By patchmonkey on

I'm seeking a way to integrate Drupal with e-mail. Basically, we want to give people who register for the site their own e-mail address (i.e., username@site.com).

Is there any way to do this? It seems like it should be possible to integrate with the site's e-mail server, but I'm not that sure...

Comments

IamPter’s picture

IamPter commented

But you have all kinds of configurations to deal with such as stand alone servers, cpanel and other control panel systems.

Sounds like a lot of work but would be nice to have. If I could only code.

I wish I could find a place to tech someone who has never coded in php and mysql. Basic stuff. I am analytical but need a jumping off point.

Some of my sites:
http://www.apockotos.com
http://www.knightrider.org
http://www.macmariner.com

behindthepage’s picture

behindthepage commented

"PHP is easy....unless you are paying me to code, then it is really hard"

There are many excellent sites available that teach PHP basics. Search Google "php tutorials".

Here is one of my favourites
http://codewalkers.com/tutorials.php?c=5

gpdinoz
"If we can see further it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants"

Regards
Geoff

IamPter’s picture

IamPter commented

Thanks if anyone else know more of these sites for php noobs then send them to dns@apockotos.com

Some of my sites:
http://www.apockotos.com
http://www.knightrider.org
http://www.macmariner.com

gravyface’s picture

gravyface commented

...this could be really easy or really hard.

If you had root/shell access to the mail server and/or the database where the mail accounts are stored it would be really simple.

If you don't, all is not lost, but you'd need access to cpanel's cgi directory to add a Perl script to do this using their email.new module.

Worst case scenario, you could probably write some sort of hack in the user registration routine to POST to the cpanel page with the required form variables in an iframe or something (if it even accepts POST requests from a different host/referral etc.) but it would probably be kind of gross and would be very brittle if the cpanel was ever upgraded.

I'm not sure if this would make a very good module because of this.

patchmonkey’s picture

patchmonkey commented

How would I do it with root/shell access?

I've got it - so it should be okay.

-jerry

gravyface’s picture

gravyface commented

I think the cpanel route would be more appropriate as
a) not everyone has shell access and
b) a shell script for qmail will not work for postfix, etc.

I'm installing cpanel now; hopefully I'll have something working shortly.

patchmonkey’s picture

patchmonkey commented

Well, my problem there is that I don't have cpanel - it's running on Ensim Pro.

Hrmm..

gravyface’s picture

gravyface commented

The problem here does not lie with Drupal -- its open and modular. The issue is with the myriad of email MTAs and configurations that exist, and the level of access that the average hosting client has.

Ensim Pro (a commercial product) mentions an API (application programming interface -- this is how applications can talk to each other) but I couldn't find any documentation on it on their site; perhaps this is available to partners-only.

Cpanel on the other hand has many built-in CGI scripts that would be fairly straightforward for Drupal to talk to; this, and its popularity, is why I'm leaning towards creating a module for it, not Ensim.

If you truly do have shell access and sufficient privileges to do anything useful, writing a shell script to create a POP account in something like qmail or postfix would be pretty easy -- thats the beauty of *nix systems and scripting in general.
However, I highly doubt that you'd have this kind of low-level access to the mail sub-system -- this is why hosting companies use things like cpanel and ensim so that they can have rigid control over what their clients can or cannot do.

Ask your host this:

"I'd like to be able to create POP accounts for my domain programmatically, preferrably through a web-accessible script. Is this possible?"

To see what I'm referring to re: qmail scripting, see this how-to:
http://www.whirlycott.com/phil/pop3.html

pamphile’s picture

pamphile commented

I'm also interested in this...

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

There isn;t any drupal modules that act as mail clients at this time on Drupal.org. There is mention of something for Whale Mail that may serve as a starting point so you may wish to investigate this.

-sp
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

patchmonkey’s picture

patchmonkey commented

What is whale mail?

A search on google only turned up a file transfer service...

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

I have encountered reference to.
http://drupal.org/search/node/whalemail
http://www.whalemail.org/

-sp
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

jbrauer’s picture

jbrauer commented

We've been experimenting with Surgemail (http://www.netwinsite.com/) for its migration features. But it will work with any sort of user database (including a SQL database) so it might be pretty easy to hook it up to Drupal. It has its own "create your email account" type features. On the other hand it is not free (but is also a very affordably priced mail server in my estimation).

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