This is a tutorial on how to setup AtMail with public-folders. An example scenario, your a company with over 10 employees and you need a global Support and Sales folder.

This folder should be shared and accessible to selected users, with the ability to use IMAP or Webmail to access the shared folders.

Public folders are vital to improve work flow, help consolidate email messages from clients, and provide a central repstitory of messages that can be searched.

So how do we do this in AtMail?

Pre-requirements:

Step 1:

Define a CSV file of users you wish to share a public folder with, e.g

publicfolder.csv:

Support, ben@company.org
Support, jason@company.org
Support, andyg@company.org

Where the above user@company.org is a real user on AtMail, has an account and mailbox already created.Upload the CSV file to the server and execute the script batch-publicfolder.php

cd /usr/local/atmail/webmail/modules/
php batch-publicfolder.php < /tmp/publicfolder.csv

Once executed, for each user on the system the following will be returned.

Creating public folder for Support for user@company.org
Creating PublicFolder /usr/local/atmail/users/shared/.Support
Adding maildir /usr/local/atmail/users/shared/.Support
Adding maildir /usr/local/atmail//users/u/s/user@company.org/shared-folders/SharedFolder/Support
Creating Symlink  /usr/local/atmail//users/u/s/user@company.org/shared-folders/SharedFolder/Support to  /usr/local/atmail//users/u/s/user@company.org/.Support
Adding  /usr/local/atmail//users/u/s/user@company.org/SharedFolder/PremiumSupport/shared

Step 2:

Once the public-folder is created, an email alias must be setup to direct the messages into the public folder created.

Visit the AtMail Webadmin > Email > Email Aliases and define the alias-name, and the directory of the new public folder ( In this example, the directory is named /usr/local/atmail/users/shared/.Support )

Step 3:

Once the alias and public folders are created, simply email the support@company.org email, and messages will be stored on the Shared folder.

Each user that logs in via IMAP or Webmail will analyze the shared folder, and symlink each message to the users personal maildir. This is required to keep message flags ( unread/read/replied ) status for each user, while simply referring to the public-folder email on disk via a symlink.

When using the mail-server mode of @Mail, all messages are stored in "maildir" format on the system.

This creates the ability to share folders between other users, creating a "Public" folder feature where users can view/add/delete messages.

To implement, login to a local @Mail account where you want to share a specific folder.

(more...)

When using the mail-server mode of @Mail, all messages are stored in "maildir" format on the system.

This creates the ability to share folders between other users, creating a "Public" folder feature where users can view/add/delete messages.

To implement, login to a local @Mail account where you want to share a specific folder.

Create a new folder you want to share, e.g "Sales Leads"

The new folder will be created on the server with the maildir path:

/usr/local/atmail/users/u/s/user@domain.com/.Sales Leads

Where "u/s" is the first two characters of the username, used for the directory prefix.

This folder can be be symbolically linked to any other local account using a symbolic link.

root# ln -s "/usr/local/atmail/users/u/s/user@domain.com/.Sales Leads" "/usr/local/atmail/users/b/e/ben@domain.com/.Sales Leads"

Repeat the "ln" command for the number of accounts you want to link the folder. This will create a symbolic link from the users directory back to the original shared folder.

Users can now login via WebMail or IMAP to access the new Public folder. Messages can be read/moved and deleted from the folder.

In a future @Mail patch a Webadmin interface will be available to create public-folders.

If user accounts cannot authenticate to the POP3-server,
often the "Default" group defined in the Webadmin has POP3
disabled.

To resolve visit the Webadmin -> Users -> Group Manager ,
and verify the default group is enabled with POP3-support.

Users can be delegated into Groups by using the Modify
user link in the Webadmin. This allows you to create
different groups that have permissions ( pop3/imap
enabled, sms, forwardng and more )