E-mailclient autocompletion

A

alexjeen

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May 14, 2011
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Right now I run DirectAdmin on all my servers. It would be great if there could be a setting "E-mailclient autocompletion" where we can give the general mailserver information to use.

So we can set:

incoming server: ssl.domain.com, imap server on 443, username is full emailaddress etc. Whenever a user needs to set up a e-mailaccount they just need to fill in their emailaddress and the settings get filled in automatically. This saves the headache from having different FAQ articles on my site how to install on mailclients.

I can make this myself, but it would be better if it was domain wide in a apache conf file. The XML files can also be automatically generated based on the request and the DNS settings can also be automatically made.

This guy described the protocols very good: http://web.archive.org/web/20120828...g-email-client-autoconfiguration-information/

Thunderbird has some examples on how to format the XML file:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Thunderbird/Autoconfiguration

I just thought it maybe a good feature to have and would help a lot of end users.
 
I know about the reg file, but nobody ever uses it I think. I mean I think those reg files are from 2002 and I dont even know what version of outlook they work on.

The autocompletion feature I describe automatically configures the email client without the user intervering. So for instance I go into my outlook (or apple mail, iOS, android phone whatever). I fill in my emailaddress and password. Then the mailclient automatically connects to the domain.com to get the settings for the email (mailhost, port, protocol, etc etc).

So then the emailaccount is configured in one step in stead of 10 steps.
 
Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, Apple.

That's it? Or is the standard more widespread?

Any other interst in this?

Jeff
 
Thunderbird, Mail on iOS, Outlook (all versions except Express), Android (uses the protocol with autodiscover.xml defined by Outlook) do have such protocols, in essence the same but they differ in implementation. However they can be implemented quite easily by using the tools that DirectAdmin already packs (Apache and PHP for the iOS implementation).

It is not really a "defined" standard however. For me it would be great because most of my clients use the Roundcube webmail, Outlook or Apple Mail, Outlook or Windows live Mail. So whenever this is implemented I only need to make a guide for Outlook Express (not used alot because Windows XP is expiring support) and for Windows Live Mail.

Regarding the autodiscover.xml is actually a standard of Microsoft Exchange Server but it reverse engineered. For instance the Android Email app also uses this standard to automatically discover the mailservers and their protocols.

Read more on the Microsoft Protocol here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc511507.aspx
 
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It would be great for me as well. Almost all of my support requests are for email setup issues. Forgive me for seeming skeptical; its just that I discovered, even ten years ago, how useless the current Outlook file really was in the real world.

And I'm surprised we haven't seen more interest here.

Anybody else see this as a good idea?

Jeff
 
I am able to implement it myself in a DA plugin, but it seems that people rather write support docs ;)
 
Horde supports autodiscover.xml and is easy to install + offers great functionalities.
That's out of the box autoconfig support for:
Outlook, Thunderbird, BlackBerry 10, Android, Windows Phone, iOS, Apple Mail and probably more
 
I would love to see this feature. I would like to see it as an option in the mx settings that could be enabled/disabled.

Kevin
 
Yes I would very much like to see this feature. As there are always support requests about setting up email.
 
It does work pretty well.

I've managed to make it work for a single domain, but i should agree that a plugin would be needed (or some automation scripts) to edit the config as needed to match each user domain.

The DNS part would be easy, just change the DNS template and add there one CNAME for autoconfig and one SRV to autodiscover to point to a single url

Regards
 
SeLLeRoNe said:
It does work pretty well.

I've managed to make it work for a single domain, but i should agree that a plugin would be needed (or some automation scripts) to edit the config as needed to match each user domain.

The DNS part would be easy, just change the DNS template and add there one CNAME for autoconfig and one SRV to autodiscover to point to a single url

Regards
Click to expand...
Rewrite XML to PHP file, get the domain part of the emailaddress and name the server value: mail.<?php=$domain... Etc. Then echo the whole XML.

It does work in my test. SRV record seems to be the best way, but be careful for existing autodiscover records from Exchange users :)
 
Would definitly be better if the XML change for each domain without need to use a single mailserver for all... i'm gonna think to something :)

Regarding the SRV yes, my customers doesnt use external mail services, but definitly yes, whoever use that, need to be careful :)

Regards
 
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