Using Aeromail

Now that we've connected to the server, we are presented with an authentication popup window ( Figure 8-10 ). This is just your usual username and password. They will be sent across the network encrypted using the SSL connection.

Figure 8-10. Aero ”auth1.

And now you have a fully working secure Web server. You can protect a lot of Web transactions using this server, like our e-mail connection.

Once we successfully authenticate, the software reads our mailbox and prepares a Web page for us. This is what is done by the PHP software: It connects to the IMAP server, logs in as us, and reads the message folder for our inbox. The server then processes the PHP and presents us with a Web page, showing us our inbox. This is illustrated in Figure 8-11 , which shows an inbox containing two messages (you may get more mail than I do). Messages are sorted in the order of their date received, with the newest messages appearing on top. Shown are the subject of the e-mail, who it was received from, when it was received, and its size. The checkbox to the left of the message is used for selection, either to delete the message or to move it to another folder. The little check mark below that column is used to select all messages on that page. The small circular arrow at the top of that column is used to check for newly received mail. At the bottom of the message listing is the range of the messages shown on the page.

Figure 8-11. Aero ”inbox.

If you have more than the number of messages that can be shown on the page, you can select what range to skip to ( Figure 8-12 ). You can determine how many messages per screen of a folder to show by editing the variable $MSG_COUNT in the configuration file config.inc.

Figure 8-12. Aero ”more.

One of the strengths of IMAP is that we can arrange our mail into folders remotely, on the server, and retain access to those messages. At the top right of the inbox are two folder-management selections, allowing us to change from the current folder, in this case the Inbox folder, to another folder, or to list the folders we have. This can be useful for sorting mail from mailing lists, certain topics like work or home matters, and the like. Figure 8-13 shows the folders listing, with two folders I have created. This displays all of the known folders and the number of messages in each of them. We can open a folder by selecting its name , or we can create a new folder in the bottom right.

Figure 8-13. Aero ”folders.

Back in our inbox, if we select a message's subject, we can view the message. If we select the sender, it brings up a reply dialog regarding that message ( Figure 8-14 ). The message view is expanded, showing us not only the name but the e-mail address of who sent us the message, which address it was sent to, the date and the subject, and of course the message body itself. We can act on this message from here, as you would expect, replying to the author, or, if multiple recipients were specified, we could reply to everyone, or we could simply delete the message. To go back to the folder that originally held this message, we use your browser's Back button.

Figure 8-14. Aero ”msg1.

Attachments as well are handled pretty well by Aeromail. In the folder view, such as your inbox, the message subject is followed by an "at" sign, @ ( Figure 8-15 ).

Figure 8-15. Aero ”attach.

When you view the mail, the attachment can be shown inline if it is a graphic that your Web browser knows about, such as a JPEG image, a GIF, or a PNG graphic. Note that the graphics are shown at the end of the mail, so we can't illustrate the e-mail this way ( Figure 8-16 ).

Figure 8-16. Aero ”attach3.

Files or archives are not displayed, but a link is provided to them ( Figure 8-17 ). If it is an archive, you can download it and save it locally. If it is a flat text file, you can display it as plain text in another window.

Figure 8-17. Aero ”attach2.

The composition window is pretty straightforward ( Figure 8-18 ). You can edit the message recipients, of course, and even attach local files using your browser. No fancy features, like spellchecking, can be done, though. Simply click on the Send button in the top right-hand corner when you are ready to send your e-mail.

Figure 8-18. Aero ”Compose.

Simply put, Aeromail may not be feature rich, but it is fully functional and very easy to use. You can customize the color schemes in the themes/ directory of the installation, and be sure to update your configuration in config.inc to chose the new one. From speaking with the author of the software, I learned that they plan to have address book support in version 2.0 but probably won't add any more features. The goals have been met, a functional Web-mail client in a small package. This differs from many other packages with many more features, at the expense of simplicity or weight.

In this chapter you've set up a small, secure Web-mail client. This should give you access to your e-mail from almost anywhere in the world. Furthermore, it may wind up being more reliable than various free online Web-mail solutions. Your friends may start asking for accounts, too.