After an evaluation, GNOME has moved from Bugzilla to GitLab. Learn more about GitLab.
No new issues can be reported in GNOME Bugzilla anymore.
To report an issue in a GNOME project, go to GNOME GitLab.
Do not go to GNOME Gitlab for: Bluefish, Doxygen, GnuCash, GStreamer, java-gnome, LDTP, NetworkManager, Tomboy.
Bug 697677 - Support Zimbra
Support Zimbra
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: gnome-online-accounts
Classification: Core
Component: general
unspecified
Other All
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: GNOME Online Accounts maintainer(s)
GNOME Online Accounts maintainer(s)
Depends on:
Blocks: 697678
 
 
Reported: 2013-04-10 00:07 UTC by Debarshi Ray
Modified: 2021-07-05 10:58 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Debarshi Ray 2013-04-10 00:07:03 UTC
Zimbra is a popular groupware and email server that supports IMAP/SMTP, CalDAV and CardDAV. We already have the pieces in place for IMAP/SMTP and CalDAV so it would be a nice addition.

This can be leveraged by Evolution, Evolution Data Server, Calendar and Contacts.
Comment 1 André Klapper 2013-08-03 10:59:55 UTC
Debarshi: Could you update the status of this report, and if this is a 3.10 or 3.12 target?
Comment 2 Debarshi Ray 2013-08-12 15:13:43 UTC
Quoting Matt:

"The Zimbra integration will depend on the presence of DNS SRV records for the
services provided by Zimbra.  We're still trying to attain such a setup
(preferably through Red Hat's own internal Zimbra deployment), but at this time
it doesn't look like the feature will make 3.10."
Comment 3 Matthew Barnes 2013-12-06 22:44:47 UTC
I was poking around Red Hat's Zimbra server with cadaver [1], and gained a better understanding of how Zimbra stores user account data.  This might not be as complicated as I thought.

It seems to just store everything -- mail folders, calendars and address books -- as WebDAV resources in a single WebDAV collection at "/dav/$USERNAME".

For example, here's mine:

   $ cadaver https://mail.corp.redhat.com/dav/mbarnes

   ... cert verification, login prompt ...
   
   dav:/dav/mbarnes> ls
   Listing collection `/dav/mbarnes/': succeeded.
   Coll:   Archive                                0  Sep 16  2011
   Coll:   Briefcase                              0  Sep 11  2008
   Coll:   Calendar                               0  Sep 11  2008
   Coll:   Chats                                  0  Dec  2 08:45
   Coll:   Company Calendar                       0  Sep 11  2008
   Coll:   Contacts                               0  Oct  2  2010
   Coll:   Correspondence                         0  Sep 16  2011
   Coll:   Drafts                                 0  Sep 16  2011
   Coll:   Emailed Contacts                       0  Oct  2  2010
   Coll:   Inbox                                  0  Dec 28  2012
   Coll:   Junk                                   0  Dec 22  2012
   Coll:   Mailing Lists                          0  Sep 16  2011
   Coll:   Notebook                               0  Sep 16  2011
   Coll:   Red Hat Calendar                       0  Sep 11  2008
   Coll:   Redroom Calendar                       0  Sep 11  2008
   Coll:   Sent                                   0  Sep 16  2011
   Coll:   Tasks                                  0  Sep 11  2008
   Coll:   Trash                                  0  Dec 22  2012
   Coll:   attachments                            0  Dec  6 17:36

From Googling, "/dav/$USERNAME" seems to be at least the default collection path on Zimbra, if not hard-coded.  I'm not certain if Zimbra allows admins to customize it.

GOA could do a quick HTTP PROPFIND on "/dav/$USERNAME" to verify there's a collection at that path, and prompt for a path if not.  Similar to Exchange.

Set both Calendar.Uri and Contacts.Uri to "https://$HOSTNAME/dav/$USERNAME" (or whatever) and E-D-S should be able to scan the WebDAV resources and set the rest up from there.

Was there anything else blocking this?  I can't recall.


[1] http://www.webdav.org/cadaver/
Comment 4 Debarshi Ray 2014-04-28 15:35:08 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)

> I was poking around Red Hat's Zimbra server with cadaver [1], and gained a
> better understanding of how Zimbra stores user account data.  This might not be
> as complicated as I thought.
> 
> It seems to just store everything -- mail folders, calendars and address books
> -- as WebDAV resources in a single WebDAV collection at "/dav/$USERNAME".

