Web Based EMail Client written with Ext

[NBRed5]

I have spent some considerable time putting together an email client using Ext, and I am now ready to share the fruits of my labour with the ext community.

The application uses just about every aspect of Ext including all of the following:

Viewport
Border Layout
TreePanel
GridPanel
DataView
XTemplate
FormPanel
HTMLEditorFeature to particually look for are that windows for each mail folder are defined as constrained to that view and also have a windows window where minimized windows are placed and from where they can be restored by double clicking on them.

Most of the functionality is present and although it will appear that you can send a message it will not actually be sent (too much of a security risk) but it will appear in the Sent Folder.

I still have to finish the code to add/remove private folders and the code to allow the copying/moving of mail from one folder to another.

Also I have not actaully attempted to look at the uploading of attachments yet, and I am investigating various of the file upload components provided the the community for this purpose.

Any comments/questions gratefully received.

This has really been done as an extensive learning exercise for Ext, however if their is enough positive feedback I may progress further and investigate releasing the code commercially (with the appropriate licensing of course).

The server side is based on a php based mail framework called uebimiau which has been extensively modified for use with json and ajax.

demo: http://www.demo.nbred5.com
user: demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

[hendricd]

@NBRed5 -- nice job on that, lotsa themes too! =D>

One thing you might consider: In my experience with browser-based mail clients, it has proven advantagious to render mail into an IFrame. This renders the mail body content in CSS 'isolation' from the main page, and any message-embedded style sheets/fragments and scripts(worse) don't interfere with Ext.css, your themes, or the user-experience.

Nice job!

[Marcoi]

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

also the code editor :">:">:">:">:">

very good!!!

[CPliskin]

Nice job!

The only things that would be nice:
1. My laptop has 1280x768 resolution and in messages list I only have 1 message in default application settings.
2. Preferences window isn't usable under my resolution.
3. I was confused that I need double click folder to open it (all mail clients require 1 click to open).
4. I think that last successfull login attempt should store email address in cookie and fill this field for me :)

I agree with hendricd about iframes.
Thanks for themes list!

EDIT:
5. I don't saw cursor in Compose window (message textarea, other fields are OK).

[genius551v]

Wow...=P~

Really nice....great work =D>


PD. the set icons...where are you get that?

[wm003]

\:D/\:D/=D>=D> Very amazing work!

[george.antoniadis]

Woa nice mate! :) Excellent work!!!!

Most of my problems were about pop-up window sizes... most of them go waayyy below/over my screen... Why don't you load the emails and settings on new tab instead of a popup window?

Also some popup windows load in the center region of the viewport and other on the window screen.

There are many nice scripts that resemble facebook like autocomplete, it would be a very nice addition to the whole thing :)

Are you thinking of releasing this or it a closed project? :)
I'd really like to take a look at it :)

BUG: contact delete doesn't seem to work... actually it works but then it can't reload the center region


this.centerContactsPanel.contactsStore has no properties
chrome://firebug/content/blank.gif this.centerContactsPanel.contactsStore.reload();

[susama]

open source :D

[franckxx]

hi NBRed5,

Is your Web email client is open source ?

Very Very nice work...same as usuall

[NBRed5]

franckxx,

I have still some work to do in tiding up the code, especially on the server side as I am having a number of issues when the mailbox becomes very large, once I have finished resolving these issues and tidied up the code then I will post details that I have updated the demo to get further reaction.

Then I will hopefully package the whole thing up and release as open source or paid for with support, as appropriate under the ext licesencing terms.

That may be a little while off as yet as this is a part time/hobby project and I have a proper job to do as well.

[jay@moduscreate.com]

off the chain!

[franklt69]

Hi franckxx, I was watching your demo and it is very cool, but I have some doubts,

1- why for each folder (inbox, sent, draft, trash..) you open its in a new tab with a toolbar for each, why don't have a common toolbar in the top?

2- To show the message are you using a grid?, what about when you receive or sent 1000 message (I don't watch nothing about paging, which is your solution?)

3- which component are you using to preview the message?

regards
and thank for share it.

bye
Frank

[NBRed5]

Frank,

Thanks for the comments, they are much appreciated, I will answer your specific points below.

1. I made a design decision to do it this way as it was easier to code and operate with as each mailbox is an instance of Ext.ux.MailboxPanel which is a component which extends from Ext.Panel but includes all the code to create the grid, previews and toolbar etc.

2. The current demo does not use paging, the new updated demo which will be coming very soon after I have finished some more testing (I am using it as my day to day email application now and it is working very well), does use paging.

3. The messages are previewed using a component I have built that consists of a border layout panel which has a panel in the north region that uses a XTemplate to format the output of the Subject, To:, CC: etc. The center panel uses the excellent Ext.ux.ManagedIFrame by Doug Hendricks which is available in the User Extensions Forum, this allows the preview of the message to format correctly using it's own css etc without messing up my applications css as the previews are in there own IFrame.

