defalt mail client

[kurt]

I'm curious as to how other Zimbra users send mail when, for instance, you click a mailto: link on a webpage? I can leave Outlook Express installed with the zimbra server listed as the smtp and a bogus pop server, but I still have to start up OE to get the mail to send. Is there a hook or agent that can be installed to open as the default mailer for Zimbra? Or is there a workaround?

Thanks,

Kurt

[soxfan]

If you are only interesting in "mailto:" links in web pages then you probably want to look at the Zimbra Toaster app. Do a little searching around on the forums and Wiki for details.

Note, however, that the Toaster does not address the issue of making Zimbra the default e-mail application for integration with Windows, MS Office applications, etc. (Send To --> Mail Recipient option). This has been the single biggest obstacle to my company's migration from using Outlook to the Zimbra Web Client. If this type of integration is of interest to you please vote for bug 12845.

The problem with Outlook and Outlook Express is that they do not work very well as IMAP clients. E-mail messages sent from these programs end up being stored locally by default. So, now you've got messages sent from Zimbra saved to the server and messages sent via Outlook/OE on the user's PC. You can setup a rule in Outlook to copy the sent messages to the Zimbra server, but I have run into issues doing this.

Right now I'm investigating using Thunderbird to handle the Windows e-mail integration. TB works much better than Outlook/OE as an IMAP client; specifically you can control where Sent and Deleted messages are stored. There are a couple of add-ons to make TB start automatically with Windows and load to the system tray. This way the users barely even know it is running.

If you come up with another method or "hook" to do this please post back.

[kurt]

Thanks for the info. Can Thunderbird be configured as an smtp relay without a pop3 server specified? If it can be loaded at logon, minimized to the tray, become the default mail application, and won't error out if it can't find a pop server (or configured to leave mail on the server and permanently delete all incoming mail), that might be a workaround. I'll take a look. If you find out more, please keep me updated.

Thanks,

Kurt

[soxfan]

I don't think Thunderbird can be configured for sending only; I believe you have to setup some type of incoming mail server. I'm not sure why you wouldn't just set it up as an IMAP client. In IMAP-mode all the messages remain on the server. Maybe I'm not fully understanding what you are trying to do.

I guess you could "fake out" Thunderbird in POP3-mode. You could either give it a fake incoming server, user, etc. and just never check for new messages. I've never tried doing this, so I'm not sure where you might run into issues. You could also setup the actual POP3 information, and leave messages on the server, as you suggested.