Send an email to an entire address book

[deckard]

It's set to 100. But this isn't the GAL this is the contacts which are personal to the user. There is a setting for that within the user's account, but that only affects the address book application and not the portions of the applications where you do selection of addresses.

When you say use an external client, what do you mean? Is it possible to use a client like Thunderbird or Outlook to manage Zimbra's address books? Or did you mean to use the address book functionality within those types of clients and forgo the Zimbra address book altogether? Unfortunately, we're trying hard to avoid having to deploy clients to our users. That's one of the reasons we chose Zimbra...

Originally Posted by dwmtractor

I should've asked and didn't--have you checked the setting "Most results returned by GAL search" in the admin UI (Global Settings, General tab) or in the user's settings "Number of contacts to display per page" limit?

[dwmtractor]

Originally Posted by deckard

It's set to 100. But this isn't the GAL this is the contacts which are personal to the user. There is a setting for that within the user's account, but that only affects the address book application and not the portions of the applications where you do selection of addresses.

When you say use an external client, what do you mean? Is it possible to use a client like Thunderbird or Outlook to manage Zimbra's address books? Or did you mean to use the address book functionality within those types of clients and forgo the Zimbra address book altogether? Unfortunately, we're trying hard to avoid having to deploy clients to our users. That's one of the reasons we chose Zimbra...

My error. I was thinking about the GAL which is accessible from both sides. You are correct in your assertion that personal address books are not common between an IMAP client and the web client. There's an RFE to address this but it is not yet a reality.

I understand the reluctance to deploy clients to users, as that does require a great deal more administration (and helpdesk handholding) particularly for large organizations. Unfortunately, I believe your answer now comes down to two things, neither entirely satisfactory based upon the conversation in this thread to date:

1. File an RFE in Bugzilla to get this functionality (increased list size in web client) integrated into future releases; and
2. Create contact groups for now.

One kluge that may help for now to get the contact group created (and I don't claim this is ideal, but it may work): since the system will only show you names in groups of fifty, have your user go thru the address book and tag the first fifty names with one tag (we'll call it "friends1"), the next 50 with "friends2" and so on. Then s/he can go to the contact group creation, search on friends1 and add those to the group; search on friends2 and add those next, and lather-rinse-repeat till the whole list is built up. It's inelegant but it has at least a chance of success. . .

Cheers,

Dan

[deckard]

Originally Posted by dwmtractor

1. File an RFE in Bugzilla to get this functionality (increased list size in web client) integrated into future releases;

How do I do this and is there any kind of weight to it? I suspect that the more frequently requested features are implemented first? One thing I did notice is that in the admin interface, when you create a new distribution list there is no such limitation. You get "Previous" and "Next" buttons to move through pages of results in the right pane. So I think the work is already done at a basic functionality level, it just needs to be applied to the user's group creation application. Now... it's possible that it was left out of the user side of things for some practical consideration that we're unaware of...

[mmorse]

I must confess I haven't been following this thread...but you go to Zimbra Bugzilla and create an account to file an RFE - after searching for any matching first of course. (Don't feel bad if it's immediately marked as a dupe - searching can be tough sometimes if you're not using the exact same terms.)
Be sure to post a link back here so we know where it's at
Do test on 5RC2; though down right now for some updates, you can try against the hosted 5RC2 demo.
You might also read Open Source Product Management: How do features get into Zimbra?

[dwmtractor]

Originally Posted by deckard

How do I do this and is there any kind of weight to it? I suspect that the more frequently requested features are implemented first? One thing I did notice is that in the admin interface, when you create a new distribution list there is no such limitation. You get "Previous" and "Next" buttons to move through pages of results in the right pane. So I think the work is already done at a basic functionality level, it just needs to be applied to the user's group creation application. Now... it's possible that it was left out of the user side of things for some practical consideration that we're unaware of...

Perfectly reasonable questions, Deck. Particularly if you have been on a variety of other companies' support boards, you are definitely not used to the responsiveness of this one (and though I have "Moderator" by my name, I am NOT a Zimbra employee--I'm not paid to say this ).

My experience with the filing of bugs is that the rate at which they are fixed will depend on:

1. How easy it is to fix--simple things get done quickly even if they aren't serious
2. How critical the problem
3. How many people express interest in the problem, whether through voting for the bug, or ongoing discussion on the forums.

In answer to your second question, go to Bugzilla and create an account (it's not a common sign-on to this forum, unfortunately), then just follow the prompts to "Create a new bug" and choose "Enhancement" from the list of bug types. It is a good idea to come back to the forum and post the bug number so it ties the two together in people's reading.

My own guess (not a promise of action on the part of programmers) is that this is not a particularly complex issue, and I have seen other people who want it, so it'll probably get some real attention, but it needs to be in the system to get proper tracking.

Dan

[josephvclark]

I'm trying to use your suggestion(putting in:"addressbook2" in search field). I've tried this on two different accounts on two different PCs, and it only works the first time. If I try to search the same or a different address book, I get no response (no results, no error).

[dwmtractor]

Originally Posted by josephvclark

I'm trying to use your suggestion(putting in:"addressbook2" in search field). I've tried this on two different accounts on two different PCs, and it only works the first time. If I try to search the same or a different address book, I get no response (no results, no error).

You might want to describe this in more step-by-step detail as I'm not sure I understand exactly what's happening.

But my thought had been to use the tags to search out names and add them to a distribution list, so you don't have to perform the same search multiple times. There's no limit to how many addresses you can put into a dist. list.