[franklt69]

Hi franckxx thanks for your answer, do you have some plan to share Ext.ux.MailboxPanel ?

How the user can watch the message with attachment in the Preview Panel and download it?

regards
Frank

[franckxx]

Hi franklt69,

I think your confused with user name...hehe.... :))

NBRed5 is the CREATOR of this GREAT Webmail client....not me.... lol =;

[franklt69]

oh sorry franckxx, any way are you who wrote this wonderful plug in http://www.qwikioffice.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7 ?

some news about it?

regards
Frank

[NBRed5]

I have been extensively testing my Email client written in ExtJS and have added a couple of new features:

Paging,
Google Maps - integrated with ExtJS goodness, just do a local search or try some directions and the results pop up in a Ext Window, also contains traffic data (uk only).

All is fine and working in FF (2 & 3 (when it doesn't crash, FF issue not ExtJS)) and Opera and Safari.

The layout still does not fully function in IE7 and despite many hours of debugging and trying diffrent options I am still unable to solve the layout issues in IE7, just give it a go in IE and you will see what I mean. Any help/ideas/suggestions as to what is going on would be gratefullt received, I am still worjking to make it fully cross browser compatible.

http://demo.nbred5.com
user : demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

Note: Although the demo will appear to send mail it does not (do not want anything inappropriate sent out).

[Gunmen]

I have been extensively testing my Email client written in ExtJS and have added a couple of new features:

Paging,
Google Maps - integrated with ExtJS goodness, just do a local search or try some directions and the results pop up in a Ext Window, also contains traffic data (uk only).

All is fine and working in FF (2 & 3 (when it doesn't crash, FF issue not ExtJS)) and Opera and Safari.

The layout still does not fully function in IE7 and despite many hours of debugging and trying diffrent options I am still unable to solve the layout issues in IE7, just give it a go in IE and you will see what I mean. Any help/ideas/suggestions as to what is going on would be gratefullt received, I am still worjking to make it fully cross browser compatible.

http://demo.nbred5.com
user : demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

Note: Although the demo will appear to send mail it does not (do not want anything inappropriate sent out).

The login does not works. Are you sure about the login credentials? Thanks! I like to see it.

[esoteric]

They work just fine.

[Gunmen]

They work just fine.

Correct, works fine now.

[erojas]

Hi !

I want to write some similar to your web mail client.

Do you want some help to continue with you work?

May be we can learn something together


Thanks!


P.S. Very nice job

[ethraza]

Hi NBRed5!

What's the ETA of you webmail project?
We are very interested in this app, but your site is not very informative.

Do you already have some launch date or something?

Congratulations for the very impressive work! =D>

[poetawd]

Hey.. cant get acess to the demo... :(

Are you still going to release it ?

Thank you

[NBRed5]

Access to the demo is still working.

user: demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

I will be releasing the application as open source, however I am still in the process of putting it all together.

Also still have issue in IE with layout I cannot fix.

[Eric24]

Nice job! A few quick observations:
1) If you open a Create Message window and then click on anything "in the background" (like going back to look at other messages), there doesn't appear to be any way to ever get back to the open Create Message window.
2) More of a philosophical comment, but I'm not sure that creating tabs for each folder you open provides any real benefit. Since it's a simple matter of clicking again on the tree to switch between folders, it seems to me that adding these tabs just gives the user something they have to clean up later, or at a minimum, just gets in the way. I'm curious to know your thoughts on the value of the folder tabs.
3) Also somewhat philosophical, but grouped under the heading of "highly consistent user interface design", it appears that you are using a context menu only to manage the folder tree. The use of context menus or not is another topic (with armed camps on both sides of the issue), but if you are going to use them anywhere, I have two suggestions: 1) consider providing some other way to accomplish the same function, so novice users aren't left wondering how to add a new folder; and 2) provide context menus everywhere--since the browser will provide one for you anyway, it's highly confusing to non-tech types to see all those browser options that they really shouldn't be using.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Eric

[poetawd]

Access to the demo is still working.

user: demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

I will be releasing the application as open source, however I am still in the process of putting it all together.

Also still have issue in IE with layout I cannot fix.

Awesome !

I think that one of the main points making a program or script open source is that you will get help of other people that are interested in the same work !

:D

What is the fix in the layout you need ?

Have you try asking one of the "pros" here in this forum ? :P

well... very great man... i am propably going to be one of the people that will help you;;; because i am interested in the same type of program...

see ya

[ethraza]

Awesome !

I think that one of the main points making a program or script open source is that you will get help of other people that are interested in the same work !

:D

What is the fix in the layout you need ?

