ZimbraPlugin Brainstorming Idea

What is Zimbra

Zimbra is an open source messaging server with an AJAX based calendar & email application. Zimbra's goal is to make messging better for administrators and end users.

• See the Flash Demo
• See some screenshots

Why Zimbra

TWiki will never be the only communication & messaging medium, email & calendaring functions will for a long time need to come from somewhere else. Zimbra provides an open source collaboration server with greater features than Microsoft Exchange (industry standard), but is also completely compatible. Based heavily on WebServices, Zimbra is committed to making it easier to interact with third party data using web services and AJAX.

• See the Feature List

Zimbra Plugin Concept

I think a ZimbraPlugin would be great, eventually allowing the MashUp of multiple business applications while using TWiki as the central "glue". The result would be a one-stop-twiki-shop allowing users to check their mail, make their phone calls, do their instant messaging, document their activities, keep track of their time, manage their project, whatever the case may be, using a web browser pointed at the project TWiki.

Currently I picture the Zimbra plugin as doing nothing more than wrapping access to Zimbra mail & calendar inside of a RSAP TWiki topic. LDAP user management between the two applications would also be handy. But the ultimate product could be much more, depending on the API's and interfaces available.

Important Notice About Single Server Installations

From the Quick Start Guide :

• The Zimbra Collaboration Suite is designed to be the only application suite installed on the server. The Zimbra Collaboration Suite bundles and installs, as part of the installation process various other third party and open source software, including Apache Tomcat, Postfix, OpenLDAP®, and MySQL®. The versions installed have been tested and configured to work with the Zimbra software.

So it would appear that Zimbra would need to have a separate server.

-- KeithHelfrich - 05 May 2007

Neat idea! A good calendar feature going way beyond the current CalendarPlugin would help spread TWiki in the enterprise.

-- PeterThoeny - 16 May 2007

Yesterday I met the CTO of Zimbra, http://www.zimbra.com/about/. Their open source messaging solution is competing with MS-Exchange. Their AJAX driven calendar is supposedly quite good (screenshot). Anyone interested in looking into integrating the Zimbra calendar into TWiki? Or the whole suite?

-- PeterThoeny - 18 May 2007

We use Zimbra as great replacement for exchange - allowing our Mac, Windows and Unix guys to all work together. We are just now looking at TWiki to manage our projects. It would be a beautiful thing if they worked together.

I'd love to have a shared "Projects Calendar" in Zimbra that talked to the TWiki CalendarPlugin and put all our project deadlines from TWiki to one Zimbra Calendar. From Zimbra we can share the calendar to all and sync to outlook, palm etc..

-- JohnKMoore - 23 May 2007

We use ZImbra as our Groupware tool of choice and I am just beginning to look in to the 'Notebooks' feature - I'd love to just have our Twiki sitting right there in the Notebooks section. That would be very cool.

-- JaneGianoutsos - 06 Oct 2008

I'm working on a few Zimlets and Zimbra Apps for a client of mine, and I'm contemplating importing TWiki's functionality into Zimbra natively - I guess we should get together and talk about it

-- SvenDowideit - 06 Oct 2008