has a full feature set.

Zimbra Desktop is like a mini Zimbra server. It provides offline access (like Outlook in caching MAPI mode) and has pretty much the same feature set as the full web client. You could not however make a completely portable copy of ZD, in the same way that you can't install Outlook to a USB drive and run it on any Windows computer.

The Zimbra server Network Edition has built-in backups, which can be pointed to a separate machine over NFS, iSCSI or FC. There are community backup scripts for the free Open Source version of Zimbra as well.

I understand why you are using your USB stick with pst files the way you do currently, but I think you will find with Zimbra you can lose the USB stick and not sacrifice any portability nor data security.

Hope that helps,
Mark