Staff Webmail and Calendar
WebMail: WebUser Interface
Version 5.1
Introduction
The CommuniGate Pro Server provides Web (HTTP/HTML) access to user accounts. The WebUser component works via the HTTP module and allows users to read and compose messages and to perform account and mailbox management tasks using any Web browser.
Even if you prefer a regular POP or IMAP mail client, the WebUser Interface can be used to access the features unavailable in some mailers. For example, the WebUser Interface can be used to specify Subscriptions and Access Control Lists for account mailboxes - the features many IMAP clients do not support yet.
If the WebCal Service is enabled for your Account, you can use the WebUser Interface to create Events (Meetings and Appointments) and ToDo items (Tasks), to accept and cancel them, to view your Calendar and ToDo lists.
The WebUser Interface is completely customizable. The CommuniGate Pro package includes several "stock" Skins - an unnamed one (it uses a minimal set of graphic elements and it does not use any scripting) and several named Skins. Named Skins usually provide more graphic-intense interfaces. Each CommuniGate Pro installation can use an unlimited number of custom Skins.
All pages shown in this section are displayed using the simple unnamed stock Skin. The same pages may look differently when displayed with other Skins. See WebUser Interface Login for more details of the skins used at Loughborough.
WebUser Interface Pages
The WebUser Interface consists of several types of HTML pages that you can access using the controls - links and buttons. When you access the server using a WAP/WML (wireless phone) or IMode browser, WML or IMode pages with the same functionality are generated and sent to your wireless device.
Hello page
This page is displayed when you log into the system. It allows you to switch to other WebUser Interface pages, as well as to other portions of your site.
Mailboxes page
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This page lists all mailboxes in your account and allows you to create, rename, and remove mailboxes, and to open mailboxes so you can browse the messages stored in your mailboxes. See the Mailboxes section at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmailbox.html for more details.
Mailbox page
This page lists all messages stored in the selected mailbox. You can copy, move, redirect, forward and delete listed messages. You can open and read messages listed on the Mailbox page. See the Mailboxes section at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmailbox.html for more details.
Message page
This page presents the content of the selected message. You can read the message, copy, move, delete, redirect, and forward the open message, and you can reply to it. See the Messages section at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmessage.html for more details.
Compose page
This page allows you to compose a new message, and send it. It can also be used to create and modify the notes, and calendaring (Event and ToDo) items. See the Composing section at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webcompose.html for more details.
Settings pages
These pages allow you to customize your WebUser Interface.
Contacts pages
These pages allow you to browse your Contact-type (AddressBook-type) mailboxes ("folders"), and to edit your Contact and Contact Group items. See the Contacts section at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webcontacts.html for more details.
Notes page
This page allows you to manage your Notes. See the Notes section at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webnotes.html for more details.
Calendar and Tasks pages
These pages allow you to browse your Calendar-type and ToDo-type mailboxes ("folders"). See the Calendar www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webcalendar.html and Tasks www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webtasks.html sections for more details.
WebUser Interface Login
The Login page at https://staff-mail.lboro.ac.uk allows you to log into the WebUser Interface by presenting your user name and password:
Note: If you are using a mobile phone or PDA you will automatically be given a different interface "skin" (stripped down for small screen sizes).
Note: If you are using a poor connection (e.g. a hotel dial-up line), select Lightweight Interface for better speed (and a slightly less attractive interface "skin").
WebUser Interface Settings
You can tune the WebUser Interface by modifying settings on the Settings pages.
The Settings pages contain options that customize Accesses to Mailboxes (www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmailbox.html#Mailboxes), Mailbox Browsing (www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmailbox.html#Mailbox), Message Browsing (www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmessage.html), and Message Composing (www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webcompose.html). Besides, it contains some generic settings:
The Interface ("Skin") to use.
The security options used to protect your WebUser sessions.
The character set options.
The WebUser Interface Settings page contains a link to the Account Mailbox Subscription www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmailbox.html#Subscription and Mailbox Aliases www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/webmailbox.html#Aliases page.
