Customizing Webmail Interface

[MartinH]

I've been using Arvixe for hosting for a couple of years and am quite happy with the service. Now that they have mail service and lots of disk space, I'm thinking of moving my mail service to Arvixe also (from Everyone.net).

I've been playing around with a test account and there are some things I'd like to change, since I would rather my users have an interface more like a standard webmail service. My wish list:

- I currently point mail.mydomain.com to Everyone.net's service, so I could just change that to the Arvixe server so the users don't need to go to an Arvixe domain.
- I would like to change the login to just have a page with username/password forms, rather than a popup like I get right now.
- I would like to be able to log in with username 'john' instead of 'john@mydomain.com'.
- I'd rather avoid the first page with the selection of which mail client and the forwarding settings, but I suppose that would require putting the forwarding settings somewhere else.

Are any/all of these things possible? In case it matters, I'd be using the Roundcube interface.

Thanks in advance.

[Arvand]

Martin,

I wrote a blog entry about it. Let me know if it helps or if you need further information -

http://blog.arvixe.com/2008/12/22/cpanel/customizing-webmailcpanelwhm-login-page/

Regards,

[MartinH]

I tried using the script you linked in your blog entry. It worked, except the on a failed login attempt, I'd get an error message (in Opera 9.63):
Warning: Form POST Redirect
The server wants to redirect your form.

I eventually found another scripts that seemed to work without problems here.

I was able to add "@mydomain.com" to the end of the usernames to avoid the users having to type that. But it looks like my last request (avoiding the initial start page with several clients and settings) is not feasible since there's no way of replacing those settings from within the webmail interface.

There is one other thing, however. After logging out, the cPanel logout page redirects to the cPanel login page, rather than the one I created. Is there any way to change this?

[Arvand]

Hello,

Thank you for that. The article has been updated -

http://blog.arvixe.com/2008/12/22/customizing-webmailcpanelwhm-login-page/

Regards,

[MartinH]

Thanks for the suggestions for the interface, but after spending many hours trying to work with the interfaces, I don't think the service will do what I want. In case you're interested in some feedback, here are the issues that I couldn't resolve and don't want to deal with.

- Using the scripts in this thread I was able to create a custom login page to whatever I wanted. However that only changes the initial page. After logging out, the user is presented with the original cPanel login page which I can't control. Telling my users to log in with only their name on my custom page is important, so if they suddenly need to add @domain.com if they log in from any other page it will be confusing.
- Besides that initial page I have no control over appearance of any other part of the system. I understand the reseller package has a lot more options here, but besides the cost difference, it's far more effort to learn to do that than I want to go through just to change a few logos and colours.
- I'm not so satisfied with the mail clients. Horde and Squirrel seem mature and solid, but they look really outdated and unintuitive. Roundmail looks great, but is just too simple and missing some features and settings I'd like.
- The login system of cPanel has always seemed kind of flaky to me. I could deal with it for myself using cPanel once a month, but not for other users that use it everyday to access their email. The main thing I notice is that things act strangely after logging out. If you click to log in again, sometimes you will go straight back to the mail page without having to enter your username and password. Sometimes you'll be prompted for username and password again, then again even after entering them correctly. Sometimes I get an error screen "The URL was redirected to . Please click the link to go there."

Any one of these is not a deal-breaker, but between all of them I'm just not willing to mess with it anymore.

[Arvand]

Thanks for the suggestions for the interface, but after spending many hours trying to work with the interfaces, I don't think the service will do what I want. In case you're interested in some feedback, here are the issues that I couldn't resolve and don't want to deal with.

- Using the scripts in this thread I was able to create a custom login page to whatever I wanted. However that only changes the initial page. After logging out, the user is presented with the original cPanel login page which I can't control. Telling my users to log in with only their name on my custom page is important, so if they suddenly need to add @domain.com if they log in from any other page it will be confusing.
- Besides that initial page I have no control over appearance of any other part of the system. I understand the reseller package has a lot more options here, but besides the cost difference, it's far more effort to learn to do that than I want to go through just to change a few logos and colours.
- I'm not so satisfied with the mail clients. Horde and Squirrel seem mature and solid, but they look really outdated and unintuitive. Roundmail looks great, but is just too simple and missing some features and settings I'd like.
- The login system of cPanel has always seemed kind of flaky to me. I could deal with it for myself using cPanel once a month, but not for other users that use it everyday to access their email. The main thing I notice is that things act strangely after logging out. If you click to log in again, sometimes you will go straight back to the mail page without having to enter your username and password. Sometimes you'll be prompted for username and password again, then again even after entering them correctly. Sometimes I get an error screen "The URL was redirected to . Please click the link to go there."

Any one of these is not a deal-breaker, but between all of them I'm just not willing to mess with it anymore.

Based on your response, it looks like you are using your plan to provide free/paid hosting to others. Since you are concerned with what they perceive/can do/etc. it appears that you are not just sharing email accounts with friends or family. Our terms of service as well as any other web host's that provides unlimited emails or domains mentions that you simply can not give away free hosting or sell hosting off of our regular packages. Imagine starting a "free web hosting" provider website on a $4.00 per month plan. Our reseller plans were made precisely for that. So you are not just paying for the ability to customize the look, there is a reason why you are not allowed to do it on the regular plans (its against the TOS to provide free/paid hosting to others).

