Zimbra

skwdenyer · #1 (**permalink**) 01-21-2006, 04:04 PM

Hi there. Great software! Just trying to evaluate at the moment. For our specific situation, I'm trying to clarify a few things, if I may:

1. Multiple accounts #1
Currently I have about 20 different email accounts spread across about 14 different domains. All email comes into Outlook and is auto-filtered into folders (1 per account). Some email accounts only need checking every couple of days, or when there are new messages. Can I configure Zimbra to do likewise (i.e. auto-sweep mail into specific folders rather than clogging my inbox with things that need attention only in downtime)? (I suppose this is filter-by-incoming account, since filtering by To: or Cc: just doesn't do the same thing at all). Most of our users have multiple accounts.

2. Multiple accounts #2
When I reply to an email addressed to me as, for instance, bloggs@123.com, Oulook replies from that address so the recipient isn't confused. Is this possible in Zimbra? In fact, can I have multiple email accounts at all?

3. Multiple accounts #3
In the same scenario, when I compose a new (blank) message in Outlook, I have the option to select which account I will send it from using a drop-down. Is this possible in Zimbra?

4. Folders
When I create a new folder in Zimbra I can elect to subscribe to an RSS/Atom feed. However I cannot change this property later (for instance, if the feed changes) - there doesn't seem to be a "Properties" option in the Folder right-click context menu, only an option to rename the folder. Am I missing something here?

Sorry if these are FAQs, but I can't easily see the answers to these (or, rather, I see an absence of information). Or perhaps they're on the roadmap? Whilst the development of fun things like Zimlets are interesting, I'm unsure where the core Zimbra web client is going right now, as it currently seems only to support a subset of the core functionality of most "enterprise" mail clients.

For reference, we're evaluating with a view to a paid subscription rather than OSS. We do not use Exchange, but use Outlook as a mail client and a number of different back-end technologies.

Many thanks, Silas

KevinH · #2 (**permalink**) 01-28-2006, 09:53 AM

Sorry for the late reply. Some how missed this one.

1 - To do this type of email collection with Zimbra you'll need to configure fetchmail. Marc put a good how-to for that here:

[SOLVED] Fetchmail from other servers (aka account aggregation)

You'd then need to look at our filter options and see which will sort your mail best. Maybe to/from maybe it's some header.

2 - We support multiple account and alias's. How do you plan to use Zimbra? Web interface or via Outlook with IMAP? If you choose the later you can set up a seperate account for each and configure Outlook to send the right FROM address. Currently the web UI does not let you reply with an alias.

3 - With Outlook or Thunderbird yes, but not with the Web UI.

4 - Currently you can't Edit a Feed. If it changes you'll need to create a new folder and move any messages you'd like to keep from the previous. This is pretty simple with drag n drop.

Thanks for the detailed feedback. Not sure if all your questions were regarding our web UI or if you plan to continue to use Outlook as your client. So if something is not clear or you have additional questions please let us know.

mattmiller · #3 (**permalink**) 04-01-2006, 05:20 PM

I'm considering a Zimbra install as well, and this is a big issue. Within our umbrella organization, we have the need for users to be able to have multiple email accounts

1) for different "brandings" within the company
2) for replying to messages forwarded to the server from another organization's mails system, usually when our user is acting as a consultant for that organization, with an appropriate "From:" header.
3) To be able to integrate and provide services to a couple of other organizations (a couple of non-profits that share our IT resources) that are in our facilities, especially when users may have a role in more than one organization. (This one is a pretty special case, but allowing for 1 and 2 will pretty much cover these needs as well.)

We can make do without real need multiple accounts within Zimbra, since we can assign each user an account in an "umbrella" domain and have all the other addresses forward to it, so the solution minimally needs only one thing:

A) Ability to choose a "From:" address. GMail's solution here that let's a user add "From:" addresses if they can "prove" they own the account would work fine... or "From:" additions could be done only by admin.

After that, it would be really nice if we could set up rules to automatically assign those "From:" addresses based on the address the message we are replying to was sent to (or, even nicer, based on who we're emailing -- If I have a client I'm working with as a consultant for XYZ company, Zimbra will automatically set the From: address to me@xyz.com when I email that client...)

I've not looked into the codebase at all yet, but how much work do you think it would take to implement (A) above? Is it doable as an introduction to the whole Zimbra architecture for a developer with some Java experience and a bit more (in other languages) web programming experience?

Thanks,

- Matt Miller
(Sysadmin and jack-of-all-things-tech for quite a few comingled "enterprises")

KevinH · #4 (**permalink**) 04-01-2006, 09:01 PM

Hi Matt. You can choose the reply address today with an IMAP client connected to Zimbra. We don't have the ability to *pick* an alias in the web composer. It's something we plan to add in the future.

mattmiller · #5 (**permalink**) 04-01-2006, 09:06 PM

Thanks for the quick reply. The web client is one of the most attractive features of Zimbra for us, so I'll be on the lookout for that feature to be added. Any idea how far down in the priority list it is?