We are welcoming new case-studies for Atmail, do you have an installation you’d like to show off and have published on the Atmail portfolio page?

If you have an active Atmail installation, a custom Webmail template, or an interesting real-world usage of Atmail you’d like to share? We are welcoming submissions for new Atmail case-studies. Have your install published on atmail.com and show your stuff!

We’re proud to release AtMail version 5.5,  which features a fresh rewrite of the installation script to support apt-get for the smoothest possible installation on Ubuntu.

Other features in this release include:

• TLS Support via SMTP
• Improved Calendar for Firefox 3
• DKIM support integrated into Exim for message authentication and anti-spam measures
• Improved global level Bayes support
• Easier installation of IMAP-SSL and POP3-SSL
• XUL Interface enhancements
• MIME parser upgrade
• Security, bug fixes and more
• View the changelog for complete details

Current customers are encouraged to upgrade to version 5.5 to take advantage of the fixes and enhancements. The latest version and upgrade patches can be obtained via the client login page. Future customers are encouraged to download the latest evaluation version and view the online-demo to test-drive the latest release!

As a promotion for the new release, we are offering a 10% discount on all new software and appliance purchases until the 15th Oct. In addition, existing clients who are due for renewal, can purchase the upgrade online and receive an extra 3 month extension to the support and new-version period.

We have been brainstorming the new version of Atmail for some time now and have published the Atmail Roadmap for the direction of the software in August.

Since defining the new Atmail 6 version, after a month of development we achieved the following milestones:

• Zend Framework and MVC structure is complete
• Authentication framework is up
• ACL framework is done
• Implemented dummy output of main application functions in HTML and XML to begin UI communication
• Maildir list done
• Maildir sort structure done
• Cache framework and usability testing done

Already the application is starting to take shape out of all the skeleton work that has been completed. Atmail 6.X will deliver a solid foundation for the software based on the Zend Framework, with an improved Webmail interface and upgraded backend.
A lot more flesh will be added to this skeleton as things develop. Next we will start the foundational work on the UI, and will keep you posted as Atmail 6 develops, and post some screenshots soon!

After the annual Atmail “Hackfest” this August in Peregian Beach Australia the development team have announced the future roadmap of Atmail. Our labs have some exciting new products and developments brewing!

We will be reinventing the core of Atmail for the version 6.x, with a new backend using the PHP Zend framework, a complete new Webmail client based on a single interface with CSS to re-skin, and improved Groupware features to make Atmail an even more competitive option for an Exchange alternative under Linux.

Atmail 6.X release - ETA April 2009

• Rewrite using the PHP Zend framework - Using the MVC model
• New API and improved backend
• Completely new Webmail interface which is more modernized and a common interface that supports all browsers. With an emphasis on CSS skinning and rebranding
• Redesign Webadmin interface to streamline deployments and administration
• Improved Groupware features
• Plugin support - API structure to create extendable plugins for Atmail
• Using open standards for Calendaring (iCal) and synchronization (SyncML)
• Groupware and synchronization support for Outlook, Thunderbird, iCal and other clients
• Enhanced mobility options - Blackberry support, iPhone and more

The new 6.X release of Atmail will be a major milestone in the development of Atmail. Our development team will be redesigning the core of Atmail based on our experience of been in the industry for over 8 years. You can look forward to see an enhanced Atmail version, and designed on a platform to see the software forge ahead in the years to come.
In the meantime we will be enhancing the current 5.X release of Atmail with the following new features and enhancements:

Atmail 5.5 release - ETA Dec 2008

• Blackberry support included via Funambol
• Native LDAP support for user authentication and administration
• Migration of Courier-IMAP to Dovecot for the mail-server edition of Atmail. Based on performance and functionality
• Enhanced Atmail Cluster edition with GFS and Xen support
• Improved support for other Linux distributions ( Ubuntu, Debian )

In addition to the new Atmail re-write, our development team will be releasing another two surprising products under the Atmail banner early 2009 - Keep tuned for product news and developments from the Atmail labs!

AtMail Open is now available via FreeBSD Ports! Installation via FreeBSD Ports is very easy. You may need to update your ports collection first, but on your FreeBSD machine simply type:

# cd /usr/ports/mail/atmail
# make install

Your AtMail Open system, including dependencies will be setup and almost ready to roll. All you need to do now is follow the post install instructions given by the port to configure Apache and then point your browser to AtMail, run through the web-based installer for final configuration and your done.

