[Users] August 11, 2020 Zeta Alliance Conference Call Summary

[Randy Leiker]

Hello Zeta Alliance Community, 

Here is a summary of last week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: 


    * Conference calls are every Tuesday and open to all using either the FreeConferenceCall.com VoIP app or via a dial-in number: [ https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance | https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance ] 
    * Each week’s call agenda can be found at: [ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUUDJpwp2CAylU6lxtbEdVcUX_qSbciyes6gLTWw2fY/edit | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUUDJpwp2CAylU6lxtbEdVcUX_qSbciyes6gLTWw2fY/edit ] 
    * A copy of each week’s summary is also posted to the Zimbra Forums: 
        * June 2020 : [ https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68342 | https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68342 ] 
        * July 2020 : [ http://forums.zimbra.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68486&sid=f6efb04e7b2efd87cdd77e53d28be082 | http://forums.zimbra.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68486 ] 
        * August 2020 : [ https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68589 | https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68589 ] 
    * Constructive feedback on these call summaries is always welcome. 

August 11, 2020 Conference Call Summary 

Folllow-Up To July 21st Call Discussion 
Marc G. asked if John E. had any follow-up to share related to the earlier discussion in the July 21st call about a Zimbra integration for WHMCS. John said he did not have anything new to share yet, but that he is putting together a number of details and hopes to have some updates to share soon. 

John Eastman’s New Position At Synacor 
John E. announced that he has officially changed positions at Synacor and is now the Vice President of Business Development for Zimbra. 

Migrating Groups, Channels, and Spaces In Zimbra Connect 
Mark S. said that he noticed in the Zextras release notes ( [ https://docs.zextras.com/zextras-suite-documentation/latest/home.html | https://docs.zextras.com/zextras-suite-documentation/latest/home.html ] ) that with the latest Zextras release (version 3.1.1), it is now possible to move Zimbra Connect Groups, Channels, and Spaces between Zimbra mailbox servers, which previously required deleting & re-creating each to move between mailbox servers. 

Time Interval Between Zextras Releases And Inclusion In Zimbra 
Mark S. asked what is the interval of time between when Zextras makes a new release, and when it is incorporated in to Zimbra. Cine said that Zextras commits their new releases in to a repo, which the Zimbra developers then normally include in to the next Zimbra patch or Zimbra minor/major version, although there is no direct timing correlation between Zextras and Zimbra releases. For example, Zextras recently released version 3.1.1 which is anticipated to be included in the upcoming Zimbra 8.8.15 Patch 13 and 9.0 Patch 6. John H. said that Zimbra merges the Zextras releases in to Zimbra internally, several days after Zextras makes a release, once it passes testing. Mark S. also asked how does the schedule work for updates to the Zimbra Administrators Guide ( [ https://zimbra.github.io/zimbra-9/adminguide.html | https://zimbra.github.io/zimbra-9/adminguide.html ] ) for changes published in the Zextras documentation. John E. said that it is the responsibility of the Zimbra documentation team to make those updates. Cine commented that he also contributes to the Administrators Guide via Git pull requests, which are later merged into the Administrators Guide by the Zimbra documentation team. 

Issue With Synchronizing Calendar Invites From Office 365 
Marc G. said he is having trouble reliably synchronizing calendar invites from an Office 365 user in to his Zimbra account. He said the calendar invites seem to be disappearing on their own, or showing calendar invites on the wrong day/time. Marc said he first noticed this issue following a recent update to iOS 13. Mark S. said that he and Noah P. already have a number of open support cases with Zimbra relating to calendar sync issues and that he has observed the same issues in iOS 14. As a workaround, Mark said he found a Microsoft knowledge base article describing how to get an iCalendar ( [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar ] ) file from an Office 365 account he has setup, which Mark added to his Zimbra account, using the Zimbra Web Client, as an ICS calendar feed, allowing him to see the Office 365 calendar within the native Zimbra calendar. This allows Mark to accept calendar invites from his Office 365 account, while having them visible in Zimbra. Randy L. said that he also has a customer using Outlook 365 for the Mac reporting the same issue with calendar invites appearing on the wrong day/time. 

