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If you have ever written a Zimlet that includes HTML markup directly in JavaScript, you know that escaping and formatting the HTML can be a cumbersome and error prone process.
There is an easier way: Templates. Templates allow you to separate HTML markup from JavaScript code. This enables you to leverage HTML in your Zimlets without the formatting hassles.
The Problem
A common technique for using HTML markup within JavaScript is to use an Array() and append HTML markup data as array entries. Once you have all of the HTML markup in the Array(), you perform an Array.join() to create a single String that represents the HTML markup.
For example, say you wanted you to use the following HTML in your Zimlet:
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">This is a sample table HTML code...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Using the Array() technique, your JavaScript would look like:
var htmlArray = new Array(); var i = 0;
htmlArray[i++] = "<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" width=\"100%\"><tbody><tr><td colspan=\"2\">";
htmlArray[i++] = "This is a sample table HTML code...";
htmlArray[i++] = "</td></tr></tbody></table>";
htmlMarkup = html.join("");
Even with this simple HTML <table> example, you can see formatting the HTML into an Array() can be tedious. Plus, the extensive use of escaped characters makes it harder to debug the HTML markup. And if you include CSS and style elements with your HTML, the challenge only increases. It’s easy to see that using the JavaScript Array() technique can quickly become out-of-control.
The Solution
With Templates, you separate the HTML markup from your JavaScript code. You create a Template file that contains the HTML markup. That Template file gets compiled into JavaScript and that compiled Template can be referenced from your Zimlet JavaScript.
So instead of the JavaScript Array() technique described above, you can put the HTML markup directly in a Template file (just wrap the HTML in a <template> identification element) and compile.
Here is the same simple HTML <table> example from before in a Template file:
<template id="Simple">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">This is a sample table HTML code...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</template>
Compiling the Template file converts the HTML markup into JavaScript that can be referenced and used from your Zimlet. No longer do you have to format and escape the HTML markup by hand.
To reference the compiled Template from your Zimlet, first, in your Zimlet Definition File XML, <include> the compiled Template as a resource. Then, in your Zimlet JavaScript, use AjxTemplate.expand() to retrieve the HTML markup from the Template.
var html = AjxTemplate.expand("com_zimbra_template.templates.Simple#Simple");
Now the HTML markup is available for use in your Zimlet as you see fit.
A Word about Compiling Templates
Prior to Zimbra Collaboration Suite 6.0.5, you had to compile your Templates manually and include the compiled Templates with your Zimlet ZIP package. We have tried to make that manual compilation process a little easier by providing a simple Template Compiler utility found here.
But new with is ZCS 6.0.5 is automatic template compilation. Template files included with your Zimlet are compiled at Zimlet deploy time, eliminating the need for manual compilation. This automatic compilation is also supported when using the Development Directory, which makes iterative development even easier.
One More Thing
Your Template can be more than just static HTML markup. You can pass data to the compiled Template when you call AjxTemplate.expand() and reference dynamic data within your Template.
var dataArray = {phone: "123-456-7890"}; canvas.innerHTML = AjxTemplate.expand("com_zimbra_template.templates.Simple#Simple", dataArray);
Useful Links
More information on creating, compiling and using dynamic data with Templates can be found here:
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimlet_Developers_Guide:Templates
There are also examples available in the Zimlet Developer’s Guide:
Happy coding!
It’s official– Zimbra is now a part of VMware.
 As we settle into our new digs in Palo Alto, you can bet we remain as focused as ever on building and supporting the best open source email and collaboration software for our community, customers and partners. We’re committed to our mission to set the standard for Web-based collaboration and to VMware’s overall mission to simplify IT.
We’re excited to join VMware’s Cloud Services organization, helping to meet increasing customer demand for more public and private on-premises cloud computing services delivered through VMware’s innovative virtualization platform. Zimbra’s modular architecture and APIs make it ideal for virtualization, and for offering cloud-based email and collaboration services.
With VMware’s support, we’re looking forward to accelerating our product roadmap, optimizing Zimbra products for VMware’s vSphere cloud infrastructure, and continuing to build on the record growth that has allowed us to reach more than 55 million paid mailboxes in just five years.
Here’s to Zimbra and VMware!
For years, the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) has exposed mailbox data via REST. And lately, a few customers have asked about the Zimbra REST API (e.g. How is the API used? What methods are available? How does the Zimbra REST API compare to the Zimbra SOAP API?). So I thought it would be good to revisit the topic.
