Customizable Webmail

IMail's most distinctive application is its feature-rich, highly customizable webmail client, Web Messaging (right). Web-based clients eliminate the need for POP3/IMAP4 software on user desktops and simplify "road warrior" mail access from Internet cafes. As compared to SqWebMail for QMail, Web Messaging allows greater end-user control, better content security, and considerable "look-and-feel" customization.

Web Messaging allows each user to configure his or her own mailboxes, address book, password, forwarding address, vacation message, automated responses, filtering rules, and the data accessible to others through Finger or LDAP. Self-configuration reduces support cost without loss of control: Any administrator with host privileges can also configure user settings or disable the user's ability to change passwords and LDAP attributes.

Web Messaging sports standard POP client features that are less common in web clients: a simple address book, hierarchical mailboxes, signatures, attachments, text search, message preview, one-button "delete all", and display, reply, send, and delete options. There are limitations: there is no obvious integration with desktop PIMs, mailbox name segments are limited to 8 characters, and nav buttons are somewhat scattered about client windows. Like my favorite POP client Eudora, Web Messaging can be configured to filter incoming messages and send automatic responses. But unlike Eudora, these actions are performed by the IMail Server when the message arrives, without any client interaction.

 

In fact, IMail can fully automate handling for unattended mailboxes like info@yourdomain.com or ensure immediate response to mail received by customer service accounts. One autoresponse can be configured per mailbox, returning up to 1024 characters to the sender and optionally redirecting the message to another address (below, left) . Autoresponse can be combined with processing rules—filters that automatically transfer incoming messages to mailboxes or discard them based on field values. These strong features would be complemented by more extensive rule help in the client. I also found problems when a rule created by the IMail Administrator was later modified by the user. Users who prefer POP clients can still use these IMail features by configuring them with the supplied "imutil" app (below, right).

For ISPs that want to tweak the look and feel of Web Messaging, the HTML files are completely customizable. As previously noted, Welcome and News messages can be updated with just few keystrokes: I added ISP-Planet's logo to the Welcome message on the login page in a matter of seconds. Although the Welcome message applies to all domains, other customizations—news, ad banners, and trailers—can be specified for each domain. For more drastic makeover, modify the default HTML files installed with IMail. Or download one of the free, unsupported templates from the gallery at www.ipswitch.com. IMail makes it easy to build a webmail client that is truly your own—or your customer's. The catch? If you revamp the HTML, be prepared to retrofit changes during future version updates.