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Home Etcetera Other Articles Installing a Webmail System Based on Horde on IIS

Installing a Webmail System Based on Horde on IIS

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Webmail is a hugely useful application of the web; being able to access mail, contacts, task lists, and so on is even better. Using the Horde system, you can do all that and more. However, the Horde site doesn't list how to install this software on a Micrsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) other than saying that it has been done. Well, it can be, and here's how, topped off with how to make it secure using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

(NB: This article is out of date, but may still have useful material.)

For the purposes of this article, there are a few assumptions made:

  • You have IIS enabled and functioning with some web site already.
  • You have MySQL installed and functioning.
  • You have PHP installed and functioning. (preferably the latest in the 4.x branch for the moment) This includes making sure extensions and such work.
  • You are installing Horde 2.2.7, IMP 3.2.6, Kronolith 1.1.2, Mnemo 1.1.2, Nag 1.1.1, and Turba 1.2.2.
  • You already have a functioning IMAP or POP3 server setup and working.
  • You already have a functioning SMTP server setup and working (if needed).
  • You are not using an LDAP server (Horde supports this, but I have not tested this configuration).

 You will need the following things:

  • A MySQL database and user (with password). phpMyAdmin is highly recommended for creating this, and patching in some SQL later on.
  • A text editor of some kind (Crimson Editor is highly recommended).
  • The extensions gettext, imap, and xml must be installed (edit your php.ini to include them, then restart IIS). You should probably also install domxml while you're at it.
  • Something to do file archiving and unarchiving, like FilZip.
  • Finally, you need to download the following from Horde.org: Horde, IMP, Kronolith, Mnemo, Nag, and Turba (you install other Horde apps at your own risk).

STEP 1: UNZIP EVERYTHING

The Horde framework is rather versatile, unfortunately, it is also rather tedious to set up. Now that you've downloaded your Horde and co. files, unzip Horde to its own directory on your local hard drive, and rename it to the directory you expect it to be in on your server. For example, if you plan on having http://www.myserver.com/webmail/, rename the freshly created Horde directory to webmail (if you're running webmail in a root directory as its own website, call it webmail for the moment anyway). Afterwards, you need to unzip IMP and the rest of the packages to underneath the webmail directory you just made. After you unzip these to subfolders underneath your webmail directory, rename the directories to simple names from the "name + version number" you have to just the name. For example, rename imp-3.2.6 to just imp (so you end up with something like C:hordeimp). Go through this process with each app, from kronolith to turba.

Now that you've gotten that out of the way, there's more file operations to be done. Under the horde/webmail directory, there's a config directory containing many files with the php.dist extension. You need to make copies of these (select them, hit CTRL-C, then CTRL-V to make copies quickly), and rename them to simply filename.php. For example, prefs.php.dist should be copied, then renamed to prefs.php. Do this first for the files in the main webmail directory, and then repeat the process for each of the applications (eg, impconfig, kronolithconfig, and so on).

The final step is to make a temp directory directly underneath your webmail directory. Once that's done, you're ready for step two.

STEP 2: MYSQL SETUP

Next up is how to set up the Horde MySQL database you'll be using. To make things simple, we'll assume you're using phpMyAdmin, so fire it up and take a look at the database you made for Horde. Be sure you've set proper access permissions for this database for your Horde user (ie, don't just give any user access to this database, if indeed you have that power).

Now, the problem with Horde's default setup is that it insists on using 'horde' as both a username and password, which for many folks will be unacceptable. Therefore, we're going to go over how to fix it. The first thing you need to do is open up the webmailscriptsdbmysqlcreate.sql file in your text editor (note: if it appears as garbage, your editor isn't handling UNIX formatted files correctly, get another editor). From here, you need to change some values. Since you've already created your own Horde user and set its permissions, you don't need the first two REPLACE INTO commands nor the FLUSH PRIVILEDGES that add a user and database and flush priviledges. Delete these lines or comment them out with hash marks (#). Also delete or comment out the CREATE DATABASE horde and USE horde lines (you've already created the Horde database and are going to be using it already). Lines that read GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON horde_(table) TO horde@localhost should also be unnecessary; comment these out (there should be three). After you do this, copy the text of the modified SQL script into phpMyAdmin's SQL entry for your webmail database, and it should create the horde_users, horde_prefs, and horde_categories tables for you. Save this SQL file as a different file for later reference.