Some background: REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is an approach for building application services that make application resources available via a URL. There is more than ample information about REST out there on the web so I’ll just point you to the REST Wikipedia article for simplicity.
The Zimbra REST API is a great mechanism for reading user mailbox data and outputting that data in different formats (everything from XML-and-JSON to RSS-and-Atom to iCal-and-VCF). In addition to reading data, we’ve exposed methods to import items — like contacts and appointments — into a mailbox. This capability is very useful when performing a migration (i.e. “how do I import contacts from one system into Zimbra?”)
Here is an example of using the REST API to read mailbox data: if you want an output of messages from the “john doe” inbox folder, you call the Zimbra REST API like this:
http://localhost:7070/home/john.doe/inbox?fmt=xml
You can try this method against a Zimbra server via a browser but more commonly customers use the REST API methods from perl scripts or PHP applications…or even just from the command line using curl.
Here is an example of importing contacts into the “john doe” account: perform a POST of a CSV file to the “contacts” folder. The following command shows importing contacts using curl:
curl -{username}:{password} --upload-file /tmp/mycontacts.csv http://localhost:7070/home/john.doe/contacts?fmt=csv
That’s just a couple examples and as you can see, the REST API is a simple yet powerful mechanism for accessing mailbox data. For more information on the Zimbra REST API (i.e. information on authentication, output formats or just a list & syntax for the REST API methods), here is a link to Zimbra REST API Reference document:
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimbra_REST_API_Reference
One more thing: A very common question is: “why does the SOAP API support so many more functions than the REST API?” Well, the Zimbra REST API is different (in form and function) than the Zimbra SOAP API. At a high level, it’s really an apples-to-oranges comparison. The REST API is for accessing user mailbox data, and the SOAP API is for executing functionality on the server (which can access user mailbox data and also perform account and administrative functions).
The Zimbra SOAP API is the foundational platform service that the Zimbra Web Client uses to communicate between the browser and the Zimbra server. As you can imagine, to create the rich interface experience the Zimbra Web Client delivers, the SOAP API is very complete with advanced and complex functionality, much more than the REST API. To re-create all of this complex functionality in REST API would be a challenge as well as take significant time. So as the alternative, we expose the SOAP API for direct use by our customers & partners.
But that’s another story…I’ll save the Zimbra SOAP API discussion for a different day…until then, enjoy the REST API and happy coding!
New with Zimbra Collaboration Suite 6.0 is the ability to create Zimlets that show-up as tab applications in the Zimbra Web Client. This powerful new feature, unique to the Zimbra platform, enables partners & customers to more easily integrate third-party applications with the Zimbra Web Client. And there are already new Zimlets taking advantage of this feature, like the Social Zimlet or the BroadSoft Zimlet.
Let’s take a look at how to implement some of the basic operations of this new feature…But first, some background: the Zimbra Web Client displays multiple default applications across the top of the interface as “tabs”. These applications include (based on your deployment configuration): mail, address book, calendar, tasks, documents and briefcase. With the Zimlet Tab feature, you can add “tabs” to this array of applications.
Creating the Tab
It starts with creating the tab in your Zimlet JavaScript code. A createApp() method has been added to the ZmZimletBase class. Since all zimlets extend ZmZimletBase, to create a tab, all you need to do is call the this.createApp() method from your Zimlet. The three parameters to createApp() are:
- Tab label: the visible text “label” for the tab (for example, “My Tab”).
- Tab icon: the CSS class to use for the icon in the tab.
- Tab tool tip: the tab tool tip shown when hovering over the tab.
So creating a tab is as simple as calling the following from your Zimlet:
this._tabAppName = this.createApp("My Tab", "zimbraIcon", "A new tab app");
This method returns a unique application name for the newly created tab. You will need this unique name to manage and retrieve the different components of the tab, so it’s best to capture this return value.
Listening for Tab Application Events
Your Zimlet will also receive application events as tab applications are launched for the first time and as a user navigates around the Zimbra Web Client between tab applications. The events will be received in the ZmZimletBase.appActive() and ZmZimletBase.appLaunch() methods. By implementing these methods in your Zimlet, you will be able to know when a user launches and switches between tab applications.
Anatomy of a Tab Application
The layout of a tab application includes the following: the Tab and the Content Areas (i.e. Toolbar, Main and Overview).
The Tab
The row of tab applications across the top of the Zimbra Web Client interface is managed by an application chooser, which is represented by the Zimbra JavaScript class ZmAppChooser. The ZmAppChooser class extends ZmToolBar, making the row of tab applications basically a toolbar with buttons that look like “tabs”.