Have you try asking one of the "pros" here in this forum ? :P

well... very great man... i am propably going to be one of the people that will help you;;; because i am interested in the same type of program...

see ya

Me too! ;)

[Scorpie]

This looks like a superb app man, I wish I could build something like that too!
One guestion; how did you get the options in the mail panel? Did you use a Treepanel for that?

[NBRed5]

I have updated the demo following various positive comments received in posts on this thread.

The main updates are:

The current folder is shown in the first tab and this changes as a new folder is selected in the folder tree, you can no longer opne multiple folders.
messages are now opened maximised as new tabs, this has the advantage of more screen being used for the messages making them easier to use.
Toolbar added to Folder tree to replicate functionality already available via the context menu.
Conext menu added on right click of a row in the message grid to replicate functionality available from the toolbar.
Various code refactorings to facilitate the above changes.
Addition of a sponsored links panel in the east region (can be collapsed), sorry but I have to pay for hosting and this is a small step to try and cover those costs.url: http://www.demo.nbred5.com

login details
user: demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

[rrschwartz]

This is wonderful! Is the source code available yet as open source? I need to write an email client for an application I am working on, and could would love to be able to capitalize on the great work that you have already done.

[SeaSharp2]

On IE I managed to trigger some very strange behaviour in the west panel. At one point when looking at a map I lost the option to get back to the mail selection tree.

Then I got back the mail toolbar but zero height was given for the mail tree.

At a conceptual level I think you are misusing the accordion, the vertical order changes in your app and this is confusing.

[NBRed5]

On IE I managed to trigger some very strange behaviour in the west panel. At one point when looking at a map I lost the option to get back to the mail selection tree.

Then I got back the mail toolbar but zero height was given for the mail tree.

At a conceptual level I think you are misusing the accordion, the vertical order changes in your app and this is confusing.

Thanks for the observations, I have noticed these issues (and others in IE) and I have been endeveaouring to solve them, as you say they only happen in IE and the site works fine in FF, Safari & Opera.

In terms of the accordion I am using the accordion as is and the behaviour you see in terms of it reordering the items is the default behaviour as far as I can tell, I also note that you can close all panles in the accordion and this is not what I wish to happen, when I original wrote this using ext 1.1 I was using the excellent Ext.ux.Accordion by saki and that worked as I would have liked, unfortunately hes has not yet ported it to ext 2.0 and I have not really had time yet to try it myself.

Do you know of an alternative approach?

[mystix]

In terms of the accordion I am using the accordion as is and the behaviour you see in terms of it reordering the items is the default behaviour as far as I can tell

tried this layoutConfig?


activeOnTop: false

http://extjs.com/docs/?class=Ext.layout.Accordion&member=activeOnTop

[NBRed5]

Thanks mystix,

I have just tried this and that seems a better solution in FF, Safari & Firefox, however just makes it even worse in IE as the accordion does'nt appear to switch at all.

I think all the IE problems are down to height calculations as I have had other issues with this in this application which I have tried numerous config options to get rid of and gave up. i.e. using various hideModes as suggested in various threads about similar issues and none seem to make any difference.

[mystix]

Thanks mystix,

I have just tried this and that seems a better solution in FF, Safari & Firefox, however just makes it even worse in IE as the accordion does'nt appear to switch at all.

I think all the IE problems are down to height calculations as I have had other issues with this in this application which I have tried numerous config options to get rid of and gave up. i.e. using various hideModes as suggested in various threads about similar issues and none seem to make any difference.

Death to IE!!! >:)



and then again... i wish... sigh. (:|

[mjlecomte]

Maybe you're playing with your site, but as of the moment I couldn't login and there appears to be a js error while trying to login. Not sure if this is only client side issue, or server side also.

[NBRed5]

mjlecomte

I am sorry you could not log in, but I have just tried and it's working fine, I think it may of been the site host having issues as I certainly wasn't doing anything as it was 04:15am over here (UK) at the time you posted.

Login details are still as below:

url: http://www.demo.nbred5.com (http://www.demo.nbred5.com/)

login details
user: demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

[galdaka]

JS error when send a message with IE7 (Line 23)

Good

[mjlecomte]

Login works fine now, no js errors this time either (on login anyway). There was a js error when clicking on one of the custom folders in the tree though (just FYI if you didn't already know).

Looks pretty good. I only played with some features as several were disabled due to no mail messages etc (couldn't play with printing for example).

Anyway, good work. ;)

[MicahR79]

Access to the demo is still working.

user: demo@demo.nbred5.com
password: demo

I will be releasing the application as open source, however I am still in the process of putting it all together.

Also still have issue in IE with layout I cannot fix.


Just wanted to know if you had an ETA on when you would release this. Also do you need help at all setting up the website or getting it hosted on a open source site? Did you get the problem with IE worked out? If not I have someone who is pretty darn good at debugging for Internet *EXPLODER*.

