1 Dec
2011
1 Dec
'11
5 p.m.
Hi Jeremie,
On Dec 1, 2011, at 4:51 PM, jerem wrote:
Hello xwiki community !
Since a long time, I work on a MailArchive application, and try to find time
to post it to the community ...
It's used in my team and is satisfying, but as I'm working on it currently I
think it's time to unveil what to expect from it, and have your feedbacks
before I (eventually) post a first version ...
What's implemented so far :
- "eats" mails from specified mail server / account / folder
- creates Mails and Topics pages and objects in wiki. Algorithm for topics
tries to be "hijack-proof" ;)
- Custom Livetable and timeline view for archive, table/threads/forum views
for topics
- persists main parts of mails (html content, main headers, attachments,
attached mails, images, detects encrypted mails), with a clean display
- configurable mailing-lists (independant of mail server) upon pattern
matching, with auto-tagging of created pages
- statistics page (top posters, …)
This is great!
I had been discussing this need for such an application with Thomas Mortagne. It's
really cool that you're working on it :)
If/When it's solid enough we could try using it as a bridge with our xwiki.org mailing
lists.
What I would like to implement before first release :
- reply button and sheet
- configurable auto-typing of mails (for example,
Mail/Newsletter/Annoucement ...) (it already exists but it's hard-coded ...)
- test it with other server than exchange (ie gmail at least)
- configurable ldap integration : auto-creation of mail users from ldap (by
matching emails). Already implemented but not inside the app itself. It's a
very cool feature for enterprise level mailing-lists. Real users are also
automatically assigned as mails/topics authors/creators in wiki pages, as
well as mail dates.
- remove everything that's hard-coded and dependent of our usage - put more
simply, make it generic.
What I expect to add in next releases :
- multi-mail-server configuration
- improve admin pages
- ratings
- for now it dumps mails from a folder, meaning it does not act as a mail
server by itself. This means that some common features are not available
(validation of mails ...). For now it's more a simple dumped "clone" of a
mailing-list, but it does not interact with users / mails.
Some open questions / remarks:
- considering last point, I don't know how mailing-lists and mailing-lists
archives do work (ie xwiki-users and robot, nabble …),
For nabble and the like they just register on the list and then archive all mails they
receive on the registered email.
so I don't really
know how I could implement such features inside xwiki, or even if it would
be something useful for users ... For now the whole application is a XAR and
I don't want to bring too much complexity to it.
IMO for it to be clean and maintainable on the long term you'll need a clean part in
Java as components.
Anyway I'd like to keep
both functionality.
- for "reply" feature, I assume to use the global mail server configuration
parameters of the wiki, and the email from connected xwiki user profile
("from").
Yep
To simplify I would ask user for his password when he
clicks on
"send" (and the form is valid), because depending on mail server configured,
you might need to be authentified to send a mail. There could be an option
to use or not the xwiki login for credentials. I don't know what 'd be the
better for this ... Maybe I should add specific configuration for outgoing
mail server in mail archive app ? Of course with a "real" mailing-list (with
a robot), you don't have this kind of problem as I believe it acts as a mail
server itself (kind of proxy).
Feel free to comment, manifest your enthusiasm (or your un-interest :) ) …
I'm eager to see a first version in action :)
Thanks
-Vincent
Jeremie