Web interface to Mailman list (read, reply, post...)
Hello MR/MRS/MS. ALL ,
I'm converting an old, crufty, proprietary, long-lived mailinglist to Mailman. Mailman doesn't provide one nifty feature this old (practically security-free) package does: a web interface to list contents (reply and post, as well as read).
(Many users do not have computers capable of, or are uncomfortable with, substantial email handling. They're smart and techie, just not in computing/networking. You can skip the obvious 'upgrade!' remarks, I've heard 'em all already.)
Generic "webmail" bolted to a single Mailman list, on the host machine, authenticating from MM's cleartext password, would be perfect. Only read, reply, post, search are needed; delete, save, other mailbox-management tools are not needed.
Such a thing seems "obvious" but I can't find it, I could simply be using the wrong search terms (or paradigm).
Before I go hack an existing webmail package, does such a thing already exist? I've cobbled up a post module, authing from the MM file, but I'm terribly lazy.
signed
tomj
Tom Jennings sent the message below at 13:22 2/27/2006:
Generic "webmail" bolted to a single Mailman list, on the host machine, authenticating from MM's cleartext password, would be perfect. Only read, reply, post, search are needed; delete, save, other mailbox-management tools are not needed.
Such a thing seems "obvious" but I can't find it, I could simply be using the wrong search terms (or paradigm).
Before I go hack an existing webmail package, does such a thing already exist? I've cobbled up a post module, authing from the MM file, but I'm terribly lazy. ---------------- End original message. ---------------------
Sadly, what you want does not exist, which is why you can't find it. Mailman does not have any sort of built-in webmail capability. Personally, I'd love to see something like that and have been thinking about a solution for my server but have not gotten very far with it as I have had other things to keep me busy.
I'm sure it can be done, but it could be quite a pain to make it work. Then again... I can see a way to use a simple web form and CGI script to do the replies and posting.
Dragon
Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
On Mon, 2006-02-27 at 13:48, Dragon wrote:
Sadly, what you want does not exist, which is why you can't find it. Mailman does not have any sort of built-in webmail capability.
Thanks for the unfortunate reply :-)
I realize that MM doesn't contain such a thing, I was hoping someone would know of an external package that does this.
I was hoping I was just being an idiot and overlooking an obvious package; that's the easiest thing to fix.
At 3:27 PM -0800 2006-02-27, Tom Jennings wrote:
I realize that MM doesn't contain such a thing, I was hoping someone would know of an external package that does this.
I was hoping I was just being an idiot and overlooking an obvious package; that's the easiest thing to fix.
Mailman was never intended to be a webmail system. It was never intended to be a web forum system. However, there are some patches floating around that you could use to integrate Mailman with a number of different web forum systems, if you have users that would prefer that method.
Integrating with a webmail system would probably be a bit more work, since there's really not much on the Mailman side of things to be done -- it's mostly just setting up a webmail server and giving people a way to sign up for accounts, then giving them a way to use those accounts to send e-mail to the mailing lists you host -- which could just as easily be on a totally different machine.
-- Brad Knowles, <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755LOPSA member since December 2005. See <http://www.lopsa.org/>.
participants (3)
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Brad Knowles -
Dragon -
Tom Jennings