Microsoft’s Phase Out of Exchange Web Services (EWS) Support 
John E. said that Microsoft has announced their intent to phase out EWS support for Outlook for Mac, and that Microsoft has traditionally always considered ActiveSync for use by Android and iOS devices for syncing, and EWS for use by Outlook for Mac for syncing. Randy L. shared an article describing this change, in addition to others for Outlook for Mac: [ https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/12/microsoft_macos_outlook_changes/ | https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/12/microsoft_macos_outlook_changes/ ] . John E. explained that the replacement for EWS, known as Microsoft Sync, is seeking to require Outlook for Mac users to aggregate all of their email accounts in to an online Office 365 account, rather than setting up the individual email accounts within Outlook. He said that Microsoft tried a similar strategy for Outlook for Windows some time ago, but there was significant push back at the time, so Microsoft backed off from the change for Windows users, but seems to be moving forward with it on the Outlook for Mac side. Zimbra Network Edition has long supported mailbox sync using both ActiveSync and EWS. 

Native Zimbra Apps For Desktops And Mobile Devices 
Mark G. asked how much is involved with writing a Zimbra app that can be installed on a desktop or mobile device. John E. said it is very involved and that Synacor did it once for a particular large customer in the past, but this was a custom app that was not publicly released. He also commented that another effort for a native app was the now deprecated Zimbra Desktop product, but Zimbra Desktop proved too difficult to continue supporting, since it essentially included the full Zimbra server stack running as a desktop app. Marc G. asked why Synacor does not seem to have a strategy for building native desktop or mobile apps. John E. said that Synacor does have apps for Android and iOS devices, but they are not being released at this time, due to complications with partner branding and partner management of the apps in the respective app stores. John said another challenge in releasing the native mobile Zimbra apps is what kind of uptake the marketplace would have, since many people do not want to install yet another mail client on their mobile device, as compared to using their device’s native client. John E. explained that advantages of a Zimbra native app would be the elimination of the reliance on ActiveSync and EWS licensing from Microsoft (reducing cost for both Synacor and Zimbra Administrators), and avoiding the limitations imposed by the ActiveSync protocol. But a disadvantage would be the lack of openess for fully supporting as many native apps on mobile devices as possible. 

Installing the Zimbra 9.0 Modern UI As A Native Desktop App 
Randy L. said that the primary reason that his customers opt to install Outlook on their desktops, is because they prefer to avoid opening a web browser and needing to login to access their email, in favor instead of launching an app that grants immediate access to their mailboxes. A secondary reason customers cite is that they have more familiarity with Outlook, but this is less of an issue, since much of the Zimbra Web Client works very similar to Outlook. He asked if Synacor’s strategy with the Modern UI in Zimbra 9.0 is to make this a viable alternative to Outlook, as an installable desktop app. John E. said that while this is possible, this is not quite the use case that the Modern UI is intended to fulfill, since the Modern UI will have certain limitations that apply to all PWAs (Progressive Web Apps; [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_application | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_application ] ), such as only having limited storage available to store a portion of a user’s mailbox (for either online or offline use), rather than the complete mailbox, as would be the case with Outlook. For Mac desktop users, John suggested considering the Epichrome project ( [ https://github.com/dmarmor/epichrome | https://github.com/dmarmor/epichrome ] ) which allows for setting up the Zimbra Web Client (Classic or Modern UI) so that it looks and behaves like a locally installed app on the desktop. For Windows users, Cine suggested the comparable option of creating a desktop or Start menu shortcut that points to Chrome using the command line switch “--app=https://mail.yourdomain.com”, and reported that 70-80% of the customers he proposes this to have found it to be a suitable alternative to installing Outlook on the desktop, while still benefiting from everything the Zimbra Web Client offers. 


Randy Leiker ( randy at skywaynetworks.com ) 
Skyway Networks, LLC 

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