![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bluemind.purpl-web.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/dossiers.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA new webmail? What for?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBlueMind\u2019s raison d\u2019\u00eatre, as a collaborative email solution provider, is to bring businesses a sovereign, valued and competitive alternative to all-powerful foreign solutions that keep the market locked. Email being businesses\u2019 most-used communication tool, the cornerstone of anything email-related lies in user satisfaction. Our strategy is therefore to meet all user needs and become the only solution to offer full compatibility with Thunderbird<\/a>, Mac OS, mobile devices and above all \u2013 a technological prowess \u2013 Outlook<\/a>, the all-round champion when it comes to user preference.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBeing compatible with ALL USES<\/strong> also means on the one hand helping organisations save on installation and roll out costs and, on the other, providing users with a versatile tool that can be accessed from any machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe design of BlueMind\u2019s new webmail started with a blank slate and: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- BlueMind\u2019s server baseware<\/strong> augmented with a new webservice API<\/strong> for email,<\/li>
- A new baseware for the graphical interface<\/strong>,<\/li>
- Our expertise and our clients\u2019 accrued experience<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The flexibility and lightness of a standard webmail application are no longer enough for users, particularly at a time of massive remote work. Having identified mobility, productivity and ability to evolve as key market demands, we\u2019ve aimed towards a much more complete view of a webmail client whose role would extend beyond the over-simplistic \u2013 although often real \u2013 one as a mere back-up for a thick client.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOur webmail seeks to have the look and feel of a thick client while doing away with its main weaknesses \u2013 roll out and workstation lifecycle \u2013 and focusing on uses \u2013 productivity, interfaces and seamless ties with other collaborative tools. The webmail application will no longer be a secondary option but a full-fledged primary tool<\/strong> and a true alternative to thick clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith our entire development process driven by UX design<\/strong><\/a>, achieving this was no small technological feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bluemind.purpl-web.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/telephones-1-1-1024x656.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind the wheel: a look from the user side<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBlueMind\u2019s new webmail brings you all the features<\/strong> you need to work as effectively as you would with a thick client with a user-friendly, efficient application for managing your emails, folders, shared and functional mailboxes, drafts and rich searches as well as invitations, calendar availability search, corporate signatures, video-conference resources, linked attachments, filters, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd because good news always come in pairs, this webmail also introduces new features that make it even more compelling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- A mobile-specific interface \u2013 <\/strong>A new, responsive UI specifically designed for mobile use<\/li>
- Counter-proposals for calendar invitations<\/strong> \u2013 You often receive meeting invitations but the time\/date doesn\u2019t suit you. Rather than engage in a tiresome exchange of emails with the other participants, BlueMind now lets you suggest a different time to the organiser, which gets entered into the meeting\u2019s workflow.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bluemind.purpl-web.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mail-avec-pj.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nUnder the bonnet: major technical challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nDeveloping this new webmail has meant tackling some technically ambitious design goals and choices. Here is an overview of the major challenges that have driven our development team and put it to the test:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Offline mode,<\/strong> <\/strong>which was already available for the calendar and contacts applications, is now available for mail too. You\u2019re on a flight and you have a couple of hours to kill, or on a train with a sketchy 4G connection\u2026 It\u2019s the perfect time to prepare your next meeting. But you need to look at past email conversations on the topic and write a draft, without an internet connection or a thick client. This is where BlueMind\u2019s new webmail and global web architecture comes in. To handle offline mode, it uses synchronisation at different levels of data, implements the Service Worker concept and uses IndexedDB storage, which manages offline data and ensures its consistency once you get back online. For more details, we will dedicate a full article to offline mode in the coming months.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Accessibility<\/strong>: According to a French senate estimate, 12 million people in France<\/a> are believed to be affected by IT accessibility. Providing email access to all types of users was one of our webmail\u2019s key goals. This includes keyboard navigation, audio navigation or high contrast. We will address the challenges we\u2019ve had to face and the technical choices made in relation to accessibility in a future article.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- User experience:<\/strong> Users are at the core of any development process at BlueMind. A webmail application can only be considered as an alternative to a thick client if it offers an equally user-friendly, smooth experience. The redesign of BlueMind\u2019s webmail is entirely based on the UX principle. A full article on the subject can be found here<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Mobile first:<\/strong> Mobile first development aims at providing a complete software experience on any device, smartphone, tablet or PC. This is a challenge for developers who have to \u201cthink mobile\u201d every step of the way (UX, mobile-specific behaviour, mock-up, coding, etc.). So, what does developing a \u201cMobile First\u201d application involve? It involves interfaces for all screens using CSS Breakpoints, flexible BootstrapVue components, mobile device emulators (Android SDK AVD), etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Cross-application interaction<\/strong>: A growing number of interactions between BlueMind applications \u2013 calendar events, contact forms in the email application \u2013 contribute to making our users\u2019 experience ever more seamless. This is made possible through BlueMind\u2019s REST API which can be accessed from any application.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Alerts<\/strong>: Smart alerts are designed to attract users\u2019 attention without intruding and offers relevant action options with hyperlinks. From a technical point of view, we\u2019ve worked with \u201cVue Router\u201d which enables clickable HTML links — used to open parts of the interface without reloading the page (e.g.: clicking the alert \u201cThe \u2018Such-and-such\u2019 Folder has been created\u201d selects the folder in the interface).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Easy folders<\/strong>: The folder management interface wasn\u2019t BlueMind webmail\u2019s strong suit. The new webmail lets users create, modify or delete folders on the fly and with ease, making them easy and fast to reorganise. Users can now create a new folder when they move messages without having to go through another interface.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bluemind.purpl-web.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/new-folder.