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Release Notes 5.0

End of support for BlueMind 5.0

In accordance with our release lifecycle policy, the end of support dates for BlueMind 5.0 are :

  • patch support: 10/26/2024
  • security support: 04/26/2025

With version 5, BlueMind is more than ever the sovereign alternative to Microsoft Exchange and 365, whether as a stand-alone collaborative mail solution or at the heart of the Digital Workplace.

The user experience is enhanced with a new, richer webmail and extended Outlook connectivity. Transitions to BlueMind are made easier, with key features from the Microsoft universe built-in.

Architectural changes and greater scalability increase collaborative capabilities and uses for organizations large and small.

Discover the major changes and new features of BlueMind in version 5.0.

↳ To download and test BlueMind 5, go to BlueMind Download area.

↳ To find out about the latest developments and technical improvements in the hotfix versions of BlueMind 5, consult the changelogs.

Documentation​

↳ A new organization of sections provides quicker, more intuitive access to the features you're looking for.

↳ 🇬🇧 The English translation is complete and up-to-date.

↳ 🇩🇪 The German translation is complete and up-to-date.

General​

Delegation management​

In addition to sharing rights, new delegation management allows users to appoint delegates and define more detailed, targeted rights. Depending on the options chosen, the delegate can:

Forwarding invitation​

Invitation forward enables a participant to invite a third party to a meeting. They can do this in several ways:

 Bonus BlueMind: the organizer is notified and can refuse added participants directly from the e-mail he receives!

CalDAV/CardDAV enhancements​

Enhanced support for the CalDAV and CarDAV protocols, enabling extension to services other than Mac OsX clients.

This opens up BlueMind's interoperability with external appointment scheduling services such as cal.com, SimplyMeet and Vyte.

Mail​

The webmail developed by BlueMind becomes the only web mail client installed and offered to users.

Mail delegation​

Delegation management allows users to fine-tune the sharing of their mailboxes. Users can now designate a delegate who can choose from :

  • write from the delegating user: emails sent will include the actual sender of the message.
  • write as the delegating user: this is a total impersonation, recipients will not see that the e-mail was written by the delegated user.

Set-up is intuitive and straightforward, eliminating the risk of error :

Forwarding invitation​

Invitation transfer](#fwd-invitation) allows a participant to invite another person directly from the invitation e-mail.

Dark mode​

The long-awaited dark theme is finally available in BlueMind webmail!

Users can now choose their display mode to take advantage of their visual preferences right into BlueMind.

Built-in contacts​

Several new features have been added to make contact management easier.

The user can now directly from the webmail dialer :

  • Browse your address books and add contacts, individually or by selection ranges :
  • Copy and paste address lists into dedicated fields (To, Cc, Bcc) :

Built-in BlueMind drive​

User access to file storage space (drive) is enhanced by better built-in and new features.

File selector​

The new file chooser interface makes it easy to find and attach an attachment :

Linked attachments​

BlueMind 5  finally brings you a much-awaited feature: the ability to detach an attachment!

With a single click, the file is uploaded to the user's drive and deleted from the e-mail. Both the email and the user's quota are lightened, and when a reply is received or a message is forwarded, the recipient is offered a download link.

Preview attached emails​

Emails attached to a message in .eml format can now be previewed like any other file, whether in a received or sent message.

Sort emails​

The list of emails is enriched with the possibility for the user to order the emails as he wishes :

Filtering emails​

The mail filter management interface has been enhanced with new functions for searching and ordering filters :

Double-bottom trash can​

The trash now has a double bottom to compensate for deletions made by mistake : e-mails marked as permanently deleted can be retrieved directly from webmail for a certain period of time after deletion.

S/Mime​

To enhance the security of email exchanges, BlueMind lets you encrypt confidential emails and/or verify the identity of senders and recipients with the electronic signature.

The electronic signature ensures that the email has not been altered and that there is no impersonation of the sender. Encryption** ensures that only the recipient can read the contents of the email.

To find out more about implementation, please visit the dedicated page in the administrator's guide : Configure S/MIME

To find out more about how to use it, please consult the user guide at :

New illustrations​

The webmail now features new, more modern and clearer illustrations.

