Welcome to POPFile v0.22.0

This version consists of a major update to v0.21.0 with many improvements
and bug fixes:

1. History in database

We've finally done away with the old method of keeping the message history
in a single directory full of files (which was frankly flaky and hard to
maintain).  Messages are now placed in subdirectories with no more than 256
per directory.  History is now moved it into the database along with all
the other information that POPFile uses.

This change brings two benefits: firstly it's a lot faster than previous
versions because we can rely on the SQL database to do searching and sorting
for us; secondly, it brings extra flexibility and we now have additional
columns available in the history (we now have two time values (the date/time
the message was received by POPFile and the date/time in the message header),
the From, To, Cc and Subject headers and message size).

2. Switch UI to HTML templates

Back in the mists of POPFile time I grafted an HTML interface onto my little
Perl script and POPFile was born.  Unfortunately that HTML interface had 
grown into thousands of lines of ugly Perl and HTML interwined.  This release
completely separates out the HTML from the Perl.

More details are here:

    http://popfile.sf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Template

This has a number of advantages: firstly, POPFile's code is easier to maintain
because it's simpler; secondly, skinning POPFile can now take advantage of the
full power of HTML and not just a limited set of classes and lastly it's made
it easy to expand the UI, which brings us to...

3. UI improvements

The History page is redesigned to be cleaner and support multiple, configurable
columns (From, To, Cc, Arrived Date, Message Date, Subject, etc.).  Filtering
options have been expanded.   The page now shows the total number of messages
and the line break showing when different download sessions occurred.

Many people will notice that the 'unmagnetized' filter has been removed; this
is because we've added an 'Invert' option that allows inversion of any search
or filter.   Now it's possible to filter on 'not spam', for example.  To filter
on unmagnetized messages select magnetized and Invert.

Buckets page has been simplified to make it clearer.  The confusing accuracy
graph has been removed and unclassified messages are now correctly counted
in total messages and total errors.  The old color picker is replaced with
a simple drop down.

The Advanced page now shows which parameters have been changed from the
default.  If a parameter has a non-default value then its name is bolded. 

Many of the skins had minor improvements.  And we have two new skins:

The first, 'osx' gives you a bit of the Mac feel.

As part of the UI improvement a new skin called 'oceanblue' has been added
that demonstrates how the UI for POPFile can be changed dramatically with
the new skinning scheme using only a few files.

4. Anti-spam improvements

The mail parsing engine has been updated to deal with the latest spammer
trickery: notably the Flex Hex trick which you can read about in The
Spammers' Compendium: http://www.jgc.org/tsc/

5. Support for SMTP and NNTP

For a long time we've had experimental support for two new protocols:
SMTP (often used for incoming email) and NNTP (most commonly used for
Usenet-style news).  They are no longer experimental and are now distributed
with POPFile.  The SMTP and NNTP modules are disabled by default
but can be enabled on the Advanced page.

The SMTP module is designed to act as a front-end for a real SMTP server
accepting messages and proxying them into a single SMTP server after
performing classification.   The NNTP module acts as a proxy between your
News client and News server performing classification on articles.

6. Experimental support for IMAP

The new experimental IMAP module is not included in the default distribution.
You can find the documentation and a download link here:

    http://popfile.sf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ExperimentalModules/Imap 

The IMAP module is not a proxy, but acts as a service which will regularily
check an IMAP server for new messages, classifies them and then moves them into
IMAP folders that correspond to your buckets.  Reclassification can be done
outside the POPFile user interface simply by moving messages between folders
on the IMAP server.

IMAP module users should watch out about upsetting their ISP if they have a
very large number of buckets.  The IMAP module will keep a connection open for
each folder you monitor.  This has caused a complaint from at least one ISP to
a user with an extrememly large number of buckets.

7. XML-RPC interface

For some time we've had an experimental external interface to POPFile through
XML-RPC.   For the first time we are shipping this XML-RPC component, though 
it is disabled by default.  If it is enabled an external program written in 
many different programming languages can communicate with POPFile to use its
services.

Full details of the API can be found here:

    http://popfile.sf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ExperimentalModules/XmlRpc

8. Support for APOP, SSL and SOCKS

The POP3 proxy has new support for the APOP authentication method.  To use
APOP authentication you change the POP3 server string in your email client 
from 'host:username' to 'host:username:apop'.

SSL support is added for all proxies.   POPFile can now establish secure
connections to servers.  To use change the POP3 server string in your email 
client from 'host:username' to 'host:username:ssl'.  POPFile does not 
accept SSL connections, but will establish connections to secure servers.

SOCKS proxying is added to all proxies.  To configure the host and port
to use go to the Configuration tab and set it for the appropriate proxy. 
Outbound proxy connections will go via the SOCKS server specified.

