Usermin feedback

Blue Skies
1

I allowed a couple of my clients access to a Webmin/Usermin account I had set up on a test server.

From the Usermin tab they where impressed over the options and simple controls over the email settings.

Most of the response though was related towards the Mail tab Read Email (view_mail.cgi)

The Buttons are not formed well, even though they are form buttons.

Perhaps bootstrap icons could be used? with alt text when you hoover over them.
Show buttons on top only. ( shows three options? eliminate this and keep them on top)

Reply - Reply to all and Forward (can be drop down options)

Compose - Don’t really need it? (All ready have a + New Message button in the viewable mail tab)

Copy to - Move to - Sent mail drop down (confused them) They are used to right click options or drag and drop.

Delete - Report Spam - Report Ham (can be drop down options)

Allow Sender - Deny Sender (can be drop down options)

Print can be an icon

I love the Mail headers option, one of my favorites. Can make these options a drop down to clean it up.

I would remove the search options from the: From - To - Subject and just add an option to add From address to contacts.

A third panel to view your folder items and read email. A feature used in almost all webmail clients.

This will allow the use for drag and drop availability.

Right click that shows options such as reply and move to commands in the folder items panel.

Aside from asking where is the calendar? ;0 That was about it.

You already have an option for the user to upload and download from their user account.
I did not see an option allowing for the user to save nor make an attachment from the server within the emails and compose?
Unless I have missed this in Usermin options?
Edit:
Found it under Usermin configuration > Usermin Module Configuration > Read Mail
all the way on the bottom settings for Other settings and restrictions

I am wondering if phpcalendar could be incorporated some how in Usermin? Just a thought :wink:

In my honest opinion focusing on some touch ups in Usermin could win you a lot of customers.
You could add some pay for features such as a calendar, email retention policy and backups per user account.
and so on…

Feel free to add your opinions as well.

Regards,

Peter

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2

I just stepped through these suggestions and my view (for what its worth) they all seem to be your users wish list. perhaps they are already coming from some other system and not prepared to accept something new/different. As for integration with php whatsit - no thanks - not used, not wanted. Much of the rest seems a bit picky and probably more work than it is worth.
Hate to be so negative New Year and all that - perhaps it is just me.
Is Usermin really for clients use?

3

This is what Blue Skies is all about! Wish List!!!

You are being more than just negative… You should go back to bed…

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4

YES! We’ve really failed somewhere if you think Usermin isn’t for users. It’s in the name!

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5

I don’t agree with everything suggested, but we did ask for feedback, and this is the best first attempt someone has made to provide it in quite a while. I’m happy to see actionable suggestions, even if we discuss them and opt not to go the suggested direction (i.e. embedding phpcalendar is almost certainly a non-starter).

6

Hey I had to start somewhere :wink: phpcalendar was sort of a suggestion as to why not incorporate a calendar so users can make schedules and what not. I did also suggest you could add this to the paid version…

7

We have discussed doing more with NextCloud…some sort of more advanced integration than just a basic installer. But, it’s not an area we’re familiar with (I’ve never used it), but a lot of our users do and it looks good and it has a calendar and other stuff. But, it’s pretty much an all-in-one thing…no room for Usermin in that picture. If someone is using NextCloud, they’re probably using all of its features, including webmail. And, we do have an installer for NextCloud in Virtualmin Pro, but that’s pretty low-hanging fruit. Not really any integration going on there.

And, that may even be the direction we should go. If nobody even thinks users should use Usermin because it’s too technical, maybe we should get out of the user-facing software business and stick to managing the backend. But, once again it’s a lot of work that I don’t see a clear path on. I don’t know what integration with NextCloud would look like.

