MDaemon Email Server 24.5

MDaemon Webmail is a web-based email solution included in MDaemon and designed to offer users email client functionality using their favorite web browser. Webmail can easily hold its own against traditional mail clients while providing the added bonus of its ability to enable users to access their email from anywhere at anytime as long as they have an Internet or network connection. Further, because all of their email folders, contacts, calendars, and so on reside on the server instead of on their local computer, they can have access to everything as if they were at their desk.

MDaemon Webmail provides many benefits to email administrators. Since Webmail isn't workstation dependent you can configure everything from the server, unlike many client applications. This saves you from having to configure and maintain each individual email client. You can also customize the graphical images and HTML pages used in Webmail to suit your corporate needs, or the needs of your customer. Further, you can give your users the ability to maintain their own account settings thus saving you time — you can give as much or as little control to your users as you want.

Finally, in addition to the convenience of having a web-based client, there are many additional features that will benefit your users, such as: extensive email functionality, client-side interface available in almost 30 languages, personal and global address books, manageable mail folders and filters, send/receive file attachments, multiple visual "themes" for the interface, themes for mobile devices, calendar features, groupware features, an integrated instant messenger that can be downloaded to your desktop, and much more.

Calendar & Scheduling System

MDaemon is equipped with a complete collaboration system. From within Webmail you can easily create appointments, schedule meetings, and work with address books. Recurring appointments are fully supported, and appointments have many fields available to describe them. Further, contacts, calendars, and task data are stored as IMAP folders within each user's root mail directory. Through Webmail, your users can access these personal folders and control which other users have access to them. All Webmail themes have templates that present contact, calendar, notes, and task folders in a logical and attractive way.

Because the Calendar system is integrated with MDaemon, there is the added benefit of email notifications of appointments, whether scheduled by you or a third-party. Whenever someone other than yourself schedules an appointment for you, you will receive an email message summarizing the appointment. Each designated appointment attendee will receive an email message detailing the appointment's date, time, location, subject, and list of attendees. Further, any attendees who have calendar entries that conflict with the appointment's time slot will receive a message notifying them of the appointment and its conflict with their schedule. The person who scheduled the meeting will receive a summary message listing all of the meeting's details and invited attendees who did or did not have scheduling conflicts.

The Calendar System is also equipped with support for Internet Calendar (iCal) used by Microsoft Outlook and other iCalendar compliant email programs. The Calendar System can detect and process iCalendar information sent to your users and update their calendars accordingly. When a user opens an iCalendar attachment from within Webmail the information contained in the attachment will be reflected in the user's Webmail calendar. Also, when users create new meetings or appointments they can list one or more email addresses to which they wish an iCalendar email to be sent. This feature can be set by individual users in their Webmail options.

MDaemon Instant Messenger

MDaemon Instant Messenger (MDIM) is MDaemon's secure instant messaging client and tray applet that provides quick access to Webmail's email features. MDIM can be downloaded by each Webmail user and then installed on the individual's local computer. It is pre-configured for the specific user when downloaded, thus limiting the need to configure it manually.

MDIM runs in the background and checks your account for new mail by querying the Webmail server directly. This eliminates the need to open a browser or keep one open to check your email — MDIM checks for new mail and notifies you with a sound or visual alert when new mail arrives. MDIM also displays a list of your mail folders and the number and type of messages that each one contains (new, unread, and read). Furthermore, it can be used to launch your browser and move it immediately to a specific mail folder.

MDIM is also equipped with a complete instant messaging client. You can view your list of MDIM contacts and each one's online status (online, away, offline), start a conversation with any one or group of them, set your own online status, and view past conversations in a history folder.

For specific instructions on how to use MDaemon Instant Messenger, see its online help system.

MDaemon Instant Messenger's Instant Messaging System

MDIM is equipped with an instant messaging (IM) client that utilizes MDaemon's XMPP server. Using this feature you can add other users who share your domain (and optionally other domains hosted on your MDaemon server) to your MDIM contacts list and then communicate with them instantly. You can set your online status, view the status of your contacts, use emoticons, set text color, send files, set notification sounds and control other preferences. You can also start a group conversation involving several contacts at once. The IM features are available via the tray icon's shortcut menu, and from the MDIM window.

