SquirrelMail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SquirrelMail is a Webmail application started by Nathan and Luke Ehresman and written in the PHP scripting language. It can be installed on almost all web servers so long as PHP is present and the web server has access to an IMAP and SMTP server.

SquirrelMail outputs valid HTML 4.0 for its presentation, making it compatible with a majority of current web browsers. SquirrelMail uses a plugin architecture to accommodate additional features around the core application.

Licensed under the GNU General Public License, Squirrelmail is free software. It is currently available in over 40 languages.

Platforms

SquirrelMail is available for any platform supporting PHP. Most commonly used platforms include Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and the server variants of Microsoft Windows.

Versions

The developers of SquirrelMail offer both the stable and development versions of SquirrelMail for download. Stable is recommended for all uses, while the development version is recommended for developers and the brave of heart. As of December 2006, the latest stable release is 1.4.9, and the latest development release is 1.5.1. Both stable and development codebases are also available in CVS.

Future development

The stable tree will be released when needed to address any bugs and security issues which may be discovered. The SquirrelMail 1.5.x Roadmap outlines features slated for the next developmental release, including:

• A templating system
• A new initialization system
• Security enhancements, such as HTTPOnly cookies.

Plugins

The SquirrelMail client itself is a complete webmail system, but extra features are available in the form of plugins. A plugin allows non-standard features to be added to SquirrelMail, often without the need to modify the source code. There are over 200 third-party plugins available for download from the SquirrelMail website, and SquirrelMail ships with several "standard" or "core" plugins, allowing an administrator to add:

• Spell checking (squirrelspell)
• Mail filters (filters)
• Web-based administration of SquirrelMail (administrator)
• A calendar (calendar)
• An interface to submit bug reports semi-automatically (bug_report)

Internationalization

SquirrelMail has been translated into over 40 languages including Chinese, French, German, and Spanish.

Support

There are several Electronic mailing lists available. Several of the developers are available for live chat on IRC.

A bug tracker is available for users to report bugs or to submit patches.

For administrators or companies commercial support is available.

See also

• Comparison of e-mail clients

External links

• SquirrelMail's website
• SquirrelMail on SourceForge