Integrated mail

Sat Dec 8 21:09:03 UTC 2007

As i saw this thread i thought i would just send this mail as i have 
recently had a little play at work trying to find a replacement for 
outlook. We thought we would try and save some money and go over to open 
office on a few machines as there a quite a few users that don't need 
everything ms office does. Some still need it for access as i have not 
solved this yet there seems to only be open office and keix neither of 
which are good for existing .mdb databases, cant import forms, query's, 
reports etc.

This might be a waste as at work we have some exchange CAL 2003 licenses 
and from what i read in the following two links
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sam/lic_cal_exchange_server.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windowsserversystem/exchange/how-to-buy.mspx
It does say Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 is included so i believe that 
somewhere we have a copy of outlook or we can get one and use it legally 
with out paying extra. I'm removing  ms office which is what our outlook 
that is currently installed is bundled with. I Think i could just 
install outlook from that disk and not not office but hell who wants to 
use Microsoft products. I would much rather use open source and in the 
future Linux.

Anyway Thunderbird seems to work OK I use the IMAP protocol for 
connecting to exchange and AD for contacts but there are a few annoying 
things like
* calendering which i have not.  solved.

* when you get outlook underliverd mail if you then forward that to a 
user on out look you get your email, the outlook attachment NDR, then 
the send button finally gives you the original email seems a bit of a mess

* Thunderbird does not have a "unread mails" folder like outlook did 
they were useful it basically allowed you yo open this folder and see 
all unread mails saved you from going through all your other folders.

* cant handle public folders i.e contacts or calenders they both get 
listed as emails. Would be nice if when a message was received it could 
be automatically accepted as a calender item or contacts added to an 
actual address book (think there are some LDAP options in prefs.js that 
may solve contacts problem i not had time to look yet)

*don't know if it can handle templates like outlook not looked yet

Checking mail
------------------------
Even with IMAP for some reason it only finds your inbox any extra 
folders have on the server you will need subscribe to to see them. For 
example right click on your account name and click subscribe. You will 
then see a list of all your other folders and can subscribe to them 
which will make them appear in your folders view just like your inbox. 
There may be a option in the prefs.js file but i not found it yet that 
automatically can do this. I wish there was also a select all button in 
there too :)

Something else you may want is to goto 
edit->presences->advanced->general->config editor and try the following

// This option tells Mozilla to check for IMAP folders other than INBOX
// Currently Mozilla just checks INBOX for new mails.
user_pref("mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new", true);

If linking to exchange or some other IMAP server such as google i 
believe you will find the trash/deleted items folder is different to 
thunderbirds but you can change it see link below
http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP_Trash_folder

some extra links here
Checking for new messages in other folders - Thunderbird
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Checking_for_new_messages_in_other_folders_-_Thunderbird

Entire message fetched when opening a IMAP message
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Entire_message_fetched_when_opening_a_IMAP_message

signatures
------------------
signature work but with one bug you have to use the full path to images 
which to me seems like a bug in thunderbird you would think thunderbird 
could just quickly scan the signature and workout the full path  to the 
image so it can attach it to the mail. A bit more info can be found here 
http://www.subvs.co.uk/images_in_thunderbird_email_signature
or
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Signatures_(Thunderbird)

calender
----------------
i cant get the calender to work i did install lightning plugin
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313
but could not get it to automatically add calender items from our global 
calender on our exchange server so i didn't even attempt to add items. I 
only need it to show the items for most users and i could get this to 
work by manually clicking each message in the public folders->calender 
folder and clicking accept to the icalender event attachment. You would 
think there was a plugin that you could say watch this calender folder 
and auto accept icalander attachments and put them on a lightning 
calender of your choice.

if you have exchange server setup remember you always have webmail for 
calender that may be setup. I have noticed that it looks like a update 
to windows has changed some settings on our network sometime in the last 
3 months so users were no longer being asked there username and password 
on IE when accessing webmail. For some this was a problem as they some 
times don't use the webmail account that there user area is logged in as 
on the network but its a simple solution try the following.

for IE try going to tools->internet options menu
select security tab
select Local intranet
select custom level
scroll down to the bottom and look for "User Authentication" and make 
sure "Prompt for user name and password" is selected

Contacts
---------------
For contacts at first i could not see an easy way to do it and thought 
of exporting the exchange GAL contacts in exchange and importing on the 
clients which would not be fun especially keeping up to date. But i soon 
noticed the LDAP option in the address book so i installed the contacts 
sidebar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/70
I'm not at work so cant post an example of my settings but Monday i can 
if it helps people as for me it was a slight pain working out the way it 
wanted it. Also i have a LDAP search expression that grabs only contacts 
and takes in account the option in AD to hide contacts from address 
book. Off the top of my head believe it was something like 
(&(objectClass=user)(showInAddressBook)) but cant remember.

useful links
--------------------
Nice picture setup may be worth reading to some
http://oit.utk.edu/exchange/imap/imap_thunderbird.php

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/Logon/LDAP_attributes_active_directory.htm

Hidden Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird Prefs
http://www.geocities.com/pratiksolanki/

Convert a POP account to a IMAP account (i not don't this but someone 
may want)
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP_account_to_a_IMAP_account

IMAP folder cannot be deleted
http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP_folder_cannot_be_deleted

IMAP
http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP

Message Filters
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Filters

Sorry if this is a bit long winded but i thought i would chuck my notes 
together in case it helps someone i have not fully finished looking for 
a replacement outlook myself Evolution seems perfect under Linux even 
calenders and exchange work but could not even get installed under 
windows thats why i have put more effort into thunderbird research as 
thats what i use on all my home Linux boxes. Also for now all i need is 
send/receive of emails, signatures and contacts from AD (Active 
directory). I do have one user that needs email templates but i'm sure i 
can solve this.

John Dangler wrote:
>
> Apparently evo has just too many issues with ubu to be a viable 
> business product - after a little research I found seamonkey.  Anyone 
> tried this ? I need to connect to exchange and AD at work, as well as 
> other email and news, some irc channels, and the calendar both 
> personal and at work. Is seamonkey stable and robust enough to handle 
> these features ?
> Jack - BB
>