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Exchange like Software

Ed Form

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #15 on: March 19, 2002, 02:01:04 AM »
Jon wrote:

> I've downloaded the source for Bill Workgroup server
>
> ...which is open source but does require the paid for outlook
> plugin. I'm still waiting for a responce to my "how much"
> question but they do allude to it being free for home and
> evaluation use.

The Windows client software isn't free. It's 39 euro per user.

Their Linux server is 1299 euro and looks to be a possible competitor for e-smith although not as capable in some areas - it has no print server for example - but it includes the Workgroup Server. The five user downloadable version is free.

Ed Form

Jon

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #16 on: March 19, 2002, 02:43:11 AM »
Thanks for the reply Ed,
I think thats about the least expensive "Exchange" possibility I have seen.
Works out to about AUD $65 per user (AUD$325 for 5users), the alternative outlookfolders is AUD $780 for 5 users.
I must say from a relative newbies point of view the task of integrating the bill workgroup software into SME is looking harder and harder.
Lots of different versions and related dependancies, some of which appear to conflict. I will give it some more time but I think it might be beyond me.
I might see if they have a "how to" for redhat 7.1, though I suspect they will try to flog me thier server :)

Jon

Jon

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #17 on: March 19, 2002, 07:37:08 AM »
After quite a bit of playing, I think I've found the solution for my needs.
Bynari "Insight Connector for Outlook".
$39 per unit.
They have a 14 day trial version @ www.bynari.com

It uses the IMAP server already in e-smith.
I installed the connector in outlook and pointed it to the mail server on the esmith box, followed the instructions and now I have shared calendar tasks etc etc etc, I even tried it with a basic cutomised for and it worked.

Still a bit more checking to go through but for now it looks promising.
Does anyone know if e-smith supports "IMAP folder level ACL"

Jon

Kevin M

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #18 on: March 19, 2002, 03:45:27 PM »
Re Schedule versions etc.

I found (from the microsoft.public.schedule newsgroup) that there are updates for schedule including a version that is included on the Office 2000 CDROMs, Head to
http://www.xs4all.nl/~bogarts/versions.html

for more details (location, install etc).

regards
kevin

guestHH


Hasan Muhammad

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #20 on: March 19, 2002, 10:09:51 PM »
Jon said:
Still a bit more checking to go through but for now it looks promising.
Does anyone know if e-smith supports "IMAP folder level ACL"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon,

I'm pretty sure SME uses the wu-imap server:

http://www.washington.edu/imap/documentation/

their tarball:

ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/imap/imap.tar.Z

contains a textfile ~/imap-2001a/docs/rfc/rfc2086.txt (listed below) which indicates the ACL capability is available for mailboxes (which I believe are synonymous with folders); also various *.c and *.h files contain the string 'acl' with comments indicating the capability is implemented.

My quick perusal didn't turn-up any admin or configuration details.

Hasan

The file ~/imap-2001a/docs/rfc/rfc2086.txt is listed as follows:

Network Working Group                                           J. Myers
Request for Comments: 2086                               Carnegie Mellon
Category: Standards Track                                   January 1997


                          IMAP4 ACL extension

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1.   Abstract

   The ACL extension of the Internet Message Access Protocol [IMAP4]
   permits access control lists to be manipulated through the IMAP
   protocol.

Table of Contents

   1.   Abstract............................................... 1
   2.   Conventions Used in this Document...................... 1
   3.   Introduction and Overview.............................. 2
   4.   Commands............................................... 3
   4.1. SETACL................................................. 3
   4.2. DELETEACL.............................................. 4
   4.3. GETACL................................................. 4
   4.4. LISTRIGHTS............................................. 4
   4.5. MYRIGHTS............................................... 5
   5.   Responses.............................................. 5
   5.1. ACL.................................................... 5
   5.2. LISTRIGHTS............................................. 6
   5.3. MYRIGHTS............................................... 6
   6.   Formal Syntax.......................................... 6
   7.   References............................................. 7
   8.   Security Considerations................................ 7
   9.   Author's Address....................................... 8

2.   Conventions Used in this Document

   In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
   server respectively.


3.   Introduction and Overview

   The ACL extension is present in any IMAP4 implementation which
   returns "ACL" as one of the supported capabilities to the CAPABILITY
   command.

   An access control list is a set of pairs.

   Identifier is a US-ASCII string.  The identifier anyone is reserved
   to refer to the universal identity (all authentications, including
   anonymous). All user name strings accepted by the LOGIN or
   AUTHENTICATE commands to authenticate to the IMAP server are reserved
   as identifiers for the corresponding user.  Identifiers starting with
   a dash ("-") are reserved for "negative rights", described below.
   All other identifier strings are interpreted in an implementation-
   defined manner.

