[SM-USERS] Custom User Interface

[Steve B. <sbr...@gm...>]

My company is currently using SquirrelMail for our webmail interface.=20
Our creative/graphics division has decided that they want to rework
the webmail interface to match our coporate branding, etc.  The work
they want to do goes far beyond simple themes.  They are looking to do
modifications more like http://www.voxthemes.com or
http://www.nutsmail.com.  So my questions are as follows:

1) It looks like the sites mentioned above actually rewrite/patch the
SQM source code for each theme.  Does anyone know if this is true?=20
When a new version of SQM is released, do they release a "new version"
of the skins patched against the new SQM source?

2) Does SQM make use of Smarty Templates (or any other templates) that
might make this process a bit easier?

3) I'm investigating the idea of writing our own backend using the SQM
API and letting our graphics folks write the front end.  Are there any
good turtorials out there about making use of the SQM API (beyond the
docs on the SQM web site)?

4) I'm also open to suggestions on what the best way to balance
customization vs. ease of maintenance is for a project like this.

Thanks for the advice.