New user's registration have been closed due to high spamming and low trafic on this forum. Please contact forum admins directly if you need an account. Thanks !

Better web email client - roundcube

How are you using your Bubba Two or Excito B3? Got pictures? Share here!
redw0001
Posts: 96
Joined: 07 Sep 2009, 14:03

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by redw0001 »

Forgot to post results of using remotely, although not alot of need to really. Performed far better than Horde. I particular:

1: Initial load far faster
2: Selecting inbox from Horde sometimes took ages, with Roundcube response time very reasonable.

Gets my vote for the future.

robin
tor
Posts: 703
Joined: 06 Dec 2006, 12:24
Contact:

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by tor »

Hi robin and others,

We actually evaluated roundcube a long time ago. Back then it behaved really bad when doing timely operations. Such as listing mailfolders with *many* emails, uploading attachments etc.

But since then, this was a few years back, it seems like development has progressed impressively. Have anyone of you using this experienced any such problems? Which plugins would you recommend to use with this to get matching features against Horde?

It seems like we should look at this application again. Thx for the heads up.

/Tor
Co-founder OpenProducts and Ex Excito Developer
RandomUsername
Posts: 904
Joined: 09 Oct 2009, 18:49

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by RandomUsername »

Hi Tor,

I find Roundcube to be much, much faster than Horde when it comes to opening big mail folders (~2500) (Rouncube by default paginates the display to 40 items at a time, Horde opens the whole folder and I haven't found an option to change that behaviour).

The only thing I haven't found a way to do in Roundcube is SyncML contact syncing but there is a Google contact sync plugin which works nicely (and syncing Google contacts to things like my iPhone and Thunderbird clients is much more reliable than I ever found SyncML to be with Horde anyway).

The plugins I've enabled are (all found here - http://trac.roundcube.net/wiki/Plugin_Repository):

vcard_attachments - Detect VCard attachments and show a button to add them to address book.
Sieverules - manage sieve filters.
compose_addressbook - Enable the use of the addressbook from within the compose window.
contextmenu - Adds context menu with actions like mark as read, delete, forward.
session_timeout - Session timeout on no human activity.
vcard_attach - Attach a vcard to outgoing messages.
webmail_notifier - Support for Firefox Addon Webmail Notifier.
zipdownload - Adds options to download all attachments or multiple messages or folders in a zip file.
jqueryui - Support plugin for other plugins. Adds jQuery UI library to Roundcube (required for the calendar plugin).
Roundcube calendar - Calendar plugin. Is able to sync with Thunderbird/Lighting which is neat but I haven't tested it. I use it with ical feeds from Google calendar and Toodledo.
google_contacts - syncs address book with Google contacts (read-only unfortunately).

If you have any questions or need any advice, just shout.

Darren.
paolol61
Posts: 99
Joined: 20 Nov 2007, 04:18

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by paolol61 »

Thanks for the post,
I installed roundcube and it's working great , fatser and more flexible that the Horde, I will try now to put some plugin and see if is still snappy as now ;)

I think it will be a great replacement for email to use as standard application on the BubbaX suite of program, please Tor give it a try, as you I tested few years ago and have to go back to Horde, but now is a different story :)

Paolo
Eelco
Posts: 2
Joined: 03 Nov 2010, 06:20

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by Eelco »

Hello all,

I apologize beforehand for the (likely to be) silly questions that follow below, but I have read all posts related to installing Roundcube, and wanting something a little better than Horde I decided to go and try to install it myself. I should warn you, I am a Linux newbie, but did manage to get access to my Bubba e-mails away from home, so I'm not a complete moron when it comes to configuring my Bubba 2. I'm surprised everybody says it's so easy to install, since I am rather lost.

Anyway, working from http://trac.roundcube.net/wiki/Howto_Install, here are my questions:
1. Like beeversf suggested, I put the downloaded Roundcube installation files in /usr/share/Roundcube. I think I have the permissions set correctly, but now have to access this directory somehow via my browser, or so they say. How on earth do I do that? What URL do I use? I cannot get to this directory via the Filemanager, and in Windows Explorer I only see 'storage' and 'home'. What am I missing?
2. Do I really need a MySQL database? In the current (Horde) setup, the way I understand it is that dovecot fetches e-mails and puts them in my /home/username/Mail directory and Horde provides me a view of the messages. Can't I use Roundcube as a view on those same messages, i.e. use the current db instead of MySQL?
3. Assuming the above is not possible and I need a separate MySQL database for message storage, how do I avoid having essentially 2 systems (Horde/dovecot and Roundcube) both attempting to read my e-mails from the net? Don't I have to shut down something related to Horde?
4. Assuming I need a MySQL db, can I still use the Bubba 2 backup facilities provided via the web interface? What files do I need to backup and can they be safely restored whenever needed?
5. How do I migrate the current messages to the MySQL db?

Again, apologies for my ignorance, can anyone help?

Eelco.
RandomUsername
Posts: 904
Joined: 09 Oct 2009, 18:49

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by RandomUsername »

Hi,

1. I actually put my roundcube installation in /home/web/roundcube/ that way you can access it via http://[yourbubbaserver.com]/roundcube. You shouldn't have to mess around with permissions too much this way either.

