cristianadrielbraun/gofer v0.23.0

on GitHub

This release lets accounts connect through an HTTP or SOCKS5 proxy, and Gofer can now be shown in Simplified Chinese. It also connects to 163.com and 139.com over IMAP, can use fonts from Google Fonts, and is much lighter to use on a phone.

Outbound proxies

Accounts can now reach their mail, contacts and calendar servers through a proxy. (#96)

• Proxies are HTTP (CONNECT) or SOCKS5, with an optional username and password. They're added on the Mail security page: Settings › Security in personal and open mode, or the Proxies tab of the admin panel in managed mode. One of them can be the default.
• Each account connects through the default proxy, directly, or through a proxy of its own choosing. This is in the account's settings: a Proxy row in the add and edit wizards, with a switch for the default proxy or a direct connection and a gear to pick another one, and a "Connect through proxy" field in the calendar and contacts dialog and when signing in to Gmail or Outlook.
• Everything an account does goes through its proxy: IMAP, SMTP and JMAP, an identity's own SMTP server, the Google and Microsoft APIs and sign-in, CalDAV and CardDAV. While an account is being added, finding and testing its servers go through the proxy chosen for it.
• Avatars, calendar subscriptions and remote images belong to no account, so they use the default proxy.
• Gofer still looks up each server's address itself and asks the proxy to connect to that address, so the private network checks keep working. The proxy doesn't do the DNS lookup.
• In managed mode, a proxy is for everyone or only for the people chosen. A default proxy that isn't for someone means their accounts connect directly. The administrator can also let people add proxies for their own accounts in their security settings. Those need a public address, unless a private target exception for a Proxy approves that exact host and port.
• Adding a proxy changes nothing until it's made the default or picked for an account.

🙏 The proxies have only been tested against the test proxy in Gofer's own tests, not against real proxy servers yet. If you use one, please try it and open an issue with what you find: the proxy type (HTTP or SOCKS5), the account type (IMAP, Gmail, Outlook, JMAP, calendar or contacts) and what didn't work.

Simplified Chinese

• Gofer can now be shown in Simplified Chinese, thanks to @h88782481 (#95). It's in Settings › Regional and the pre-sign-in language picker. The README and the setup guide are in Chinese too.
• Chinese dates put the year first and AM/PM can come before the time. Lists are joined with 、.
• Replies and forwards from Chinese mail programs, marked 回复:, 答复: or 转发:, thread with their originals and don't get a second Re: or Fwd:.

163.com and 139.com

Gofer can now connect to NetEase (163.com) and China Mobile (139.com) mailboxes over IMAP, thanks to @noir017 (#97):

• IMAP servers that don't offer AUTHENTICATE PLAIN, such as these two, are signed in to with LOGIN. Every other server is signed in to as before.
• Gofer tells IMAP servers that support it who it is (its name and version). 163.com doesn't open folders until it does.
• IMAP connections also offer RSA key exchange, as a last choice after the usual ones, since 139.com accepts nothing else.
• 139.com ends its folder status replies with a stray space, which Gofer's IMAP library rejects. Until the library accepts it, Gofer removes that space before the library reads the reply. This works with SSL on port 993, 139.com's usual setting, but not with STARTTLS.

Google Fonts

• With GOFER_GOOGLE_FONTS=true, Settings › Appearance has a Fonts card for the text and heading fonts, picked from the Google Fonts library, thanks to @altendorfme (#86). Each name in the menus is shown in its own font, and a new choice applies at once.
• Gofer fetches the fonts itself, keeps them in google-fonts/ next to the database, and serves them from its own address, so browsers never contact Google.
• The fonts apply to every style except Express, which keeps its own.

Phones

• Taps are much lighter. Opening a conversation, expanding a thread and going back to the list no longer keep the browser busy for seconds laying out the page again.
• A message starts loading as soon as a finger touches it, and rows and buttons show as pressed right away.
• Threads open and close without waiting. Their messages are fetched on touch, with a placeholder for each if they take longer.
• Going back from a message closes it in place instead of loading the mail page again, and going forward opens it again.
• Opening a conversation downloads less: the translation menu's languages come once, not twice for every message.
• The light/dark/original switch and the translate icon sit right above each message's body. Blocked images are an icon in that row, with a menu to always show them for the message or the sender, instead of a banner several lines tall.
• On a touch screen, a sideways swipe on the calendar goes to the next or previous month or week.

Fixes and polish

• Replying to someone whose name has a comma, an "@" or a colon, such as "Pérez, Juan" or a name that's just their address, failed with "Please enter at least one recipient." The same happened from autocomplete, Reply all and scheduled sending. Such names are now quoted, and drafts saved before still send. (#94)
• The contacts sort button shows the order you chose instead of the previous one. (#93)
• New mail notifications show the sender's avatar in managed mode, where they showed the Gofer logo, and the sender's initials when there's no picture.
• In card view, the selection checkbox sits inside the card, level with its first line, instead of half off its edge.
• The account wizards can be finished from any section: the Contacts step has Done next to Next, and the end of Email says Done instead of Close.
• Tooltip and popover arrows have a full outline.
• A yyyy-mm-dd date range across two months shows the year on its first date.

Upgrade notes

• ⚠️ This release upgrades the database (schemas 141 to 143). You can't go back to an older release afterwards, so back up your data directory first.
• ⚠️ Gofer no longer follows the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables. See the warning at the top for what to do.
• Deleting a proxy, or taking it away from someone, moves the accounts that used it to the default proxy, or to a direct connection when there's no default.
• Nothing changes until you add a proxy: every account starts on the default, and there's no default proxy yet.
• GOFER_GOOGLE_FONTS is new and off by default.

Gofer remains pre-1.0. I'm actively using and improving it, but please keep backups and test your setup before relying on it for anything critical.