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

 

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)

  • Update-capable Search Index: The architecture of Benno MailArchiv is being extended so that the search index becomes update-capable. This creates the prerequisites to re-index arbitrary emails at any time. With version 2.2.0, index tools will be released that, for example, enable the re-indexing of emails.

Version 2.1.8 (second half of December 2015)

  • OCR detection: Electronically (via e‑mail) received faxes and scanned documents can be full-text indexed.
  • Possible use cases:
    Direct searchability of all content of digital faxes and others, e.g., scanned receipts, which become indexable only through 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 such as tablets and smartphones. The new WebApp is also optimized for continuous keyboard operation (tab jumps, hotkeys, etc.). Additionally it allows simple operation with one finger on mobile touch devices such as tablets and smartphones.
    The new WebApp is simultaneously the platform for new functionalities that will be developed over time for Benno MailArchiv (e.g., graphical evaluations (see version 2.12.0 or 3.0.0 further below)).
  • Index tools for re-indexing e-mails: non- or only partially indexed e-mails 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 (Beginning 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 the Zarafa Groupware: Plugin for the Zarafa WebApp 2 and Zarafa DeskApp.
    Benno MailArchiv will be directly and seamlessly integrated into the WebApp or DeskApp of the Zarafa Groupware integrated. E-mails in Benno MailArchiv can therefore be found and displayed directly within the Zarafa Groupware solution.
  • Redesign and extension of the architecture of the Benno MailArchiv backend: Queue-based processing and multi‑threading‑capable indexing.
    The architecture of the Benno MailArchiv backend is being extended so that indexing of email contents in a multi‑threading operation (i.e., by several parallel indexing services) becomes possible. The processing of the mails within the backend is therefore switched to a queue‑based processing. All sub‑processes of the backend communicate via separate queues with each other, so that, for example, the parallelisation of indexing etc. becomes simply possible.

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 continuous online monitoring and for monitoring the backend's queues.
    For monitoring the queues (Queues) of the Benno MailArchiv backend modularized with version 2.6.0, interfaces are available from this version, through which statistical queue data etc. can be accessed. Monitoring of Benno MailArchiv via system monitoring tools such as, for example, Nagios is thereby possible at a significantly greater depth (monitoring each individual queue down 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 mails to be archived can be monitored).

Version 2.12.0 (mid-August 2016)

  • Graphical analysis of queue statistics and other metadata: Graphical analyses and Üversichten regarding the message volumes of the backend queues.

Version 3.0.0 (Mid-October 2016)

  • Benno MailArchiv Enterprise Edition: Through Elastic Search scalable, distributable, partially re-indexable, redundant search index.
    Version 3 of Benno MailArchiv will, with the Einführung of Elastic Search strong Veränderungen and extensions of the Möglichkeiten. The newly added technology Elastic Search represents an zusätzliche software layer in the Benno stack and further abstracts the management of the still Lucene-based search index from the rest of the application logic. Insbes. very large scale installations benefit from these innovations, because the search index managed by Elastic Search, e.g., can be distributed über multiple servers. Thus the search index can, for example, be kept redundant, which minimizes failure risks as well as, e.g., the re-indexability of parts of the overall index. Overall, können sich große and very große hosting providers as well as corresponding end‑user companies secure enormous scaling potential, significantly more Flexibilität and a clear Maß of zusätzlicher robustness with the Benno MailArchiv Enterprise Edition.

 Version 3.2.0 (Early December 2016)

  • Extension of the Benno MailArchiv WebApp 2 for the Enterprise Edition: Graphical evaluations and presentation of statistical information of the archive.
    The WebApp is extended for the Enterprise Edition with some statistical evaluations in graphical form, which are displayed within the WebApp and give the user insights into a range of parameters about the mail archive. These graphical evaluations and displays are, for the time being, only available for the Enterprise Edition. Elastic Search provides by default 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.