Atmail 6 Almost Ready!

July 14, 2009

Atmail 6 Available Tomorrow!
I am pleased to report that Atmail 6 will be released in the next 48 hours.    We’re very excited to present the new look of Atmail,  along with improved backend functionality and open standards support.   There are so many highlights to this release:

New Atmail 6 framework

  • Code re-written from the ground using the Zend PHP framework
  • Coded using the MVC ( Model, View, Controller ) principle
  • Plugin support - add functionality cleanly, without editing the main codebase
  • New REST API  for user account provisioning and management

New Webmail interface

  • Unified webmail interface for FF, IE7+, Safari, Opera
  • Conversation view for email messages with threading support allows you to expand/collapse messages
  • jQuery library used to provide a smooth user experience
  • 3-pane Message View
  • Improved HMTL Email Editor
  • Supports any existing IMAP or IMAP/SSL server

Addressbook

  • Completely new Addressbook interface,  streamlined addressbook view and edit tool
  • Vcard support with Import/Export
  • Photo thumbnails
  • Contact Groups are easy to manage
  • Live search integration with compose panel for recipients

New Calendar

Atmail 6 includes a complete CalDAV server which authenticates users from the local atmail database and includes many performance and scalability oriented tweaks (Based on Apple Calendar server, under the Apache 2.0 license)

  • Open Standards Supported:
    • WebDAV RFC 2518
    • WebDAV Access Control RFC 3744
    • CalDAV RFC 4791
    • iCalendar RFC 2445
  • Feature-rich iCalendar/CalDAV client can access any existing CalDAV server
    • This means you can use the Atmail Web-Calendar to view your existing CalDAV infrastructure for your campus or organization.
    • Supports VCard data from any other CalDAV client.
    • CalDAV shared support for group calendaring.
    • CalDAV free/busy support.
  • View your Atmail Calendar in iCal, Thunderbird, or any WebDAV/CalDAV compatible client
  • NOTE:  Iphone 3.0 Includes native CalDAV support, so you can view your atmail calendar natively on the iphone without any sync or 3rd party plugins

New Webadmin

  • Webadmin interface reinvented in the new Atmail6 theme
  • Simplified approach for mailserver maintenance
  • Easy-to-use Control Panel for adding and modifying user accounts
  • Enhanced multi-server functionality
  • SQL or LDAP authentication support
  • Sub-administration ability - Delegate control of a selected domain to a sub-admin user so that your customers can control their own user accounts (useful for ISPs and others)
  • REST API for administrative integration

Please contact us at +1-877-4-ATMAIL  or sales@staff.atmail.com  for more information.


Filed under: Product News, Industry News, Frontpage, Atmail 6 — Corey Bissaillon @ 10:47 am

15 Comments »

  1. Very good job and beautiful application.
    Keep it so

    Comment by Calin Muntean — July 14, 2009 @ 1:43 pm

  2. I see no mention on the web site of activesync push for email, contacts and calendar. Did you drop that? Also no mention of an outlook plugin.

    Comment by Ehab — July 15, 2009 @ 5:54 am

  3. Will 6.0 finally support syncing of the notes field of a contact? This is extremely important to businesses that enter important notes on a contact.

    Comment by artie chang — July 15, 2009 @ 11:07 am

  4. Yeah, where is mobile version, mail push and other interesting features in v5?

    thanks and great work

    Comment by jose — July 16, 2009 @ 9:04 am

  5. I agree where did the activesync push for email, contacts and calendar go as well as the outlook plugin?

    Comment by Steven Craig — July 17, 2009 @ 11:09 am

  6. I also agree. The sudden drop of support for activesync and more importantly any form of contact sync including the outlook sync utility makes atmail 6 a no go zone for us. Are there any plans to re-implement these features because if there is not we’re going to have to look at other products

    Comment by Twiged — July 20, 2009 @ 1:26 pm

  7. I also dont see WAP support in atmail6, when is that coming? I tried to use the atmail 6 webmail interface demo on your site on my blackberry. It couldnt navigate it because it was using the new browser interface and not one that is made for the phone.

    Comment by Steven Craig — July 22, 2009 @ 10:08 am

  8. For Atmail6 we have been working on designing a new and improved Outlook Sync plugin.

    We will have this available in the next major patch to Atmail 6, due in less then a month.

    For the initial launch of Atmail 6, we had far too much demand from customers and users to launch, rather then waiting for us to include everything in the one release.

