Using plugins

Enable or disable a plugin

Modoboa provides an online panel to control plugins activation. You will find it at Modoboa > Extensions.

To activate a plugin, check the corresponding box and click on the Apply button.

To deactivate a plugin, uncheck the corresponding box and click on the Apply button.

Per-admin limits

This plugin offers a way to define limits about how many objects (aliases, mailboxes) a domain administrator can create.

It also brings a new administrative role: Reseller. A reseller is a domain administrator that can also manipulate domains and assign permissions to domain administrators.

If you don’t want to limit a particular object type, just set the associated value to -1.

Default limits applied to new administrators can be changed through the Modoboa > Parameters > Limits page.

Amavisd-new frontend

This plugin provides a simple management frontend for amavisd-new. The supported features are:

  • SQL quarantine management : available to administrators or users, possibility to delete or release messages
  • Per domain customization (using policies): specify how amavisd-new will handle traffic

Note

The per-domain policies feature only works for new installations. Currently, you can’t use modoboa with an existing database (ie. with data in users and policies tables).

Note

This plugin requires amavisd-new version 2.7.0 or higher. If you’re planning to use the Self-service mode, you’ll need version 2.8.0.

Database

You must tell to Modoboa where it can find the amavis database. Inside settings.py, add a new connection to the DATABASES variable like this:

DATABASES = {
  # Stuff before
  #
  "amavis": {
    "ENGINE" : "<your value>",
    "HOST" : "<your value>",
    "NAME" : "<your value>",
    "USER" : "<your value>",
    "PASSWORD" : "<your value>"
  }
}

Replace values between <> with yours.

Note

Modoboa doesn’t create amavis tables. You need to install them following the official documentation.

Cleanup

Storing quarantined messages to a database can quickly become a perfomance killer. Modoboa provides a simple script to periodically purge the quarantine database. To use it, add the following line inside root’s crontab:

0 0 * * * <modoboa_site>/manage.py qcleanup

Replace modoboa_site with the path of your Modoboa instance.

By default, messages older than 14 days are automatically purged. You can modify this value by changing the MAX_MESSAGES_AGE parameter in the online panel.

Release messages

To release messages, first take a look at this page. It explains how to configure amavisd-new to listen somewhere for the AM.PDP protocol. This protocol is used to send requests.

Below is an example of a working configuration:

$interface_policy{'SOCK'} = 'AM.PDP-SOCK';
$interface_policy{'9998'} = 'AM.PDP-INET';

$policy_bank{'AM.PDP-SOCK'} = {
  protocol => 'AM.PDP',
  auth_required_release => 0,
};
$policy_bank{'AM.PDP-INET'} = {
  protocol => 'AM.PDP',
  inet_acl => [qw( 127.0.0.1 [::1] )],
};

Don’t forget to update the inet_acl list if you plan to release from the network.

Once amavisd-new is configured, just tell Modoboa where it can find the release server by modifying the following parameters in the online panel:

Name Description Default value
Amavis connection mode Mode used to access the PDP server unix
PDP server address PDP server address (if inet mode) localhost
PDP server port PDP server port (if inet mode) 9998  
PDP server socket Path to the PDP server socket (if unix mode) /var/amavis/amavisd.sock

Deferred release

By default, simple users are not allowed to release messages themselves. They are only allowed to send release requests to administrators.

As administrators are not always available or logged into Modoboa, a notification tool is available. It sends reminder e-mails to every administrators or domain administrators. To use it, add the following example line to root’s crontab:

0 12 * * * <modoboa_site>/manage.py amnotify --baseurl='<modoboa_url>'

You are free to change the frequency.

Note

If you want to let users release their messages alone (not recommended), go to the admin panel.

The following parameters are available to let you customize this feature:

Name Description Default value
Check requests interval Interval between two release requests checks 30
Allow direct release Allow users to directly release their messages no
Notifications sender The e-mail address used to send notitications notification@modoboa.org

Self-service mode

The self-service mode let users act on quarantined messages without beeing authenticated. They can:

  • View messages
  • Remove messages
  • Release messages (or send release requests)

To access a specific message, they only need the following information:

  • Message’s unique identifier
  • Message’s secret identifier

This information is controlled by amavis, which is in charge of notifying users when new messages are put into quarantine. Each notification (one per message) must embark a direct link containing the required identifiers.

To activate this feature, go the administration panel and set the Enable self-service mode parameter to yes.

The last step is to customize the notification messages amavis sends. The most important is to embark a direct link. Take a look at the README.customize file to learn what you’re allowed to do.