That means, after tab creation, you can manage the actual “tab” for the application as a ZmAppButton. For example, you can obtain a handle to the tab “button” through the app chooser and set, among other things, the text label & the tool tip.
var controller = appCtxt.getAppController();
var appChooser = controller.getAppChooser();
// change the tab label and tool tip
var appButton = appChooser.getButton(this._tabAppName);
appButton.setText("NEW TAB LABEL");
appButton.setToolTipContent("NEW TAB TOOL TIP");
The Content Areas
You can set the various content areas of the tab to suit your Zimlet needs. The Toolbar area is the area directly under the row of tab applications. This is typically the place where you put toolbar buttons for application control. The Overview area is located on the left-side of the page. This area typically houses a navigation tree but you can set any content you see fit. The Main area is the primary content location for the tab and can be set with whatever application content as needed.
The Toolbar Area can be obtained from the ZmZimletApp and is represented as a ZmToolBar object:
var app = appCtxt.getApp(this._tabAppName);
var toolbar = app.getToolbar();
toolbar.setContent("<b>TAB APPLICATION - TOOLBAR AREA</b>");
The Main Area can be accessed directly from the ZmZimletApp:
var app = appCtxt.getApp(this._tabAppName);
app.setContent("<b>TAB APPLICATION - MAIN AREA</b>");
The Overview Area can be obtained from the ZmZimletApp and is represented as a ZmOverview object:
var app = appCtxt.getApp(this._tabAppName);
var overview = app.getOverview();
overview.setContent("<b>TAB APPLICATION - OVERVIEW AREA</b>");
So that’s the basics of tab applications and Zimlets. As you can see, by leveraging this new Zimlet Tab feature, you will be able to create new & powerful integrations with Zimbra Collaboration Suite.
More information on implementing your own Zimlet tab application can be found in the Zimlet Developer’s Guide at:
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimlet_Developers_Guide:Introduction
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimlet_Developers_Guide:Zimlet_Tab
Zimlet Tab Examples are available at:
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimlet_Developers_Guide:Example_Zimlets#Tab_Zimlets
And checkout the Zimlet JavaScript API Reference for information on the ZmZimletBase class and tab application methods such as createApp(), appAction() and appLaunch():
http://files.zimbra.com/docs/zimlet/zcs/6.0/jsdocs/index.html
When developing a Zimlet, you are constantly making code changes and then packaging and deploying the Zimlet to be able to test those changes. This is the Zimlet development process and is done over & over again until your Zimlet is “ready” for production. An iterative development process like this that involves packaging and deploying with each code change can be quite time consuming and really impact your developer productivity.
That’s where the Zimlet Development Directory comes in.
By using the Zimlet Development Directory, you can develop your Zimlets without having to package and deploy the Zimlet with each code change. You can make your code changes directly in the Zimlet files and just refresh your browser to see the changes take affect. This will greatly reduce your development time and overall, make it much easier to build Zimlets.
To use the Zimlet Development Directory, create a _dev folder in the {zcs-install-dir}/zimlets-deployed directory. In the _dev folder, create your Zimlet folder and file structure that you can modify on the fly. It’s just that easy.
For example, say you want to create a Zimlet named “com_zimbra_myzimlet”:
- Create the development directory:
{zcs-install-dir}/zimlets-deployed/_dev
- Create the Zimlet folder:
{zcs-install-dir}/zimlets-deployed/_dev/com_zimbra_myzimlet
- Now put your Zimlet Definition File (
com_zimbra_myzimlet.xml) and whatever other resources your Zimlet needs in that directory (like JavaScript files, JSP files, Properties files, etc).
- Make code changes to the Zimlet files as necessary and voila, just refresh your browser to see the changes take affect.
There are some limitations, however. If using Internationalization resource properties, you will need to load the Zimbra Web Client in Development Mode (i.e. with “?dev=1″ on the URL). Also, the “allowed domains” setting in the Zimlet Configuration File (config_template.xml) for the Proxy Servlet is not recognized. There is a workaround for this situation described in the Proxy Servlet Setup section of the Zimlet Developer’s Guide.
We still recommend that you package and deploy your Zimlet when you plan to go into production. But as you can see, the Zimlet Development Directory cuts-out the deploy & package development steps and is a convenient way to do iterative Zimlet development.
