The Hindu Business Line : Web mail package in Malayalam from C-DAC

THE Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions (RCILTS) at the Centre for Development of Advanced Accounting (C-DAC), Thiruvananthapuram, has developed a solution for a Web-based mail service in Malayalam.

Christened Sandesam, the package is a lightweight and a fast solution to provide easy-to-use Web interface in Malayalam, according to Ms K.G. Sulochana, Deputy Director, RCILTS.

The storage of mailboxes is based on the `maildir' structure and the mail is read directly from the disks. Administration of user accounts is performed through the `VMailMgr' (Virtual Mail Manager) programme. Authentication is also done via VMailMgr for both qmail and courier servers. The service gives the user complete access to his POP3 or IMAP mailboxes via a Web interface. (qmail is an Internet Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) for UNIX-like operating systems). It is a drop-in replacement for the Sendmail system provided with UNIX operating systems. qmail uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to exchange messages with MTAs on other systems.

VMailMgr is a package of programmes designed to manage multiple domains of mail addresses and mailboxes on a single host. It acts in concert with qmail for mail delivery and programme control.

Courier-IMAP is a lightweight server that provides IMAP access to maildir mailboxes.

Some of the facilities provided in Sandesam are the IMAP support with user manageable folders and extensive mime support for attachments. The interface is in Malayalam and includes easy input facilities with keyboard drivers and floating character maps. The service provides facilities for sending and receiving mail in Malayalam, storage of addresses in address book with Malayalam names and description. It also provides facilities for user configuration such as changing the password and setting quota for mailboxes, among others.

Sandesam can be scaled up to support any IMAP client mail server running on Linux or Windows platform, too.