The Windows installer DOES NOT include the components necessary for SSL
support.  If you need SSL support on Windows YOU MUST download the Perl
SSL components as follows:

IO::Socket::SSL
Net::SSLeay
<nowiki>OpenSSL</nowiki>

9. Transparent POP3 Proxying

v0.22.0 includes support for transparent proxying of POP3 connections where
the destination POP3 server is configured in POPFile and the mail client
talks to POPFile without using the special host:user syntax for the hostname.

This is most useful in a small office environment with a dedicated POP3
server where POPFile can act as a front end for the real POP3 server and 
by installing it on the same machine as the POP3 server there's no need to
change mail client settings.  To use this mode set the host and port of the
real POP3 server on POPFile's Security tab in the SPA/AUTH settings.

ESSENTIAL READING IF YOU ARE UPGRADING TO v0.22.0

1. BACK UP YOUR OLD INSTALLATION: POPFile makes this really easy, just copy
the entire POPFile directory somewhere. You can then safely install
POPFile v0.22.0 on top of your current installation; I just think a back up
is a sensible precaution.

On Windows you may want to check out Brian's Backup and Restore Utilities:

    http://www.sugelan.co.uk/popfile/databru.html

2. ON WINDOWS POPFILE IS AN EXE. Windows users will now be able to see
POPFile running in the Task Manager with an executable called popfileXX.exe
where the XX is one of f, if, b, ib depending on configuration. POPFile
is started by running popfile.exe which chooses the appropriate popfileXX.exe

This might cause your firewall to ask about giving popfileXX.exe permissions,
in addition if you had allowed Perl permissions in your firewall they are
NO LONGER needed.

KNOWN WINDOWS ISSUES

1. THE TRAYICON ON WINDOWS CAN CAUSE POPFILE TO FREEZE.  With certain setups
if you attempt to view the trayicon's tooltip or hover your cursor over it
while checking or downloading mail POPFile may freeze. The exact cause is
still unknown but it may be related to some video drivers. If this problem
affects you turn off the trayicon. A solution is being looked into.

2. ON WINDOWS I WANT TO CHECK MULTIPLE EMAIL ACCOUNTS SIMULTANEOUSLY.
Because the time taken to start a new process on Windows is long under Perl
there is an optimization for Windows that is present by default: when a new
connection is made between your email program and POPFile, POPFile handles it
in the 'parent' process. This means that the connect happens fast and mail
starts downloading very quickly, but is means that you can only downloaded
messages from one server at a time (up to 6 other connections will be queued
up and dealt with in the order they arrive) and the UI is unavaiable while
downloading email.

You can turn this behavior off (and get simultaneous UI/email access and as
many email connections as you like) by going to the Configuration panel in
the UI and making sure that "Allow concurrent POP3 connections:" is set to
Yes, or by specifying --set pop3_force_fork=1 on the command line.

I AM USING THE CROSS PLATFORM VERSION

POPFile requires a number of Perl modules that are available from CPAN. New
in v0.22.0 are the need for the following:

Date::Parse
HTML::Template
HTML::Tagset
DBD::SQLite
DBI
Date::<nowiki>TimeDate</nowiki>

Please refer to the detailed installation instructions on the POPFile wiki

    http://popfile.sf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?HowTos:CrossPlatformInstall

I AM USING THE CROSS PLATFORM VERSION AND WANT TO USE SQLITE 3

Since there is currently a great deal of change in SQLite and the Perl
modules that interface with SQLite please read the following page for
a full explanation:

    http://popfile.sf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SQLite3

(Thanks helphand for the detailed explanation of the issues.)

DOWNLOADING

You can obtain the latest releases of POPFile by visiting

    http://sf.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=63137

UPGRADING

Just install POPFile on top of the currently installed version. But did you
read the ESSENTIAL READING above first.

DONATIONS

Thank you to everyone who has clicked the Donate! button and donated their
hard earned cash to me in support of POPFile. Thank you also to the people
who have contributed patches, feature requests, bug reports and translations.

    http://sf.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=213876

PRAISE

This release sees an enormous improvement in the Windows installer which
is the exclusive playground of Brian Smith.  Brian has worked tirelessly to
make the Windows installer robust, clear and easy.   Nice work, Brian!

A new POPFile developer is Manni Heumann who has made a number of contributions
to the release and wiki, the most significant of which is the implementation of
the experimental IMAP module.

Another new developer, Joseph Connors, has been very active in the HTML
skinning of POPFile and has made major contributions to the POPFile
documentation on the Wiki.

Amatubu is always working to translate and expand the Wiki into Japanese and
Yasuo Honda is spent a great deal of time reviewing the Japanese Wiki
pages.

CONCLUSION

Keep the ideas and bug reports coming. If you are interested in knowing
more about what's planned for future POPFile versions (or just learning
about POPFile's history) visit the POPFile Roadmap:

    http://sf.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=17906&group_id=63137

John.