LWsystems releases the current development roadmap for Benno MailArchiv. For the coming year, numerous innovations and extensions are on the agenda, culminating in the release of the Benno MailArchiv Enterprise Edition in Q4/2016.

 

The key highlights for 2016 at a glance:

  • New, fully responsive Benno MailArchiv WebApp (“Benno MailArchiv WebApp 2”)
  • Tools for index management and re-indexing
  • OCR recognition of electronic faxes and scanned documents
  • Seamless integration into the WebApp as well as the future DeskApp of Zarafa Groupware
  • Enterprise Edition with features for very large scale installations and graphical evaluation options

 

The roadmap at a glance:

Benno MailArchiv Roadmap 2016
Benno MailArchiv Roadmap 2016

 

 

 

 

(Click to enlarge.)

 

 

 

 

 

On the developments and following Benno MailArchiv versions in detail:

Version 2.1.6 (early December 2015)

  • Updateable search index: The architecture of Benno MailArchiv is expanded so that the search index becomes updateable. This creates the prerequisites to be able to re-index any e-mails at any time. With version 2.2.0, index tools will be released that allow, for example, the re-indexing of e-mails.

Version 2.1.8 (second half of December 2015)

  • OCR recognition: Electronically (via e-mail) received faxes and scanned documents can be full-text indexed.
  • Possible application scenarios:
    Direct searchability of all digital fax contents and other, e.g. scanned documents, which can be indexed by OCR text recognition.

Version 2.2.0 (mid-January 2016)

  • Benno MailArchiv WebApp 2: new, fully responsive and fully tablet-operable web interface and basis for future new functions of the WebApp.
    The new Benno MailArchiv WebApp 2 will be the visually redesigned and modern user interface for Benno MailArchiv. The new WebApp will run fully responsive on all devices, from wide-screen PCs to mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. The new WebApp is also optimized for continuous keyboard operation (tab jumps, hotkeys, etc.). It also allows easy operation with one finger on mobile touch devices like tablets and smartphones.
    The new WebApp is also the platform for new functionalities that will be developed for Benno MailArchiv over time (e.g. graphical evaluations (see version 2.12.0 or 3.0.0 below)).
  • Index tools for re-indexing emails: non-indexed or partially indexed emails can be re-indexed at any time.
  • Possible usage scenarios:
    • If emails cannot be indexed directly during the archiving process or can only be partially indexed (e.g. due to unknown attachment formats - by default, around 1250 different file formats are already supported for full-text recognition), they can be re-indexed at any time from version 2.2.0 onwards. The newly available index tool then checks the email inventory for any non-indexed emails or email components (such as attachments) and automatically re-indexes them.
    • Already archived digital faxes and scanned documents can be re-indexed at any time (and made searchable through OCR recognition).
    • Also in the event of disaster recovery, the index tool can provide valuable assistance: for example, if a corrupt search index were to occur, the search index could now be restored from an older data backup. All emails archived between the index backup time and the current time are (logically) not included in the search index. These emails can then be easily and automatically re-indexed using the new index tool, so that a complete re-index to recreate the search index would not be necessary. In larger archives or slower system environments, the restart time until all emails in the archive are fully searchable can be reduced to an absolute minimum.

Version 2.4.0 (early March 2016)

  • Tools for consistency analysis and validity checks of the archive: Release of tools for audit purposes.
    • Verification of all archived emails (can be automated in batch). Consistency and validity of the archived content can be checked and reported at any time and automated.
    • Extension of the WebApp: The validity of the displayed email is automatically displayed in the WebApp in the display area of the email. Any manipulation of emails is immediately displayed to the viewer for each displayed email.

