The Zextras Team

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Describe Zextras Team

Within the Zimbra WebClient, Zextras Team incorporates a full-featured corporate instant messaging platform with group and corporate messaging, file sharing, screen sharing, and casual video chat features.

Front-end attributes

The following front-end functionalities are available from Zextras Team:

  • Message transmission and comprehension
  • Individual Instant Messaging
  • Message Groups
  • Messaging for Business (Spaces and Channels)
  • Video calls in groups
  • Calls on Channel Video
  • File Exchange
  • Shared Screen
  • Emojis
  • Turn off alerts and discussions

Backend Functions

Backend features offered by Zextras Team include the following:

  • User accessibility and COS
  • TURN server compatibility built-in
  • Core installation is not necessary. installation of a zimlet using a package management.
  • Without setup
  • WebRTC protocol used between peers to reduce server burden
  • specific audit log

Zextras Team is licenced on an individual user basis.

Only “advanced” users count against any licencing restriction, and Global Admins can enable its Advanced capabilities for as many users as permitted by the licence.

The teamChatActiveCount output of the zxsuite core getLicenseInfo command shows the total number of users that have the Advanced features turned on:

A 15-minute update is made to this total.

Installation of Zimlet by Zextras Team

The “Core” part of the Zextras Administration Zimlet allows you to deploy the com_zextras_Team Zimlet.

Once the Zimlet has been deployed and activated, no more configuration on the mailboxd side is required.

Ports and URLs

Zextras Team uses the default Zimbra settings for the domain of the active account to create URLs and links, using the zimbraPublicServiceHostname property for the URL’s actual host name and the zimbraPublicServicePort property for the port.

The system will always fall back to the server-level attributes zimbraServiceHostname and zimbraMailPort or zimbraMailSSLPort if any of the two are not configured.

The following guidelines apply to video chats and instant meetings:

As long as peers can interact with each other directly or via a TURN server (which, when combined with the appropriate network rules, is typically the answer to any WebRTC connection difficulty), team may operate over firewalls and NATs.

Clients should be allowed to transmit outbound traffic to ports 19305/19307 when there is no TURN server configured since a default STUN server is utilised in this situation. Based on client setup and network, the real P2P connection is made between the clients on a random, open port between 1 and 65535.

The majority of TURN servers utilise port 3478 (incoming, UDP) as their handshake/negotiation port by default, but other ports may be used as long as they are configured appropriately. On the team side, the port is given when adding the TURN server, and the clients clients will be told to connect through it. Clients should be able to submit data to that port range to the TURN server because that is the default P2P connection range when utilising a TURN server (often customizable on the TURN side).

The majority of TURN servers may be set up to use TCP rather than UDP.

Zextras Team management

The “Team” section of Accounts and Classes of Service in the Zimbra Administration Console allows users to enable and disable Zextras Team functionality.

The zxsuite config command line programme offers the same choices as well:

compatibility with browsers

Which browsers are known to fully support all Zextras features is shown in the list below.

Only the two prior stable editions of the browser are supported for items marked as ” Limited”.

For the Screen Sharing functionality to work, Firefox users must be using at least version 66 of the browser.

Mobile App Both Android and iOS users may download the Zextras Team mobile app.

Messages on Android devices

The Zextras Team App occasionally isn’t able to alert users of new messages since certain Android device makers have tight default settings on which apps may display notifications.

Observe these measures to ensure that your device permits all necessary notifications:

Team Tab in the user interface

The Team Tab is a complete feature tab for Zimbra that can be used in the same way as other feature tabs (like Mail or Calendar). The Zimbra Web Client and the Zextras Team UI work together without any issues.

The full-sized Zextras Team UI, which includes all business instant messaging capabilities like Spaces and Channels, can be found on the Team Tab. Although the tab itself is accessible to both Basic and Advanced users, only Advanced users have access to corporate features. Depending on whether the textual or video discussion function is engaged, the tab’s look varies.

Meetings on a New Tab in the Browser

Users may now begin meetings on a new tab in their browser or carry on a call there.

Users get the following popup when they begin a call.

Standard Mode

Within the same tab of the Zimbra programme, the Team app launches.

Mode Dedicated

In a new tab, the team application opens.

To make one of the aforementioned two options the default for each meeting, select SAVE SETTING.

The Selected Mode is Changed

The acts that follow assist in altering the manner of next exchanges.

  1. Register with Zimbra.
  2. Teams may be chosen from the app bar.
  3. To access Settings, click the gear symbol in the left pane.
  4. Scroll down to Meetings Environment Settings within the Team Settings popup.
  5. Choose from the Dedicated or Default modes. The choice is automatically implemented.

