Gossamer Forum
Home : Products : Gossamer Mail : Discussion :

New Product!

Quote Reply
New Product!
Hi!

I'd just like to introduce you to our first all new product in quite some time, Gossamer Mail. It aims to be one of the most flexible and robust email systems around. The program came to life from a custom site that was running 70,000+ users, so we are pretty confident in it. =)

The online demos should be available shortly (tonight or tommorrow at the latest), we are just creating a new set of templates for the program.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Hi Alex, we are very interested in this program. A couple of days before we think about another program like this; costs 800$ but its written completly in C. Cause we would spend this service to our 34.000 Clients we must be shure to use the right, fast and stable program. From you we know the always good service and the effort of this community, but on the other hand i really dont know which times c beats the speed of perl. What do you think?
Robert

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Hi Robert,

Is this going on a dedicated server? If so, then you can use mod_perl which will be several times faster then plain c in terms of performance.

Remember, everything you see on this site is in perl, the forum, the links sql demo, etc. You can get great performance with perl, and enjoy the flexibility it brings.

Out of curiosity, what other program were you looking at?

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
You've been very gracious with non-profit web-sites. Are there any plans for a version of Gossamer Mail for non-profits?

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
In the immediate future (i.e. next two weeks) no, but we are looking at setting up a hosted solution in which case we may offer special prices for non-profits.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
It would be served from one of our own servers; maybe from a new one only for this service. The name of the other company is bookmarked at my main office, not here at the second one :-( i have found it over freashmeat.com.
Offtopic but important: read something about a new version of links sql. I hope and im afraid, there are so many modifications inside my site :-)

Something else: Is this a new version of the ultimate, a modified one or something new?

Robert

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
If you have your own server, then you can run the program under mod_perl, and it will be very quick. Our demo should be live tommorrow and you can judge for yourself.

In Reply To:
Something else: Is this a new version of the ultimate, a modified one or something new?
No, this is a modified version of wwwthreads where you can find at: http://www.wwwthreads.com/

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Alex can an user enter and register a new account as today functions with yahoo-mail or hotmail?

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Yes, there is a user signup which can either be unvalidated, or require an admin to approve the account first.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
congratulations on the new software. i'm confident it's a first class.
this is something i want to buy in afew months but i'm wondering if the script work for other languages.
for example arabic. if you do not have arabic windows installed on your computer then you can not read it properly though if you have Msie5.0 you may able to view it on some servers. you can not read it on hotmail.com while you can using everyone mail so my question is:
if i buy your software, can i read arabic texts with msie even if i do not have arabic windows?
thanks

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
I have limited Arabic knowledge, but I did work on one site using Arabic. All that was involved was putting the proper html header and IE displayed it properly. I don't see why you couldn't do this in Gossamer Mail, all the language is in a Language file, and the rest is just html templates.

Cheers,

Alex



--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
i'm not worried about the proper html. my concern is the e-mail text the person get in arabic, will he be able to see it properly even if he does not have arabic windows?

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
I'm not really well versed in this, but I have spent some time trying to make MSIE behave with various headers.

When a user writes a file via their browser through a perl program like the webmail, the characters are converted to the default set of the program/OS that it's running on. It would not carry the browser settings into the message. It would be ISO/ASCII or whatever.

When a user goes to pick up the message, the server will send a header to tell the browser what language/char set it's using, and the browser will respond as configured (or with MSIE it will go to try to find the character set if it doesn't have it).

If you plan on sending messages in multiple languages, you will probably need to modify the program (maybe even the server settings) to respond to the browser request and the language that the browser is working in. This is probably stored in an %ENV variable somewhere.. (Again, I'd have to look it up).

But, the answer (or point) I'm trying to make is that the language the user enters the text in is determined by the browser, how the server sees it is determined by the server settings, and how the person who reads it sees it is determined by the server settings going in, coming out, and their browser settings.

Maybe this explanation helps Alex see what you are probably asking, and whether he has the answer.

It's one thing to configure a site for a different language. It's another to configure it to RESPOND IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES altogether.



Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
pugdog :
you read my mind. you explain it much better. thanks
i wish alex has a solution for this

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Hmm, are you sure about this? The program can use different template sets per user, so you could have an arabic set and an english set. Now, if a person is logged on using the arabic set, and is viewing a message, if you put the proper html headers, i.e. will display it in arabic.

