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Monday, October 26, 2009

Kolab Groupware:: Home

Kolab is a Groupware Solution for Emails, Appointments, Contacts and more. It supports mixed client environments (Outlook/KDE) because of an open storage format. Any email client speaking standard protocols can be served.

For the full Kolab experience you need a Kolab Server and Kolab Clients. What makes the Kolab Concept outstanding is the focus on scalability, proven components and protocols. The implementations offered by us are Free Software (Open Source).

Kolab was created for the needs of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) by contract in 2002-2004 and is used there in a heterogenous environment. November 2005 Kolab won the Linux New Media Award: Category 'Best Groupware Server' [press release].

About Kolab Server

Kolab is a secure, scalable and reliable groupware server. It is formed by a number of well-known and proven components or the standards tasks such as E-Mail, Directory Service and Web Service.

Kolab adds intelligent interaction between the components, a web administration interface, management of free-busy lists etc.
Various clients can access Kolab, among them Kontact (KDE), Outlook (Windows) and Horde (Web).

Major Features

Full seamless support of mixed clients environments (Outlook/KDE/Web)
A web administration interface
Supported languages: Deutsch (German), English, Français (French), Nederlands (Dutch)
A shared address book with provision for mailbox users as well as contacts
POP3 as well as IMAP4(rev1) access to mail
Client-side full support of S/MIME E-Mail encryption possible (officially Sphinx-interoperable).

Major Components

OpenLDAP

Homepage: http://www.openldap.org

LDAP is used as the cornerstone for Kolab. All authentication, be it the web admin interface or POP3/IMAP mailbox access are using LDAP as the password store through SASL. Key configuration parameters are also stored in LDAP and automatically applied to configuration files after a change occurs. When you create a new user in LDAP, the Cyrus mailbox is automatically generated for you.

Postfix

Homepage: http://www.postfix.org

Postfix is the mail transfer agent (MTA) for Kolab server. Postfix is easy to configure and has a Sendmail compatibility interface for administrators who are familiar to Sendmail.

Cyrus IMAP

Homepage: http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu

Cyrus provides IMAP as well as POP3 access to user mailboxes. It supports key features such as ACL (Access Control Lists) that allows more than one user to share mailboxes and folders. It also supports the Sieve mail processing language which allows Auto Actions such as Auto-Forward and Auto-Reply on mailboxes. Cyrus is also highly scalable.

Apache

Homepage: http://www.apache.org

Apache is used for the web administration interface as well as to provide WEBDAV access to Free/Busy information for the mail clients. It is planned that Kolab will be using Apache and PHP to provide webmail access with groupware functionality.

SASL

Homepage: http://asg.web.cmu.edu/sasl

SASL (the Simple Authentication and Security Layer) is used by all the components and uses OpenLDAP as the store for Authentication information.

OpenSSL

This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit. (http://www.openssl.org/)

This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com)

About Kolab Clients

Any standard client can connect to the various services a Kolab Server provides, e.g. Email (SMTP, POP3, IMAP), iCalendar services (Email), Addressbook/Management (LDAP) or Freebusy lists (HTTP).

For an integrated groupware experience, more is needed. Clients must understand the Kolab2 storage format and have necessary features, like setting access controls dealing with iCalendar emails and freebusy lists. Any non-web client must also offer offline support and should do electronic signatures.

We encourage anyone to implement Kolab features in their email, addressbook or organizer applications. An entry in the following list of potential Kolab clients subsequently does not necessarily mean endorsement.

Clients for Kolab 2

KDE Client: Kontact

License: Free Software - GNU GPL
Status: stable e35 v>200806
Old-Homepage: http://www.kontact.org

The KDE Kolab Client is based on other KDE software like Kontact, KMail, KOrganizer and KAddressbook. All development of the Kolab community is done within the KDE software repository and contributed directly to KDE. It runs whereever KDE runs. KDE 3.5 is suited for POSIX and GNU like systems, e.g. GNU/Linux. KDE 4 will also run in Mac OS X and Windows, checkout the roadmap.

Sooner or later all Kolab feature come with the regular releases of KDE, more precisely from the KDEPIM team. In addition there are special branches of KDEPIM that cater specifically to enterprise users. The Kolab community helps to maintain theses branches.

For use in production grade systems, we recommend the "Enterprise 35" (e35) branch of KDEPIM, which can be build on to of KDE 3.5 . (Branch "proko2" is for old KDE 3.2, 3,3 and 3.4 versions.) Check out the KDE Client Download section and the roadmap for the upcoming enterprise4 branch.

Microsoft Outlook Plugin: Toltec Connector 2

License: proprietary, with gratis 30 day evaluation
Status: stable 2.3.x for Kolab 2
Homepage: http://www.toltec.co.za

The Toltec Connector 2 is the reference Outlook connector used during development of the Kolab project so interoperability with the KDE Kolab client was tested intensively. Its vendor Radley Network Technologies has a stable Outlook connector (Toltec 1 for Kolab 1) on the market since October 2003.

User and groups can share folders including those that contain emails, calendar items, tasks and contacts with the Toltec Connector. Toltec Connector supports Kolab 2 shared public folders and users report success syncing with mobile devices like Palms Pilots and Windows CE devices using ActiveSync.

The Kolab2 XML Storage Format has been designed and developed in cooperation with the Toltec developers.

MAPI Storage Provider for Microsoft Outlook: KONSEC Konnektor

License: proprietary, with a gratis 30 day evaluation
Status: stable release 2.3.x for Kolab 2
Homepage: http://www.konsec.com

The KONSEC Konnektor is a Microsoft MAPI Storage Provider supporting the Kolab 2 XML Storage format and the Kolab 2 server. It was designed to be interoperable with all Kolab 2 clients and special attention was given to support Microsoft ActiveSync (Pocket PC PDAs) and Palm Pilots. The KONSEC Konnektor fully supports Kolab 2 shared public folders including folders containing calendars, tasks and contacts. In case features are required which cannot be properly expressed using the current Kolab XML format a fallback to TNEF is configurable.

The most recent major release added support for Outlook 2007, Microsoft Vista and large mailboxes (more than 2 GB). Synchronisation is now very fast and efficient.

Webclient: Horde

License: Free Software (GPL)
Status: beta quality 3.3, integrated in Kolab Server since v2.2
Homepage: http://www.horde.org

Currently part of Horde CVS, this is still under development. It will allow users to access their server mailboxes and have full groupware functionality available. If you would like to contribute join the kolab-devel mailing list. All contributions welcome.

Horde currently still requires a SQL database and work is in progress which removes this requirement. Instructions on how to obtain and install the webclient can be found here.

Thunderbird Plugin: SyncKolab

License: Same as Thunderbird which is Free Software
Status: beta quality 1.0.2
Homepage: http://synckolab.mozdev.org

SyncKolab was written to add Kolab functionality to Thunderbird. It reads a selected Imap folder and synchronizes it with the local address book and calendar. It has been tested under Thunderbird for Windows, Linux and MacOSX.
SyncKolab works nicely with Thunderbird 2 and Lightning 0.8.