Thanks for your great work. You are truly an asset to the open source community.

[franklt69]

HI, I have a doubt about client web email, a email can have image/text embed inside the email, so the doubt, when the user send a email, from client (javascript) I have to get all image in binary format, the text and send this data to server, so in the database will save in a field blob the text and image?

some info about is is welcome.

regards
Frank

[NBRed5]

Frank,

This E-mail client does not have a database on the server.

You are correct in saying that any attachments have to be uploaded from the client to the server.

I then store the attachment details in session (I am using PHP as server side language) including detials of where the actual attachment has been saved on ther server. These are linked to the message they are attached to via a unique id of the message.

The attachments are then added to the message before it is sent. Once the message has been sent both session variables and actual attachments on the server are deleted.

As far as immages imbedded in the body of HTML messages than these images have to be hosted on the web somewehere so that they are available to the recipeint of the message to see, they are just an image link, the actually image is hosted on the web and not sent in the message but is just a url for an <img> tag.

[ethraza]

I believe that was only a misconception of an e-mail file format. If you, franklt69, can look to an e-mail file you will see a text file that have the attached things (images and files) encoded as text. So in the end the hole e-mail is only a text file.
And if it (the webmail) will reside on an e-mail server, it probably will make use of the Maildir or Mailbox schema, so the e-mail is already stored and the webmail only need to read/write to that schema, probably thought imap or smtp/pop3 that have their won way to mess with the e-mail schema on server. ;)

What the webmail need to keep is the user preferences, address book, etc... and this can be keeped on databases or text files... How this webmail will keep that info?

__
ps. I coming to that topic on a every day basis in the hope to see the download link of the RC version or something... :D Can't wait!!!

[franklt69]

The question is how generate a file html with all images embed inside it, to save it in the SQL Server, the reason is that I want to have the whole email in a database, not only in the server email, I want to have all control over the email in my system, I can't have only reference to link in the images, because maybe the user don't have access to internet, so in this case the images don't show.

so if this approach is wrong some comments is welcome.

regards
Frank

[quarta77]

hey, did you release the code for this? i think its cool.

[prologic]

Hi,

I am really looking forward to the release of this great web-based client!
Good work! I think we're all getting a little excited (I am!).
How is "putting it all together" going ? Do you have a release date planned ?

cheers
James

[franklt69]

Hi I have a doubt in this demo, the email that have attachments, how you can get the attachment?, I mean how I can open the attachments in an email?

regards
Frank

[ash.eldritch@gmail.com]

Any word on the current status of this project? The app looks awesome.

[ragini707]

Did you release the source code for this? If so please direct the link

Thanks!!
ExtJS User

[garraS]

Have a plan to share this application?

[quarta77]

there is a link to the source. take a look at the first post. but no one has been able to get anything working and they are not being very cooperative.

[Ricardo Sousa]

I think you are confusing this webmail with another called BiuCentrax or something. Alternatively take a look at Group-Office 3.0 which is a bit more than a webmail, but is available, free (as in speech) and looks quite good :)

[quarta77]

ya you're right, thats exactly what i was thinking. sorry, i may have jumped the gun there!!!

[florrie]

does anyone know why the previewInfo panel becomes undefined (this.previewInfo.body is undefined) if you click on another folder than inbox?. I don't really understand as it seems that each time you click on a folder, a new MailBoxPanel is created, where a previewInfo panel is also created.
Why is there a problem with that panel?

Flo

[sneha_mv]

Hi

Good Work. Are you planning to make it open source

[garraS]

Is your Web email client is open source ? --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=138182#post138182)

do you have some plan to share Ext.ux.MailboxPanel ? --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=147769#post147769)

Are you still going to release it ? --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=179471#post179471)

Is the source code available yet as open source? --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=186591#post186591)

ps. I coming to that topic on a every day basis in the hope to see the download link of the RC version or something... :D Can't wait!!! --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=196266#post196266)

hey, did you release the code for this? i think its cool. --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=197081#post197081)

Do you have a release date planned ? --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=197824#post197824)

Did you release the source code for this? --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=251190#post251190)

Have a plan to share this application? --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=254230#post254230)

Are you planning to make it open source --> (http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=261078#post261078)

I make a compilation...any answers please? :-?:-/

[sundarksk]

Hi,

I've had a look at the web based mail client. The whole thing is good. Nice work.

I need a few clarifications on that.

Is it fully functional? Because, I've sent a mail from this to my personal mail address (sundarksk@gmail.com) and its not getting delivered yet and it is not shown in the sent mails as well.

And since the mails are not listed, I could not check up certain things.

Is the following things available in the system you have designed? If not there, do you have any plans to do these?