2. Yes, you still need to set up MySQL. It doesn't use it to store emails but things like session and user information, contacts etc.

3. Dovecot is your mail server. Think of roundcube and horde as mail clients but they run through a web browser rather than as a desktop application like Thunderbird or Outlook. The mail clients pull your emails from the mail server. If they're not loaded they're not using any resources so if you never load Horde by browsing to it's web address it will never use any extra resources. Also, because dovecot uses IMAP it won't hurt to use both roundcube and Horde in the same way you could use mutiple desktop email clients (from multiple machines).

4. Backup up your roundcube directory in /home/web and the databases in /var/lib/mysql/roundcube or whatever you call your rc database. Should be safe to restore these.

5. No need, see 3.
Eelco
Posts: 2
Joined: 03 Nov 2010, 06:20

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by Eelco »

Many thanks for the clarifications and your swift response! Some of the comments in previous posts make a lot more sense now with your added info...

I managed to get Roundcube up and running, and it looks good! However, performance wise, not that it is that important to me, I find it just as slow as Horde. Logging on takes about 15 seconds, opening an e-mail message about 5. I take it that this is not as fast as it could be based on earlier posts. That must mean I did something wrong (no surprises there..). During installation I had 4 Non-Ok items show up. A date.timezone issue which I assume I dealt with by manually setting a timezone in Roundcube after I got it running, 2 flags on PostgreSQL and SQLite which I ignored because I use MySQL, and one flag on FileInfo. It wasn't required, but recommended, and after I could not easily manage to install FileInfo, I ignored it. Is this likely to be the cause of Roundcube being slow?

Another issue I have is with the 'protect your installation' bit of the install wiki. It says I should protect logs, temp and config, which makes a lot of sense, but the part where I have to 'be sure to allow override of the Limit directives to get them taken into account' might as well have been written in Chinese. I googled .htaccess and checked the logs, temp and config directories. They each contain a .htaccess file, all saying 'Order allow, deny' followed by 'deny from all'. I figured they should therefore be closed from web server access, but checking from a remote PC reveals I can view the directory contents. However, when I try to open one of the files, I get an empty file. So my question is: do I or don't I have enough protection of my installation?

Again, sorry for the detailed newbie questions; I did do a lot of searching and reading before posting them, but there is so much information on the net that it is hard to find clear answers.

Eelco.
RandomUsername
Posts: 904
Joined: 09 Oct 2009, 18:49

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by RandomUsername »

Let's be clear, roundcube isn't super-fast, it just feels a little snappier than Horde (and looks a lot better too) so I would say your isntallation is working within limits.

I can't remember what I did now but being a tenacious bugger I made sure all the pre-install errors were fixed. I know I had to install an extra package or two to get the file info one to clear, I just did a lot of googling if it helps.

Not sure about the permissions thing. Will check what mine is like and report back.

Darren.
Clive
Posts: 164
Joined: 07 Mar 2007, 07:15

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by Clive »

Just installed Roundcube and it's running well.

Quick question, is there an easy way to lauch Roundcube instead of Hoarde from the main Bubba menu ?
RandomUsername
Posts: 904
Joined: 09 Oct 2009, 18:49

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by RandomUsername »

Clive wrote:Just installed Roundcube and it's running well.

Quick question, is there an easy way to lauch Roundcube instead of Hoarde from the main Bubba menu ?
See here: http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f ... 401#p11401
Clive
Posts: 164
Joined: 07 Mar 2007, 07:15

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by Clive »

Excellent ! Works perfectly by editing /usr/share/web-admin/admin/models/menu.php
RandomUsername
Posts: 904
Joined: 09 Oct 2009, 18:49

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by RandomUsername »

I've just updated to the latest version of roundcube (8.1?) and they've really improved the appearance and the performance of if.
Jocke
Posts: 13
Joined: 05 Jan 2007, 14:09
Location: Lund, Sweden

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by Jocke »

I'm trying to install Roundcube on my B3 but I got some problems. I downloaded Roundcubemail 1.1.0 - Complete
When I go to roundcube/installer I got this massage
Checking PHP version
Version: NOT OK(PHP Version 5.3.7 or greater is required 5.3.3-7+squeeze18ex1 detected)
I have tried to update php with
apt-get install php5

It says I have the latest version.

What should I do?
Binkem
Posts: 388
Joined: 10 Jul 2008, 02:26

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by Binkem »

I've got version 0.9.5 running fine here. Don't know what's the latest version running on a normal B3. Otherwise you will have to install an arch-linux or similar version on your B3.
Jocke
Posts: 13
Joined: 05 Jan 2007, 14:09
Location: Lund, Sweden

Re: Better web email client - roundcube

Post by Jocke »

Thx Binkem, I didn't found 0.9.5 so installed 1.0.5 instead and it seems to work with php 5.3.3.

Now to my next problem. I have going through the installer the only "not ok" i got was the timezone and the not used databases. I'm using mysql. The "Test SMTP config" passes and also "Test IMAP config" I tried three users.

When I try to login in the normal way, through the website, it says "failed login". I have tried to login with both username and with e-mail.

Suggestion anyone?
Post Reply