More information on the Zimlet Development Directory can be found in the Zimlet Developer’s Guide at:
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimlet_Developers_Guide:Dev_Environment_Setup#Zimlet_Development_Directory
 Big news for Zimbra – we’re excited and looking forward to starting a new chapter as part of VMware. We want to thank Yahoo! for helping Zimbra usher in a period of phenomenal growth over the past 2 years. And we are proud to have contributed to the current and future success of Yahoo! during this time as well. Zimbra’s technologies have and will continue to play a role in Yahoo!’s communications services, including Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Calendar. The Yahoo! team is very happy for us, our customers and our community as we prepare to enter this new era. We owe Yahoo! a great deal of appreciation for their support.
First and foremost, we want to reassure our community, customers and partners that we stay 100% committed to our mission. Together with VMware, we will accelerate our investments in Zimbra and strive to be even better at building and supporting the best open source email and collaboration software in the market. As always, we will work tirelessly to strengthen and grow our business relationships and service our customers and community.
In just five years, Zimbra has grown to become one of the largest email and collaboration providers in the world with Microsoft and IBM, totaling more than 55 million paid mailboxes at over 150 thousand organizations worldwide – that’s upwards of 80% year-over-year growth. We are happy to count among our customers leading cloud providers (Comcast, NTT Communications, Westnet); universities (University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgia Tech); companies big (Bechtel, H&R Block) and small (Digg, Mozilla); plus many governments and non-profits (the Drug Enforcement Administration, Malaysian Federal Government, Food for the Hungry). We are honored by these customers and thank them and our community for the continued support.
Zimbra Collaboration Suite has become a great open source platform because of the people who provide input and guidance each day. Our recent launch of ZCS 6.0 was a direct result of community and customer feedback. ZCS 6.0 includes powerful new collaboration features for enterprise users, new capabilities for system administrators, better mobile device management, and the ability to manage Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites (find out what’s new in 6.0 here).
We believe that the shift toward cloud computing and virtualization will continue to change the industry landscape and revolutionize how the IT industry builds, deploys and uses software. Zimbra is excited to be joining our open source friends at SpringSource, and becoming another cornerstone in an impressive suite of VMware products. The VMware platform now integrates virtualization, middleware and applications – and enables the decoupling of applications from traditional concepts of linear hardware scaling. Private and/or public cloud computing networks can work together and applications can be deployed and managed seamlessly across those clouds. Zimbra products were designed from the ground up with virtualization and the cloud in mind, with a modular architecture and APIs to allow distributed access to data and storage. Email and collaboration services have always been ubiquitous to organizations, but now the barriers to transitioning them to efficient virtualized environments will be much more seamless.
At VMware, Zimbra will continue focusing on our product roadmap and setting the standard for web-based collaboration. Look forward to Zimbra Desktop 2.0, more real-time messaging, new ways for sharing content in collaborative workspaces, enhanced team scheduling and business continuity services. Over time we will also adjust the scope and scale of our roadmap to reflect incremental investment, plus we will integrate Zimbra with VMware’s vSphere cloud infrastructure.
Today Steve Herrod, VMware CTO, wrote an excellent post laying out the emerging VMware strategy and how Zimbra products will fit in; be sure to take a look.
Finally, I’d like to thank the amazing Zimbra team for your hard work in building this fantastic product and this business. We have built something very valuable to the market and to the industry in just a few years. As we take this next step with VMware, we will continue our mission – to create an innovative, open source collaboration experience for organizations to use in the cloud and in private on-premises networks.
So on that note, happy new year everybody and stay tuned for a lot of Zimbra news in 2010.
This is one people have asked about a lot. Starting with Zimbra Collaboration Suite 6.0, we will be providing a formal Zimlet Developer’s Guide and API Reference. The goal of this documentation is to make it easier for partners and customers to build Zimlets and to integrate with the Zimbra platform. As we’ve built this documentation, here are some of our guiding principles:
- Easy to find. Make the documentation online and “wiki-based” for easy access.
- Reduce “wondering” between versions. Maintain documentation with each ZCS release so when new major versions of ZCS are delivered (and changes are made to the APIs), people on older ZCS releases can still access their “version specific” documentation.
- Lower overhead to get started. Make developing Zimlets possible without having to download the entire product source. Of course, product source will still be available for those who want it but we want to make even advanced Zimlet tasks (for example, compiling templates) possible without needed the entire source tree.