MDaemon Instant Messenger's IM system is also scriptable, which allows custom programs to interface with it. By creating semaphore (SEM) files in the \MDaemon\WorldClient\ folder, an external application can send instant messages to your MDIM users. The following is the format of the SEM file:

 

The SEM file name must start with the characters "IM-" and be followed by a unique numerical value. For example, "IM-0001.SEM". Applications should also create a corresponding file called "IM-0001.LCK" to lock the SEM file. Once the SEM file is completed remove the LCK file and the SEM file will be processed. MDaemon uses this scripting method to send Instant Message reminders to you about upcoming appointments and meetings.

The Content Filter system is equipped with an Action that uses this scripting method to send instant messages. Further, rules utilizing this action can use the Content Filter macros in the IM. For example, you could create a rule to send an instant message rule containing lines like this:

You have received an email from $SENDER$.

Subject: $SUBJECT$

This rule would be an effective way to send new mail alerts through MDIM.

Because some administrators have reservations about using an Instant Messaging system in their company due to the inherent lack of centralized accountability and the inability to monitor IM traffic that is in traditional and well known IM clients, we have designed MDIM's instant messaging system to minimize those deficiencies. First of all, our system is not peer-to-peer — individual MDIM clients do not connect directly to each other for instant messaging. Further, because every instant message passes through the server, each message is logged in a central location accessible to the MDaemon administrator. Thus a record of all conversations can be maintained for the security of both your company and your employees or users. IM activity is logged in a file called XMPPServer-<date>.log located in the MDaemon\LOGS\ directory.

Instant Messaging is provided on a per-domain basis. The global control for activating instant messaging is located on the MDIM screen of the Webmail dialog (Setup » Web & IM Services » Webmail » MDIM). There is a similar screen on the Domain Manager for enabling or disabling it for specific domains.

MDaemon Instant Messenger Skins

MDIM's interface is compatible with msstyles skins, which are readily available on the internet. Several styles are included, but to install a new style, download the *.msstyles file and place it under MDIM's \Styles\ folder in a subfolder with the same name as the file. For example, if the file was called Red.msstyles then the path for the file would be: "\.\Styles\Red\Red.msstyles"

Dropbox Integration

A new screen has been added to Ctrl+W|Webmail|Dropbox. Here you will find controls where you can enter your Dropbox "app key", "app secret", and privacy policy text. All are needed in order to enable the integrated service and they are all obtained when you register your MDaemon Webmail as a Dropbox "app" by visiting the Dropbox website. We cannot do this for you but it only needs doing once. Please see Knowledge Base article 1166 for complete instructions on how to register your Webmail as an app with Dropbox.

Once the "app key" and "app secret" are configured Webmail will be able to connect their accounts to a Dropbox account. The first time a user logs into the WorldClient theme or LookOut theme, the user will be presented with a dropdown at the top of the page. The user has three options, view the dropdown on next login, never show it again, or go to the new Options | Cloud Apps view. On the Options | Cloud Apps view, the user can click the Setup Dropbox button. Doing so will open an OAuth 2.0 popup. The popup details what the user is connecting to, and what authorizations Webmail is requesting. There is also a link to the privacy policy, and "Connect to Dropbox" button. Once the user clicks the "Connect to Dropbox" button, the page will navigate to Dropbox. If the user is not logged into Dropbox, Dropbox will present a site for them to either login or create an account. Once this step is completed, the user will be presented with another Dropbox page that asks if the user would like to allow Webmail to have full access to his/her account. Clicking "Allow", will take the user back to Webmail and tell the user whether or not the authorization was a success. This authorization is good for one week after which time the same screen is presented again and another access token is obtained and used for a subsequent week. Once authorization is completed, the user will be presented with a Dropbox icon next to each message attachment. Clicking the icon will result in the attachment being saved to the user's Dropbox account under the /WorldClient_Attachments folder.

In the Compose view for WorldClient and LookOut themes, users will be able to choose files from their Dropbox accounts by clicking the Dropbox icon in the HTML editor's toolbar (top left). This feature does not require the users to setup access to their accounts via the Options | Cloud Apps view and OAuth 2.0. It only requires the "app key" and "app secret".

Dropbox support is disabled by default, but can be enabled on the Dropbox screen in MDaemon. If you wish to enable or disable Dropbox on a per user basis, you can do so by adding "DropboxAccessEnabled=Yes" to the User.ini.

Using Webmail

Starting Webmail

There are three ways to start/stop the Webmail server:

Logging in to Webmail

Changing Webmail's Port Setting

Client-side Help

Webmail is equipped with extensive client-side help for your users. See the online help system within Webmail for information on the client features and functions.

For more Address Book options, see:

Webmail » MDIM

LDAP