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List:       c-client
Subject:    ANNOUNCE: WING 0.8 (Web/IMAP gateway) is available
From:       Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie () sable ! ox ! ac ! uk>
Date:       1999-06-01 14:13:19
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Version 0.8 of WING, the Web IMAP/NNTP Gateway, is now available.
WING is an Open Source Apache/mod_perl based system which allows
users to access email held on an IMAP server via any web browser.

Some features of WING are:

 * The browser does not need to support Java, JavaScript or frames
   but table and cookie support are preferable.
 * Users can create a hierarchy of multiple mailboxes and browse and
   move messages between them.
 * Messages with MIME attachments can be displayed nicely.
 * Per user defaults (such as screen size and mail signature) can be
   set and saved between sessions.
 * Files local to the client browser can be included in composed
   messages or MIME attached to them.
 * Arbitrary headers can be added to composed messages except that the
   "From:" header cannot be changed or forged for outgoing messages
   from WING.
 * WING is scalable up to thousands and tens of thousands of users.

WING 0.8 introduces the following features:
 * Users can import address books by uploading them via their browser
   (only Pine format address books supported in this version).
 * Users can create their own links (bookmarks), presented in a
   hierarchical list which can be folded/unfolded.
 * Users can login using a "portal" view which provides a frame down
   the left hand side of the browser containing site-configurable
   links along with their personal links. This is the only part of
   WING which requires frame support from the browser.

When integrated with a mail cluster similar to the one we have here
at Oxford University, WING also has these features:

 * Users can manage their account via the WING interface. This includes
   changing passwords, querying disk usage of mailboxes and disk quota
   an setting mail forwarding and "vacation" messages.
 * Users can create address books which can be browsed, searched and
   shared in an ACL controlled manner with chosen lists of other
   users and groups.
 * WING server nodes can be added or removed transparently and can be
   taken down for upgrades without affecting user service.
 * There are a few web-based admin tools for querying the status of
   the WING cluster and its users.


REQUIREMENTS

In its current state, WING requires many other pieces of software to
function. Future versions may be easier to install, configure and
maintain but this one requires the attention of an experienced system
administrator familiar with Apache/mod_perl, Perl and SQL databases.
It was also developed primarily for Linux and other platforms may have
to add extra Perl code to make up for missing features. For
configuring a mail cluster and its associated features (currently
undocumented), the administrator will also need to know about network
configuration, firewalling, NFS, automount, named and exim.


AVAILABILITY

Wing will shortly be available from your favourite CPAN site as
modules/by-authors/Malcolm_Beattie/wing-0.8.tar.gz and is available
right now from its home site in tar.gz form
    ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/perl/wing-0.8.tar.gz
or (better) source RPM form
    ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/linux/SRPMS/wing-0.8-1.src.rpm
or "binary" (noarch) RPM form for Red Hat 5.x Linux
    ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/linux/RPMS/noarch/wing-0.8-1.noarch.rpm
Wing depends on many other pieces of software and Perl modules, most
of which are available from CPAN, a couple only from the home site
mentioned above.


SUPPORT

There isn't any official support. There is a mailing list called
"wing-admin" where those who use or want to use WING can discuss
things.  The list is a majordomo list. To subscribe, send the
following message *body* (the subject line is irrelevant and ignored)
    subscribe wing-admin
to majordomo@maillist.ox.ac.uk. To unsubscribe again send the message
body "unsubscribe wing-admin" to the same address. To send messages to
the list, mail to wing-admin@maillist.ox.ac.uk (only subscribers can
send to the list).

--Malcolm

-- 
Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk>
Unix Systems Programmer
Oxford University Computing Services
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