zeMail For Linux

zeMail is a super simple webmail package that’s built using Mason. It gives you all the basic stuff you’d expect from an IMAP mail client. You can check out your folders and messages, handle attachments, and move, mark, or delete your emails as needed.

How zeMail Works

This package is written in plain HTML, and it uses a bit of JavaScript to keep things quick and easy. The cool part? It works perfectly even if scripting is turned off! Unlike many modern web applications that rely heavily on AJAX, zeMail aims for compatibility everywhere.

Getting Started with zeMail

If you want to give zeMail a try, start by downloading it and unpacking the tarball. You’ll need to copy the lib/Zentus directory into your Perl include path (for example: /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.4 on Debian).

Setting Up Your Apache Server

Next up, copy everything from the mason/ folder into your Apache htdocs directory or your virtual host’s subdirectory. After that, you'll need to add some lines to your httpd.conf:

    

      PerlModule Zentus::Mail::Connection

      PerlModule Zentus::Mail::AttachmentHandler

      PerlModule HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler

      PerlModule Apache::Session::File

      PerlModule Text::Autoformat

      < Location / >

      SetHandler     perl-script

      PerlHandler    HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler

      DirectoryIndex folder

      < /Location >

      < Location /attachment >

      SetHandler     perl-script

      PerlHandler    Zentus::Mail::AttachmentHandler

      < /Location >

      < LocationMatch "(/icons|/images|.ico|.html|.txt)" >

      SetHandler     default-handler

      < /Location >

      < LocationMatch "(autohandler|dhandler|.inc)" >

      SetHandler     None

      < /Location >

    

  

You can just drop this code in if you're setting up a VirtualHost for zeMail, but if you're not, make sure to add a directory name in those < Location > tags.

Installing Necessary Perl Modules

You also have to grab some Perl modules from CPAN:

    

      cpan -i HTML::Mason             # or deb: libhtml-mason-perl 

      cpan -i Apache::Session         # or deb: libapache-session-perl 

      cpan -i DB_File::Lock           # or deb: libdb-file-lock-perl 

      cpan -i Text::Autoformat        # or deb: libtext-autoformat-perl 

      cpan -i HTML::FormatText        # or deb: libhtml-format-perl 

      cpan -i Net::IMAP::Simple       # (needed really in name only,

      # to be removed in next release)

    

  

If you need to create a temporary directory manually, just do this:

    

      mkdir /tmp/zemail  

      chown www /tmp/zemail

    

  

The last step? Restart your Apache server and you’re ready!

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