Embedding other software into Usermin is often a lot more work than it looks like. I’m not comfortable shipping things that look and act completely differently in iframes or whatever, so anything that gets into Webmin/Usermin is a major effort in terms of re-theming and making it work in a transparent way (like you can’t ask someone to login a second time just to get to the embedded app!). Embedding other apps is not simple, is what I’m trying to say. Often more work than writing something ourselves (which is what ended up happening with the terminal which was recently added to Webmin…we tried out a bunch of options for embedding existing solutions, and ended up throwing all that away and Jamie wrote a new lightweight backend for xterm.js that authenticates to Webmin session tokens and proxies through Webmin with WSS proxy support that Jamie also wrote).

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8

NextCloud is more of a Groupware and great for multi users on a network. I have an old Zimbra mail server that interacts with a NextCloud server that I had setup for a client a few years back.

I’m only suggesting a little facelift to usermin for a single user platform. No need to get into groupware.

I prefer Usermin over other webmail apps since serverside apps such as spamassassin is already setup for the user to make their own choices on how they want to disperse their spam.
Not to mention other apps that integrate as long as the user has permissions to use it.

I just found out today you can setup the user to download and upload files to their user account and be able to attach and upload attachments to email from the server. That is a great feature!

I appreciate all the hard work that went into Usermin.

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9

Oh well, perhaps I misunderstood. They all use client email solutions (Mozilla Thunderbird, GMail, that Microsoft thing! etc) perhaps I’m missing a trick. :man_shrugging:t2:

10

Only just got up - there’s a whole busy night ahead. Honestly didn’t mean to seem to be in attack mode just plodded through and nothing seemed to make it on my list. But that is the whole point of getting a discussion moving ideas, suggestions … input from others … would it be better to have no response from anyone? Back to work!

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Never use it due to complexity for end user, for end user is very not friendly, actually not recommended to use it for business at all unless your customer or mom is on same level like you are on virtualmin

12

Perhaps you could be more specific here? Suggestions?

Personally me, mine, and assorted numbskull clients have not reported any problems yet (they all use Thunderbird as email client and once pointed in the right direction seem to manage) Only a few seem to bother with Usermin itself.

13

Hmmm…

  • Drag-n-drop vs right click vs visible: that’s VERY much a usability-based-on-past-experience thing.
    • I.e. I have users who appreciate each of those!
  • One thing to consider is: how does this work out for people using from various size screens. Desk / tab / phone…
  • In general though, one of my usability principles is: make the easy stuff obvious, hide complexity but make sure it’s easily available
14

Have you played with Usermin much?

I just tested it on my phone, worked very well and just like on my desktop, so it has a consistent user experience.

It’s not as “pretty” as some, but it actually works very well and satisfies your usability principle.

The only thing I need to investigate, is having simple filter rules to move eg, new mail to folders based on the sender, without having to have SpoamAssassin turned on.

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15

It definitely would be nice if everyone commenting on Usermin had actually used it, and it’s somewhat apparent some of the folks commenting have not. :man_shrugging:

The best feedback is concrete suggestions in the form of “Usermin does X right now, and I think it would be better if it did Y instead.” Bonus points if the next sentence is, “And here’s a screenshot from a mail client that I think does this well.”

16

Simple filter rules to move eg, new mail to folders based on the sender or subject.

:slight_smile:

17

what’s wrong with

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18

The bit that I really miss is the preview pane

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but there are others
inability to mark a mail folder read via the folder list (left pane)
can not find a way to add other email accounts to usermin (an option to add an account, enter the connection credentials)
remove the usermin tab from the left menu and add it to a menu at the top (usermin doesn’t have one atm) this will make it appear to be similar to other email clients which may make the fickle end users think that it is a mail client and not something that look daunting to use
if usermin did this I would use it more than I do now

19

In my previous post I mentioned that it requires Spamassassin to be enabled - which I don’t want to do if possible. Keep it simple.

20

More testing - it can work without Spamassassin enabled!

Improvements then, should there be an option for case sensitive?

Would it be possible to have folder names on the menu highlighted or marked in some way if they had new or unread emails?