DESIGN OF AN INTRANET MAIL CLIENT

SYSTEM
A
Project report
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements of the Award of Degree of

Bachelor of Technology
of
National Institute of Technology Calicut
By

Biswajoy Biswas Y2.231

Jayprakash Verma Y2313
Praveen Moparthy Y2.240
Under

Mr. S.D. Madhu Kumar

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, CALICUT
CALICUT- 673601
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We thank Mr. S D Madhu Kumar, Senior Lecturer, Department of

Computer Engineering, NIT Calicut for his guidance and co-operation. We are highly
benefited through his valuable suggestions during the course of the project.
Besides we thank all our friends for their encouragement and help they provided. We also
extend our gratitude to the entire faculty of CSED NITC.
 Certificate

This is to certify that this document entitled “Design of an Intranet Mail Client

System”, is a bonafide record of the project work done by “ Mr. Biswajoy Biswas”

( Y2.231 ), “ Mr Jayprakash Verma ” (Y2.313) and “ Mr. Praveen Moparthy ”

( Y2.240 ) and in the year 2005-2006, under our supervision and guidance. This report

has been submitted to the Department of Computer Engineering, of National Institute

of Technology, Calicut, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the

degree of Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering.

Dr. M.P. Sebastian Mr. S.D.Madhukumar

Professor and Head Project Guide

Dept. of Computer Engineering Lecturer

National Institute of Technology Dept. of Computer Engineering

Calicut National Institute of Technology

Calicut

Table of Content
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

CERTIFICATE

3. INSTALLING PACKAGES..........................................................................................20
3.1. Installing the Debian Sid – Linux Platform................................................................21
3.2. Configuring the Sendmail...........................................................................................21
3.3. Configuring SASL......................................................................................................22
4. IMPLEMENTATION....................................................................................................24
5. IMPLEMENTING THE USER FUNCTIONALITIES ................................................29
6. PSEUDOCODE FOR THE COMPONENTS...............................................................33
7. RESULTS......................................................................................................................37

Table of Figures

…………………….…………….17
Figure 5 DEMONSTRATION OF ADMINISTRATOR COMMANDS…………….24
Figure 6 USERS DATA STORAGE 1……………………………………………….25
Figure 7 USERS DATA STORAGE 2……………………………………………….26
Figure 8:SAMPLE VIEW OF MAILBOX…………………………………………...34
 ABSTRACT

The aim of the project was to develop an Intranet web based mail client system
connecting to a Linux server running a mail server and with Apache as the web server.
The aim was to implement the necessary functionalities to the users such as receiving and
organizing mails through IMAP and Sending mails using send mail. All these are
provided with the graphical interface so that the users can do their desired work
smoothly. Apart from that, the administrator can create and delete user accounts through
the Cyrus Server.

The system starts with the welcome page prompting the user to establish
his authentication. He is allowed to see his mailboxes, read mails and send mails to the
other users only after his/her account is verified.
1. INTRODUCTION
This Chapter outlines the aims of the project and motivation behind its implementation.

1.1. PROBLEM SPECIFICATION

This project aims at developing a web based mail client that serves
the users to send and receive mails through Sendmail as the (MTA) message transport
agent and IMAP as the message delivery agent.
The existing users are needed to authenticate their identity and then
they are permitted to check their mails in their mailbox. Also they can send mails,
organize mails across the folders and can delete the unnecessary mails form their
mailboxes. A good user interface has been provided for performing all these tasks easily.

1.2. REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION

1.2.1. FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Login Page:
There should be a login page for the existing user where the
username and password are verified and then if he is a valid user, he is allowed for
further advancements.

Inbox:

The logged in users should be able to see the lists of new mails as
well as the existing ones.

Compose Mail:
 User should be able to compose mails and send them to the other
users.

Reply/Forward/Delete:

The user should be able to reply to mails, forward mails and also
delete mails from his mailboxes. The deleted mails should be moved to the Thrash
mailbox.

Organize Mails:

The user should be able to organize his mails into the existing
folders.

Attach files:

The user should be able to attach files to the mails and send them
to the desired users.

Save as Draft:

The user should be able to save the incomplete mails in the Draft
mailbox and these can be completed later and can be sent to others.

Record Sent mails:

There should be a provision for keeping a record of the mails that

have been sent by the user in a separate mailbox called Sent mailbox.

Trash mailbox:

This mailbox keeps a record of the deleted mails from the other
mailboxes such as Inbox, Sent, and Draft. If further mails are deleted from this, the mails
should be permanently deleted from the users’ accounts.

1.2.2 NON FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Security:
 Only the administrator should be able to maintain the users’
accounts such as creating new users and deleting the existing users’ accounts.

Database:

Integrity should be maintained and all the constraints should be

satisfied.

Portability:

The web client system should work in both the windows and the
Linux platform.

1.3 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

The following softwares are to be used for the project.

1.3.1. Linux Platform

The Debian Linux should be used as the platform for coding.

1.3.2. Apache Server

Apache Server should be installed which serves as the web server.