Calendar​

Delegations​

The delegation management allows a user to delegate the calendar management in reading or modification but also in setting the way the delegate will be able to act on received invitations thanks to several options :

As with webmail, a clear interface lets users know exactly what they are activating and the corresponding behavior :

Forwarding invitation​

Invitation transfer](#fwd-invitation) allows a participant to invite another person directly from the calendar event.

Availability view​

A user's availabilities can be viewed in the main calendar view and not only in the availability search tab when creating an event :

Supporting the "cancelled" status of a meeting​

When an organizer cancels a meeting, it is no longer removed from guests' calendars, but continues to exist in "cancelled" status; it can be displayed or hidden according to the "Show declined or cancelled events" setting.

Outlook​

Delegations​

The implementation of delegations in BlueMind is compatible with Outlook's delegated access management, provided that the settings are made on the BlueMind side: once the delegation has been created in BlueMind, the delegated user can write on behalf of or as the delegating user from his Outlook.

Forwarding invitation​

The invitation forward familiar to Outlook users is now supported and compatible with BlueMind: whether a user uses Outlook or BlueMind applications, the effects of an invitation forward will be the same.

Built-in add-ins​

As BlueMind is fully connected to Outlook in mapi, the connector is no longer needed and is discontinued.
However, BlueMind's built-in features (videoconferencing integration, linked attachments, etc.) add-ins will be added over time to enhance Outlook software and enable maximum interoperability between users of Outlook and BlueMind web applications. The same user will also be able to find in his Outlook the functionalities he benefits from when roaming on a mobile device or other workstation.

Adding videoconferences​

The first feature of the BlueMind add-in is the ability to add a videoconference to an appointment, with a simple click from the appointment creation window:

Find out more in the documentation using Outlook > The calendar > Videoconferencing

Mobiles​

BlueMind 5 built-in and supports version 16.1 of the EAS protocol for synchronizing mobile devices.

This version brings several major new features:

  • draft synchronization (the folder was previously ignored by mobile devices)
  • support for attachments in calendar events
  • account deletion only in addition to the option of deleting the entire phone

Administration & operations​

Auditlog​

BlueMind 5 uses auditlog to obtain information on modifications made to certain BlueMind entities. User operations can be saved and viewed via CLI. The information saved, which is considered relevant to help understand the changes made, depends on the entities considered:

  • For an e-mail, operations such as moving from one folder to another, or deleting a folder, are stored.
  • For a calendar event, any changes are saved. For example, a change of venue will result in the creation of a new entry in the database, with an email indicating the changes made.
  • Users login actions are stored.
  • Actions to obtain/revoke users rights to calendars, mail folders, etc. are stored.

Improvements to the CLI​

New commands have been added to the command-line interface tool, making it easier to install BlueMind with finer parameters, even in a multi-server architecture.

Single-user Restoration​

Dataprotect navigation has been enhanced and extended to all entity types, with a wide choice of restoration options.

See the dedicated documentation page for full details of restoration options for each type: Single-user restoration - Dataprotect

Architecture​

OpenID SSO​

BlueMind implements the openID protocol in version 5. Although the technical implementation has changed, this brick replaces the internal SSO previously used in BlueMind, for authentication of the various BlueMind applications. Above all, this change enables BlueMind to be built-in via a standard protocol. This will simplify the implementation of MFA for BlueMind, for example, if the server on which we federate implements it.

Cyrus deletion​

BlueMind now natively implements an IMAP server, removing the Cyrus brick from its architecture. This major evolution simplifies the BlueMind architecture. The replication service, which used to prepare data for specific clients (Outlook, EAS), has been removed, for improved performance and greater stability.

Default object storage​

Cyrus storage is replaced by object storage. This can be based on object storage on local disk or on a network system (such as Scality, for example).

Resilience and large architectures​

The architecture redesign in version 5 enables the realization of resilient architectures based on Kafka/CRP. This resilience is necessary for very large architectures, and requires doubling or even tripling the number of servers, on at least 2 to 3 separate sites. In the vast majority of cases, BlueMind recommends using virtualization features to manage resilience (VMWare HA, for example), given the cost and expertise required to implement a Kafka cluster.

Security patch​

A vulnerability allowing a user of an existing domain on the BlueMind server to send emails as a user of another domain on the same server has been fixed (thanks to CHEOPS Cyberdefense for reporting).

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