Kolab

Kolab is a Free Software / open source groupware suite. It consists of the Kolab server and a wide variety of Kolab clients, including KDE PIM-Suite Kontact, Horde Webfrontend, Mozilla Thunderbird and Mozilla Lightning with SyncKolab extension and Microsoft Outlook with proprietary Kolab-Connector PlugIns.

Basic Concepts

The special idea behind Kolab is the usage of IMAP as an underlying protocol not only for email, but also for contact and calendar entries. These entries are simply saved in special IMAP-folders utilising the Kolab XML-format and the IMAP-server takes care of the storage and access rights. The configuration and maintenance of Kolab is controlled by the extensive use of LDAP.

Kolab Clients and the Kolab server use well established protocols and formats for their work (i.e. IMAP as already mentioned, vCard, iCal, XML and LDAP). This allows the Kolab Format specification framework, or even portions of it, to be utilized as an open set of specifications for groupware clients and servers to communicate with each other. Third party implementations began almost immediately; for example, the Citadel groupware server began supporting version 1 of the Kolab Format specification in March 2004

The concepts on which Kolab relies are fixated in the Kolab Format Specification and Architecture Paper for Kolab 2, and for Kolab 1 in the Kroupware Contract, Architecture Paper and Technical Description

Main features

• Full seamless support of mixed clients environments (Outlook, KDE, Web etc.)
• Support for the K Desktop Environment with Kontact
• Support for Microsoft Outlook with proprietory connector PlugIns
• A web administration interface
• Configuration data is kept in a LDAP directory
• A global LDAP adressbook for contacts
• IMAP4rev1 as well as POP3 access to mail
• Full support for client-side PGP and S/MIME email encryption (officially Sphinx-interoperable)
• Full support for shared calendars with IMAP ACLs
• Full support for shared contacts with IMAP ACLs
• Fully offline capable using KDE Kontact or Microsoft Outlook
• Support for server side resource management (e.g. rooms, cars)
• Full support for freebusy handling

Kolab Clients

• KDE Kontact (K Desktop Environment, Free Software)
• Horde (webfrontend for web browsers as user-clients, Free Software)
• SyncKolab (Mozilla Thunderbird and Mozilla Lightning extension, Free Software)
• Toltec Connector (Microsoft Outlook Connector, Proprietary Software)
• KONSEC Konnektor (Microsoft Outlook MAPI Storage Provider, Proprietary Software)
• Bynari Insight Connector (Microsoft Outlook MAPI Provider, Proprietary Software)
• Aethera (Kolab1 Client)

History

2002:

• Kolab 1 / Kroupware was designed utilising iCal and vCard formats to store calendar entries, contacts, notes, tasks etc. in Kolab's IMAP directories.

2003:

• KMail and the KDE-PIM software were enhanced, creating the Kroupware-Client
• Kolab 1.0 was released
• The first Outlook connector was developed.

2004:

• Aethera became a Kolab 1 groupware client.
• Citadel/UX learned how to mimic a Kolab 1 groupware server
• Kolab 2 was designed as a general overhaul and implemented utilising the versatile and extensible Kolab Open Format to store groupware data.
• The Kroupware-Client matured to KDE Kontact.

2005:

• Kolab 2.0 was released.
• A second Outlook connector appeared on the market.
• The SyncKolab project started developing a Mozilla Thunderbird / Lightning connector.

2006:

• Kolab 2.1 was designed with many enhancements over 2.0.

2007:

• Kolab 2.1 was released.
• A third Outlook connector was released.

2008:

• SyncKolab 1.0 was released.
• Kolab 2.2 was released, with full support of multiple mail domains, fully integrated Horde webfrontend, updated base packages (OpenPKG, OpenLDAP, Cyrus IMAP, Postfix, Perl, Apache, PHP, etc.), easier integration in operating system distributions, and many other new features.

External links

• Project home page