squirrelmail/doc/db-backend.txt

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Storing private addressbooks and preferences in a database
==========================================================


On sites with many users you might want to store your user data in a
database instead of in files. This document describes how to configure
SquirrelMail to do this.

Methods for storing both personal addressbooks and user preferences in
a database is included as a part of the distribution.



Configuring PEAR DB
-------------------

For this to work you must have the PEAR classes installed, these are
part of PHP. Once these are installed you must have sure the directory
containg them is a part of your PHP include path. See the PHP
documentation for information on how to do that.
Under Mandrake Linux the PEAR classes are installed as part of the
php-devel package and under FreeBSD they are installed as part of
the mod_php4 or php4 port/package. I'm afraid I have no information on
other systems at the present time.


Configuring addressbooks in database
------------------------------------

First you need to create a database and a table to store the data in.
Create a database user with access to read and write in that table.

For MySQL you would normally do something like:

 (from the command line)
 # mysqladmin create squirrelmail

 (from the mysql client)
 mysql> GRANT select,insert,update,delete ON squirrelmail.* 
              TO squirreluser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'sqpassword';

The table structure should be similar to this (for MySQL):

   CREATE TABLE address (
     owner varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
     nickname varchar(16) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
     firstname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
     lastname varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
     email varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
     label varchar(255),
     PRIMARY KEY (owner,nickname),
     KEY firstname (firstname,lastname)
   );


Next, edit your configuration so that the address book DSN (Data Source
Name) is specified, this can be done using either conf.pl or via the
administration plugin. The DSN should look something like:

 $addrbook_dsn = 'mysql://squirreluser:sqpassword@localhost/squirrelmail';

From now on all users' personal addressbooks will be stored in a
database.



Configuring preferences in database
-----------------------------------

There is no easy way to do this yet. You will have to remove
functions/prefs.php and replace it with functions/db_prefs.php. Then
edit the new functions/prefs.php (db_prefs.php) and change the $DSN to
point to a database you create (can be the same you use for
addressbooks).  Create a table similar to this (for MySQL):

  CREATE TABLE userprefs (
    user varchar(128) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
    prefkey varchar(64) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
    prefval BLOB DEFAULT '' NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (user,prefkey)
  );


Default preferences can be set by altering the $default array in
prefs.php (db_prefs.php).