| Developer(s) | Zarafa BV |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 6.30.19-25148, 6.40.13-30778, 7.0.3-30515 |
| Preview release | n.a. |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Type | Groupware |
| License | Server side: AGPL Other parts: proprietary |
| Website | www.zarafa.com |
Zarafa is the name of an European open source collaborative software, developed in Delft, the Netherlands. The company that develops Zarafa, previously known as Connectux, is also called Zarafa. The Zarafa groupware provides email storage on the server side and brings its own Ajax-based mail client called WebAccess. Advanced features are available in commercially supported versions ("Small Business", "Professional" and "Enterprise" (different feature levels)[1]).
Zarafa is designed to integrate with Microsoft Office Outlook and is intended as an alternative to the Microsoft Exchange Server.[2] Connectivity with Microsoft Outlook is provided via a proprietary client-side plugin. The WebAccess has the same "look-and-feel" as the Outlook desktop application. People used to working with Outlook should be able to use the WebAccess without any problems. Personal address book, calendar, notes and tasks, "Public Folders" and shared calendar functionality (inviting internal and external users, resource management) can be handled by the software as well. The open source community edition supports three Outlook users.[3] It can be downloaded at www.zarafa.com/content/downloads.
All server side components and the WebAccess of Zarafa are published under the Affero General Public License (AGPL), based on the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2). Introducing and maintaining a dual licensing strategy, on 18 September 2008 Zarafa released the full core software, that is the server side software stack, under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPLv3).[4]
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Zarafa provides its groupware functionality by connecting the Linux-based server with Outlook clients using MAPI. The communication between server and client is based upon SOAP technology. The connection to Outlook clients can be secured using TLS/SSL, either directly between the Zarafa server program and the client, or via an HTTPS proxy. All data is generally stored in a MySQL database, although attachments can be saved on the filesystem. The Zarafa server can get its user information from LDAP, Active Directory, Unix user accounts or the MySQL database. The webmail is based on AJAX technology, with a PHP backend using a MAPI PHP extension. Other clients can connect via POP3, IMAP and iCalendar/CalDAV.
Zarafa initiated a project called Z-push in October 2007.[5] It supports ActiveSync compatible devices (Symbian, Pocket PC, iPhone (firmware 2.0 and higher), Android (version 2.1 and higher), Nokia (mail4Exchange)) implementing the ActiveSync protocol and using the Incremental Change System (ICS) provided by the PHP-MAPI extension.
Zarafa is part of the OpenMapi project[6] which is developing an open groupware API based on MAPI.
Screenshots are available at the Zarafa homepage.
Zarafa is compatible / integrated with many other open source projects.
Zarafa developed and recently released an integration framework for 3rd party software. On the server side the Zarafa calendar, contacts, tasks and notes can be replicated in realtime to other applications using the replication framework Z-Merge. Demo integrations for SugarCRM and O3spaces were released by Zarafa. The Alfresco ECM system was integrated using Zarafa's Webaccess Plugin System. The user is able to archive attachments directly to Alfresco and send e-mails attaching files from the Alfresco repository. An integration with OpenERP is also available.
An overview of integrated applications and a online demo (including SugarCRM and Alfresco ECM) can be found at the homepage.
Official support for Zarafa is provided to users with valid subscriptions via the Zarafa portal. Unofficial support is available on the Zarafa forums, which are monitored by Zarafa employees as well as members of the Zarafa community. Zarafa provide official documentation on installing, configuring and upgrading the software. The Zarafa community have written a number of informal guides (e.g.[7][8][9][10][11]) to supplement the official instructions. Community-written guides are often aimed at integrating Zarafa with external software that is not covered by the official documentation, and many of the integration plugins offered on the official Zarafa site were developed by members of the community.
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