    Our stratergy is to release constant updates over the coming months and have the features on par with Atmail 5. However, built using a solid framework based on Zend, so the application can grow into the future with a solid foundation.

    ~ Atmail Dev Team

    Comment by Ben Duncan — July 24, 2009 @ 3:36 am

  9. I’ve been looking for an exchange replacement for our clinic, and am leaning towards Zimbra, but this new Atmail release looks pretty promising and more economical. The calendar format works with our scheduling software, though I have to see how it stacks up to WebCalendar.

    I’m worried about the process behind not releasing an Outlook sync tool at release and not clarifying what the status of ActiveSync is. Microsoft tech is so prevalent in business offices, these moves kinda speak to Atmail focusing on a different clientele than those who need an exchange alternative (light or not). Maybe those that just want webmail with calendaring or something.

    Reason for my feedback: We have iPhones, Windows Mobile, and Palm (Treo works best w/ActiveSync) mobile devices. 1/3 of our office staff are heavy Outlook users (and senior), the other 2/3 prefer webmail.

    If you can’t do ActiveSync directly anymore for some reason, at least support SyncML clients … thx

    Comment by Brian — July 25, 2009 @ 7:22 pm

  10. I see from the blog that ActiveSync is beeing removed and other methods (SyncML?) introduced due to licence issues with MS. Does this means that Exchange phones (or phones that supports ActiveSync, like Sony Ericsson) will not work with AtMail 5.6/6.x any more?

    I also read that you say that SE and others support SyncML, but I do not find a menu alternatives on my 1-2 year old phones for this. A feature only in some new phones or isn’t it a complete replacement of ActiveSync?

    I know that it is possible to setup phones to use IMAP, but this would only give mail and all contacts/calendar would not appear in contact list/phone list on the phone.

    My customers can’t accept a less featured email solution for their phones than they have today. With 5.5, this was very promising start, sad to see Microsoft stop our switch to AtMail 6. It wouldn’t be possible to licence it under IP?

    Comment by Are — July 28, 2009 @ 5:07 am

  11. Hi Brian - Thanks on your comments - We have outlined the Atmail Calendaring and Sync roadmap at:

    http://atmail.com/blog/2009/atmail-calendaring-and-sync-direction/

    This should shed some light on the support of SyncML and Outlook sync, and help in a decision for your company on using Atmail.

    Comment by Ben Duncan — July 30, 2009 @ 5:00 am

  12. Hi Are - Thanks for your message. We are in the process to announce a solution for Atmail and Activesync.

    However, Microsoft owns the IP over the Activesync protocol for the server-side - It seems their strategy is not to permit any other mail-vendors using Activesync, without an IP license from Microsoft.

    Read, more vendor-lock in to use Exchange, vs a Linux solution.

    While other competitors offer Activesync, they face the same problem if they do not have an IP license, and likely to be confronted by Microsoft on the issue.

    Hence the reason we ceased support for Activesync in Atmail and our vision is to embrace “open standard protocols” ( CalDAV, CardDAV, SyncML, Lemonade for IMAP, etc ) and offer a viable alternative to Exchange without lock-in to Microsoft proprietary protocols.

    Hope this makes sense, and we are much more excited to work on Atmail 6 with the open-protocol vision, vs Microsoft!

    Comment by Ben Duncan — July 30, 2009 @ 5:06 am

  13. Artie - Yes, we are improving the new Websync for Atmail6 and will support the Notes field to be synced

    Comment by Ben Duncan — July 30, 2009 @ 5:08 am

  14. Twiged - For Sync and push, please see the Calendaring and Sync blog-post at:

    http://atmail.com/blog/2009/atmail-calendaring-and-sync-direction/

    Comment by Ben Duncan — July 30, 2009 @ 5:09 am

  15. I like the idea to use open standards and would hope MS followed up on this.

    I just have a problem to convince my customers to switch from MS Exchange solution to a solution where they get less features. I’m sure AtMail on Linux is far more stable (and easier to backup!) and I would love to get rid of MS server os. But for current customers, I suspect they want to be able to have contacts from Outlook(or server) in their phone like they can today. At least for the phones on the market today, I suspect there isn’t a ready alternative. For new users, I can tell them about the problem with MS and they can choose to accept it or not, but not for the ones I have today :(

    Comment by Are — July 30, 2009 @ 6:28 am

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