If the person is viewing an english message, but using the arabic template set it will still display it in english. I don't think anything special needs to be done, it's all in the html.

I will admit I've only done a few multilingual sites so I'm not 100% on this.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Alex, maybe it doesn't matter much, but here's the problem in another view.

(Mail is _not_ my strong point, I freely admit it, but I've suffered enough with MSIE/outlook trying to send HTML documents from my server that at least I've hit enough problems to know it's not simple.)

Servers can negotiate which pages to return based on the AddLanguage and content handlers (Apache at least).

They can chose a set of templates to return to the user, with the right content heading to allow display in that browser. It's up to the browser to take the content header and do soemthing with it. But it's up to the server to send the right content header (and to the mailer program to put the right one on).

This is one-directional. The browser asks for a file, the server decides which to send, the browser displays it.

We've added another layer to this. We want to send content BACK to the server, that is then stored, processed or sent out. The browser sends a content header, the server responds to it (maybe) but then it's "lost".

We have a server running in a language (probably english). It's hosting pages in primarily Arabic (based on configuration, content handlers, whatever). Data coming in to the scripts is in arabic, and the content codes sent are in Arabic. What happens if an English user connects, or tries to read the sent file? If the wrong output set is loaded into the browser, you'll get gibberish.

If a user logs on in an arabic browser, requests the arabic templates, then attempts to send an English message, how on the other end do you know what to do? (assuming both users are on the same system?).

Or, the scripts have accepted the raw data from the browser, which is in Arabic. These character codes are fine, the server just stores them. Now, the file is sent, but without a content header on the mail message the end user has no idea what language they are in.

What if the user connects in Arabic, but the mail message was coded in English? Should the mail program send the English template set as an override, and force the browser to go get the characters, or just present the gibberish?

Do you see the potential problem? We aren't just talking server negotiation with the browser for a user session, we are then taking the result of that session, and sending it out into the world. Or, we are accepting something from the rest of the world, and trying to read it.

Maybe there isn't a problem, and all this has been incorporated into the base protocols. But, somehow I don't think so <G>.

Maybe at the least the system has to add a content header into the mail messages to allow proper handling?


such as:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit


or:
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854";
x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
X-Accept-Language: en


I ran through my mail files, and not all this information is added to every message. Some, MIME-type mailers add this. But, files going through the sendmail system from a program pipe only have what is manually added to them.





Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Out of curiosity, what other program were you looking at?

Cheers,

Alex

I am waiting to buy new SQL links, but I think in this version you do not plan to implement bidding for the placement. Do you plan it for the future?

Also I am searching for good classifieds, auction, calendar, and online web editor. May be you plan to develop anything of this?

Best regards,

Slava.

Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
I've looked at integrating auction type software into the shopping cart system. There are problems -- one is volume. Most auction systems will work well on low volume -- and I'm categorically, and morally, against the 'last second' snipe type bid, so any software I'd develop would _not_ have that feature in it. I find it unfair to biddres and sellers, and against what auctions are all about. By removing this feature, and the transaction/locking mechanisms that it has to have, you simplify the program greatly, since an auction does not close until x-minutes after the last bid is placed. Anyway (flame off...)

For auctions, you might want to check out EasyAuction. He was looking to do some upgrades on that, but we've lost touch.

If you are trying to set up an eBay type auction, you'll need more than any free or open source package can currently handle. But, to just run a small local auction, there are several packages out there. As the technology becomes more defined, many of the packages will get simplified, which will help.

Check out http://cgi-resources.com for an overview of what software is available in each category.

http://sourceforge.net/ also has open source projects listed that are in development, and several different auction software development groups are listed.



Quote Reply
Re: New Product! In reply to
Thanks,

sure I checked all that is listed in cgi-resources and in other directories, like perlactive.com, and found exactly what you say: good amator scripts. Anything more or less looking good, like mewsoft, costs $50,000 and more and I am not sure it will work properly. That is why I was curious weather Alex has in mind to develop anything of my list, then I'd rather by from him. Like email, there are a lot on the market, but I will by his latest invention for I trust him much more.
So, again, if anyone can help me to find as good program as Links about classifieds, auction, calendar, and online web editor, I will be really greatfull.

Regards,

Slava.