1.3.3. MYSQL Server

MYSQL Server should be installed that stores the users details.

1.3.4. Sendmail Server

Sendmail server is a MTA agent. It should be installed for

transferring the mails.

The protocol to be used is IMAP which serves as the Message Delivery Agent.

1.4 LITERATURE SURVEY

 A study on the topics related to the project has been done prior to the
implementation.

1.4.1The RFC 2060

This document [1] specifies an Internet standards track protocol for

the Internet community. The Internet Message Access Protocol, Version 4rev1
(IMAP4rev1) allows a client to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on a
server. It permits manipulation of remote message folders, called "mailboxes", in a way
that is functionally equivalent to local mailboxes. IMAP4rev1 also provides the
capability for an offline client to resynchronize with the server.

IMAP4rev1 includes operations for creating, deleting, and

renaming mailboxes; checking for new messages; permanently removing messages;
setting and clearing flags, searching and selective fetching of message attributes, texts,
and portions thereof. Messages in IMAP4rev1 are accessed by the use of numbers.
These numbers are either message sequence numbers or unique identifiers. Thus
accessing mails from the mailboxes area way easy and efficient when compared to POP3
protocol where the mails are to be downloaded into the host machines before reading
them. This is not the case in IMAP protocol where the messages can be viewed from the
server without being downloaded.

IMAP4rev1 does not specify a means of posting mail; this

function is handled by a mail transfer protocol such as [SMTP].

1.4.2. Message Attributes

This topic gives the details of Message Attributes of the mail

provided by the IMAP4rev1 In addition to message text, each message has several
attributes associated with it. These attributes may be retrieved individually or in
conjunction with other attributes or message texts.

1.4.2.1 Message Numbers:

Messages in IMAP4rev1 are accessed by one of two numbers;

the unique identifier and the message sequence number.

Unique Identifier (UID) Message Attribute:

A 32-bit value assigned to each message, which when used with

the unique identifier validity value (see below) forms a 64-bit value that is permanently
guaranteed not to refer to any other message in the mailbox. Unique identifiers are
assigned in strictly ascending fashion in the mailbox; as each message is added to the
mailbox it is assigned a higher UID than the message(s) which were added previously.

Unlike message sequence numbers, unique identifiers are not

necessarily contiguous. Unique identifiers also persist across sessions. This permits a
client to resynchronize its state from a previous session with the server Associated
with every mailbox is a unique identifier validity value, which is sent in an
UIDVALIDITY response code in an OK untagged response at mailbox selection time. If
unique identifiers from an earlier session fail to persist to this session, the unique
identifier validity value must be greater than the one used in the earlier session.

1.4.2.2. Flags Message Attribute

A list of zero or more named tokens associated with the message.

A flag is set by its addition to this list, and is cleared by its removal. There are two types
of flags in IMAP4rev1. A flag of either type may be permanent or session-only.

A system flag is a flag name that is pre-defined in this

specification. All system flags begin with "\". The currently-defined system flags are:

\Seen Message has been read

\Answered Message has been answered

\Flagged Message is "flagged" for urgent/special attention

\Deleted Message is "deleted" for removal by later EXPUNGE

\Draft Message has not completed composition (marked as a draft).

\Recent Message is "recently" arrived in this mailbox. This session is the first
session to have been notified about this message; subsequent sessions will not see
\Recent set for this message. This flag can not be altered by the client.

A flag may be permanent or session-only on a per-

flag basis. Permanent flags are those which the client can add or remove from the
message flags permanently; that is, subsequent sessions will see any change in permanent
flags. Changes to session flags are valid only in that session.

1.4.2.3. Internal Date Message Attribute

 The internal date and time of the message on the server. This is
not the date and time in the [RFC-822] header, but rather a date and time which reflect
when the message was received. In the case of messages delivered via [SMTP], this
SHOULD be the date and time of final delivery of the message as defined by [SMTP]. In
the case of messages delivered by the IMAP4rev1 COPY command, this SHOULD be
the internal date and time of the source message.

1.4.2.4. Envelope Structure Message Attribute

A parsed representation of the [RFC-822] envelope information

of the message.

1.4.2.5 Body Structure Message Attribute

A parsed representation of the [MIME-IMB] body structure

information of the message.

1.4.3. Installations survey

The users will attempt to access their emails via insecure networks,
Compromise their password, and thus give malicious users a point of entry to the system.
As the number of users grows, the risk increases, as there are now more potential access
points to the system. So IMAP server that allows creating email-only users who are
totally separate from the local system ("UNIX") account database seems to be a more
secure answer to the problem mentioned above.

The Cyrus IMAP presents a decent solution to this. It is a

higher performance IMAP server that could handle very large mailboxes, or mailboxes
with a large number of messages. It uses a pseudo-database format. User authentication
for Cyrus can be managed through SASL version 2, which will integrate with Sendmail
to use SMTP authentication to allow relaying for remote users.