Aside from the above, you can bypass everything that you mentioned by simply searching for "open source webmail application" on google, finding one you like and installing it on your web space. You don't have to use ours. By doing that, you can customize the login, the log out, the modules installed  on it and the look within the application as well.

Regards,

[MartinH]

I understand that you don't want people on $4 per month plans selling hosting and accounts. It's an amazing price for the space compared to a few years ago. A reseller plan is reasonable choice if you want to sell space and accounts.

In my case, I just want to give addresses to a few family members. But I still want it to be a rather seamless experience. I don't want my mother unsure what name she uses to login. I don't want them wondering why their address is at our domain, but the web page domain and logos all say Arvixe. I dont' want a full branding experience, but I want to avoid things that would confuse people who are not really comfortable with this stuff to begin with.

I'm definitely not complaining about the service here. I've been very happy with the web hosting I've had for the last few years. I just noticed that you do email hosting now and thought maybe I could move my family accounts here from our current email service. But I realize that wasn't the goal of providing the service, so I'm trying to do something that wasn't really intended.

Anyway, I'll look into installing a separate client.

[reign16]

oh that is cool i like that? how to customizing an webmail??




___________________
Indianapolis Web Design

[thatguy8]

I've been using Arvixe for hosting for a couple of years and am quite happy with the service

You ought be ecstatic.  Arvixe's recent accommodation has renewed my habit of recommending them to others

Everyone.net's service

everyonegetsspammed.net is abysmal

searching for "open source webmail application"

I shall save you some time:

http://ilohamail.org/main.php

(http://images.ilohamail.org/images/logo2.jpg)
(hotlinked to draw their attention here)

I'd rather avoid the first page with the selection of which mail client

Already possible with domain redirects app, or subdomains: manage redirection.. to name a few

using the Roundcube

AFAIK you can install your own instance.

log in with username 'arvixe-best-web-host' instead of 'arvixe-best-web-host@love-arvixe.tld'

entirely possible with ilohamail


I'll even take you the next step to avoid imposing on the kindness of arvixe while accommodating your needs.  It's unlikely that you'll create a DNS load but should that happen I'm sure arvand will ask me what I'm thinking.

Use Iloha as an IMAP [1] front end to (and I can hardly believe I'm recommending this) google domain apps.  You should be able to modify your MX records from a basic arvixe plan [2].  You might not be able to change the RR TTL [3] so a little patience might be required.  I do NOT endorse [4] the use of gmail for anything other than disposable email [5], but given you wish to provide 'free' service this is what your users deserve.  You can completely customize the login; it's limited only by your imagination (and skill [6]).


Though the above, as with everyone-net, loses you the ability to generate REAL MTA rejections (based on filters).  There is a way around that, but I'll save that article for when you upgrade to either a reseller account or VPS (for which I'll take credit) =D




(review the many hyperlinks before questioning, thanks... )




edit: wish arvixe would re-enable markup to reveal hyperlinks

1 http://imap.org/imap.vs.pop.brief.html
2 http://arvixe.com/linux_web_hosting
3 http://dns.net/dnsrd/rr.html
4 http://google-watch.org/gmail.html
5 http://tmda.net/
6 http://csszengarden.com

[Arvand]

edit: wish arvixe would re-enable markup to reveal hyperlinks

Nothing has been disabled on the forums. What do you mean?

The post you link to assumes google's overall dominance of the entire world and is somewhat old (I read it a couple of years ago). I personally feel Google is having the same dilemma that microsoft had years ago.. The brand is too big to grow. How do you take over the computing world without people noticing. Well, you can't.

[thatguy8]

> gmail

There's a bit of hyperbole in there.  I am also capable of seeing further and grasping more subtle patterns.  This ought not be confused with Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies.

> disabled

It might have been years ago that hyperlinks were underlined.

[ramonoli]

Hi,

don't know if this is dead thread or not, but....

I customized my webmail so me and my kids could use it.  I chose roundcube and even have gone through one upgrade.  The username will still need to be "your_user_name+yourdomain.com".

The login panel comes from the round cube code then it goes right into the webmail.  Very nice and clean.

I've had this setup for about 18 months and works great.  At home I use an IMAP client (Thunderbird has some issues though) and on the road I use the roundcube webmail.  I also use a subdomain  "rmail.mydomain.com" to access webmail.

The only negative issues has been some hagging or non-response when I check webmail.  I don't yet know if it's a problem at Arvixe or a problem of the firewalled locations I tend to be in.

If you have any questions on round cube, which is open source, let me know.

cheers
r

[jd75]

R, The information has been very useful to me as well and its now that I have known of round cube. I have looked it up and it seems very nice. Is round cube that easy to use and manipulate? Thanks. I might try it as well in the future.

(http://storeyourpicture.com/images/signature_hosting.jpg)

[Arvand]

I haven't altered it but we did install it on our Windows servers and it worked just fine. It is quite easy to install. You won't be able to manipulate the cPanel one since its server wide.