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2006

 

I'd like to announce the 1.0M5-pre1 (webstart install, download) pre-release of JBCS. This release realizes the integration of Calendaring and the addendum of our Mail Client. We also have alpha-stage IMAP support for Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 (or so I will confirm as I've been using it for awhile now). However, Jason Pugsley was kind enough to work on OS X's Mail.app and Outlook just before I cut this release and submit some patches! I couldn't help but put those in. We could use some help testing there of course!

  • alpha quality IMAP support for at least Thunderbird 1.5
  • Calendar Server integrated
  • Web 1.0-style calendar application (deprecated by JBCS 1.0)
  • alpha-quality user APIs for MBAs and CBAS type applications
  • JBoss Collaboration Client (presently "webmail" only) in beta quality
  • Administration backend support (needs a front end)
  • overhaul of naming/security deployment

 

If all goes well then we will release a final by next Monday at the latest. I do not anticipate any deltas between the "final" and this version other than some text. Documentation will be appearing here as the week goes on (a difference between a PRE and a Milestone). The instructions for M4 should also apply. However if you would like to try out IMAP, you will need to uncomment it from the $JBMS_HOME/server/default/deploy/mail.ear/mail.sar/META-INF/jboss-service.xml config file (it is near the bottom). The installer does not offer it because we consider the IMAP to be alpha-quality only (though I'm using it).

 

Additionally, don't forget to try out our hot new rich mail client which is included in this release! I appreciate the emails of congratulation that I've been getting off of our live demo of the client and simple Collaboration Based Application Service (CBAS) demo. Please keep them coming. It is great to see people "getting it" after all of those late nights! I've shared some of them verbally with the core developers of JBCS. Please feel free to join us in the now mis-named forum. And remember the 1.0 final release will premere at JBossWorld. I hope to see you there.

 

We're in the process of rebranding JBoss Mail Server. The 1.0 release will be called JBoss Collaboration Server. To be clear JBoss Collaboration Server includes:

  • JBoss Mail Server (now refers strictly to the mail server)
  • JBCS Secure Administrator (in progress)
  • JBoss Calendar
  • JBoss Mail Client (now referred to as "webmail")
  • Mail-Based Application (MBA) and Collaboration Based Application Service APIs

 

Prior to this we had no clear way to refer to the whole project versus the mail server component. It also names us more clearly where we belong in the market.

 

We will begin this release with two live demos in one. First of all I want everyone to see our new web-based mail client. However, I also want to introduce you to some terminology: Mail Based Applications and Collaboration Based Application Services and give you an example. First, linked below is the mail client. It requires the Flash 8.59 beta which you can download from here. It presently is available for OS X and Windows. There are statements from various people at Adobe about a release for Linux coming out shortly after the June release of Flash 9. I really hope that is pursued more agressively as testing has admittedly been difficult since I can't test on my Fedora (AMD x64) laptop and even Flash 7 (the last Linux release) doesn't run.

 

Click here to run the demo
mirror

 

Here is a couple of screenshots so that you know it is worth your time:

 

 

Use any of these accounts:

 

 

In our scenario. Assume guest and guest2 might be remote (but for the purposes of the demo I have disabled all remote mail capabilities). Guest is an employee of some agency of the government and has the mail address guest@efficient.gov. Guest2 is an employee of a potential partner of BigCo our fictitious company. Sales is our main alias for sending sales inquiries, its even listed on the BigCo webpage. Partner, is the account manager who runs partner accounts. He's based in Texas. Gov, is the account manager who runs the government accounts.

 

 

We have two custom JBMS Mail Listeners. One inspects mails to sales@bigco.com. If the domain ends in ".gov" then the recipient is changed to "gov@bigco.com". However, we also add the mail to the Government Account Manager's Calendar for a follow up looking for the next available gap starting tomorrow.

 

The second mail listener checks to see if an incoming mail to sales@bigco.com contains the world "partner" in the subject or body. If so then it reroutes the mail to the "partner" user and adds it to the "partner" user's calendar with the same algorithm as the gov user.

 

TRY IT OUT!...but if you're hoping to be a troll know that we delete the DB every few hours with a cron job and remote delivery is disabled :-)

  • log into the application as "guest" with the password "guest"
  • click "New Email"
  • make the To: <sales@bigco.com>
  • select "guest@efficient.gov" in the From
  • make the subject "Hello I'd like service"
  • type in a body "bal bal bla"
  • Click send
  • Click logout
  • log in as "gov" password "gov"
  • click on the calendar for tomorrow... You should see a "follow up with..." event on the calendar... If there are a lot of events it may be the following day.
  • you can do the same thing by logging in as guest2 and including the word "partner" anywhere. then login as "partner" pw: partner

 

You can find the source for these examples in the jboss-mail CVS module under src/examples. Note that the above webmail is still in development and is developed using Adobe's Flex product (which outputs to swf aka Flash format). We are looking for more volunteers to help out Adobe Flex Genius James Ward. If you are interested in learning flex download the free (as in beer) Flex 2.0 beta 3 SDK post to the JBMS forum. Next, join us in the #jbms room on irc.freenode.org. The MBA/CBAS api is also under development so do not consider these stable APIs just yet. JBCS 1.0 debuts at JBoss World! I really hope to see you there!

 

Tomorrow you'll be able to download JBCS 1.0M5-pre1 here and try it out. This is intended for the JBCS devotees and enthusiasts who help us test. Documentation will begin appearing over the week and with any luck JBCS 1.0M5-final will be out by the end of the week. Commercial service and support will not be available until after the 1.0 release. Until then you can email inquiries to (acoliver@jboss.org) and join us in the JBCS forum.

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