Zarafa (software)

Zarafa
Developer(s) Zarafa BV
Stable release 7.1.11-45875 / August 26, 2014
Preview release 7.1.11beta1-45653 / August 7, 2014
Operating system Linux
Type Groupware
License Server side: AGPL
Other parts: proprietary
Website www.zarafa.com

Zarafa, an open-source groupware application, originated in the city of Delft in 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 offers its own Ajax-based mail client called WebAccess and a HTML5 based, WebApp. Advanced features are available in commercially supported versions ("Small Business", "Professional" and "Enterprise" (different feature levels)[1]).

Zarafa was originally designed to integrate with Microsoft Office Outlook and was intended as an alternative to the Microsoft Exchange Server.[2] Connectivity with Microsoft Outlook is provided via a proprietary client-side plugin. Outlook support is to be discontinued after Q1/2016.[3] The WebAccess and WebApp have the same "look-and-feel" as the Outlook desktop application. The software handles a personal address-book, calendar, notes and tasks, "Public Folders" and a shared-calendar (inviting internal and external users, resource management). The open-source edition does not support any MAPI-based Outlook users, while the community edition supports three Outlook users.[4][5]

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).[6]

Technology

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.[7] 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[8] which is developing an open groupware API based on MAPI.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Editions. www.zarafa.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  2. ↑ Asay, Matt. (2008-09-28) Zarafa: Open-source e-mail gets competitive | The Open Road - CNET News. News.cnet.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  3. ↑ Zarafa to dicontinue Qutlook support, Zarafa Forum (2015-01-16) . forums.zarfa.com. Retrieved ond 2015-04-12
  4. ↑ zarafa-license / community version forums.zarafa.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-22.
  5. ↑ What happens when I create more than 3 users in the community version incl. Outlook support?. www.zarafa.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  6. ↑ http://download.zarafa.com/zarafa/pressrelease%20opensource.pdf
  7. ↑ Z-Push - open source push technology. Z-push.sourceforge.net. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  8. ↑ http://openmapi.org/start/mission

Publications

External links