Spaces and Textual Conversations (Chats)

Team enables one-to-one or simultaneous communication with numerous individuals. In addition to text, file sharing is also an option.

There are three key sections on the Team tab:

  • The list of ongoing instant meetings, places, and one-on-one and group conversations is located in the left-hand column. It also enables the creation of new channels for communication (chats, groups, places, and instant meetings).
  • the main section, where the conversational messages are shown and arranged by day. Additionally, the start and finish times of any video conversations between users are displayed in the message flow.
  • The information about the current discussion or area is displayed in the right column, where you can also choose to mute notifications or delete the whole chat history.

The user interface (UI) changes when a video chat or instant meeting is used; for further information, see Video Conversations (Video Chats) and Instant Meetings.

Minichats

The arrow in the upper right corner of the core area may be used to reduce chats as well as discussions in Spaces and Channels. Additionally, the Mail tab is selected, where the chats are displayed as tiny overlays. By clicking the title bar, they may be further reduced, returned to their original browser size, or closed.

Additionally, by clicking the icon, Instant Meetings (if minichat is a chat) or Video Chats (if minichat is a Space or Channel conversation) may be initiated.

If the user is not on the Team tab, incoming Space or Channel conversations are automatically opened as Minichats.

Instant Meetings and Video Conversations (Video Chats)

Individuals and members of organisations and places can participate in a video call for in-the-moment verbal communication through video conversations. Any user can initiate a video chat or instant meeting with another user; the recipient user will be alerted by a modal window in the browser and an audio signal that will last no more than 10 seconds.

The Team tab has four sections during video chats and quick meetings. When utilising Video Chat (a call between two people) or the Instant Meeting (a video conversation among three or more users), there are, nevertheless, very minor changes. Additionally, the latter offers two alternate user interfaces: Grid Layout and Cinema Mode, which is akin to video chats.

The user interface elements shared by video chat and instant meetings are:

  • The text chat is located in the left column.
  • the region in the middle that houses the video feed
  • a miniature of the other participant (or participants in an Instant Meeting) can be found in the right column. The name of this column is Carousel.
  • The self-hiding bottom bar, which controls the video call and the UI itself, is there for your convenience. You may deactivate the webcam and microphone, share the screen, end the call, and hide the conversation from view from the bottom bar.
  • Additionally, until another user joins, the first person to enter a Video Chat or an Instant Meeting will hear a sound and witness a visual animation.

Sharing screens

A further function of chats is screen sharing, which enables users to display one window, one screen, or all of their workstation’s screens. Multiple users can share a screen at once, and the last user’s screen will immediately become active and be displayed in the centre. If there are any ongoing screen shares after a screen sharing is terminated, the central area will change to the most recent one, otherwise it will return to the previous view, Cinema mode, or Grid Layout.

Additionally, the video of the user and the screen share will both be displayed in the right column when a user in a video chat or instant meeting shares a window or the entire screen. This occurs as a result of the camera feed and the screen sharing stream being unique and handled as separate individuals.

Although it is always possible to pin the video of another participant, when utilising the Instant Meeting in Cinema Mode (see Fig. 13), the centre area always displays the stream of the person taking. In cinema mode, the following extra features are available:

Each participant’s miniature is displayed in the right column.
 
To the right of the bottom bar, a button to hide the participant list has been added.
 
The centre of the bottom bar now has a second button that allows users to choose between Grid Layout and Cinema Mode.
 
When a participant’s video stream is pinned and another speaks for longer than two seconds, the latter’s stream is displayed in the right Carousel, framed in green.
 
An symbol indicates if the participant’s camera or microphone is off.
The Instant Meeting Grid Layout (see Fig. 14) enables the display of all participants in the centre area. The following are the variations from Cinema Mode:
 
  • Given that it is a component of the core area, there is no left column.
  • The button to conceal the participant list in the bottom bar vanishes.
  • There is a green frame around the speaker’s stream.
Business communication and instant messaging
You may start fresh instances of Chats, Group Chats, Spaces, and Instant Meetings in the left-hand column. The procedure of creating a new instance is now the same, and the User Experience has been enhanced: Click CREATE after selecting Chats, Spaces, or Instant Meetings. Choose whether this is a one-on-one or group conversation in Chats (See Fig. 15), and then simply add people from the dialogue box that displays. You may also add a title or topic for Spaces and Instant Meetings.
 
