[Owncloud] Email handling in ownCloud

[Daniel]

On 11/07/2011 03:13 PM, Advrk Aplmrkt wrote:
> On 7 November 2011 07:51, Thomas Müller<thomas.mueller at tmit.eu>  wrote:
>>
>> Am Montag, den 07.11.2011 um 13:10 schrieb Frank Karlitschek:
>>> On 07.11.2011, at 12:33, Advrk Aplmrkt wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 7 November 2011 05:15, Frank Karlitschek<karlitschek at kde.org>  wrote:
>>>>> Hi Thomas,
>>>>>
>>>>> having a full fledged email server in ownCloud is not an option at the moment because it requires an SMTP daemon, spam filtering, an imap server, dns configuration and more which is not easily doable for normal users.
>>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>> I've been trying Citadel groupware server
>>>> (http://www.citadel.org/doku.php). It is a complete, well-established,
>>>> fully GPL'ed, email server that's extremely easy to setup (it has an
>>>> automated install script).
>>>> I might be hard to bundle a Citadel server as part of ownCloud, but
>>>> perhaps some integration could be developed so that the two work well
>>>> together?
>>>
>>> Absolutely. It would be cool to integrate different Groupware solutions into the ownCloud webinterface.
>>> I already started a simple proof of concept integration for Kolab.
>>> https://gitorious.org/owncloud/apps/trees/master/kolab
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Frank
>>>
>>> Frank Karlitschek
>>> karlitschek at kde.org
>>
>> I totally disagree on that - sorry! ;-)
>>
>> First of all it feels odd!
>>
>> Second any groupware out there offers calendar, contacts and file management - why did
>> ownCloud implement that - but not the mailing stuff?
>>
>> All these groupware solutions mainly rely on other components for emailing (CourierIMAP, PostFix, spamassassin ......) and
>> ship scripts for (almost) automated installation. At least this in my experience with GroupOffice.
>> ownCloud could deliver such scripts as well - but that's now what I want to have!
>>
>> I want all my data stored within my cloud! And this - most of all - includes my emails as well!
>> For sure integration of the email client with contacts and calendars must work smooth as well.
>>
>> I'd like to see ownCloud become my private data vacuum clean - sucking it all in! ;-)
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Thomas
>
> I agree with your disagreement in that it may seem odd. :p
> But, I think ultimately it would be the most awesome if ownCloud could
> provide its users with the flexibility to:
>
> (1) Integrate with other groupware systems such as Kolab or Citadel to
> gain email functionality. This can be done by providing plugins to
> ownCloud for integrating with other groupwares.
>
> OR
>
> (2) Using email functionality that comes with ownCloud.
>
> If ownCloud can provide *both* (1) and (2), then that's a huge win for
> flexibility. For instance, some users could "add" ownCloud to their
> existing server infrastructure, while other users would use ownCloud's
> builtin services to start a whole new groupware server. This would be
> a killer feature of ownCloud that makes it stand out from other
> groupwares, and potentially welcome swathes of new users!
>
> Unfortunately I have almost no programming experience, but would love
> to help in any way possible to help realise (1) and (2).
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I think the idea around Owncloud is to keep it simple (correct me if I'm 
wrong). IMHO, there's nothing simple about properly configuring an 
email/spam filtering solution - and it requires maintenance to some 
degree. I think that puts owncloud out of reach for some peoples 
technical ability.

+1 for the idea of integrating roundcube as a plugin, and really all 
your missing after that is a postfix admin module. Then owncloud could 
have all the bits and pieces that one would need without requiring any 
of it.

Daniel