SMTP- the protocol used to transfer messages from one

host to another. First the users interact with the mail reader when they compose file,
search and their mails. There is a mail daemon running on each host, the daemon uses
SMTP running over TCP to transmit the message to a daemon running on another
machine and daemon puts incoming messages into the Users mailbox. The Sendmail
program on the senders machine establishes an SMTP/TCP connection to the Sendmail
program on the recipients machine, the mail traverses one or more gateways on its route
from the senders host to the receivers host. Like the end hosts, these gateways also run a
Sendmail process. Independent of how many mail gateways are in the path, an
independent SMTP connection is used between each host to move the message closer to
the recipient. Each SMTP session involves a dialogue between two mail daemons, with
one acting as a client and the other as a server. Multiple messages might be transferred
between two hosts during a single session.

1.5. MOTIVATION

Communication brings people closer. The advent of internet and

electronic mails replaced the traditional postal mails. The virtual gap between people is
brought to the minimum. Internet and emails are now part and parcel of every ones life.
This has a great potential in the real world as most of the organizations and institutions
have their dedicated mail services. And during this course of project, an effort has been
made to mimic the existing mail systems with a purpose of understanding and
implementing one such service.

.
2. DESIGN
This chapter describes the design decisions made to meet the aims
that are specified in the specifications required. This chapter will also bring in some of
the ideas and research outlined in the previous chapter.

2.1 Basic Design

Figure 1

Overview of the System

• Here the browser clients have an email account. The authentication of the users is
verified by the Cyrus IMAP server and the valid users are allowed to read their
mailboxes.
 • They can send mails with the Sendmail as the MTA. Thus the job of Sendmail is
to transport mails and is not concerned about the messages inside the body.
• The incoming mails are sent into the respective mailbox of the users.
• Users can read mails from their mailboxes. They can send mails and can delete
the unnecessary ones.
• The user details are stored in the MYSQL Database which can retrieve them as
needed.

Sendmail: It is one of the most popular UNIX based implementation of SMTP (Sendmail
Transfer Protocol).

Cyrus IMAP: Cyrus IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) server provides access to
personal mail through the IMAP protocol. It uses a pseudo database format. This
provides email only users who are totally separate from the local UNIX account database.
The mailbox database is stored in parts of the file system that are private to the Cyrus
IMAP.

2.2 Database Fields Specification

This is the format of the table and the required fields used for
maintaining the personal data of the users and thus enable the users search for the
required mail ids.

Table Name: View_details

Fields:
Name varchar(15) not null
Code varchar(8) primary key
Designation varchar(8) not null
Department varchar(8) not null
Mailid varchar(10) not null, unique

2.3. State and Data Flow of I MAP

 fig 2:State And Dataflow of Imap

(1) Connection without pre-authentication (OK greeting)

(2) pre-authenticated connection (PREAUTH greeting)
(3) rejected connection (BYE greeting)
(4) Successful LOGIN or AUTHENTICATE command
(5) Successful SELECT or EXAMINE command
(6) CLOSE command, or failed SELECT or EXAMINE command
(7) LOGOUT command, server shutdown, or connection closed.

An IMAP4rev1 server is in one of four states. Most commands

are valid in only certain states. It is a protocol error for the client to attempt a command
while the command is in an inappropriate state. In this case, a server will respond with a
BAD or NO (depending upon server implementation) command completion result.

2.3.1. Non-Authenticated State

In non-authenticated state, the client must supply authentication

credentials before most commands will be permitted. This state is entered when a
connection starts unless the connection has been pre-authenticated.

2.3.2. Authenticated State

In authenticated state, the client is authenticated and must select

a mailbox to access before commands that affect messages will be permitted. This state
is entered when a pre-authenticated connection starts, when acceptable authentication
credentials have been provided, or after an error in selecting a mailbox.
2.3.3. Selected State

In selected state, a mailbox has been selected to access. This

state is entered when a mailbox has been successfully selected.

2.3.4. Logout State

In logout state, the connection is being terminated, and the server

will close the connection. This state can be entered as a result of a client request or by
unilateral server decision.

2.4. Activity Diagram of the Administrator

 figure 3: Activity Diagram of the Administrator

The administrator has all the privilege of accessing all the

mailboxes. He is also authorized to create new accounts for the users, delete the existing
users and can also delete the mails from the user accounts. First the administrator should
know the password of the server host (i.e. he should be the root user) and should know
the password of the Cyrus server.

The above figure is the activity diagram of the administrator and

explains all the specified functionalities in a pictographic view. To establish as an
administrator, he should prove his authentication and then is allowed to perform the
administration activities.