Only those that are logged in may join Instant Meetings. The only requirements for joining are a valid email address and a nickname.
Since a Channel is a feature that is internal to spaces, the approach to construct one is slightly different. Therefore, after setting up a Space, use the Add Channel option in the right column to establish a Channel. Now, a window like the one above will appear where you may enter a title and a topic. The Channel will be indented beneath the space name to emphasise how closely it relates to the space.
After creating an instance, you can instantly begin texting with everyone in the group or starting a video call by selecting the camera icon in the upper right corner of the centre area. The Zextras Team tab may be minimised using the arrow symbol next to that icon.
 
For easy access, recent conversations are displayed in the left column.
 

The remainder of this section describes the key characteristics of the various communication methods.

After creating an instance, you can instantly begin texting with everyone in the group or starting a video call by selecting the camera icon in the upper right corner of the centre area. The Zextras Team tab may be minimised using the arrow symbol next to that icon.
 
For easy access, recent conversations are displayed in the left column.
 
The remainder of this section describes the key characteristics of the various communication methods.
Either the zxsuite team addOwner command from the CLI or the icons from the GUI located next to each room member may be used to change the moderator status. For instance, the CLI may be used to give the following command to make user2@example.com the owner of the rooms with conversation_id aced5e2e-f457-4d30-a3fb-9b18fac486a6@example.com:
Groups
To converse with numerous persons simultaneously (by default, up to five total), groups are employed. These are non-persistent objects that are not bound to any one location. Any user may start a group and invite people to it, and any group member can extend the invitation to more individuals. A group no longer exists if every member has left.
  • Features of Groups include the ability for members of a Group to add more members up to the permitted number and share the Group’s entire conversation history with them.
  • A group member can chat with every other member of the group. All communications made to the Group are visible to all of its members. 
  • A group member may transmit files to every other member of the group. All group members have access to any files sent inside that group.
  • A user in a group has the option to initiate a video chat with everyone else. All group members have the ability to participate in group video conversations at any time.
The maximum number of group members may be modified by global administrators in the Zextras Team section of the global settings in the admin console.
 
Spaces are themed storage units that may accommodate any number of Channels. Imagine a Space as a gathering place where people congregate to talk about various subjects in designated spaces (referred to as Channels).
Features of Spaces
Each area has a distinct name and subject. By selecting the appropriate box in the Space’s settings, you may alter both the name and the Topic.
 
Each member has the right to depart any moment.
 
Using the relevant buttons, space administrators can establish new channels and extend invitations to visitors.
 
In Spaces, users may upload, distribute, and forward messages and attachments.
Placement in Space
The settings of a Space are determined by its General Channel Info (see below).
 
By selecting the crown symbol next to the relevant participant list entry, the Space’s founder, who is also the first Space Administrator, can offer the same privileges to any other user.
 
Only Space Administrators have the authority to add new users, start new channels, remove channels, and kick users.
Because a 1:1 relationship between Zimbra users and TURN users is not required, it is highly advised to have a single user verified with a username and secret key on the TURN server side.

Team Zextras CLI
The index of all zxsuite team commands is included in this section. ZxTeam CLI Commands has a section dedicated to it called Full Reference.

cluster addOwnerdoClearChatDB status  doConversationsMessagesCleaning up, deploying TeamZimlet, importing channels, moving all rooms, moving a room, restarting services, and roomsDoStartService, DoStopService, and DoUsers cleanupCleaning up flushConversations dumpSessionsstoreServices in a cache  iceServe with iceServers obtain iceServer add video-server space get monitor rooms add video-server delete
channels
Channels are confined places with certain topics. These can have any number of participants, and unlike Groups, individuals can join any Channel in a Space on their own without needing an invitation from another member.
 
All users are immediately added to the “General” channel, which is formed within each new Space and determines the space’s attributes (such as the Title and Topic), when they join the space.
Features Channels
  • Each user in a Channel has the ability to speak with the others. All communications sent on the channel can be seen by all channel members.
  • A user in a Channel has the option to initiate a video conversation with everyone else. All members of the Channel have the ability to participate in video conversations at any moment.
  • Messages and attachments can be uploaded, shared, and forwarded by a user in a Channel.
Mute Conversations and Notifications
If the Teams browser, the Android app, or the iOS app is running in the background, alerts like noises, mini-chats, or other pop-ups are utilised to alert you when you receive a message or attachment in a 1-to-1 Chat, a Channel, or a Space.
 
Even if the users who are interacting are on separate servers, this default behaviour may be altered to muffle all or portion of the alerts. Each Chat, Channel, or Space’s attributes save and keep this silent or active status, which is retained even if a Mailbox is relocated to a different server.
Users can silence the microphones of other participants in one-on-one chat sessions if there is feedback or background noise. Toast notifications are visible to participants who are muted. By clicking Unmute or the notice, participants can turn on their microphones again.
 
