Roundcube Plugin: identity_from_config (use config file to maintain email identities)

A Roundcube plugin to populate and maintain user email identities automatically on each login, based on corresponding data from the plugin's config file. A major use case is to maintain identities of shared mailboxes (like info@example.com) in a consistent and easy way, e.g. when using a shared IMAP namespace.

You can use this plugin in combination with identity_from_directory which uses LDAP or Active Directory to maintain email identities.

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Installation using Composer
  • Installation from release tarball
• Updating
  • Update using Composer
  • Update from release tarball
• Configuration
• Compatibility
• Licensing, copyright
• Author information

Installation

Installation using Composer

The following command installs the plugin package via Composer into plugins/identity_from_config:

php composer.phar require --update-no-dev -o "foundata/identity_from_config:*"

If you want to use the current development version from Git, use -o "foundata/identity_from_config:dev-main". Please confirm with y when Composer asks you whether you want to enable the plugin in the Roundcube configuration. Alternatively, add identity_from_config to Roundcube's $config['plugins'] array by hand.

You can now configure the plugin.

Installation from release tarball

Download the latest identity_from_config-vX.Y.Z.tar.gz tarball (do not use the "Source code" archives Github creates automatically for each release). Extract it into plugins/, all files have to be in plugins/identity_from_config/ afterwards.

Useful snippet if you have got a shell available on your target server:

# set Rouncube's installation path, adapt if needed
roundcube_install_dir="/var/lib/roundcube"

# get version number of the latest release
version="$(curl -s -L https://api.github.com/repos/foundata/roundcube-plugin-identity-from-config/releases/latest | jq -r '.tag_name' | sed -e 's/^v//g')"
printf '%s\n' "${version}"

# download
curl -L "https://github.com/foundata/roundcube-plugin-identity-from-config/releases/download/v${version}/identity_from_config-v${version}.tar.gz" \
  > "/tmp/identity_from_config.tar.gz"

# extract and cleanup
cd "${roundcube_install_dir}/plugins" && tar -xzvf "/tmp/identity_from_config.tar.gz" && rm "/tmp/identity_from_config.tar.gz"

Configure the plugin and add identity_from_config to Roundcube's $config['plugins'] array to enable it.

Updating

Update using Composer

The following command updates the plugin package via Composer:

php composer.phar update --no-dev -o "foundata/identity_from_config:*"`

Update from release tarball

Updating is as simple as overwriting the existing files. Just follow the installation instructions again to get the newest release. This should be a low-risk operation as there are no database schema changes performed by this plugin and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning. The changelog will inform you of any manual actions required during an upgrade, typically only necessary for major version increments.

Configuration

• Copy the template config.inc.php.dist to config.inc.php (Composer may already have done this for you)
• Now edit plugins/identity_from_config/config.inc.php as you need. The inline comments describe every config value in detail.

Some additional notes:

• All plugin actions are only triggered during a user's login. So logout and login again to test a new configuration.
• This plugin is technically compatible with all values of Roundcube's $config['identities_level'] config option. However, a value of 1 (user can edit all params but not the email address as well as add or delete identities in the UI) or 3 (user can edit all params but not the email address and cannot add or delete identities in the UI) makes most sense.

When used with the identity_from_directory plugin

Make sure to exclude the identities created by the identity_from_config plugin from the automatic cleanup of unmanaged identities of the identity_from_directory plugin:

1. Edit /plugins/identity_from_directory/config.inc.php
2. Set $config['identity_from_directory_exclude_delete_unmanaged_regex'] to a fitting value like '/^(office|info)@example\.(com|net)$/im', which excludes identities with the email addresses office@example.com, info@example.com, office@example.net and info@example.net from automatic cleanup (case insensitive)

Compatibility

• Roundcube 1.6 or higher.
• PHP 7.4 or higher.
• No special database requirements. This plugin does not adapt the database schema and is using Roundcube's built-in actions and hooks to handle the identity data.

The plugin may work with older versions then listed above, but this is not tested nor supported. We recommend using the latest stable Roundcube version and PHP 8.x, which the plugin is most tested with.

Licensing, copyright

Copyright (c) 2024, foundata GmbH (https://foundata.com)

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later), see LICENSES/GPL-3.0-or-later.txt for the full text.

The .reuse/dep5 file provides detailed licensing and copyright information in a human- and machine-readable format. This includes parts that may be subject to different licensing or usage terms, such as third party components. The repository conforms to the REUSE specification, you can use reuse spdx to create a SPDX software bill of materials (SBOM).

Author information

This project was created and is maintained by foundata. If you like it, you might buy them a coffee.