1) Marking / flagging mails
2) showing the mails with & without headers (this option shall be with options regarding preview messages). In with headers section, there is further two options - with normal headers (from, to, subject & time) and with full headers (with the whole header part)
3) Print the mail with headers and without headers
4) Drag & Drop of objects (mails and folders)
5) spell checker in the new message editor
6) More options in the right click (move this folder as a sub folder of inbox, etc...)
7) Right click option on mails (that are in the list) - move to the folder "Personal", etc...
8) "View message source" function
9) Marking as spam. And if any mails come from the same source (sender addresses) should automatically be stored in spam thereafter. Unmarking spam in spam folder.
10) viewing mail in a separate tab on double clicking the mail. (full message view in the next tab)
10) Previous Mail & Next Mail buttons in both the normal view and in full message view

and one more important thing.

Can we configure multiple mail accounts in this web based mail client? [A combo box that contains the list of mail accounts configured. On selecting a particular account, the mails of that account would be shown there.]


Thanks & Regards
Sundaramurthy.K

[NBRed5]

The Demo application has been updated to include:


A Task application based on Ext JS Tasks sample
A Feed Viewer bas on the Ext JS feed-viewer sample
An Image Gallery Application


There have been numerous other fixes and improvements to the code, which includes the addition of Google Gears functionality, which if Gears is not present is not enabled.

Login as is before

Url: http://demo.nbred5.com

User: demo@demo.nbred5.com
Password: demo

Best viewed with Google Chrome in which it works like a dream especially if set up as an application shortcut.

There is still some issue with IE, which I have quite frankly given up on trying to fix.

I am still considering release as Open Source, although as a single developer with little experience of such things I am still trying to get my head around licensing issues, due to the inclusion of a number of excellent third party user extensions taken from these forums.

I am now using the code full time on my web host because quite frankly there provided web based email front ends were terrible and that was why I embarked on writing this as an exercise in learning javascript and the excellent Ext JS framework.

[akannu]

This is great.

In the TASK application, when I click NEW TASK, you are putting the focus in the grid and also activating all the grid editors at same time. This is cool. I was told that ExtJS only allows activating one cell/editor at a time.

How did you manage to do what you did? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[ethraza]

In the Add Task... it seams to be only a form with 3 fields inserted between the gird and the grid header... even the grid header maybe is not the real grid header... but the father of the kid maybe can tell more!

[NBRed5]

If you wish to see how the task application is written then download ext2.2.1 and browse the example application called tasks.

All I have done is taken that code and incorporated it into my application. Same thing with the feed-viewer, just a couple of small amendments were needed to fit them into my application framework.

So I don't take the credit for those, they were produced by the Ext team.

[ByteLess]

Any plan releasing this app as an open source?

or did I miss something.

[wez.morris]

Getting "Account could not be authorized on Mail Server" when trying to use the demo login.

Is it still working?

[steffenk]

Hi,

i just wanted to test, but login failed. anything changed? used account mentioned multiple times in this thread.

Thx for sharing such great app.

[NBRed5]

All,

There is currently an issue, my hosting provider (without notification) :(( has changed the Mail Server it uses and my application can no longer access it. I am in the processing of trying to remedy this, but not getting very far as they are not being very helpful.

As soon as I get it working I will post in this thread.

P.S. This has caused me quite an issue as I was using my client as my main email client, and have had to temporarily move back to their other less than satisfactory client.

[steffenk]

thanks NBRed5 for the update, i'll wait patient for testing.

[jsakalos]

Any news?

[findbug]

This is really bad. You are not really trying to release it as open source.

Don't play with us man!

I recommend forum admin to remove this thread becuase it is cheating our feeling.

[mystix]

This is really bad. You are not really trying to release it as open source.

Don't play with us man!

I recommend forum admin to remove this thread becuase it is cheating our feeling.
i don't see what your issue is.



This is really bad. You are not really trying to release it as open source.

Don't play with us man!

I recommend forum admin to remove this thread becuase it is cheating our feeling.

nowhere in this thread did @nbred5 mention that he was releasing this email client as an open source project.

the only thing he mentions is this:
(emphasis in red added)


I am still considering release as Open Source, although as a single developer with little experience of such things I am still trying to get my head around licensing issues, due to the inclusion of a number of excellent third party user extensions taken from these forums.

[findbug]

I don't think so.

Below are two sentences from the owner of this client tool at this thread.



Then I will hopefully package the whole thing up and release as open source or paid for with support, as appropriate under the ext licesencing terms.




I will be releasing the application as open source, however I am still in the process of putting it all together.


And look at the Reply #56, see how many people are complaining.

And for the EXTJS GPL license, he is required to provide access to the full source code if he distributed it. Otherwise he already violated the GPL license. But obviously he is not going to release it under GPL.

