What is Roundcube

[digger5150]

Sorry for such a newb question, but when having login issues last night someone pointed to http://runbox.com/roundcube.

What exactly is roundcube and should I be using it?

Is it just an web-based iMAP wrapper for Runbox?

Is it secure?

I like the format better than current webmail but it looks like I need to put some time into setting it up (address book, filters, etc..).

[kijinbear]

Yes, it's just a web-based IMAP wrapper.

RoundCube has been stable for years, gets regular updates, and a lot of large organizations (such as universities) rely on it, so I suppose it's fairly secure as long as Runbox keeps it up to date.

But the current state of integration with the rest of Runbox's infrastructure is abysmal. You mentioned address books, but there are all sorts of other quirks as well. When I log in with RoundCube, it tries to send mail from <my ID>@localhost instead of my actual email address, and the folder tree contains several folders that I deleted months ago.

It would be best to treat RoundCube at Runbox as experimental, because although RoundCube itself is a stable technology, it's not clear how much Runbox intends to support it.

[17pm]

Originally Posted by kijinbear

Yes, it's just a web-based IMAP wrapper.

RoundCube has been stable for years, gets regular updates, and a lot of large organizations (such as universities) rely on it, so I suppose it's fairly secure as long as Runbox keeps it up to date.

But the current state of integration with the rest of Runbox's infrastructure is abysmal. You mentioned address books, but there are all sorts of other quirks as well. When I log in with RoundCube, it tries to send mail from <my ID>@localhost instead of my actual email address, and the folder tree contains several folders that I deleted months ago.

It would be best to treat RoundCube at Runbox as experimental, because although RoundCube itself is a stable technology, it's not clear how much Runbox intends to support it.

Indeed. I wonder if the right thing to do is just support 100% RoundCube and stop providing their native webclient. I think RoundCube is miles ahead Runbox' webclient.

[B4its2L8]

Originally Posted by 17pm

Indeed. I wonder if the right thing to do is just support 100% RoundCube and stop providing their native webclient. I think RoundCube is miles ahead Runbox' webclient.

And considering that the FM team is going to be helping out the RC team to make the latter's client even better than it is -- better, stronger, faster -- that may be the way to go!

[smithmb001]

Originally Posted by 17pm

Indeed. I wonder if the right thing to do is just support 100% RoundCube and stop providing their native webclient. I think RoundCube is miles ahead Runbox' webclient.

I used RoundCube for a while and I prefer the RunBox native email client. The refresh Geir did to the native interface gave the RunBox web client a more modern and professional look. It is also more tightly integrated in with all of the services RunBox offers, not to mention includes features that the RoundCube client currently does not, e.g. handling of alias email accounts.

[kijinbear]

Originally Posted by smithmb001

I used RoundCube for a while and I prefer the RunBox native email client. The refresh Geir did to the native interface gave the RunBox web client a more modern and professional look. It is also more tightly integrated in with all of the services RunBox offers, not to mention includes features that the RoundCube client currently does not, e.g. handling of alias email accounts.

Perhaps Runbox could get the best of both worlds by writing a custom skin and converting their extra features as plugins. Modern open-source apps are fairly easy to customize with skins and plugins.

Anyway, whatever they do, I hope they focus on one thing and do it well. I've been with another email service (who shall remain unnamed) that keeps their open-source webmail apps completely separate from the control panel for filters and other settings. Having to jump between them all the time was very inconvenient.

[digger5150]

Originally Posted by smithmb001

not to mention includes features that the RoundCube client currently does not, e.g. handling of alias email accounts.

There is an identities feature which seems to do the same thing, but maybe only for runbox addresses?

I don't see anywhere to add/change filters so I guess that has to be done on the web client side.

Again, to me, Roundcube looks more polished but it's not as fully baked as the web client so I'll stick with the latter (unless there is another outage, then I know where to go for backup).

Thanks for your replies.

[Joseph3_98]

Kinda looks a bit like GMail.

[kijinbear]

Originally Posted by Joseph3_98

Kinda looks a bit like GMail.

If I remember correctly, RoundCube was developed back when Gmail was the hot new thing and everyone was trying to mimic it.

The current version actually looks less like Gmail than previous versions did.