If your using FreeBSD but either don’t have access to Ports or would rather not use it then there is a nice install guide for AtMail Open on FreeBSD here.

Thanks to wenheping for creating/maintaining the port.

In light of Gmail’s recent outage and downtime, Lisa Hoover from Linux.com summed this up brilliantly in her blog:

“If Gmail keeps your business’ wheels turning, then you can’t afford to cross your fingers and just hope nothing ever happens that will lop off large chunks of email you’ve archived or saved. The number one thing you can do to protect your data is back it up. If you use Gmail, it’s a dead simple process. Just download it locally every day, then include it in your company’s nightly off-site backup routine. You do have an off-site backup routine, right?

If it’s not archives, but incoming mail you’re panicked about missing, then consider ways to build email redundancy into your infrastructure. Any commercial email platform vendor worth its salt will have triple-secure systems in place to make sure your mail is never lost or misdirected. Sure, a service like Atmail or SureMail comes with a price tag whereas Gmail is free, but, hey, Gmail is also still a beta product. Do you want to trust your company’s most vital communication tool to something that’s still under development?”

Since email is the critical communication backbone for business, shouldn’t your company consider hosting your critical mail “in-house” on secure servers you control? Rather than trusting your company email infrastructure to “the cloud” ?

Order Atmail instead.

We are proud to announce the second update to the AtMail Open-source edition, version 1.02. The open-source edition has received a welcomed response from the community seeking an improved Ajax Webmail client, and we value all our user feedback since we released the first edition in May 08.

Download the new release at: http://atmail.org/download.php

The new 1.02 release contains SSL IMAP support, enhanced security / local file permissions, and various other tweaks. The complete changelog follows:

• Added support for IMAPs (Secure IMAP using SSL)
• Added upgrade script
• Moved default location of IMAP debug file to avoid security risk of other users accessing it at /tmp/popimap_debug
• Improved Subject/From filters, can now accept any chars for rule
• Added htmlentities() on email body for plain text content
• Folder names with ampersands now supported
• Improved .eml naming, now uses subject as filename
• Auto add quotes around ‘real-name’ part of email addresses returned from composebook
• Fixed bad return value in IMAP_Client::deleteMailbox()
• Updated lang packs
• Added ‘onEmailSent’ plugin hook to sendmail.php
• Fixed pagination issue for email listing (no longer repeats last email on next page)
• Fixed attachment filename encoding
• Spell check now uses value defined in $pref[’aspell_path’] rather than hard coded ‘aspell’
• Filename extension check for abook import is now case insensitive
• Auto adds scroll bar when search results are longer than container
• Fixed charset conversion for GB2312 (Simplified Chinese)

Upgrading couldn’t be simplier! Extract the new version into your existing Atmail-open directory, then run

http://yourserver.com/atmailopen/upgrade.php

The upgrade.php script is located in the base atmailopen directory, and will update the local MySQL DB with the latest fields and update the Config.php file for the new release. Once run, the upgrade is now complete.

Corey and I spent the better part of this week in beautiful downtown Chicago for HostingCon.  Overall I think the show was a great success for us individually and as a company.  Getting out to mingle and network with such a focused group of people is such a wonderful way to grasp the pulse of the industry.  It was also a wonderful way to get to know some of our existing customers that also attended the show and hear how they have deployed AtMail first hand.  We received excellent feedback on what people really liked about the software as well as what people would like to see in the next versions.

Above: Jason Brown fine tunes the AtMail Cluster.

Hopefully we’ll get to see everyone again next year in Washington DC for HostingCon 2009!!!

5.42 is a minor patch release that resolves a security issue relating to filesystem permissions for Config.php. We encourage all users to upgrade to this release. The full changelog follows:

• Added correct PHP chmod() on the Config.php to 640, removing the world-readable permissions
• Removed session-directory check from the Webmail step0.php installer - Required for Plesk installations
• Updated the italiano.lang file and removed incorrect URL references

Existing customers can upgrade to the latest version via the client-interface. Demo evaluation versions are available for direct download to test on your own system, or view the online demo for instant access to test-drive AtMail.

Hi all.

My Name is Allan, I have just joined the AtMail team.

I am based at the Peregian Beach office, and soon everyone at AtMail will be coming together here to brainstorm the next generation of AtMail.

Over the next few weeks and months I will be on the team writing the next generation of the AtMail software.

Please send us your wishes or recommendations for the next version so that we can include them in our brainstorming.

Regards

Allan Wrethman