[mystix]

I am still considering release as Open Source, although as a single developer with little experience of such things I am still trying to get my head around licensing issues, due to the inclusion of a number of excellent third party user extensions taken from these forums.

i quoted the latest development from the author, dated July 2009.


what you quoted is dated March 2008:
(emphasis added)


Then I will hopefully package the whole thing up and release as open source or paid for with support, as appropriate under the ext licesencing terms.

That may be a little while off as yet as this is a part time/hobby project and I have a proper job to do as well.
which btw gives neither an estimated release date, nor commits to releasing any code.

you're demanding that the author release the source code to his personal project.
i fail to see why the author is compelled to comply with such a request, since this thread was created primarily as an Example of a project implemented using Ext.

[NBRed5]

This is really bad. You are not really trying to release it as open source.

Don't play with us man!

I recommend forum admin to remove this thread becuase it is cheating our feeling.

I have never definitively stated I will be releasing this project as open source, as Mystix has so helpful pointed out I started this as a personal project to replace the awful web email client my hosting provider uses, I had discovered Ext JS and it seemed to be the perfect match, I wanted to learn Ext JS and I had a project to use to gain experience of using Ext JS and javascript and html to some extent (I am software developer by profession, but not in web development).

I got so far and I was personally quite pleased with what I achieved and I posted about the project in this thread as an example of the type of application that could be developed in Ext JS.

I have since enhanced and tinkered with it considerably and made changes based upon suggestions made in this thread (thanks to those contributors for their assistance). All of this was done to suite my use as a web email client.

Due to some of the positive feedback I have received I have said that I have considered releasing the code as open source, or possibly even under the commercial licence.

Being a single developer with a full time job I have not as yet had the time to come to that decision as yet, and as I stated in an earlier post I have now come across another obstacle in that my hosting provider has changed the mail server software they are using and the server side IMAP PHP code no longer works with the new Mail Server (it should, but I have not had much help getting the issue resolved from the hosting provider).

I have since updated both the client side and server side to work with GMail (Google Mail in the UK), this decision was made so that I am no longer so reliant on the Server sofware provided by the hosting provider, and when the time comes I can move hosting provider seamlessly.

I have spent approximately a 1000 hours of my own time developing the client to this point and at say a going rate of £50 per hour that is a £50,000 investment.

After reading such comments (they are not representative of the comments I have received from most of the posters in these forums which have been on the whole positive and have encouraged me to continue with the development), I am now not so sure I want to get involved in releasing this as either open source or commercially if that is the attitude somebody is going to take to the effort I have put in.

I am still considering my options however for now I will be shortly updating the demo with the latest set of changes and will post again when that has been done, hopefully this week.

I will then seek further feedback to help me decide whether to release the code in any shape or form.

[jsakalos]

Don't get disappointed or hindered by one. I, and others, know very well what is the value of your work.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/the_dogs_bark,_but_the_caravan_goes_on

[Neehouse]

I wish to second what Jozef said. Unfortunately, you will always have a user or two that you can't make happy. It comes with the territory; don't let them scare you away.

Frustration is the leading cause of rudeness in most cases. I can see where there is confusion, as comments have been eluded to the 'future' availability of your email client. It looks nice, does a job very well, and could save some people a lot of time.

As for your investment, you can look at it in a few different ways.

You can keep the product locked up where only a few appreciate your work,
or, you can let it loose to benefit countless others.

If you choose to open source your project, you will have several developers that will pitch in to make your application better. Be prepared though, as developers can also be harsh if your code is not up to their personal standards.
Sticking with the paid application approach, you may make a little bit of cash to offset your investment, but be prepared to support the product. Every issue, feature request, bug fix, etc, will have to go through you.

Simply, you have a great item here, and either approach you take in regards to releasing the email client, will be a benefit to the community.

Good luck with whatever you shall choose.

[findbug]

From what I said above, I was trying to make two statements

1. One should stick with his word if he promised something. It is in my opinion that the owner of this tool promised to release it as open source from the sentences I quoted. Later he changed his mind. But if you guys have a different opinion, there is no need to have a war here regarding this issue.

2. The EXTJS which all those tools are based on is released under GPL. And the EXTJS owner had clear statements that it is GPL not BSD or other licenses. The owner of this tool also stated that his plan of license was to comply with GPL of EXTJS, and may charge fee for support service.

The reason why EXTJS was under GPL is because the owner of EXTJS want other people to release derivative works under GPL as well. That is in my opinion pretty clear from the license part of this site.

One of the reasons some people start to hate Joomla, one of the greatest CMS, is because there are many people in the community violates the GPL license of Joomla. Search on google should find many results of this. That is the thing a community should be careful about.

I was forced to release many of my components with 1000s hours work under GPL in order to comply with ExtJs license. We need rules and disciplines, otherwise we are savages.