Here is a link example:

http://<modoboa_url>/quarantine/%i/?rcpt=%R&secret_id=[:secret_id]

Graphical statistics

This plugin collects various statistics about emails traffic on your server. It parses a log file to collect information, store it into RRD files (see rrdtool)and then generates graphics in PNG format.

To use it, go to the online parameters panel and adapt the following ones to your environnement:

Name Description Default value
Path to the log file Path to log file used to collect statistics /var/log/mail.log
Directory to store RRD files Path to directory where RRD files are stored /tmp/modoboa
Directory to store PNG files Path to directory where PNG files are stored <modoboa_site>/media/stats

Make sure the directory that will contain RRD files exists. If not, create it before going further. For example (according to the previous parameters):

$ mkdir /tmp/modoboa

To finish, you need to collect information periodically in order to feed the RRD files. Add the following line into root’s crontab:

*/5 * * * * <modoboa_site>/manage.py logparser &> /dev/null

Replace <modoboa_site> with the path of your Modoboa instance.

Graphics will be automatically created after each parsing.

Postifx auto-reply messages

This plugin let users define an auto-reply message (vacation). It is based on postfix capabilities.

The user that executes the autoreply script needs to access settings.py. You must apply proper permissions on this file. For example, if settings.py belongs to www-data:www-data, you can add the vmail user to the www-data group and set the read permission for the group.

To make postfix use this feature, you need to update your configuration files as follows:

/etc/postfix/main.cf:

transport_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/maps/sql-transport.cf
virtual_alias_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/maps/sql-aliases.cf
        mysql:/etc/postfix/mapfiles/sql-domain-aliases-mailboxes.cf,
        mysql:/etc/postfix/mapfiles/sql-email2email.cf,
        mysql:/etc/postfix/maps/sql-autoreplies.cf,
        mysql:/etc/postfix/mapfiles/sql-catchall-aliases.cf

Note

The order used to define alias maps is important, please respect it

/etc/postfix/master.cf:

autoreply unix        -       n       n       -       -       pipe
          flags= user=vmail:<group> argv=<modoboa_site>/manage.py autoreply $sender $mailbox

<modoboa_site> is the path of your Modoboa instance.

Then, create the requested map files:

$ modoboa-admin.py postfix_maps mapfiles --categories autoreply

mapfiles is the directory where the files will be stored. Answer the few questions and you’re done.

Note

Auto-reply messages are just sent one time per sender for a pre-defined time period. By default, this period is equal to 1 day (86400s), you can adjust this value by modifying the Automatic reply timeout parameter available in the online panel.

Sieve filters

This plugin let users create server-side message filters, using the sievelib module (which provides Sieve and ManageSieve clients).

Two working modes are available:

  • A raw mode: you create filters using the Sieve language directly (advanced users)
  • An assisted mode: you create filters using an intuitive form

To use this plugin, your hosting setup must include a ManageSieve server and your local delivery agent must understand the Sieve language. Don’t panic, Dovecot supports both :-) (refer to Dovecot to know how to enable those features).

Note

The sieve filters plugin requires that the Webmail plugin is activated and configured.

Go the online panel and modify the following parameters in order to communicate with the ManageSieve server:

Name Description Default value
Server address Address of your MANAGESIEVE server 127.0.0.1
Server port Listening port of your MANAGESIEVE server 4190
Connect using STARTTLS Use the STARTTLS extension no
Authentication mechanism Prefered authentication mechanism auto

Webmail

Modoboa provides a simple webmail:

  • Browse, read and compose messages, attachments are supported
  • HTML messages are supported
  • CKeditor integration
  • Manipulate mailboxes (create, move, remove)
  • Quota display

To use it, go to the online panel and modify the following parameters to communicate with your IMAP server (under IMAP settings):

Name Description Default value
Server address Address of your IMAP server 127.0.0.1
Use a secured connection Use a secured connection to access IMAP server no
Server port Listening port of your IMAP server 143

Do the same to communicate with your SMTP server (under SMTP settings):

Name Description Default value
Server address Address of your SMTP server 127.0.0.1
Secured connection mode Use a secured connection to access SMTP server None
Server port Listening port of your SMTP server 25
Authentication required Server needs authentication no

Note

The size of each attachment sent with messages is limited. You can change the default value by modifying the Maximum attachment size parameter.

Using CKeditor

Modoboa supports CKeditor to compose HTML messages. To use it, first download it from the official website, then extract the tarball:

$ cd <modoboa_site_dir>
$ tar xzf /path/to/ckeditor/tarball.tag.gz -C sitestatic/js/

And you’re done!

Now, each user has the possibility to choose between CKeditor and the raw text editor to compose their messages. (see User > Settings > Preferences > Webmail)