Groupware service¶

Introduction to the groupware service¶

Zentyal integrates Zarafa [1] as a complete solution for groupware environment aiming to offer an alternative to Microsoft Exchange.

Configuration of a groupware server (Zarafa) with Zentyal¶

In order to use Zarafa, you must start with a mail server configured as explained in Electronic Mail Service (SMTP/POP3-IMAP4). In this scenario, you select one of the existing virtual domains in the groupware module and, from that moment, the mail which target is any email account located in that domain will be stored in Zarafa and not in the server you were using previously. The mail destined to other virtual domains will continue to be stored in the same way.

This groupware module integrates with the existing mail module so that the users can consider themselves associated with a quota and use a Zarafa account.

You can access the configuration in Groupware where the following parameters can be set:

Configuration of groupware (Zarafa)

Virtual domain:

Domain associated with Zarafa. You should create at least one virtual domain Mail -> Virtual Domain as described previously.

Enable correction:

Enable this option to check spelling while you type an e-mail using the Zentyal web interface.

Enable ActiveSync:

Enable the support for ActiveSync mobile devices for synchronizing email, contacts, calendars and tasks. For more information, see the list of supported devices [4] .

Virtual host:

The default installation allows access to the Zarafa web interface at http://ip_address/webaccess (and http://ip_address/webaccess-mobile for mobile devices) - from all IP addresses and domains associated with the server. It is possible to make this web interface available through a virtual host configured on the HTTP server, for example, http://mail.home.lan/webaccess.

To provide users with POP3, POP3 on SSL, IMAP or IMAP on SSL access to their mailboxes, select the corresponding Zarafa Gateways. Keep in mind that if any of these services is already enabled in the mail module, it can not be enabled here. Also the Zarafa Gateways can only authenticate users with a Zarafa account and not users with only an email account.

Finally, you can define the email quota, i.e. the maximum mailbox size each user can have. The user will receive a notification email when the specified percentage in the first limit is exceeded and if the second limit is exceeded, the user will not be allowed to continue sending emails until they have freed up some space. When a user reaches the maximum quota, emails sent to this user are rejected.

Configuration of a Zarafa account

As mentioned earlier, besides an email account, each user should have a Zarafa account. Furthermore, the quota defined in the mail module for each user will be applied to Zarafa, this can be unlimited globally defined or specifically set per user.

Until now, mail users were authenticated by the name of their email account, for example bob@home.lan. Zarafa web interface, or its gateways, expects users to be identified by their username, as bob in the previous example. Configuration for delivery through SMTP does not change.

Zarafa basic use cases¶

Once you have configured your Zarafa server and have authorized users, you can access it through the configured Virtual Host

Zarafa login screen

After login in you can see the main Zarafa page, showing the email interface and different tabs to access the Calendars, Contacts, Tasks and Notes

Zarafa main page

Shared calendars¶

Suppose a very common use case where you want to schedule an event between several users, for example a meeting

To do this, you should go to the Calendar tab and create an event, simply double clicking in the desired date and time. As you can see, there are many parameters you can configure like duration, reminders, attached files, schedule, etc. During the event configuration or editing it later, you can invite other users from the Invite attendees tab. You only need to fill his/her mail address and click on Send.

Sending an event invitation

The recipient will receive a custom mail with the event specification, including a submenu that allows him/her to accept or decline the invitation, or even propose a new time.

Receiving a mail invitation

Whether you accept or decline the event invitation, you can notify the sender back and include an explanatory text. In case you accept the event, it will be automatically added to your personal calendar.

Shared contacts¶

Another common use case is to share your business contact to have a centralized and organized point to retrieve this information.

First of all, you can create a contact through the New ‣ Contact menu. As you can see the form is quite complete: you can include several phone numbers, email and addresses, portrait, attached files, department, role, etc.

Creating a new contact

Once you have created the contact, you can share the folder right clicking over the folder and accessing Properties, in this submenu, you access the tab Permissions and click on the Add button. Add the user ‘Everyone’ (access for all Zarafa users) and choose the Profile Only read. After this just Accept.

Sharing a contact with other Zarafa users

After this, you can access with other user and click on the Open shared folders link that you can see in the main Zarafa webpage. In the pop-up window, fill in the Name with the email address of the user that has shared the contacts and in Folder type choose Contacts. A new folder will appear in you main window, where you can see the shared contacts.

For more information about Zarafa, see the User Manual [5]. For administrators that require a deeper understanding of the application, reading of the Administration Manual [6] is recommended.

[4]	http://www.zarafa.com/wiki/index.php/Z-Push_Mobile_Compatibility_List

[5]	http://doc.zarafa.com/trunk/User_Manual/en-US/html/index.html

[6]	http://doc.zarafa.com/trunk/Administrator_Manual/en-US/html/index.html