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As you are probably aware, IPS today announced the existance of Vectura, our new webmail product that I've been working on for a while behind the scenes. It's the first time something I've been doing has been announced to such a big audience, so to say I'm nervous about the whole ordeal is an understatement 
Be nice to me :">
So, what is Vectura and what do I see it becoming?
Vectura is a webmail management system that allows you to offer email addresses to your users using your domain name(s). Think Hotmail, GMail et al but on your own site with your own skin and branding and so on.
I plan to use the first version to get the product out there in the real-world with the basic features you'd expect from a webmail client; sending and receiving, an address book allowing you to manage contacts and import/export them, a search engine, folders and an admin panel that lets you manage every aspect of your system. Will it integrate with IPB? Yes - it's still to be finalized but there will be a method of allowing members to sign up for an account in vectura with group limits and so on, although the products will be managed separately from there.
The versions following on from that will start to add the other important things: POP/IMAP checking, forwarding, more advanced contact management, collaboration features, organiser features, conversations and so on. Later versions may bring additional integration options.
In terms of the interface, I want to strike a balance between webmail and desktop email applications. I think it should look like webmail, but give you some of the usability of an application. AJAX makes this possible of course. I've tried some of the other offerings that have attempted a 100% AJAX application, and frankly I don't like them - they tend to be slow and confusing. In my view, a webpage is a webpage and you shouldn't pretend it isn't - not at this stage anyway. I believe that AJAX should be used simply to make those webpages easier to use. I'm aiming for the best of both the webmail world and application world - it's up to you to judge whether I succeed in that.
I'm looking forward to being able to blog a bit about what I'm doing finally, so check back over the coming weeks and months to see what I'm up to.
Although I'm basically decided on what features I'm putting in 1.0, if you have suggestions I'd love to hear them.
Screenshots will be posted in due course
Be nice to me :">So, what is Vectura and what do I see it becoming?
Vectura is a webmail management system that allows you to offer email addresses to your users using your domain name(s). Think Hotmail, GMail et al but on your own site with your own skin and branding and so on.
I plan to use the first version to get the product out there in the real-world with the basic features you'd expect from a webmail client; sending and receiving, an address book allowing you to manage contacts and import/export them, a search engine, folders and an admin panel that lets you manage every aspect of your system. Will it integrate with IPB? Yes - it's still to be finalized but there will be a method of allowing members to sign up for an account in vectura with group limits and so on, although the products will be managed separately from there.
The versions following on from that will start to add the other important things: POP/IMAP checking, forwarding, more advanced contact management, collaboration features, organiser features, conversations and so on. Later versions may bring additional integration options.
In terms of the interface, I want to strike a balance between webmail and desktop email applications. I think it should look like webmail, but give you some of the usability of an application. AJAX makes this possible of course. I've tried some of the other offerings that have attempted a 100% AJAX application, and frankly I don't like them - they tend to be slow and confusing. In my view, a webpage is a webpage and you shouldn't pretend it isn't - not at this stage anyway. I believe that AJAX should be used simply to make those webpages easier to use. I'm aiming for the best of both the webmail world and application world - it's up to you to judge whether I succeed in that.
I'm looking forward to being able to blog a bit about what I'm doing finally, so check back over the coming weeks and months to see what I'm up to.
Although I'm basically decided on what features I'm putting in 1.0, if you have suggestions I'd love to hear them.
Screenshots will be posted in due course
