Re: [cpx] not intuitive, at all. (cpx)

[Scott Wiersdorf <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Dec 06, 2004 at 12:22:25PM -0500, Stormer's Cgi-Archive wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Well cpx looks nice, but it's simply "not" intuitive at all.

Sorry you feel that way--we had a lot of professional and reseller
input into the design and functionality. Apparently it doesn't match
up with your expectations or how you do things.

> figure it out.  However, allowing end users to "administer" their own 
> email, well, it's flat out HARD.   Oh, I can set them up, no problem.  But 
> having them go to "UserList" add an end user, blah, then go to add email 
> addresses...

Hm... it seems fairly straightforward for the administrator: User
management for adding users, mail management for adding one or more
mail addresses, etc.

As for the end user, it's simply logging in, clicking the "Mail" link
in the top tabs bar. From here you can administer everything that can
be done: forward, autoreply, spam, virus.

CPX (currently) does not allow end users to add or remove their own
mail addresses (virtusertable entries); maybe that's what you want.
They can control their mailbox, whether mail is forwarded,
autoreplied, scanned for spam, etc.).

Keep in mind that we haven't developed *any* server administration
tools yet (like a raw aliases or virtmaps editor, httpd.conf editor,
rc.conf/services interface, a ports/packages interface, etc.--we've
got lots of stuff still coming). Maybe that's what you're feeling like
you're missing.

> Flat out, here is what is needed...
> 
> 1. assigned usernames.  (like imanpro)

What does this mean? Is it like adding a prefix to the username (e.g.,
jgc_useranme)? We've had a request for this functionality as an
enhancement already. Am I guessing right?

> 2. one step email administration.  (like imanpro)

Not sure about this either; you know that when you add a user, a
default email address is setup that you can edit right there in the
user setup screen? You can then add additional email addresses in the
mail management section.

> 3. abitlity to "limit" the email accounts to be "lower" than main ftp 
> quota. Umm.. if I give someone 200 megs of ftp space and they add a bunch 
> of email accounts, well, duh, each of their email accounts "can be" 200 
> megs. That's, umm.. for lack of a better word, "stupid".

Sorry I'm not "getting it" (I'm not an imanpro pro). In VPS v2, each
user has a quota assigned to them. If they use their disk space for
files (via ftp, etc) or email, we don't care. There isn't any way to
divorce the two (unlike on VPS 1) unless you setup a separate user
(i.e., one user for mail only and another for ftp). What am I missing
here?

A domain admin may not over-allocate past their own quota: if I'm a
DA with 200MB quota, I can create 10 users with 20MB quotas each
(leaving nothing for myself--my quota is shrunk with each user I add
under me). Is this what you mean?

> 4. password protection.  (like imanpro)

I'm assuming you mean something like Apache's Basic Authentication to
password protect a web directory. Right? This is also a scheduled
enhancement.

> Ultimately, I just need a way for users to maintain their own email 
> accounts.

This functionality is (for the CPX paradigm) the responsibility of the
domain administrator (the person who owns the domain and creates
users under a particular domain, etc.)

The end users *can* control their primary mailbox and what happens to
it (e.g., mail is forwarded to another place, or an autoresponder is
setup, etc.). End users cannot create more mail aliases for themselves
(only the DA can do that) for now. What else do you mean by "maintain
their own email accounts"?

> All that other flashy stuff is really just flash.  I need users 
> to be able to 'easily' add/remove/edit their 'own' email accounts.

I'm guessing you mean email addresses (we use the term 'account' to
mean a username/login pair--having a user delete himself would be bad,
imo). Do other people want this functionality also?

We've extended the ability to add/remove/edit email addresses from the
server administrator to the domain administrator--are you requesting
that it go one step further to the end user also?

> Ideally, just a simple username/password, puts them right into the screen 
> to manage their mail accounts. That's it.

We also have an enhancement request to change the default landing page
(the page you see after logging in) so that users can go right to
webmail after logging in.

> And Mark, I know your reading this.. if only imanpro would allow for 
> administering multiple domains, it would be a slam dunk!  Please don't 
> throw imanpro away!  Too many of us are using it without problems.

Mark, if you are reading this, I'd appreciate some help understanding
where CPX is lacking for James's sake (or helping James understand how
CPX works). I didn't hope for CPX to be all things to all people, but
we thought we'd done a pretty good job for most people's needs.

I'll be posting some useful stuff today and tomorrow to the CPX list
that might help you philosophically get your head around CPX.

Scott
-- 
Scott Wiersdorf
<scott@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
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