Layout:
Use this setting to specify the Layout ("Skin") of the WebUser Interface. Select the *** option to use the default ("unnamed") Skin. When you change the Layout setting, you need to Logout and Login again to use the newly selected Skin.
Language:
Use this setting to specify the Language to use on the selected Skin. The menu shows all Languages available for the selected Skin.
Use Cookies
Select this option to enable HTTP "cookie"-based security check. When this option is enabled, some "cookie" information is sent to your browser when you login, and the browser resends that information back to the CommuniGate Pro server every time you access a WebUser Interface session page. Other browsers cannot access your WebUser Interface session even if they connect from the same Network Address, as they do not posses the proper "cookie" information.
Note: Do not select this option if you plan to use browsers that do not support "cookies".
Note: You can disable the "cookie" security check when you login.
Require Fixed Network Address
Select this option to enable the Network Address security check. When this option is enabled, the Server remembers the Network Address you logged in from, and then all HTTP requests to the established WebUser Interface session must come from the same Network Address, otherwise requests are rejected.
Note: Do not select this option if you plan to connect from the AOL network or other networks that use outgoing HTTP proxies.
Note: You can disable the Network Address security check when you login.
Time Zone
Use this setting to select the time zone you are working in. The WebUser Interface will use the select time zone to show the date and time values. Select the *** value to use the Server OS time zone.
Preferred Character Set:
Use this setting to select the character set you use most. New messages you compose will be encoded using the selected Preferred Charset. If a message does not have the charset specified, it is displayed using the Preferred Character Set.
Use Unicode (UTF-8) for
Use this setting to specify how your browser can utilize the Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. Select the Reading and Composing option if you use a modern browser.
Automated Rules
The WebUser Interface provides access to the account Automated Mail Processing Rules www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/rules.html. If the Can Modify Account Rules account option is not enabled, then you can view the account Mail Rules, but you cannot modify them.
You can turn the Auto-Reply option on and you can modify the Auto-Reply message text even if the Can Modify Account Rules option is not enabled for your account.
See the Automated Mail Processing Rules www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/rules.html section to learn how to specify the Rules.
The WebUser Interface provides access to the account Automated Signal Processing Rules. If the Can Modify Signal Rules account option is not enabled, then you can view the account Signal (Call) Rules, but you cannot modify them.
Vacation Message
When you set your Vacation Message, remember which mechanism you used to set it (i.e. Full or Lightweight interface - or Outloook), and use the same mechanism to unset it on your return from vacation. Do not set the Vacation message more than once.
Full Interface
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Near the top right select the Rules link.
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Select the Set your vacation message link.
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The vacation Rules window is displayed:
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Ensure that Enabled is selected or Enabled from date to date is selected with suitable dates. Complete the Message. Click Save.
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Click Close to return to your work.
Further details at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/rules.html#vacation.
Lightweight interface
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In the folders list select Automated Processing.
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The Rules screen is displayed, with Vacation Message in the middle.
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Select Vacation Message and complete the message. Click Apply.
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Click a folder in the folders list to return to your work.
Further details at www.lboro.ac.uk/it/webmail/rules.html#vacation.
Folder Viewer
The Folder Viewer settings allow you to specify how folders are viewed:
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This option specifies how many messages should be displayed on one Mailbox page. If a mailbox has more messages than this option specifies, arrow links appear to allow you to "page" the entire Mailbox. The default value is 20.
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Reverse Sort Order
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Set this option to Yes to display e-mails in reverse order. Default is No.
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Columns
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Select one from the radio buttons of existing columns, and use up or down to change the order.
Select one from the radio buttons of existing columns, and use delete to delete the column.
Select one from the drop-down list of possible columns, and use add to add a column.
Message Viewer
The Message Viewer allows you to specify how messages will be viewed.