Version 2.6.0 (early April 2016)

  • Native integration of Benno MailArchiv into the WebApp and DeskApp of Zarafa Groupware: Plugin for Zarafa WebApp 2 and Zarafa DeskApp.
    Benno MailArchiv is directly and seamlessly integrated into the WebApp or DeskApp of Zarafa Groupware. Emails in Benno MailArchiv can be found and displayed directly within the Zarafa Groupware solution.
  • Re-design and extension of the Benno MailArchiv backend architecture: Queue-based processing and multi-threading-enabled indexing.
    The Benno MailArchiv backend architecture is extended to enable indexing of e-mail content in multi-threading mode (i.e., by multiple parallel indexing services). The processing of e-mails within the backend is converted to a queue-based processing. All sub-processes of the backend communicate with each other via separate queues, making it easy to parallelize indexing, etc.

Version 2.8.0 (early June 2016)

  • Integration of the D-TRUST time stamp of the Bundesdruckerei Berlin: Extension of the mechanisms for detecting manipulated archive contents.
    By integrating the D-TRUST time stamping service, the mechanisms already integrated in Benno MailArchiv from the beginning to protect against data manipulation and compromise are extended by a qualified time stamp of an accredited external body (Bundesdruckerei Berlin) in the sense of a legally secure signature.

Version 2.10.0 (second half of July 2016)

  • Queue Statistics and Queue Monitoring: Interfaces for ongoing online monitoring and for monitoring the backend queues.
    To monitor the queues (Queues) of the Benno MailArchiv backend modularized with version 2.6.0, interfaces are available from this version onwards, which can be used to access statistical queue data, etc. The monitoring of Benno MailArchiv via system monitoring systems such as Nagios is hereby possible to a much greater depth (monitoring of each individual queue up to bottleneck detection, etc.) than was possible before version 2.6.0. (As of < 2.6.0, the rather monolithic backend service can only be monitored as a whole or the inflow of emails to be archived).

Version 2.12.0 (mid-August 2016)

  • Graphical evaluation of queue statistics and other metadata: Graphical evaluations and overviews regarding the message volume of the backend queues.

Version 3.0.0 (Mid-October 2016)

  • Benno MailArchiv Enterprise Edition: Scalable, distributable, partially re-indexable, redundant search index through Elastic Search.
    Version 3 of Benno MailArchiv will bring significant changes and enhancements with the introduction of Elastic Search. The newly added Elastic Search technology represents an additional software layer in the Benno stack and further abstracts the management of the still Lucene-based search index from the remaining application logic. In particular, very large scale installations benefit from these innovations, as the search index managed by Elastic Search can be maintained distributably across multiple servers. Thus, the search index can be maintained redundantly, minimizing failure risks as well as, for example, the re-indexability of parts of the overall index. Overall, large and very large hosting providers as well as corresponding end-user companies can secure enormous scaling potential, significantly more flexibility, and a significant degree of additional robustness with the Benno MailArchiv Enterprise Edition.

Version 3.2.0

  • Expansion of Benno MailArchiv WebApp 2 for the Enterprise Edition: Graphical evaluations and representation of statistical information of the archive.
    The WebApp is extended for the Enterprise Edition with some statistical evaluations in graphical form, which are presented within the WebApp and give the user insights into a number of parameters about the mail archive. These graphical evaluations and displays are available only for the Enterprise Edition for the time being. Elastic Search provides a multitude of data for such evaluations, including graphical processing.

Further course of versions 2.x and 3.x

The Enterprise Edition (Benno MailArchiv 3.0.0) will be created in parallel to the previous main line of Benno MailArchiv 2.x and will be further developed as version 3.x. The backend architecture is identical (apart from Elastic Search and its diverse possibilities) in all versions of the 2 and 3 lines. The WebApp is also the same for both version states, even if the Enterprise Edition will have more GUI functions (statistics and evaluations) than the Standard Edition.

Additional innovations and extensions of functionality will primarily be reflected in the WebApp and less in the backend. Regardless of which Benno MailArchiv version is used, the functions of the WebApp (with the exception of Enterprise Edition-based features) will be universally available in all versions.

Assignment of the version number from version 2.2.0

The management of version numbers or versioning is switched to even minor release numbers with the introduction of version 2.2.0. All versions with even minor release numbers (2.2.x, 2.4.x, 2.6.x, etc.) are accordingly stable releases, while odd minor release numbers from 2.2.0 indicate developer versions.