2.3 Activity Diagram of the Users:

 Figure 4
Activity Diagram of the User

It is an activity diagram of the general user. First of all, the user

encounters a welcome page that prompts him to enter the valid user name (or valid user-
id) and the corresponding password. After a successful user login, he is allowed to read
his mails from the Inbox mailbox. He then can read the mails from the other mailboxes -
Sent, Draft and Trash. He can also organize mails between the existing folders (or
mailboxes).
Apart from composing mails, he is also allowed to save the
incomplete mails in the Draft mailbox and can any time resume them and compose later
on. The sent folder contains all the records of the mails that are sent to the other users.
He then can logout from the mail service after the successful transactions. Once the user
is logged out, he is only allowed through the login page.
3. INSTALLING PACKAGES
This chapter reveals about the required packages and how they are
installed.
3.1. Installing the Debian Sid – Linux Platform

The operating system Debian is chosen as a

platform. Other Linux distributions or any other platform that supports
Cyrus IMAP, Cyrus SASL, and Sendmail can also be chosen. But the
Debian's packages require the least post-install setup for the
configuration and thus relatively very easy to install and configure the
required softwares. The Debian packages will be preconfigured such
that email users will have a local user account, and may have SSH
access or more. The mails are no longer stored in "mbox" format in the
home directory and the “mail” command is not used to check the new
messages.

3.2. Configuring the Sendmail

By default, the Debian uses Exim as its SMTP. So after installing

Sendmail [with MIMEDefang], Debian's package management system, APT, will
automatically remove Exim when Sendmail is installed.

Before installing packages, make sure your APT sources are up to date:

root@server~# apt-get update

Install the required packages as follows:

root@server~# apt-get install cyrus21-admin cyrus21-imapd libsasl2 libsasl2-modules

sasl2-bin ca-certificates openssl sendmail sendmail-cf m4

Run the sendmailconfig command and set the defalt options.

Sendmail's configuration is managed through the file /etc/mail/sendmail.mc.

root@server~# nano -w /etc/mail/sendmail.mc

Configure Sendmail to listen to the localhost environment " Addr=127.0.0.1".

Enable encrypted connections using SSL and TLS by adding support for the STARTTLS
SMTP command. Append this line to the end of /etc/mail/sendmail.mc:

dnl # Enable STARTTLS

include(`/etc/mail/tls/starttls.m4')dnl
Enable secure SMTP (port 465).

dnl # Enable SMTPS for backwards compatibility

DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet, Name=TLSMTA, Port=smtps, M=s')dnl

Sendmail is configured to use the Cyrus delivery agent, required for mail delivery to a
Cyrus mailbox:

dnl # Enable the Cyrus mailer

define(`confLOCAL_MAILER', `cyrusv2')dnl
dnl # Path to Cyrus LMTP socket
dnl define(`CYRUSV2_MAILER_ARGS',`FILE /var/run/cyrus/socket/lmtp')dnl
MAILER(`cyrusv2')dnl

The changes are saved in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc.

Sendmail is configured to use the SASL authetication daemon, by editing

/etc/mail/sasl/Sendmail.conf.2:
root@server~# nano -w /etc/mail/sasl/Sendmail.conf.2

The following changes are made, adding the appropriate entries where necessary:

pwcheck_method: saslauthd
auto_transition: false

The changes are saved in /etc/mail/sasl/Sendmail.conf.2.

3.3. Configuring SASL

The SASL authentication daemon is enabled and configured to use

the SASL user database by editing /etc/default/saslauthd.

root@server~# nano -w /etc/default/saslauthd

To make the saslauthd to start at the time of booting, the comments are removed from

START=yes
MECHANISMS="sasldb"

3.4. Configuring Cyrus IMAP

In the Cyrus IMAP configurationf file /etc/imapd.conf ,

root@server~# nano -w /etc/imapd.conf

admins: cyrus
sasl_mech_list: PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5

Check passwords with the SASL authentication daemon:

sasl_pwcheck_method: saslauthd

Note that when an account is created, SASL will save the secure passwords.

sasl_auto_transition: no

tls_cert_file: /etc/ssl/certs/cyrus-global.pem
tls_key_file: /etc/ssl/certs/cyrus-global.pem

Save the changes to /etc/imapd.conf.

Edit the global Cyrus configuration file /etc/cyrus.conf:

root@server~# nano -w /etc/cyrus.conf

Enable secure IMAP by uncommenting the line starting with "imaps" under the
"SERVICES" section (remove the preceding #). Disable the POP services, and the
regular IMAP service "imap". Depending on the server load, you may need to increase
the -U and prefork= options.

#imap cmd="imapd -U 30" listen="imap" prefork=0 maxchild=100

imaps cmd="imapd -s -U 30" listen="imaps" prefork=0 maxchild=100
#pop3 cmd="pop3d -U 30" listen="pop3" prefork=0 maxchild=50
#pop3s cmd="pop3d -s -U 30" listen="pop3s" prefork=0 maxchild=50

Save the changes to /etc/cyrus.conf.

3.5. Generating Cyrus Certificate

.For added security, it is best to restrict file permissions on your certificates. At the very
least, change the file owner to "cyrus" and tighten security permissions:
root@server~# chown cyrus /etc/ssl/certs/cyrus-global.pem
root@server~# chmod o-rw /etc/ssl/certs/cyrus-global.pem

3.6. Restart Services

Rebuild the Sendmail configuration files, answering 'Y' to any questions:

root@server~# sendmailconfig
root@server~# make -C /etc/mail
root@server~# /etc/init.d/sendmail restart

Restart Cyrus:
root@server~# /etc/init.d/cyrus21 restart

Start the SASL service:

root@server~# /etc/init.d/saslauthd start

Thus the above packages are installed. After the installations are
over, the Cyrus administrator’s password should be set through executing the following
command.

root@server~# saslpasswd2 -c cyrus

Once the password is set, the administrator can create the users
accounts, delete the existing ones and so on. The following chapter describes the
administrators functionalities.