   Rights is a string listing a (possibly empty) set of alphanumeric
   characters, each character listing a set of operations which is being
   controlled. Letters are reserved for standard'' rights, listed
   below.  The set of standard rights may only be extended by a
   standards-track document.  Digits are reserved for implementation or
   site defined rights.  The currently defined standard rights are:

   l - lookup (mailbox is visible to LIST/LSUB commands)
   r - read (SELECT the mailbox, perform CHECK, FETCH, PARTIAL,
       SEARCH, COPY from mailbox)
   s - keep seen/unseen information across sessions (STORE SEEN flag)
   w - write (STORE flags other than SEEN and DELETED)
   i - insert (perform APPEND, COPY into mailbox)
   p - post (send mail to submission address for mailbox,
       not enforced by IMAP4 itself)
   c - create (CREATE new sub-mailboxes in any implementation-defined
       hierarchy)
   d - delete (STORE DELETED flag, perform EXPUNGE)
   a - administer (perform SETACL)

   An implementation may tie rights together or may force rights to
   always or never be granted to particular identifiers.  For example,
   in an implementation that uses unix mode bits, the rights "wisd" are
   tied, the "a" right is always granted to the owner of a mailbox and
   is never granted to another user.  If rights are tied in an
   implementation, the implementation must be conservative in granting
   rights in response to SETACL commands--unless all rights in a tied
   set are specified, none of that set should be included in the ACL
   entry for that identifier.  A client may discover the set of rights
   which may be granted to a given identifier in the ACL for a given
   mailbox by using the LISTRIGHTS command.

   It is possible for multiple identifiers in an access control list to
   apply to a given user (or other authentication identity).  For
   example, an ACL may include rights to be granted to the identifier
   matching the user, one or more implementation-defined identifiers
   matching groups which include the user, and/or the identifier
   "anyone".  How these rights are combined to determine the user's
   access is implementation-defined.  An implementation may choose, for
   example, to use the union of the rights granted to the applicable
   identifiers.  An implementation may instead choose, for example, to
   only use those rights granted to the most specific identifier present
   in the ACL. A client may determine the set of rights granted to the
   logged-in user for a given mailbox by using the MYRIGHTS command.

   When an identifier in an ACL starts with a dash ("-"), that indicates
   that associated rights are to be removed from the identifier that is
   prefixed by the dash.  For example, if the identifier "-fred" is
   granted the "w" right, that indicates that the "w" right is to be
   removed from users matching the identifier "fred".  Implementations
   need not support having identifiers which start with a dash in ACLs.

4.   Commands

4.1. SETACL

   Arguments:  mailbox name
               authentication identifier
               access right modification

   Data:       no specific data for this command

   Result:     OK - setacl completed
               NO - setacl failure: can't set acl
              BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

      The SETACL command changes the access control list on the
      specified mailbox so that the specified identifier is granted
      permissions as specified in the third argument.

      The third argument is a string containing an optional plus ("+")
      or minus ("-") prefix, followed by zero or more rights characters.
      If the string starts with a plus, the following rights are added
      to any existing rights for the identifier.  If the string starts
      with a minus, the following rights are removed from any existing
      rights for the identifier.  If the string does not start with a
      plus or minus, the rights replace any existing rights for the
      identifier.

4.2. DELETEACL

   Arguments:  mailbox name
               authentication identifier

   Data:       no specific data for this command

   Result:     OK - deleteacl completed
               NO - deleteacl failure: can't delete acl
              BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

      The DELETEACL command removes any pair for the
      specified identifier from the access control list for the specified
      mailbox.

4.3. GETACL

   Arguments:  mailbox name

   Data:       untagged responses: ACL

   Result:     OK - getacl completed
               NO - getacl failure: can't get acl
              BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

      The GETACL command returns the access control list for mailbox in
      an untagged ACL reply.

   Example:    C: A002 GETACL INBOX
               S: * ACL INBOX Fred rwipslda
               S: A002 OK Getacl complete

4.4. LISTRIGHTS

   Arguments:  mailbox name
               authentication identifier

   Data:       untagged responses: LISTRIGHTS

   Result:     OK - listrights completed
               NO - listrights failure: can't get rights list
              BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

      The LISTRIGHTS command takes a mailbox name and an identifier and
      returns information about what rights may be granted to the identifier
      in the ACL for the mailbox.

   Example:    C: a001 LISTRIGHTS ~/Mail/saved smith
               S: * LISTRIGHTS ~/Mail/saved smith la r swicd
               S: a001 OK Listrights completed


               C: a005 LISTRIGHTS archive.imap anyone
               S: * LISTRIGHTS archive.imap anyone "" l r s w i p c d a
               0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

4.5. MYRIGHTS

   Arguments:  mailbox name

   Data:       untagged responses: MYRIGHTS

   Result:     OK - myrights completed
               NO - myrights failure: can't get rights
              BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

      The MYRIGHTS command returns the set of rights that the user has
      to mailbox in an untagged MYRIGHTS reply.

