Just verified that it is supported by our exchange host – in fact, it’s required.  We’re setting up the IMAP accounts now.

Thank you so much for working with us on this!  Betas are always so much fun and a great learning experience!

No, no. no. I am not taling about IMAP on your mail server. Yes it will do that.

I am talking about IMAP support in the php environment that runs your website.

Apologies for my misunderstanding. 

You’ve hit it dead on. 

Response – They do not support in current config but it will be supported if compiled (php as cgi) and we use that.  I have no idea what the heck that all means, but I repeated it to him and he said it’s correct.

I’m waiting to hear back if our dev can do this or not.  I’m really hoping we’re not dead in the water at this point.

The IMAP in your php would be useful.
Another way to solve the TLS problem would be to use a different email server of course. I would assume that your website comes with mail server capability so it would be easy to set that up and use it and far simpler than trying to configure something big and ‘corporate’ like Exchange Server.

I’ve set up new mailboxes on our site host.  I tried a test message and it immediately bounced.  I set it up using IMAP, but should it be POP?

Will this still require the php IMAP? 

 EDIT:

I’ve checked and the email is showing up in the inbox that I set up with our site host, but doesn’t show in the forum.

When I try to create a new topic to send to the new email account from my exchange account, it tells me that the the message cannot be del’d as the mailbox no longer exists. This is the same email account that is collecting replies.

Should I be using POP in the interim rather than IMAP for the mail settings?

I’m really sorry for all of these questions.

Andy is the expert on this plugin… but I would use POP if you have turned off the tls/ssl…  and would alleviate the need for php imap support built in…

I’ve tried setting up the email as POP, but same issue.  They show in the online inbox, but don’t get to the forum.

I’m starting to think that there’s something very simple that I’m overlooking.

With the pressure on me to get this going so our forums usable, I’m at a loss as to what to try next.  Do I delete everything with the plugin and start over?

I still think you are confused. It doesn’t matter whether the mailbox is POP or IMAP. It only matters whether your PHP environment running your website supports IMAP. If it does then we can send you a version of the plugin that will set the TLS to on. If it does not then we can’t set the TLS in any case.

So your first issue is still the php running your website. Does it have the IMAP library as part of it? If you are being told on the email settings page of SP that we can not download attachments – then it does not.

That’s what I was afraid of and asked about earlier before we switched to the POP accounts. 

I’ve asked my dev if he can do this, but he’s gone quiet on me.  I may have to try to find someone who can do this for us as the reply-to is integral in what we want to do.

Thanks again, Andy.  We’re nothing if not tenacious. 

To have additions made to your php environment will almost certainly require you talking to your hosting company. I am surprised the IMAP extensions are not compiled in as they are are fairly commonly included…

I just checked again and they don’t include it, nor is it available through them.  We’ll need to have things re-compiled using it.

Until I find someone who can help with this, I’ve deactivated the plug-in so that no one inadvertently replies to an email notification.

We should have checked more carefully about things we needed before we moved everything to the new host.  Now, I’m really under the gun in trying to get things done and done quickly. 

As you’re so familiar with all of this, do you know of any plug-ins that will do it – or help with it?

sorry, plugins to help with what? getting imap support into php? will take that to your other thread on that…

Thanks to Brandon and Andy, we’re much closer, but still facing some issues. I had a couple of things and Brandon suggested posting here so that we got your opinions.

The phpIMAP has been added and recompiled, but we haven’t uploaded until the existing testing was complete.

We can now add new topic via email, but the replies to posts don’t seem to be getting through now. They’re not showing up in the forum mailbox on our pop/imap post either.  Per Brandon, I’m re-checking perms to verify that those who should be able to reply can.

We’re asking for your suggestions as to whether to use the phpIMAP configuration and possibly introduce new bugs or to continue working in the current direction and trying to debug the existing install?

Oh, the reason is that attachments cannot be used in the existing config.  Our concern is signatures that may be included, especially as most emails from mobile come in with the sig as an attachment.

If you are ready, I would go ahead and update the server.. for what is being looked at, dont think it will matter…

but I would not yet play with attachments…

In order to make this the easiest for everyone in our forums, is there a way to automatically subscribe every user with permission to that forum? 

Every new event requires a new forum, new group and permissions and then adding members. Adding subscriptions to each person involved becomes really time-consuming. 

I think I saw the option at some point, but now can’t find it again.