Here are links to the new developer documentation:
Zimlet Developer’s Guide for ZCS 6.0
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimlet_Developers_Guide:Introduction
Zimlet Definition File Reference for ZCS 6.0
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=ZCS_6.0:Zimlet_Developers_Guide:Zimlet_Definition_File_Reference
Zimlet JavaScript API Reference for ZCS 6.0
http://files.zimbra.com/docs/zimlet/zcs/6.0/jsdocs/index.html
These are living documents and we will be adding content & more information over the coming weeks. With this first-launch, we are looking for your thoughts on the best ways you enjoy learning and making use of the new material, as well as ideas and suggestions about Zimlet topics that you think we should cover. Please provide feedback and comments in the forums at:
http://www.zimbra.com/forums/zimlets/35951-new-zimlet-developer-documentation-zcs-6-0-available.html
Pay attention to the extra bar at the top to navigate around the wiki pages:
Whether you just want dozens of examples, a list of all the elements in the Zimlet Definition File…or want to dive into advanced topics like Templates and Portals, we plan to leave no stone unturned.
 
Happy coding!
Many of our partners, customers, administrators and end users have seen the Microsoft announcement regarding a roadmap to document the Outlook Personal Storage Table (.pst) file format, and have expressed their curiosity about it’s impact on Zimbra products. While it is still unknown if documentation will provide enough insight on how to really unlock the Outlook PST, we see it as the first step in providing new functionality in future versions of Zimbra Collaboration Suite and Zimbra Desktop that access the terabytes of data in PSTs.
For more than a decade, many attempts have been made to understand the Outlook file format, and products have struggled to provide PST support on platforms other than Windows. All efforts have come up short for one reason or another. As Paul Lorimer mentions in his blog post: MAPI and OOM libraries have been available to access PST content, but those libraries are available only to Microsoft programs where Outlook is installed. This dependency forces customers contemplating an OS or platform switch to include email data portability as factor in their decision.
Customers believe this is not a long-term acceptable scenario. As a result, the software industry is in the midst of a gradual transition, moving from proprietary API and data models to open source and standards based options to prevent data lock-in and to encourage data sharing across applications. But why haven’t companies spent more time or moved more quickly to open-up their platforms and data given the market’s trend line?
Companies have externally argued that the standards are not complete, or are in conflict with competing standards or they have just not seen the customer demand. Internally they traditionally weigh existing revenue and investment in developing their proprietary APIs against creating & implementing open formats with greater potential reach and less well understood revenue impact. What has resulted is a string of complicated interoperability and conversion tools, with limited features and ambiguous product life cycles.
There is a lot of discussion out there about the meaning of openness, as noted in the recent Google blog, which has certainly garnered it’s share of comments (see John Grubber’s response or Matt Asay’s response). Regardless of the larger ongoing debate, historically, Microsoft has used data formats, like PST, to create application lock-in and as a wedge to drive commercial business. This only works for so long. Customer benefit has little to do with the underlying data store and more about user features.
Zimbra was built on the belief that a winning recipe is balancing an open system and support for standards with the commercial aspects of the business. Zimbra has always provided access to our core application source code and has been a huge proponent of open formats, throwing strong support behind standards like CalDAV. This platform and technology openness, as Matt Asay points out, allows vendors to focus on solving customer problems, not on the nuances and licensing (i.e. control) of underlying data.
We applaud the effort by Microsoft to help free their user’s data and feel this announcement is another piece of evidence that the need for “openness” has surpassed critical mass. We eagerly await release of the final PST documentation.
Though the Holidays are in full swing and the big day less than 48 hours away, some of us here at Zimbra are just getting started on the gift giving process. So naturally we started today by checking out some of our favorite idea spots like UnCrate, Gizmodo and the Adult Swim Store.
Invariably, a visit to Apple was also in order for gadgets and Apps to use as stocking stuffers. That last bit may sound odd, but as an example, there are no fewer than four iPhones/Touches circulating now in my family and we are not alone. Not surprisingly, children will also choose a new App over anything we could bring home from the Dollar Store. So, the iTouch goes back in the stocking with Flick Fishing this year – and voila a new tradition is born. :)
Happily, during the process we discovered a new App benefiting Zimbra users who are on the go. It’s called the Aderium Companion for Zimbra (App Store URL) and it gives you access to Zimbra Tasks and Briefcase items on the iPhone or iTouch – as well as Wiki pages, a feature we haven’t built into our own mobile web client yet. It’s quite handy for viewing shared documents and creating new tasks on the go. It’s also more convenient than using the mobile browser; though it’s not free that’s a small price to pay if you like having email, contacts, calendars, tasks, wiki docs and files on your iPhone natively (i.e. Zimbra Mobile plus Aderium).
Just added to my iPhone and soon to be in my stocking… Happy Holidays!
  
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