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Large attachments:<\/strong> To be able to send large documents <\/strong>\u2013 which typically cannot be sent by email \u2013 without disrupting user habits, the new webmail makes it possible to send attachments as links automatically (based on specific criteria). This relieves servers and bandwidth load by storing files in the BlueMind Filehosting service or any other application that uses a REST API interface, such as NextCloud or Jalios.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- HTML 5:<\/strong> <\/strong>Relying on the latest browser technology enables us to improve user experience in many ways \u2013 quick display of new content, instant preview of incoming messages with native notifications or time savings when composing messages with native drag-and-drop.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Progressive<\/strong>: A smoother user experience, faster page loading by loading essential items only and getting rid of empty areas. This implies for developers to change the way they think. \u201cUpload all\u201d no longer means \u201cdisplay all\u201d — only visible data is loaded, different areas are loaded in parallel and areas that are not loaded are replaced by visual placeholders.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Server push:<\/strong> Sends information to the client as soon as it is available, without waiting for a browser refresh (polling). This avoids unnecessary requests and transfers relevant information only. With WebSockets technology, the server is able to send data to the web application which is executed in the browser. On the Core side, the Vert.x event bus manages the events to be sent to clients.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Optimistic rendering<\/strong>: Not waiting for server validation to update the UI makes the application smoother and improves user experience. What this does is that it makes changes to the interface on the basis that an operation was successful without waiting for its actual result. This isn\u2019t always easy to implement as you must be able to revert to the previous state if the operation fails. E.g. if the attempted operation was to delete all selected messages, the list of messages has to be recorded somewhere so that they can be retrieved (as well as their related information such as number of unread messages, etc.) even if they are not shown, until the operation is confirmed.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- State-of-the-art development engineering (UX, Figma, VSCode, Vuex…) <\/strong>as the basis for BlueMind\u2019s new interfaces ensures better maintenance and scalability.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bluemind.purpl-web.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/webmail-en-general.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the road ahead: 2021-22<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nA software publisher\u2019s job is never done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This new webmail has finally been unveiled and we will continue to enhance it with new options and features in upcoming versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This gargantuan project has also served as an experimentation workshop for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Adopting a new development approach based on UX design and web applications accessibility<\/li>
- Defining a new baseware for BlueMind\u2019s web applications.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
After webmail, we are planning an upgrade of BlueMind\u2019s other web applications: preferences, contacts, calendar, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides upgrading user interfaces, other incremental enhancements and further improvements to Outlook over MAPI support, four major areas are in development and will come to fruition in future versions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- More collaborative features <\/strong>to integrate videoconferencing, chat, CTI, etc. features more efficiently for users<\/li>
- A federation of BlueMind platforms to make managing a large number of users smoother<\/strong><\/li>
- Improved overall resilience and optimised update and operational processes to minimise the impact on users, e.g. making some service restarts transparent<\/li>
- Interfaces with partner solutions.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Please subscribe to our newsletter and our Youtube<\/a> channels so that you don\u2019t miss out on BlueMind news and future articles about our webmail.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you have any queries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being compatible with ALL USES<\/strong> also means on the one hand helping organisations save on installation and roll out costs and, on the other, providing users with a versatile tool that can be accessed from any machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The design of BlueMind\u2019s new webmail started with a blank slate and: <\/p>\n\n\n\n The flexibility and lightness of a standard webmail application are no longer enough for users, particularly at a time of massive remote work. Having identified mobility, productivity and ability to evolve as key market demands, we\u2019ve aimed towards a much more complete view of a webmail client whose role would extend beyond the over-simplistic \u2013 although often real \u2013 one as a mere back-up for a thick client.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our webmail seeks to have the look and feel of a thick client while doing away with its main weaknesses \u2013 roll out and workstation lifecycle \u2013 and focusing on uses \u2013 productivity, interfaces and seamless ties with other collaborative tools. The webmail application will no longer be a secondary option but a full-fledged primary tool<\/strong> and a true alternative to thick clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With our entire development process driven by UX design<\/strong><\/a>, achieving this was no small technological feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n BlueMind\u2019s new webmail brings you all the features<\/strong> you need to work as effectively as you would with a thick client with a user-friendly, efficient application for managing your emails, folders, shared and functional mailboxes, drafts and rich searches as well as invitations, calendar availability search, corporate signatures, video-conference resources, linked attachments, filters, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And because good news always come in pairs, this webmail also introduces new features that make it even more compelling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developing this new webmail has meant tackling some technically ambitious design goals and choices. Here is an overview of the major challenges that have driven our development team and put it to the test:<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n . <\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n\n A software publisher\u2019s job is never done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This new webmail has finally been unveiled and we will continue to enhance it with new options and features in upcoming versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This gargantuan project has also served as an experimentation workshop for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n After webmail, we are planning an upgrade of BlueMind\u2019s other web applications: preferences, contacts, calendar, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides upgrading user interfaces, other incremental enhancements and further improvements to Outlook over MAPI support, four major areas are in development and will come to fruition in future versions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please subscribe to our newsletter and our Youtube<\/a> channels so that you don\u2019t miss out on BlueMind news and future articles about our webmail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have any queries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBehind the wheel: a look from the user side<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nUnder the bonnet: major technical challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOn the road ahead: 2021-22<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n