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= Webmail Goals =

At [wiki:support-team/2012-04-07 the recent support team meeting] we discussed our desired features and goals for webmail applications.

This is an attempt to document them and compare them across different webapps.  if a column for a webapp is empty, that means no one has verified it one way or the other.

if a goal or desired feature isn't clear, it should be broken out into a separate subsection with an internal link for discussion.

== feature comparison ==

||= feature =||= squirrelmail =||= horde =||= roundcube =||
|| trivial login || || || ||
|| easy search || || || ||
|| faceted search || || || ||
|| HTTP→HTTPS/HSTS support || || || ||
|| cookies/js security audit || || || ||
|| trivial to add to addressbook from incoming mail || || || ||
|| address book accessibility across webmail apps || || || ||
|| displaying messages in threads || || || ||
|| generating messages with proper threading headers || || || ||
|| easy reply-to-list for mailing list messages || || || ||
|| calendar integration || || || ||
|| message tagging || || || ||
|| [#IMAPIntegration IMAP integration] || || || ||
|| [#DefaultFromAddress correct default "From" address] || || || ||
|| [#OutboundIdentityManagement outbound identity management] || || || ||
|| inbound filters/sieve || || || ||
|| anti-spam integration || || || ||
|| good user documentation || || || ||
|| good developer/plugin documentation || || || ||
|| aesthetically-pleasing || || || ||
||  if aesthetically-pleasing, themable? || || || ||
|| internationalization || || || ||
|| proper charset/MIME handling || || || ||


== Goals ==

=== IMAP Integration ===

Most webmail talks to an imap server on the backend.  We need that since MF/PL uses IMAP to present our mail.

If a webmail system applies tags to messages, it would also be nice to supply those message tags back to the IMAP server for integration somehow with other clients.

=== Default From Address ===

an MF/PL login should just use a simple name.  But the webmail application needs to pick a legitimate "from" address for that member.  (e.g. if they have their own domain name, they should use foo@example.org, instead of foo@example.mayfirst.org).

=== Outbound Identity Management ===

Members ought to be able to select from an array of outbound identities when composing a message.  At a minimum, a member ought to be able to predefine a set of outbound identities they commonly use.  Ideally, the set of outbound identities should be synchronized with the aliases that MF/PL knows will flow into their mailbox.