Show HTML
This option specifies how the WebUser Interface should process messages in the HTML format:
in frame
In this mode the HTML portions of messages are displayed in an embedded frame, providing complete separation of the message HTML code from the WebUser Interface Mailbox page code. If you use a browser that does not support embeded frames (Netscape 4.x), you will have to click a special link to open the HTML portion of the message in a separate window.
inline
In this mode the HTML portions of messages are inserted into the WebUser Interface Mailbox page code. The WebUser Interface checks the message HTML portion code and removes some tags that may distort the entire WebUser Mailbox page.
disabled
In this mode the PlainText portions of messages are displayed instead of the HTML portions. If only an HTML portion exists, it is displayed as a Plain Text, after all HTML tags are removed from it.
Show Images
This option specifies how the WebUser Interface should process references to external images and other objects:
directly
In this mode image references are used "as is". If the WebUser protection methods (Fixed IP Address, Cookies) are disabled, attackers can receive your WebUser Session ID string when you view an image object on the attackers' Web site.
safely
In this mode references are modified, so Web sites hosting external images do not receive the "referrer" information containing your WebUser Session ID.
disabled
In this mode image references are removed, and no external image is displayed.
This option has no effect on "internal" images, i.e. the images sent within the same message.
Show Links
This option specifies how the WebUser Interface should display links in HTML and plain-text messages:
directly
In this mode links are displayed "as is". If the WebUser protection methods (Fixed IP Address, Cookies) are disabled, attackers can receive your WebUser Session ID string when you follow links they have sent to you, and you open a page on the attackers' Web site.
safely
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In this mode displayed links are modified, so the referenced Web sites do not receive the "referrer" information containing your WebUser Session ID. If your browser does not send the "Referer" field or your firewall remove these fields from your requests, this option will not work, and you should select the directly mode.
disabled
In this mode displayed links cannot be used as links.
Use Message Charset
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If you have disabled the Unicode (UTF-8) display because your browser does not support it well, you can meet problems viewing messages are composed using the charsets incompatible with your preferred charset.
If you set this setting to Yes, the message viewer page will be displayed in the charset that allows you to read the message content, but the page design (navigation links, etc.) can become unreadable if it uses national characters.
If you set this setting to No, the message page will be always displayed correctly, but the message content can be unreadable if the message is composed using an incompatible charset.
If you have allowed your browser to use the UTF-8 charset for Reading, this setting has no effect.
Send Read Receipts
This option specifies what happens when you open a message for which the message author has requested a "read notification".
disabled
Requests for Read Notifications are ignored.
manually
When you open a message that contains a Read Notification request, a "Send Confirmation" button appears, allows you to send a confirmation (a Read Receipt).
automatically
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When you open a message with a Read Notification request for the first time, a confirmation (Read Receipt) message is automatically sent to the message author.
Fields
The fields listed in this set are displayed in the message headers.
Trash Management
The WebUser Interface Settings allow you to specify how the delete operations are handled:
Message Delete Method
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Set this option to Immediately if you want to permanently remove a message when you click the Delete link or button.
Set this option to Move To Trash if you want to move deleted messages to the special Trash mailbox, so they can be recovered from there.
Set this option to Mark if you the Delete operation to mark messages as "deleted", without actually removing them. Then you can use the Purge Deleted operation to remove all mailbox messages marked as Deleted.
The remaining options can be used when the Move To Trash method is selected.
Keep Message Received Time
If this option is enabled, then messages moved to Trash keep the Received ("Internal") time attribute, it shows the time when the message was received. If this option is disabled, the Received time attribute for messages moved to Trash is changed to the time when they were moved. This option has an effect on the next option.
On Logout Remove from Trash if Older than
When you logout of the WebUser Interface, the system checks the Received date of the messages in the Trash mailbox, and removes all messages older that the specified period of time. Depending on the Keep Message Received Time option value, it allows you to keep only recent messages in the Trash, or to keep only recently deleted messages in the Trash.
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Trash Folder
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This setting allows you to specify the mailbox to be used as Trash. If you access your account with some other mailer that uses a Trash mailbox, too, you may want to configure the WebUser Interface to use the same mailbox as Trash. For example, the Microsoft Outlook client uses the Deleted Items mailbox as a Trash mailbox.