I see. Interesting.

> From Googling, "/dav/$USERNAME" seems to be at least the default collection
> path on Zimbra, if not hard-coded.  I'm not certain if Zimbra allows admins to
> customize it.
> 
> GOA could do a quick HTTP PROPFIND on "/dav/$USERNAME" to verify there's a
> collection at that path, and prompt for a path if not.  Similar to Exchange.

Yes, we can do that.

> Set both Calendar.Uri and Contacts.Uri to "https://$HOSTNAME/dav/$USERNAME" (or
> whatever) and E-D-S should be able to scan the WebDAV resources and set the
> rest up from there.

What about the email settings? We can ask for those in the same way we do for generic IMAP/SMTP accounts. Or can we do better?
Comment 5 Matthew Barnes 2014-04-28 16:02:43 UTC
It's not clear to me whether Zimbra even handles SMTP.  When I telnet to Red Hat's SMTP server the greeting message identifies itself as Sendmail.

I suggest just asking for a Zimbra hostname and an SMTP hostname up front.  The Zimbra hostname should provide both IMAP and WebDAV services.

Were there other email settings we need to discover?
Comment 6 Debarshi Ray 2014-04-28 16:08:29 UTC
(In reply to comment #5)
> It's not clear to me whether Zimbra even handles SMTP.  When I telnet to Red
> Hat's SMTP server the greeting message identifies itself as Sendmail.

Right.

> I suggest just asking for a Zimbra hostname and an SMTP hostname up front.  The
> Zimbra hostname should provide both IMAP and WebDAV services.

Ok.

> Were there other email settings we need to discover?

There is the bit about plain text vs STARTTLS vs non-STARTTLS. We could ask for that as we do for generic email accounts.
Comment 7 Matthew Barnes 2014-04-28 16:21:46 UTC
(In reply to comment #6)
> There is the bit about plain text vs STARTTLS vs non-STARTTLS. We could ask for
> that as we do for generic email accounts.

Sounds good.
Comment 8 Debarshi Ray 2015-05-22 14:30:30 UTC
Recent events over the past one year indicate that I might not have access to a Zimbra instance anymore. So unless someone provides me an account on a test instance, I won't be implementing this.
Comment 9 Debarshi Ray 2015-06-17 13:49:22 UTC
Marking as NEEDINFO. Unless I get a test account, I will be WONTFIXing this. Just contributing a patch won't be enough, unless someone shows up to maintain it going forward.
Comment 10 Will Tinsdeall 2015-06-24 12:56:06 UTC
Hi All,

I can probably provide an account for Zimbra ZCS Network Edition if you are still looking?
Comment 11 Will Tinsdeall 2015-07-10 13:59:50 UTC
Just hitting this again - it seems that this plan has gone cold...
Comment 12 Bastien Nocera 2015-07-10 14:31:58 UTC
(In reply to Will Tinsdeall from comment #11)
> Just hitting this again - it seems that this plan has gone cold...

He's on holidays...
Comment 13 Debarshi Ray 2015-07-27 16:34:22 UTC
Can you please email me the account details at rishi.is@lostca.se ? Thanks.
Comment 14 Omar Pakker 2015-10-08 11:45:16 UTC
What is the status on this?
Do you have access to an instance? Do you still need access to an instance?

Zimbra seems to offer a demo as well. I don't know if this is usable?
https://www.zimbra.com/try/zimbra-collaboration-hosted-demo
Comment 15 Frédéric Parrenin 2016-09-14 15:17:57 UTC
I just wanted to know if anybody is still working on this?
I need to connect to the zimbra server of my univ for email, contacts and calendar, so this feature would be very much appreciated!
Comment 16 Debarshi Ray 2016-09-14 16:51:50 UTC
No, I am not working on this at the moment.
Comment 17 keesdejong+bugs 2017-07-27 11:54:41 UTC
Will this ever be included?
Comment 18 GNOME Infrastructure Team 2021-07-05 10:58:30 UTC
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org.
As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org
which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately
quite limited so not every ticket can get handled).

If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent
and supported software version, then please follow
  https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines
and create a new ticket at
  https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-online-accounts/-/issues/

Thank you for your understanding and your help.