4. IMPLEMENTATION
4.1 Implementing the Administrator Functionalities

• Create Accounts
 New User accounts can be created by the Cyrus administrator

The general Syntax for creating accounts is as follows.

Cm user.account_id;

“Cm stands for create mailbox;” #for creating new users

Here account_id is the name of the new user that a mailbox has
been created.The Cyrus on default provides four mailboxes
INBOX, INBOX.Sent, INBOX.Draft and INBOX.Trash.

After creating the mailbox for the new user, the password is setup
as follows.

“Saslpasswd2 -c account_id;” #for setting password to the

new users.

• Delete Accounts

The user accounts can be deleted by the administrator through

executing the following command.

“dm user.account_id;” #for deleting user accounts.

• Viewing mailboxes

The administrator can keep track of the available users and can
view his mailboxes and nails residing in the mailboxes. He should
execute the following command.

“lm “ # stands for list mailboxes.

The above commands are demonstrated in the following figure.

figure 5: Demonstration of administrator commands
4.2 Database for the users

The users accounts are stored in var/spool/cyrus/mail/. This

contains the files of the users alphabetically. For example, the users Praveen and
paladugu are stored in the file “p/user/”.

Figure 6: Users data storage 1

Figure 7: Users’ data storage 2
5. IMPLEMENTING THE USER FUNCTIONALITIES
The IMAP4rev provides various client commands for retrieving
mails, and organizing mails such as deleting mails, copying them into other mailboxes,
and so on. This chapter provides the following details of the commands.

5.1. Client Commands

5.1.1 CAPABILITY

The CAPABILITY command requests a listing of capabilities that

the server supports. The server MUST send a single untagged CAPABILITY response
with "IMAP4rev1" as one of the listed capabilities before the (tagged) OK response.
This listing of capabilities is not dependent upon connection state or user. It is therefore
not necessary to issue a CAPABILITY command more than once in a connection.

5.2 LOGOUT

The LOGOUT command informs the server that the client is done
with the connection. The server MUST send a BYE untagged response before the
(tagged) OK response, and then close the network connection.

5.3 AUTHENTICATE

The AUTHENTICATE command indicates an authentication

mechanism, such as described in [IMAP-AUTH], to the server. If the server supports the
requested authentication mechanism, it performs an authentication protocol exchange to
authenticate and identify the client. It may also negotiate an OPTIONAL protection
mechanism for subsequent protocol interactions. If the requested authentication
mechanism is not supported, the server should reject the AUTHENTICATE command
by sending a tagged NO response.

The authentication protocol exchange consists of a series of

server challenges and client answers that are specific to the authentication mechanism. A
server challenge consists of a command continuation request response with the "+" token
followed by a BASE64 encoded string. The client answer consists of a line consisting of
a BASE64 encoded string. If the client wishes to cancel an authentication exchange, it
issues a line with a single "*". If the server receives such an answer, it must reject the
AUTHENTICATE command by sending a tagged BAD response.

A protection mechanism provides integrity and privacy

protection to the connection. If a protection mechanism is negotiated, it is applied to all
subsequent data sent over the connection. The protection mechanism takes effect
immediately following the CRLF that concludes the authentication exchange for the
client, and the CRLF of the tagged OK response for the server.

5.4. SELECT

The SELECT command selects a mailbox so that messages in the

mailbox can be acessed. Before returning an OK to the client, the server MUST send the
following untagged data to the client:

FLAGS Defined flags in the mailbox. See the description of the FLAGS response for
more detail.

<n> EXISTS - The number of messages in the mailbox.

<n> RECENT - The number of messages with the \Recent flag set.

OK [UIDVALIDITY <n>] - The unique identifier validity value.

Only one mailbox can be selected at a time in a connection;

simultaneous access to multiple mailboxes requires multiple connections. The SELECT
command automatically deselects any currently selected mailbox before attempting the
new selection.

If the client is permitted to modify the mailbox, the server should

prefix the text of the tagged OK response with the "[READ-WRITE]" response code.

5.5 CLOSE

The CLOSE command permanently removes from the currently

selected mailbox all messages that have the \Deleted flag set, and returns to authenticated
state from selected state. No untagged EXPUNGE responses are sent.

No messages are removed, and no error is given, if the mailbox is

selected by an EXAMINE command or is otherwise selected read-only. Even if a
mailbox is selected, a SELECT, EXAMINE, or LOGOUT command MAY be issued
without previously issuing a CLOSE command. The SELECT, EXAMINE, and
LOGOUT commands explicitly close the currently selected mailbox without doing an
expunge.

