Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. I currently have CWMail/DMailWeb what changes do I have to make when I add WebMail?

Q2. What software do I need to run WebMail?

Q3. What is the difference between WebMail and CWMail/DMailWeb?

Q4. Can I customize WebMail?

Q5. Does WebMail display the folders from my other mail clients?

Q6. How do I get extra checkboxes to work on the user option screen?

Q7. How do I install WebMail on Mac OS X?

Q8. What changes do I need to make to the templates to get bulletins working?

Q9. I get an error page for new users?

Q10. When I run the CGi I got the error "Failed to Load INI {webmail} and {webmail.ini}"?

Q11. How do I setup multiple template sets?

Q1. I currently have CWMail/DMailWeb. What changes do I have to make when I convert to WebMail?

Converting to WebMail from CWMail/DMailWeb can be done in one of two ways.

  1. Convert the user profile directories in the WebMail default templates.

    In the download of WebMail there is a program called 'cwmail_cvt' which will convert the CWMail/DMailWeb profile directory to a WebMail profile. This program is a command line, and copies the user profile directory to another location which you point WebMail to.

          i.e.    cwmail_cvt <cwmail workarea> <target workarea>
                 cwmail_cvt /var/spool/cwmail /var/spool/WebMail

    NOTE: Doing the conversion will cause all email messages to lose their flags. (i.e. read/unread, reply, attach, etc)

    Install WebMail and then convert the CWMail user profiles to the directory which was setup for the WebMail workarea. (i.e. /var/spool/WebMail)
  2. Get WebMail to convert CWMail templates and user profiles.

    This method is still in development.
    You will require a WebMail cgi which will attempt to convert the templates and user profiles directories as is necessary.

    First, install WebMail, and alter the workarea and templates so that they point to the CWMail workarea and templates. You will also need to add the following to your WebMail ini file:

                  generate_v3 true

    The cgi will convert the necessary templates to a directory 'V3' off the CWMail templates directory.

         i.e.     /var/spool/cwmail/v3

    The templates in this directory are the ones that WebMail will be using, and any future changes should be made to these templates.

    NOTE: Not all template functions will be available. The spell check needs to be added manually because WebMail uses a different version to that of CWMail/DMailWeb.

If you have any questions please email:    support-webmail@netwinsite.com

Q2. What software do I need to run WebMail?

Version 1.3b of WebMail requires a IMAP4, IMAP4REV1 or POP3 server. WebMail was initially designed using

INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1    (rfc2060)

In version 1.3a IMAP4 was added.

INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4

As long as your server is compatible with the above protocols there shouldn't be any problems. WebMail also uses SMTP protocol for sending Email.

Q3. What is the difference between WebMail and CWMail/DMailWeb?

The Major difference is that WebMail supports IMAP4 servers as well as POP3 servers. CWMail/DMailWeb only support POP3 servers.

Features which WebMail has, that CWMail and DMailWeb do not are:

  • Separate Distribution List and Address Book.
  • More advanced Address Book.
  • Multi-Host and Fetch Accounts.
  • Supports both POP3 and IMAP servers
  • Multiple Signatures.
  • WebMail Bulletins.
  • Todo List.
  • Searching for EMails.
  • Advance EMail Attachments.
  • External Address books (http://netwinsite.com/webmail/address.htm)
            (LDAP/SQL)

Features that CWMail/DMailWeb have, that WebMail does not are:

  • Parent/Child Accounts (we expect these to be available soon for WebMail)

Q4. Can I customize WebMail?

Yes! One of the major features of WebMail is the ease with which you can change the graphics and general layout. . To see what some of our customers have done, you are welcome to take a look at our gallery at:

http://netwinsite.com/webmail/gallery.htm

When WebMail was installed, a templates directory should have been setup (where the files with the extension .tpl reside). WebMail uses these template files to build the HTML pages that are returned to the webserver and then to the user's browser. For a quick explanation of what each template is used for, try the following link:

http://netwinsite.com/webmail/webmail.htm#Template_Files

Each template file is in HTML format with labels like the one below throughout:

'||xxxxx||'

The cgi replaces these labels with the correct information. For more details about what each
label means, look here:

http://netwinsite.com/webmail/webmail.htm#Template_Variables

If you have any questions please feel free to contact our WebMail support team at the address:

support-webmail@netwinsite.com

Q5. Does WebMail display the folders from my other mail clients?

