[Dovecot] IMAP - multi-simultaneous-user mail store
I'm finishing converting from POP to IMAP and I'm seeing some
potentially powerful uses, but I wonder if my ideas aren't more abuses.
I want to create 'multi-user' accounts that allow groups of users to
archive and share emails with each other.
For example, in the case of a sales department, emails from customers may have requests for new product features. I could create an IMAP storage for sales that allows the sales staff to copy these requests into a common email account. These could then be sorted and searched by the product development team to better determine what customers want where product development should go.
Another example, a service/support group has some problem customers that frequently call multiple technicians for support. The service group can save all correspondence with this customer in a single location so they can better work together to provide support for this customer.
The possibilities for sharing emails in groups seem endless to me, but it depends on if it's a 'use' or 'abuse' of the IMAP protocol, and if Dovecot in-particular is designed to be able to handle this.
Thoughts?
On 3/19/2008, Tim Alberts (talberts@msiscales.com) wrote:
The possibilities for sharing emails in groups seem endless to me, but it depends on if it's a 'use' or 'abuse' of the IMAP protocol, and if Dovecot in-particular is designed to be able to handle this.
Dovecot doesn't YET have proper/full folder sharing support, but you can still accomplish it easily enough...
http://wiki.dovecot.org/SharedMailboxes
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Best regards,
Charles
Charles Marcus wrote:
On 3/19/2008, Tim Alberts (talberts@msiscales.com) wrote:
The possibilities for sharing emails in groups seem endless to me, but it depends on if it's a 'use' or 'abuse' of the IMAP protocol, and if Dovecot in-particular is designed to be able to handle this.
Dovecot doesn't YET have proper/full folder sharing support, but you can still accomplish it easily enough...
Thank you for the responses. The information there is helpful, but not quite what I was thinking. The documentation looks at sharing an mbox or Maildir file among multiple accounts. I was thinking more along the lines of a single account that multiple users can log into, perhaps simultaneously.
For the sake of learning, I have been testing a single account while using thunderbird, outlook, and eudora simultaneously on the same account. It mostly gets notifications when a file is moved/deleted, etc. This seemed like an adequate solution in my mind.
So my question, is sharing an mbox file among multiple accounts, or having multiple people log into the same account the preferred/safer way to go?
On 3/19/2008, Tim Alberts (talberts@msiscales.com) wrote:
So my question, is sharing an mbox file among multiple accounts, or having multiple people log into the same account the preferred/safer way to go?
I'd say the former (which is why I pointed you there)...
But sharing the same login/account shouldn't be a problem either, as long as dovecot is the only imap SERVER involved.
Administratively I just think its cleaner to share individual mbox/maildirs, than an actual account...
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Best regards,
Charles
participants (2)
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Charles Marcus
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Tim Alberts