5.6 EXPUNGE

The EXPUNGE command permanently removes from the

currently selected mailbox all messages that have the \Deleted flag set. Before returning
an OK to the client, an untagged EXPUNGE response is sent for each message that is
removed.
5.7 FETCH

Arguments: message sets, message data item names

Responses: untagged responses: FETCH

The FETCH command retrieves data associated with a message in

the mailbox. The data items to be fetched can be either a single atom or a parenthesized
list.

The currently defined data items that can be fetched are:

ALL Macro equivalent to: (FLAGS INTERNALDATE

RFC822.SIZE ENVELOPE)

BODY Non-extensible form of BODYSTRUCTURE.

BODY[<section>]<<partial>>

The text of a particular body section. The section specification is a set of zero or more
part specifiers delimited by periods. A part specifier is either a part number or one of the
following:
HEADER, HEADER.FIELDS, HEADER.FIELDS.NOT, MIME, and TEXT.
An empty section specification refers to the entire message, including the header.
Every message has at least one part number. Non-[MIME-IMB] messages, and non-
multipart [MIME-IMB] messages with no encapsulated message, only have a part 1.
Multipart messages are assigned consecutive part numbers, as they occur in the message.
If a particular part is of type message or multipart, its parts MUST be indicated by a
period followed by the part number within that nested multipart part.

5.8 STORE

Arguments: message set, message data item name value for message data item

Responses: untagged responses: FETCH

The STORE command alters data associated with a message in the

mailbox. Normally, STORE will return the updated value of the data with an untagged
FETCH response. A suffix of ".SILENT" in the data item name prevents the untagged
FETCH, and the server should assume that the client has determined the updated value
itself or does not care about the updated value.

The currently defined data items that can be stored are:

 FLAGS <flag list>
Replace the flags for the message with the argument. The new value of the
flags is returned as if a FETCH of those flags was done.

FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>

Equivalent to FLAGS, but without returning a new value.

+FLAGS <flag list>

Add the argument to the flags for the message. The new value of the flags
are returned as if a FETCH of those flags was done.
+FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>
Equivalent to +FLAGS, but without returning a new value.

-FLAGS <flag list>

Remove the argument from the flags for the message. The new values of the
flags are returned as if a FETCH of those flags was done.

-FLAGS.SILENT <flag list>

Equivalent to -FLAGS, but without returning a new value.

5.9 COPY

Arguments: message set, mailbox name

Responses: no specific responses for this command

The COPY command copies the specified message(s) to the end of the specified
destination mailbox. The flags and internal date of the message(s) should be preserved in
the copy.

5.10 UID

Arguments: command name, command arguments

Responses: untagged responses: FETCH, SEARCH

The UID command has two forms. In the first form, it takes as its arguments a COPY,
FETCH, or STORE command with arguments appropriate for the associated command.
However, the numbers in the message set argument are unique identifiers instead of
message sequence numbers.
The number after the "*" in an untagged FETCH response is always a message sequence
number, not a unique identifier, even for a UID command response. However, server
implementations must implicitly include the UID message data item as part of any
FETCH response caused by a UID command, regardless of whether a UID was specified
as a message data item to the FETCH.
6. PSEUDOCODE FOR THE COMPONENTS
6.1 Mailbox Display

Aim:
The aim of this component is to display the mails that are present
in the mailbox.

Pseudo code:
Get the urladdress of the $mailbox;
if the $mailbox is INBOX or INBOX.Trash
the format of display should be From field followed by
Date, Size and Subject fields.
else if the $mailbox is INBOX.Sent of INBOX.Draft,
the format should be To field followed by the fields Date,
Size and Subject fields respectively.

Get the start message of the message. Print the messages in the
order of their uid.
If any mail is deleted from the mailbox, rearrange them.
If any mail is selected for display, call the function
message_display.

6.2. Message Display

Aim:
The aim of this component is to display the selected message.

Pseudocode:
Get the $uid of the message and $mailbox.
Create a imapconnection with the username, key and session
values and then fetch the message $uid from $mailbox .
Assign the header fields to the local variables and use the html tags
to display the message.
Logout imapconnection

6.3 Compose /Forward /Reply:

Aim:
The aim of this component is to compose new mails, forward or
reply the mails.

Pseudocode:
Create a new login session with the imapconnection, key and other
session values.
If not a fresh mail
 {
If it is replying to a message
{
get the uid of the message
To address is the from address of the old message.
Append to the body the original body through FETCH command
Now add the replying text to the text body }
Elseif it is forwarding to some user
{
append to the body of the address field through the fetch
command.
Add the to address field
Add the cc and bcc fields if wanted
} }
else if it is a fresh mail
{
add the to address fields, subject and other fields and write
the text message.
}
Upon finish
If save as draft button is pressed, store the mail in the
INBOX.Draft mailbox
Else if send button is pressed, send the mail through the Sendmail
server.
Logout the imapconnection.

6.4 Move message(s)

Create a new imapconnnectin through username, key and other

sessional variables
Copy the messages to another mailboxes specified through
executing the Command COPY.
Delete the messages from the currentmalbox.
Close the imapconneciotn.