   Example:    C: A003 MYRIGHTS INBOX
               S: * MYRIGHTS INBOX rwipslda
               S: A003 OK Myrights complete

5.   Responses

5.1. ACL

   Data:       mailbox name
               zero or more identifier rights pairs

      The ACL response occurs as a result of a GETACL command. The first
      string is the mailbox name for which this ACL applies.  This is
      followed by zero or more pairs of strings, each pair contains the
      identifier for which the entry applies followed by the set of
      rights that the identifier has.

5.2. LISTRIGHTS

   Data:       mailbox name
               identifier
               required rights
               list of optional rights

      The LISTRIGHTS response occurs as a result of a LISTRIGHTS
      command. The first two strings are the mailbox name and identifier
      for which this rights list applies.  Following the identifier is a
      string containing the (possibly empty) set of rights the
      identifier will always be granted in the mailbox.

      Following this are zero or more strings each containing a set of
      rights the identifier may be granted in the mailbox.  Rights
      mentioned in the same string are tied together--either all must be
      granted to the identifier in the mailbox or none may be granted.

      The same right may not be listed more than once in the LISTRIGHTS
      command.

5.3. MYRIGHTS

   Data:       mailbox name
               rights

      The MYRIGHTS response occurs as a result of a MYRIGHTS command.
      The first string is the mailbox name for which these rights apply.
      The second string is the set of rights that the client has.

6.   Formal Syntax

   The following syntax specification uses the augmented Backus-Naur
   Form (BNF) notation as specified in [RFC-822] as modified by [IMAP4].
   Non-terminals referenced but not defined below are as defined by
   [IMAP4].

   Except as noted otherwise, all alphabetic characters are case-
   insensitive.  The use of upper or lower case characters to define
   token strings is for editorial clarity only. Implementations MUST
   accept these strings in a case-insensitive fashion.

   acl_data        ::= "ACL" SPACE mailbox *(SPACE identifier SPACE
                        rights)

   deleteacl       ::= "DELETEACL" SPACE mailbox SPACE identifier

   getacl          ::= "GETACL" SPACE mailbox

   identifier      ::= astring

   listrights      ::= "LISTRIGHTS" SPACE mailbox SPACE identifier

   listrights_data ::= "LISTRIGHTS" SPACE mailbox SPACE identifier
                           SPACE rights *(SPACE rights)

   mod_rights      ::= astring
                           ;; +rights to add, -rights to remove
                           ;; rights to replace

   myrights        ::= "MYRIGHTS" SPACE mailbox

   myrights_data   ::= "MYRIGHTS" SPACE mailbox SPACE rights

   rights          ::= astring

   setacl          ::= "SETACL" SPACE mailbox SPACE identifier
                       SPACE mod_rights

7.   References

   [IMAP4] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 4",
   RFC 1730, University of Washington, December 1994.

   [RFC-822] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text
   Messages", STD 11, RFC 822.

8.   Security Considerations

   An implementation must make sure the ACL commands themselves do not
   give information about mailboxes with appropriately restricted ACL's.
   For example, a GETACL command on a mailbox for which the user has
   insufficient rights should not admit the mailbox exists, much less
   return the mailbox's ACL.

9.   Author's Address

   John G. Myers
   Carnegie-Mellon University
   5000 Forbes Ave.
   Pittsburgh PA, 15213-3890

   Email: jgm+@cmu.edu

John Lewis

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #21 on: March 20, 2002, 07:11:06 PM »
Jon,

regarding the bynari software, what are you using for the calendaring functionality?  Their calandaring/groupware software?  Or does it enable with just the Outlook Connector component pointing at the SME box?

I am very interested in this as well, so the more experiences/reviews you can give regarding setting it up and the functionality with SME would be most helpful!

Thanks.

Jon

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #22 on: March 21, 2002, 12:57:08 AM »
John,
The Connector seems to be able to function in 2 ways, If you have just IMAP without the ACL's then you create a shared .PST file.
You can create calendars, taskes, notes, etc all under the inbox.
If you have ACL's available then you also get the ability to share your existing structure with various levels of permissions.
The ACL's do not appear to be available in the e-smith server.
The first person to install creates a PST file and makes whatever calendars etc are needed. This then sycronises to the IMAP server on e-smith. The next person the log in to the same account an the system automatically replicates from the server.
They can then add whatever they need, enter calendar appointments etc.
Everyone will see them as soon as they sync.
Everyone hooks into the same IMAP account and the PST file is replicated on there system. I have created calendars, tasks, contacts (with customised forms) and it all seems to work perfectly.