It is likely that everyone has his own opinion. I agreed that this sample is a great contribution to here and should be appreciated. It is up to the admin of this forum to decide whether he comply with policies here or not.

I have given my opinion. In a democracy world, the majority makes the decision.

[jsakalos]

I was forced to release many of my components with 1000s hours work under GPL in order to comply with ExtJs license.

Any links where we could see these components?

[findbug]

Any links where we could see these components?

From the first thread I started here. I already post a link to some extjs extensions.

See: http://www.extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78189

That is the team I belongs to. We have far more products which are released in other places or will be released.

If it is appreciated, we can post more ExtJs related examples to here.

We choose GPL as our license mostly because of the GPL of ExtJs.

[Solstice]

Findbug, it might be helpful to the conversation if you familiarize yourself with the terms of the GPL a little closer. NBRed5 is under no obligation to release the source code under the conditions of the GPL. As it stands, his work has only been done for personal use and, as such, he is entitled to keep the source code private. While he has stated his interest in releasing the code as open source, he is still under no obligation to so. You might be disappointed, but such is life.

NBRed5, you've done a great job and have created an app that (obviously) has created a lot of excitement. I remember when you first posted news of the demo and was very impressed. I'm sorry that you're getting heat now from a (very) few individuals. I hope that will not turn you off from continuing to work with the community. Also, I was sorry to see that you lost your domain name. At least, that's what it looks like happened since your site just goes to a "squatter" search page.

And if it'll shut up those few ungrateful folks who feel that they are entitled to the fruits of other people's labours, I'll buy you a commercial license myself. It would be worth it to shut Findbug up :))

[findbug]

Findbug, it might be helpful to the conversation if you familiarize yourself with the terms of the GPL a little closer. NBRed5 is under no obligation to release the source code under the conditions of the GPL. As it stands, his work has only been done for personal use and, as such, he is entitled to keep the source code private. While he has stated his interest in releasing the code as open source, he is still under no obligation to so. You might be disappointed, but such is life.

NBRed5, you've done a great job and have created an app that (obviously) has created a lot of excitement. I remember when you first posted news of the demo and was very impressed. I'm sorry that you're getting heat now from a (very) few individuals. I hope that will not turn you off from continuing to work with the community. Also, I was sorry to see that you lost your domain name. At least, that's what it looks like happened since your site just goes to a "squatter" search page.

And if it'll shut up those few ungrateful folks who feel that they are entitled to the fruits of other people's labours, I'll buy you a commercial license myself. It would be worth it to shut Findbug up :))

This is a very strange reply, and obviously I did not understand anything this guy is saying.

Who did not understand GPL? I state clearly he need to provide source code if he want DISTRIBUTE it. And I stately clearly that I did buy a commercial license myself.

When do I lost my domain? Lost my which domain? I did not claim ownership of any domain and I did not lost any domain.

[ByteLess]

"Solstice" meant "NBRed5" lost his domain. his site is not opening anymore..

[NBRed5]

There was just a temporary outage while my hosting company sorted out the fact that I had renewed (they didn't think I had), all up and running again now.

I will update on the state of play with the Web Mail Client shortly, I have just been spending some time converting to Ext 3.0.0 and some code improvements based on that.

[Solstice]

"Solstice" meant "NBRed5" lost his domain. his site is not opening anymore..

Yes, I was referring to NBRed5's domain. Looks like it's back up today. Glad to hear it.

[bijoy]

Great work. Cool interface.

The about page at the demo site now says it is licensed under GPL. Is it available for download? I would appreciate if you can provide a link, if it is ready.

I have been looking for a simple package to view email archives stored in Maildir format, with some custom authentication to control access to specific lists. I wonder if I can use this package for the same, probably with some modifications.

Thanks, keep up the great work.

-bijoy

[bbirtle]

@NBRed5: Thanks for posting! Even if you don't distribute source code, it is great to be able to view examples. I need some kind of email edit/preview in my own application so although your server seems down now, I'm hoping it goes back up and I can get some ideas.

Re licensing. My understanding is that GPL only applies to "modifications to the library". So if NBRed5 changes or adds to any of the ExtJS source code, he must publish the source code modifications. However if he simply includes the minified ext.js files without modification, then his work is only linked to the existing library and not a derived work per se. Thus he is under no obligation to provide any source code.

This is a really important point for my own choice to use Ext on my (paid) projects. Can anybody clarify the above is a true statement?

[samir.mulder]

@NBRed5:

when I try to load the site, it just seems stuck at the 'Initializing...' screen. Any idea when we can use the site again?

Thanks.

Samir

[NBRed5]

Samir,

I have just checked and it works fine for me, details are:

http://demo.nbred5.com

Login:

User: demo@nbred5.com
Password: nbdemo

Please note that for full functionality you are required to have google gears installed, also the demo does not currently support IE but works a treat in all other browsers.