6.5 Delete mail(s)

create a new imapconnection
Set the /delete flag of the mails
Once the delete button is pressed
Call the function that executes the EXPUNGE command
Close the imapconnection.
Upon closing the imapconnection,
Rearrange the mails in the new order.
 Figure 8: Sample view of mailbox

7. RESULTS
The results were tested and observed to be successful for the test
data. The testing of the implemented functionalities was satisfying and were according to
the design.
It is a well organized intranet system at the end and also a good
graphical interface is established. There are no flaws in the implementation of our code
and the results were as expected.
The project ensures that the user will have no problem in performing
the basic functions like deleting messages, arranging folders, composing mails etc.
8. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

We conclude that the functionalities done were well implemented

successfully. We implemented a web based mail client which ensures the basic
functionalities for the users. The user can successfully send and receive mails, compose,
delete and organize mails with ease.

More features can also be added for the user. More functionality like
searching the email ids of the existing users, creating and deleting folders, etc can also be
implemented.
REFERENCES

1. For RFC2060, http://www.rfc-archieve.org.

2. for PHP, http://phpbuilder.com/

3. About IMAP, http://www..4d.com.

4. PHP tutorial:http//www.php.net

5. Ashok Appu: PHP-A Beginner’s Guide, First edition, Wiley publishing Inc, 2002.

6. http://campusconnect.infosys.com

7. W. R. Stevens :TCP/IP illustrated, 7th Edition, volume 1 ,2003

.
8. for IMAP, http://www.4d.com/docs/cmu/
APPENDIX-A
//Here the code of the mostly called functions is provided
// Copy a set of messages ($id) to another mailbox ($mailbox)

function sqimap_msgs_list_copy($imap_stream, $id, $mailbox) {

global $uid_support;
$msgs_id = sqimap_message_list_squisher($id);
$read = sqimap_run_command ($imap_stream, "COPY $msgs_id \"$mailbox\"", true,
$response, $message, $uid_support);
$read = sqimap_run_command ($imap_stream, "STORE $msgs_id +FLAGS
(\\Deleted)", true, $response, $message, $uid_support);
}

// Deletes specified messages and moves them to trash if possible

function sqimap_messages_delete($imap_stream, $start, $end, $mailbox) {

global $move_to_trash, $trash_folder, $auto_expunge, $uid_support;

if (($move_to_trash == true) && (sqimap_mailbox_exists($imap_stream,

$trash_folder) && ($mailbox != $trash_folder))) {
sqimap_messages_copy ($imap_stream, $start, $end, $trash_folder);
}
sqimap_messages_flag ($imap_stream, $start, $end, "Deleted", true);
}

// Sets the specified messages with specified flag

function sqimap_messages_flag($imap_stream, $start, $end, $flag, $handle_errors) {

global $uid_support;
$read = sqimap_run_command ($imap_stream, "STORE $start:$end +FLAGS (\\
$flag)", $handle_errors, $response, $message, $uid_support);
}

// Remove specified flag from specified messages

function sqimap_messages_remove_flag($imap_stream, $start, $end, $flag,
$handle_errors) {
global $uid_support;
 $read = sqimap_run_command ($imap_stream, "STORE $start:$end -FLAGS (\\
$flag)", $handle_errors, $response, $message, $uid_support);
}

function sqimap_toggle_flag($imap_stream, $id, $flag, $set, $handle_errors) {

global $uid_support;
$msgs_id = sqimap_message_list_squisher($id);
$set_string = ($set ? '+' : '-');
$read = sqimap_run_command ($imap_stream, "STORE $msgs_id ".
$set_string."FLAGS ($flag)", $handle_errors, $response, $message, $uid_support);
}

// Returns the references header lines

function get_reference_header($imap_stream, $message) {
global $uid_support;
$responses = array ();
$results = array();
$references = "";
$responses = sqimap_run_command_list ($imap_stream, "FETCH $message
BODY[HEADER.FIELDS (References)]", true, $response, $message, $uid_support);
if (!eregi("^\\* ([0-9]+) FETCH", $responses[0][0], $regs)) {
$responses = array ();
}
return $responses;
}

// Retrieves a list with headers, flags, size or internaldate from the imap server

function sqimap_get_small_header_list($imap_stream, $msg_list, $show_num=false) {

global $data_dir, $username, $imap_server_type;
global $uid_support, $allow_server_sort;

// Get the small headers for each message in $msg_list

$maxmsg = sizeof($msg_list);
if ($show_num != '999999') {
$msgs_str = sqimap_message_list_squisher($msg_list);
} else {
$msgs_str = '1:*';
}
$messages = array();
 $read_list = array();

/*
* We need to return the data in the same order as the caller supplied
* in $msg_list, but IMAP servers are free to return responses in
* whatever order they wish... So we need to re-sort manually
*/
for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($msg_list); $i++) {
$messages["$msg_list[$i]"] = array();
}

$query = "FETCH $msgs_str (FLAGS UID RFC822.SIZE

BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS (Date To Cc From Subject Content-Type)])";