I would suggest downloading the trial and giving it a go.
1. I created an account on the server call bynari, with the bynari as the password.
2. Close outlook and install the connector.
3. Re start outlook
4. Enter the name of your mail server (mail.xxxxx.com)
5. Choose a new PST file
6. Then finish.
You will find a new mail.xxxxx.com - bynari folder with and inbox
You create the new folders under the inbox. (thats the only strange bit)
Right click the folders and set the sycronisation you want on the Outlook Connector tab
Drag and drop contacts etc to the shared contacts folder
Hit sycronise
On the other systems do 1 to 6 and the sycronise. Wait a few minutes and it all just appears.

The documentation is a little out on some of this, They said it had progressed very quickly through 5 dot releases, all changes were requested interface changes, so the docs are lagging a little. Still very much a "must read" to wrap your head around it all.

The main thing is it works really well and is very quick. I have 500+ contacts and it refreshes in seconds over the internet and in a blink on the local net.

HTH

Jon

David Bakody

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #23 on: March 21, 2002, 09:42:35 AM »
I want to back up what Jon said about his experience.

I've installed the Brynari InsightConnector and it works as advertised.  In fact, we're going to go ahead and order a 10-pack and bypass a seriously contemplated purchase of Microsoft Small Business Server 2000.  For our immediate needs the e-smith box works fairly well, but doesn't support ACL's (at least not out of the box) and this in turn limits some of what we can accomplish with a Brynari / E-Smith combination.

However, if you are wanting to share schedules, contacts, etc, using Outlook as a client and are willing to work around the missing ACL support - go for it.  It's a great product for $39.95 (or $29.95 in 10 pack).

John Lewis

Re: Exchange like Software
« Reply #24 on: March 21, 2002, 05:32:28 PM »
Great!  I think I'll give it a go just to have my .pst mailbox backed up on the server.  That sort of duplication alone is worth the price...

However, in order for me to sell this as a truly effective exchange-like replacement, I'd want to be able to use the ACL features.  I'm no developer.  Do any of you want to take a crack at seeing what it would take to enable ACL on the SME server's IMAP software?

Ahh, looks like Jon already posted to the dev list.  Nice work!

This to me is a killer app for SME.  Enabling ACL's with IMAP to allow for this functionality would be a huge bonus and selling point for Mitel.

Hasan Muhammad

Re: Exchange like Software--IMAP/ACL
« Reply #25 on: March 23, 2002, 02:50:27 AM »
I haven't obtained this book yet, but it may be helpful:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mimap/inx.html

This is from the index:

ACL (Access Control List)
      clients and, 53
      Cyrus server and, 113, 157-161
      Mulberry and, 72
      Netscape Messenger and, 67
      UW server and, 210

Jon

Re: Exchange like Software--IMAP/ACL
« Reply #26 on: March 25, 2002, 10:43:48 AM »
I have installed the Courier IMAP but it doesnt provide anything more than the IMAP already in e-smith.
I emailed Bynari and they said that they were testing the various IMAP servers and yes you only get basic fuctionality with Courier, But they were working on a patch which would give the full fuctionality.
I noticed a new thread were David has installed the Bynari server onto e-smith.
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=13284.msg50297#msg50297
I happy with what I have for know so I think I'll just wait for the patch.

Jon

David Bakody

Re: Exchange like Software--IMAP/ACL
« Reply #27 on: March 25, 2002, 11:24:13 PM »
One thing I encountered when installing and using the Bynari on e-smith is that it's super-touchy and easily breakable.  You also end up with what amounts to a very stripped down SAMBA server with a nice front-end and a Bynari for email.

In the end I decided it was just too delicate, that I understood/understand too little about the underpinnings of e-smith, and elected to setup a seperate server using Red Hat 7.2 and Bynari.  Still a good solution, but integrating it into e-smith means that the slightest breeze or butterfly touching it will cause untold weirdness.

I think it's just a short matter of time before we see ACL implemented on e-smith.  In fact, Mitel would be smart to do this and then enter into some type of bundling arrangement with Bynari to sell e-smith solutions with the InsightConnector.

We use Outlook on the client side and I can definitely affirm that the Bynari InsightConnector works as advertised.  It's wonderful.  We saved $$$$ using it instead of Exchange Server 2000, I just wish I could have married it to e-smith (still possible if you don't need or want ACL's).

Christopher

Re: Exchange like Software--IMAP/ACL
« Reply #28 on: August 17, 2002, 12:03:21 AM »
For what are the ACL's necessary?
I mean, if I just use the standard IMAP server in esmith what functionality will i loose?

M. Jung

Re: Exchange like Software--IMAP/ACL
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2002, 08:07:52 PM »
The german branch of bynari stop to purchase the bynari software because of too many problems. After 14 days of server uptime the problmes start with double contacts and other problems. Seems not to be a reliable solution.

Michael Jung