An FAQ post for future reference because, well, it’s a FAQ!
ViMbAdmin is primarily a database frontend for managing virtual mailboxes with mail services such as Postfix and Dovecot.
A frequently asked question is does it / can it support vacation / out of office auto-responders. The short answer is no.
The main way to handle OOO responders is via SIEVE (e.g. Dovecot’s version). To put a front end on this, you need a server configured for external SIEVE management and a client with SIEVE support (which ViMbAdmin does not have).
I’ve done it in three ways in the past:
- directly editing the .dovecot.sieve file. This is only really good for people with access to the server and some clue.
- Using a Thunderbird plugin allowing editing of SIEVE files. Again, clue required.
- For one customer, they can do it via the SoGO web interface we installed for them. This is a very nice interface for people migrating from Exchange.
We did look at fixing a Thunderbird Out of Office plugin but didn’t get very far.
What we all need here is for someone for write / sponsor a decent SIEVE based Thunderbird OOO plugin. Here’s some prior art: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/sieve.