$read_list = sqimap_run_command_list ($imap_stream, $query, true, $response,

$message, $uid_support);
$i = 0;

foreach ($read_list as $r) {

/* initialize/reset vars */
$subject = _("(no subject)");
$from = _("Unknown Sender");
$priority = 0;
$messageid = '<>';
$type = array('','');
$cc = $to = $inrepto = '';
// use unset because we do isset below
unset($date);

$flag_seen = $flag_answered = $flag_deleted = $flag_flagged = false;

$read = implode('',$r);

/* extract the message id */

$i_space = strpos($read,' ',2);
$id = substr($read,2,$i_space-2);
$fetch = substr($read,$i_space+1,5);
if (!is_numeric($id) && $fetch !== 'FETCH') {
echo “Unknown response from IMAP server";
break;
}
$i = strpos($read,'(',$i_space+5);
$read = substr($read,$i+1);
$i_len = strlen($read);
$i = 0;
while ($i < $i_len && $i !== false) {
/* get argument */
$read = trim(substr($read,$i));
$i_len = strlen($read);
$i = strpos($read,' ');
$arg = substr($read,0,$i);
++$i;
switch ($arg)
{
case 'UID':
$i_pos = strpos($read,' ',$i);
if (!$i_pos) {
$i_pos = strpos($read,')',$i);
}
if ($i_pos) {
$unique_id = substr($read,$i,$i_pos-$i);
$i = $i_pos+1;
} else {
break 3;
}
break;
case 'FLAGS':
$flags = parseArray($read,$i);
if (!$flags) break 3;
foreach ($flags as $flag) {
$flag = strtolower($flag);
switch ($flag)
{
case '\\seen': $flag_seen = true; break;
case '\\answered': $flag_answered = true; break;
case '\\deleted': $flag_deleted = true; break;
case '\\flagged': $flag_flagged = true; break;
default: break;
}
}
break;
case 'RFC822.SIZE':
$i_pos = strpos($read,' ',$i);
if (!$i_pos) {
$i_pos = strpos($read,')',$i);
}
 if ($i_pos) {
$size = substr($read,$i,$i_pos-$i);
$i = $i_pos+1;
} else {
break 3;
}

break;
case 'INTERNALDATE':
$date = parseString($read,$i);
break;
case 'BODY.PEEK[HEADER.FIELDS':
case 'BODY[HEADER.FIELDS':
$i = strpos($read,'{',$i);
$header = parseString($read,$i);
if ($header === false) break 2;
/* First we replace all \r\n by \n, and unfold the header */
$hdr = trim(str_replace(array("\r\n", "\n\t", "\n "),array("\n", ' ', ' '), $header));
/* Now we can make a new header array with */
/* each element representing a headerline */
$hdr = explode("\n" , $hdr);
foreach ($hdr as $line) {
$pos = strpos($line, ':');
if ($pos > 0) {
$field = strtolower(substr($line, 0, $pos));
if (!strstr($field,' ')) { /* valid field */
$value = trim(substr($line, $pos+1));
switch($field)
{
case 'to': $to = $value; break;
case 'cc': $cc = $value; break;
case 'from': $from = $value; break;
case 'date': $date = $value; break;
case 'subject':
$subject = $value;
if ($subject == "") {
$subject = "no subject";
}
break;
case 'content-type':
$type = $value;
if ($pos = strpos($type, ";")) {
$type = substr($type, 0, $pos);
}
$type = explode("/", $type);
if(!is_array($type)) {
 $type[0] = 'text';
}
break;
default: break;
}
}
}
}
break;
default:
++$i;
break;
}
}
if (isset($date)) {
$date = str_replace(' ', ' ', $date);
$tmpdate = explode(' ', trim($date));
} else {
$tmpdate = $date = array();
}
if ($uid_support) {
$msgi ="$unique_id";
$messages[$msgi]['ID'] = $unique_id;
} else {
$msgi = "$id";
$messages[$msgi]['ID'] = $id;
}
$messages[$msgi]['TIME_STAMP'] = getTimeStamp($tmpdate);
$messages[$msgi]['DATE_STRING'] = getDateString($messages[$msgi]
['TIME_STAMP']);
$messages[$msgi]['FROM'] = $from; //parseAddress($from);
$messages[$msgi]['SUBJECT'] = $subject;
;
$messages[$msgi]['CC'] = $cc;
$messages[$msgi]['SIZE'] = $size;
$messages[$msgi]['TYPE0'] = $type[0];
$messages[$msgi]['FLAG_DELETED'] = $flag_deleted;
$messages[$msgi]['FLAG_ANSWERED'] = $flag_answered;
$messages[$msgi]['FLAG_SEEN'] = $flag_seen;
$messages[$msgi]['FLAG_FLAGGED'] = $flag_flagged;

++$msgi;
}
array_reverse($messages);
$new_messages = array();
foreach ($messages as $i =>$message) {
 $new_messages[] = $message;
}
return $new_messages;
}

?>