If you are for whatever reason using MySQL sessions in your setup (instead of PHP sessions), you'll need to open up sessionhandler.sql and paste that into phpMyAdmin, once again excluding the GRANT SELECT... line. Vfs.sql (for a SQL based virtual file system, used only if you have some reason for it) is similar.

To complete SQL setup, you need to go through each of the applications' scripts directories and paste in as appropriate, generally following the same guidelines as above (ie, don't use the last GRANT SELECT... line in them). You need to do this for Kronolith (Kronolith.sql), Mnemo (mnemo_memos.sql), Nag (nag_tasks.sql), and Turba (mysql_create.sql). Note that in the Turba script, you should not copy the USE horde; line. Once you have all the tables installed, you're ready for the next configuration step.

STEP THREE: PEAR INSTALL

(This is the part I'm most sketchy on...if anyone can confirm what I've got here, please do)

PEAR, the PHP Extension and Application Repository, is something not assumed to be installed in this guide because most PHP scripts do not take advantage of it. Horde requires the Log, Mail_Mime, and Net_Socket PEAR modules to be installed. If you work with a web host, you'll likely have to talk them into setting it up; if not, you need to set it up yourself.

The first step is to enable PEAR on your system. Running the GOPEAR.bat batch file should kick that off. Afterwards, you need to install the modules listed above. Note that some of them may be beta and thus PEAR by default won't let you install them, so you'll need to use the force option to make PEAR install them.

STEP FOUR: HORDE CONFIGURATION

Almost there. Remember all those .php files you had to copy and rename back in step one? It's now time to configure them. Don't worry, not all of these files actually need to be touched on. To summarize what needs changing, you must edit the following:

  • Webmail\config: horde.php, registry.php
  • Webmail\imp\config: conf.php, servers.php, filter.txt, header.txt, trailer.txt
  • Webmail\kronolith\config: conf.php
  • Webmail\mnemo\config: conf.php
  • Webmail\nag\config: conf.php
  • Webmail\turba\config: conf.php, sources.php

For the applications (IMP, Turba, etc.) you can also customize the top menu by adding items in the menu.php files. One use for this is making a link back to your main site if webmail is in a subdirectory. There are some other settings you may find in other unmentioned files.

Most of the settings for the files are fairly well explained in said files; simply mind your syntax, know what settings you need (eg, your MySQL username, password, and database name), and you should be fine. However, there are a few changes that may be necessary that are not so obvious. For example, in Webmailconfigregistry.php, you'll want to set IMP as your main login method by uncommenting the auth login and auth logout options with IMP in them. Further down under the application registry, you need to change your webroot (something like /webmail/). To make the home icon work, you may need to set an absolute web path (eg: https://www.mysite.com/webmail/graphics/home.gif). Other icon paths may need to be altered so they don't start with a slash. Try the stock configuration (enabling installed services, of course) before you try editing these paths as this weirdness may have been fixed by now. Also, when asked for absolute paths, make sure you use the absolute path that your server will use in the standard DOS format (eg, D:Serversmysitewebmailfile.txt). Also, in Horde.php, turn off page compression, especially if you have IIS' page compression running.

STEP FIVE: UPLOAD AND CONFIGURE FILE PERMISSIONS

By whichever method you use (FTP, file copy, etc.), transfer the webmail directory you've created to your server. The last thing to do before testing is to set the temporary folder you created back in step four to be writeable by the IIS web user. This is the only directory that should need any such treatment.

STEP SIX: ENJOY YOUR WEBMAIL

Now go to your webmail address (probably something like http://www.myserver.com/webmail/), and login to Horde using your regular mail username and password. That's it!

 



 

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