It depends on how your client is set up. Mail clients are usually set up in one of two ways:

  1. Folders are stored on the Mail client and not the Mail server. These are local folders and WebMail cannot see or access this type of folder.
  2. The Mail client uses the Mail server to store the folders (this type of folder is only available on IMAP servers, not on POP servers) These are remote folders and therefore can be accessed by WebMail. You will need to set up this option.

If your IMAP client stores folders on the IMAP server and you still cannot see the folders with WebMail, the IMAP prefix is incorrect. The IMAP prefix is used to determine where WebMail will find/store the folders on the IMAP server. WebMail defaults to having an IMAP prefix of 'mail/' (see user option page).

Find out which IMAP prefix your old imap client is using and set this up in WebMail.
Here are a few common imap prefix's that you should also try.

(none)
~/
INBOX.
/

Once you determine the correct IMAP prefix for your system, add the following ini setting:

imap_prefix mail/

This ini setting is used to setup and add NEW users to WebMail.

Note: POP clients use local folders which cannot be accessed by WebMail.

Q6. How do I get extra checkboxes to work on the user option screen?

The easiest way to explain this is by using an example. Say we are adding two checkboxes called; '_logout_prompt' and '_adverts' respectively.

On the user option template (configf.tpl and config.tpl) you need to add the following line inside the form:

        <input type=hidden name="remove_setting" value="_logout_prompt,_adverts">

This line forces the cgi to remove these settings so that when the box is not checked the old setting is removed (the browsers do not send anything for unticked checkboxes).

Next you need to add the checkboxes:

    <input type=checkbox name="_logout_prompt" value="checked" ||_logout_prompt||>Logout Prompt
    <input type=checkbox name="_adverts" value="checked" ||_adverts||>Display Adverts

These lines need to be in the same form as the 'remove_setting' input line.

The variable for boxes which have been checked is called 'checked'.

e.g. Checking for ticked result.
     ||ifequal||_adverts||checked||
     (Display advert)
     ||endif||

or   Checking for no tick
     ||ifndef||_logout_prompt||
    (JavaScript to automatically direct user to another page)
     ||endif||

Q7. Installing WebIMAP on Mac OS x?

  1. I followed the normal install instructions of downloading to a temporary directory, uncompressing, and then untaring.

    NB: I did not use /tmp as the temporary directory to download to as from previous experience of DMail that directory seems to be a funny link and upsets the installation wizard, dmsetup. So I created, /unpack
  2. Changed directory to,
        /unpack/webmail
    and entered,
        ./wmsetup
  3. Answered the questions giving,
    i. a CGI path of,
        /Local/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables
    NB: the capital letters.
    This matches the default apache installation setting in,
        /Local/Library/WebServer/Configuration/apache.conf
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/Local/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/"

    ii.accepted the default templates and manuals directories of,
        /var/spool/webmail
    and
        /var/spool/webmail/manuals

    iii.gave my images directory as,
        /Local/Library/WebServer/Documents/nwimg/mail
    because I had already created the nwimg directory for CWMail and added an alias for it to my apache server configuration, i.e. in the file,
        /Local/Library/WebServer/Configuration/apache.conf
    I added the line, Alias /nwimg/ "/Local/Library/WebServer/Documents/nwimg/"
    after adding this alias to apache I had to stop and restart it for it to take affect. On my machine there is a file in, /etc/startup called 2000_WebServer, so from that I borrowed the following script commands which appear to be somewhere in the root user's path,
        apachectl stop
    and then
        apachectl start

    iv. accepted the default relative url for images of /nwimg/mail as that uses the Alias set up in iii.

    v.accepted the correct domain for my machine

    vi. removed 'mail.' from the start of my suggested mail server domain name.

    vii.accepted the same server name as for the mail server for my smtp server as all servers are on the one machine, i.e. the same as the web server.

    viii.let it create an originals copy of the templates

    ix. did not let it delete the temporary unpack files for now
  4. At this point I pointed my web browser at the webmail CGI, with
    a URL like,
        http://my_domain/cgi-bin/webmail.cgi
    and I got a message about it being a forbidden page.

