Fully ODBC Driven Mail Server!

[Pugglewuggle]

Hi Rob et al., I know we discussed this before, but I have to add it here so the community can see!

I think AMS needs to havel all domains, domain settings, accounts, account settings, groups, and group settings manageable purely over ODBC (external database like SQL Server, MySQL, etc.). The option to convert to and from the file system configuration should still be an option, but AMS would be SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL if it were entirely manageable over a common database connection as opposed to having to have different admins log directly into the server to manage it via the GUI.

Mail messages, etc. would of course still be in the file system to eliminate the 2GB database size constraint for some databases, but the rest should be in a DB (or at least an option to do this).

The files I propose putting into the ODBC option are as follows: users.ini, domains.ini, aliases.ini, groups.ini, the config.ini file for each user (simply as database columns for each user record), the personal.ini file for each user, and the delivery.ini file for each user.

Doing this would catapult AMS's management capabilities over all of its competitors and make it the best mail product on the marker (although it already is for the price!)!!!

Hope you incorporate these ideas Rob -- I think they will really help you out!

Thanks,
JB

[Code Crafters]

We were already planning to add this into Ability Mail Server 3 but a large schedule has forced us to split this development meaning that many new features will be released with Ability Mail Server 3's initial release. Other features including this will be added as an Ability Mail Server 3 update or even an Ability Mail Server 4 major update since this and other planned updates originally intended for Ability Mail Server 3 are massive changes to the fundamental systems of Ability Mail Server. We have actually already half implemented this so it will definitely be added, I just can't promise when at this point.

[Pugglewuggle]

I'm glad to hear that. Will this "half-implemented" version (hopefully for user accounts) be included in AMS 3.0 initial release or are we looking at a major update?

[Adrian]

I totally agree with Pugglewuggle, I think this could add a lot of power to AMS, and would let some of us administrate AMS easier.
Glad to know it's under developement!

[Code Crafters]

This is a major change to the accounts system and due to time restrictions on getting Ability Mail Server 3 released sooner, this feature will be delayed until Ability Mail Server 4. Below is a rough timeline of our planned projects.

Ability Mail Server 3 will be launched next year. We are currently working on Ability Mail Server 2 and Ability Mail Server 3. Following that, current plans are to launch Ability FTP Server 2 and a new FTP client, hopefully by the end of 2008. Ability Mail Server 4 should then follow in 2009. Of course, these are all estimates and not guaranteed to occur at these times or even in the order specified. All I can guarantee is that Ability Mail Server 2 and 3 will be the next projects to be finished.