[samir.mulder]

It seems I had to re-install Google Gears for some reason. All is well now.

Thanks!

Samir

[DeepthiG]

Hi NBRed5,

Excellent work....

[yosmanyrondon]

I was checking your email client because I need to do something similar for my school project, its really a great job what you have done, I really appreciate if you could give me some ideas, such as general and architectural conception, how can I configure a POP account?? like Microsoft Outlook does, and how do I locate, receive and send the emails, do I have to use a Database?? Im used to work with php and mysql, so its not problem with that but I dont figure it how email services works, thanks

[Hiverli]

When are you be able to release this app.

I really need that kind of application. Sometimes in the future is not good answer.

we really need time for that.

Like tomorrow at 1PM Greenwich Time :)

[Hiverli]

any updates?

[Pendle Business Solutions]

Hi,

Your demo login doesn't seem to be working... looking forward to seeing it.

Cheers, Chris.



Samir,

I have just checked and it works fine for me, details are:

http://demo.nbred5.com

Login:

User: demo@nbred5.com
Password: nbdemo

Please note that for full functionality you are required to have google gears installed, also the demo does not currently support IE but works a treat in all other browsers.

[NBRed5]

Hi,

Your demo login doesn't seem to be working... looking forward to seeing it.

Cheers, Chris.

Chris,

Which browser are you using, I have just tried with Chrome and it appears to be bailing out, which I will look into, seems to be working fine in Firefox 3.6 though, so if you have that browser available give it a try.

[Pendle Business Solutions]

Just upgraded FF to 3.6, still not working, although this time after you enter UN & PW it closes browser tab after submit... :(



Chris,

Which browser are you using, I have just tried with Chrome and it appears to be bailing out, which I will look into, seems to be working fine in Firefox 3.6 though, so if you have that browser available give it a try.

[giggs06005]

Hello!NBRedt,I have seen your project.It's very nice! I want to ask some question about server programming,maybe you can help me.

1.Do you save the emails which check out from the email server in database or hard disk?

2.When you check out emails from email server,you deal with the headers and body?or only fetch the headers,then if you want to read an email,then you checkout the body(content and attachment) for it?

3.How to identify an email?I want to use the message number in its folder,but it will change dynamic if other email was deleted.Or I can use the receive date to take it?

look forward to your reply,thank you!

[NBRed5]

Hello!NBRedt,I have seen your project.It's very nice! I want to ask some question about server programming,maybe you can help me.

1.Do you save the emails which check out from the email server in database or hard disk?

2.When you check out emails from email server,you deal with the headers and body?or only fetch the headers,then if you want to read an email,then you checkout the body(content and attachment) for it?

3.How to identify an email?I want to use the message number in its folder,but it will change dynamic if other email was deleted.Or I can use the receive date to take it?

look forward to your reply,thank you!

giggs06005

Thanks for the interest, however i don't know how much I can help, my client is now really just a client for GMail, and as such, there is no storage of the emails from GMail on the Server at all, the email messages are loaded from GMail via IMAP using PHP, but because of the security implications of being able to access any GMail account then the emails are not stored on the server at all, they are just served up to the client via ajax.

I only retrieve the headers to extract the necessary info for the folder view and will only retrieve the email body when required i.e. for preview or viewing the complete message.

I use the message Id (returned in the header) of the message as the message identifier.

[fancing]

Hi,

Your demo login doesn't seem to be working... looking forward to seeing it.

Cheers, Chris.

Neither me, it looks like the address is unreachable.

[kanister]

i managed to view this demo client ONCE and i spennt quite some time on doing it.. theres some sort of problem with the server or whatsoever nevermind. I also tried to cut out felamimail from tine 2.0 to a standalone version. But didnt managed yet to separate it from the core. im quite a desperate man.. We need email client in two weeks to add to our ext-based application.. Could any of you help me finding proper solution?

[virtuel2000]

Very very great job !
Just to know, finaly open source or not !
If open source, any package release ? any link to download ?

Tk's

[prophet]

Seems like the whole site is down. Would love to check this out!

[surfyogi]

if anyone has another site up with a demo of this running, let us know.
I assume it never got contributed to Joola or similar site?

looks like same deal as my ISP, always having CC expire, or forget to pay the bill, and his bill looks to be due sept sometime.. ;-)

I imagine we'll see the site up again in a few weeks.

[vilyliao]

http://www.demo.nbred5.com
This domain may be for sale. Backorder this Domain

Anybody downloaded this demo ? pls send to vilyliao@gmail.com, thanks a lot!

[micky1984]

I am also looking for this link but not working now.. anybody if have that one please post here. Thanks!

[msinn]

yes, that would be very nice to post a link to download this extension