Users can silence specific participants in video chats, but a moderator has the power to mute everyone at once.
File exchange
By dragging and dropping the files into the chat interface (both in the minichat and in the Teamtab) or by selecting the “paperclip” symbol to the right of the message input field, users may effortlessly distribute files via Team to Chats and Groups. It is possible to upload many files at once. Image files give a preview of the file, whilst other popular file kinds show a custom icon.
 
When a file is clicked within a chat window, the local client will download it using the browser’s built-in download mechanism.
Team-shared files are kept in a secure root folder in the sender’s Drive named Team transmitted files, counting against the sender’s mailbox quota. Participants can download these files in the chat window until the sender deletes them from Drive.
Autocomplete
Internal autocomplete and External autocomplete are the two different kinds of autocomplete in Team.
 
In contrast to External Autocomplete, which is only utilised for Instant Meeting attendees, Internal Autocomplete is activated when choosing a target for 1-1 Chats, Group Chats, Spaces, and Channels.
 
Using the zxsuite config [get/set/empty] CLI toolset, this may be modified by changing the teamCrossDomainSearchMode COS property to local, extended, or global.
 
Local mode (Default): Internal Autocomplete gets its data from the GAL in this mode, whereas External Autocomplete gets its data from both the user’s Contacts and GAL.
Extra-long mode
In addition to matching complete email addresses of any user sharing the same infrastructure as internal users, it is a superset of local.
 
As long as the proper email address is given, this enables any user who is on the same infrastructure but outside of the GAL to start a 1-1 Chat or be added to a Group/Space/Channel.
 
world mode
a subset of extended mode that allows users on the same infrastructure to autocomplete without an exact email address match.
 
Instead of the tight email address match demanded in extended mode, this enables autocomplete for any user in the infrastructure.
 
_images/connect_autocomplete_management.png
Zextras Team manages presence automatically, so anytime a person checks in, regardless of whether the Team Tab is selected, they are marked as online.
 
All messages are presented with a customizable number of tick symbols as part of the user presence system:
  • Message not sent to the server, 0 grey checks
  • 1 grey check, server received message
  • message seen by all users, 2 blue checks.
If privacy is enabled when sending a text message, only one grey tick is displayed, indicating that the server has received the message. The receiving user won’t reply with an acknowledgement.
 
Unread Messages The number of unread messages in any conversation (Group, Channel, Space, Instant Meeting) is displayed on the right side of the label for Chats, Spaces, and Instant Meetings, as well as in the list of conversions below, right next to the chat that originally generated the message.
Delete, Edit, Reply, and Forward Messages
A context menu with the following options appears when you right-click on a message or hover over it and click the arrowhead that appears on the right side of the message bubble:
  • Edit the message’s text as necessary. The message delivery symbol will be accompanied by the “edited” string.
  • Answer: respond to a message. The response won’t be private and will appear in the same conversation.
  • Forward: send a message to a different channel, chat, or group.
  • Delete: a message is deleted. The original text will be replaced by the “Deleted Message” string, and the message bubble’s colour will turn grey.
The below table summarises each message interaction:
Each 1-to-1 chat, group, and channel’s chat history is accessible in the same window (for example, join a channel to view all of that channel’s history), and messages sent to offline users are reflected in the relevant IM discussion, Group, or Channel.
 
TURN Server STUN
All participants in a video chat must be able to connect to one another’s clients since WebRTC is a peer-to-peer protocol.
Using a TURN server provides adequate communication between all peers should this not be feasible due to network NAT regulations or a service provider’s policy. By adding the TURN server’s URL and login details to the zimlet setup, Zextras Team is designed to enable utilising a STUN/TURN server right out of the box.
 
Setting up a TURN server for Zextras Team
The [add | get | delete] commands of the zxsuite team iceServer provide access to a specific collection of TURN configuration tools.
 
To handle various users or Classes of Service, more TURN servers can be installed (specified by the optional user and cos arguments of the aforementioned command).
Because a 1:1 relationship between Zimbra users and TURN users is not required, it is highly advised to have a single user verified with a username and secret key on the TURN server side.
 
Team Zextras CLI
The index of all zxsuite team commands is included in this section. ZxTeam CLI Commands has a section dedicated to it called Full Reference.
 
cluster addOwnerdoClearChatDB status  doConversationsMessagesCleaning up, deploying TeamZimlet, importing channels, moving all rooms, moving a room, restarting services, and roomsDoStartService, DoStopService, and DoUsers cleanupCleaning up flushConversations dumpSessionsstoreServices in a cache  iceServe with iceServers obtain iceServer add video-server space get monitor rooms add video-server delete
 

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