    After changing the cgi to world execute access, i.e.
        chown 755 webimap.cgi
    in the CGI-Executables directory, I realized that the cgi was owned by the user 'nobody'.

    This what cgis are generally run as by apache on other platforms. However next to the ScriptAlias setting in apache.conf it states that on some platforms there are problems with that and that a userID of www can be used - and that seems to be what the default installation has set up for my cgis to run as.
         I.e. in apache.conf
    there are settings,
         User www
         Group www

    So I changed back the permissions on the webmail.cgi file to,
        750
    and did a,
        chown www webmail.cgi
  5. Tried the URL again. The CGI then ran but it complained about not being able to write a log file and it could not find the template,
        /var/spool/webmail/error.tpl
    So I changed to the directory,
        /var/spool
    and entered the following to set the directory/file ownership to the www user and group,
        chown www:www webmail
        chown www:www webmail/*
  6. Tried the URL again and the login screen now comes up as expected but without images.

    So after a bit of checking I found that the images in the directory /nwimg/mail did not have world read access, so I went to,
        /Local/Library/WebServer/Documents/nwimg/mail
    and entered,
        chown +r *
    ( I suppose I could have just chown'd them to the user www)
  7. Tried logging in again and bingo - it worked nicely.    Hooray :-)

Q8. What changes do I need to make to the templates to get Bulletins working?

Firstly,  you need to be running version 1.4r or later to get bulletins working. Below are the template changes that are required to get bulletins working correctly. The sections in bold are the changes that are required.

menubar.tpl and nfmenu.tpl:

    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
    <tr valign="top">
        <td valign="top" align="center">
            <input type=image border="0" src="||nwimg||/option.gif"
                name=config></td>
        <td align="center"><input type=image border="0"
            src="||nwimg||/fldrs.gif" name=fld_manage></td>
        <td align="center"><input type=image border="0"
            src="||nwimg||/addrsbk.gif" name=pick_edit></td>
    </tr>

    <tr><td>
        <td align="center"><input type=image border="0"
            src="||nwimg||/bulletin.gif" name=bulletin></td>
||ifequal||_bulletin_user||true||
        <td align="center"><input type=image border="0"
            src="||nwimg||/newbulletin.gif" name=new_bulletin></td>
||endif||
    </tr>
    </table>


frame.tpl:

    ||ifdef||display_bulletin||
        <frame src="||action||?cmd=bulletin&utoken=||utoken||" name="list">
    ||else||
     <frame src="||action||?cmd=list&utoken=||utoken||" name="list">
    ||endif||

item.tpl

     There have been many changes in this template and you should replace your item.tpl with the one provided in 1.4r or later. Then make any changes that are required to get back to the look and feel that it had before.

Q9. I get an error page for new users?

This might occur if you have upgraded to version 2.0n or higher. All that is needed is to add to the newuser.tpl file inside the form the following line:

<input type=hidden name="force_connection" value="true">

Q10. When I run the CGI I got the error "Failed to Load INI {webmail} and {webmail.ini}?

This occurs when the CGI can not locate the INI file. You should double check that the ini file is in the same directory as the CGI. If this is, then what can be happening is that the Webserver has setup a workarea which is not the same location were the CGI is.

You can either change the web server workarea for cgi, you need to read your web server manual about this. Or you can locate the file called:

init.log

As this file should have been created, as long as it has access rights to do so in the workarea that has been setup. Placing the INI file in same location should solve the this problem.

If you can not file the init.log file then you should try placing the ini file back one directory.

On some NT/2000 web servers it sets up a scripts and cgi-bin directories, you should try placing the ini in the cgi-bin and then try placing the CGI their as well.

If none of the above works contact WebMail support at:

support-webmail@netwinsite.com

Q11. How do I setup multiple template sets?

Here is an example of what you might have in your ini file for multiple template sets:

tpl_set 1 /webmail/Iconic /img/Iconic Iconic Set
tpl_set 2 /webmail/Globe /img/Globe Globe Set
tpl_set 3 /webmail/Marble /img/Marble Marble Set
tpl_set 4 /webmail/Vanilla /img/Vanilla Vanilla Set

I'll just run throught the components of the first line here.