Re: [SM-DEVEL] Announce: Mobile device skin/template set for SM 1.5

[Daniel W. <d...@ni...>]

Paul Lesniewski wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> Just in case anyone was wondering (a few times a year someone seems to
> ask), I would like to announce to the community that a
> much-anticipated feature enhancement for SquirrelMail is now under
> way.
> 
> I had the pleasure of meeting with Norihisa Washitake and Scott Hughes
> of the RisuMail team recently, where we spent a couple weekends
> hashing out what it would take to form the development of a
> skin/template set (and associated plugin(s) and needed core code
> changes) for use by mobile phones.  Norihisa (to whom many of us are
> indebted to for having added Japanese/UTF compatibility to Courier
> IMAP and who also comes to us having been involved in making one of
> the largest proprietary webmail products in Japan compatible with
> several types of mobile devices) has developed some prototype code as
> have I, and we plan to share and merge our code for eventual release
> as an example of how SquirrelMail's new template-based architecture
> will allow it to be usable in many mobile devices (WAP/iMode/XHTML
> Mobile/etc... no full-blown frame-capable browser in a PDA needed).
> 
> As I have tried to stress numerous times in the past, the templating
> in SM 1.5.2 is still not cleaned up and will continue to change in
> possibly drastic ways, so I'd just like to remind everyone that
> although we (and a few others I've heard about) are developing a new
> skin, the pending changes in 1.5.x will have possibly large
> implications for template sets as well -- if you are thinking about
> implenting your own skin, be forewarned that it *WILL* break often
> until 1.5.x settles into a more stabilized state.
> 
> Japan (where the skin will be put to use first) is one of the world's
> most advanced mobile phone marketplaces, so it should get plenty of
> testing and serve as a fairly solid example for others to follow in
> the future.  I think that this will give SquirrelMail a big boost and
> serve as an example of the power and promise of the NEW SquirrelMail.
> I don't know of any other Open Source webmail applications that have
> interfaces *specifically* designed and intended for mobile devices,
> especially that can be swapped out by just changing a template set.
> 
> We intend to take a couple months ironing out details and developing
> in our spare time, so we were thinking that the first release to the
> community might occur some time in February, after which we may make
> our SVN repository available to the public as well.  Don't hold anyone
> to it, but that's the current target.
> 
> Also, many thanks to Scott/RisuMail for facilitating this project.
> 
> Cheers,
> 

Paul
Very glad to see this =) I take it this is going to be a 
proof-of-concept project for now until the templating is solidified.

I've just had a look again at 
http://squirrelmail.org/wiki/CurrentTemplateStatus

Are there many 'Others?' that are being worked on now? Or is Phase 2 
firmly underway? Would be good to have an update.

We've launched a templated webmail based on a version of 1.5.2 but are 
hoping to release a new dynamic template in the summer. What chance of a 
stable 1.6 (or 2.0) release by then?

Dan