Email config autodiscover

allyn

Anyone setup autoconfig / autodiscover for their email domains to make setup of clients easier?

sean

Doing this automatically is on our long-term TODO list. I'll try to work out a DIY procedure and share it here soon. 🙂

allyn

After a bunch of messing around this is how I got this to work for my domains.

Note: Only works if you name your accounts <domain>_<account> like troop123_scoutmaster for scoutmaster@troop123.net.

For Mozilla Thunderbird clients setup config-v1.1.xml file:
https://autoconfig.domain.net/mail/config-v1.1.xml

For MS Exchange clients (or ones that use this config) setup autodiscover. This sends the email address in the request, so you can grab it and put it in the response. The call is to the autodiscover.xml file, but the redirect has it call the autodiscover.php file to use the email address to create the autodiscover.xml file.
https://autodiscover.domain.net/autodiscover/autodiscover.php
_autodiscover._tcp.domain.net with SRV record: SRV 10 3600 10 443 autodiscover.domain.net
.htaccess rewrite redirect rule in root of autodiscover.domain.net site

RewriteEngine On
        RewriteRule ^.*autodiscover.xml$ https://autodiscover.domain.net/autodiscover/autodiscover.php [R,L]

Additional items added for RFC 6186, but not sure they do anything:
_imaps._tcp.domain.net with SRV record to 993 mail.us.opalstack.com
_submission._tcp.domain.net with SRV record to 587 smtp.us.opalstack.com, SRV record to 465 smtp.us.opalstack.com

I was able to use the Apple Configurator tool to create .mobileconfig files for easy iPhone email setup. I think this could be automate with the API to get account info and create each file. Did not have enough accounts to need that. Here is a link to the Configurator software:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-configurator-2/id1037126344?mt=12

Thought I would share my findings. A pain to get it to work but now makes setup a snap, which was a major pain to guide people through before.

Would be great to add this as a feature to hosted email domains. Would have saved days of banging my head on the wall. If the scripts used the API, then format of the user name would not matter.

Thanks,

Robert

config-v1.1.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<clientConfig version="1.1">
  <emailProvider id="domain.net">
    <domain>domain.net</domain>
    <displayName>Domain Mail</displayName>
    <displayShortName>DomainEmail</displayShortName>
    <incomingServer type="imap">
      <hostname>mail.us.opalstack.com</hostname>
      <port>993</port>
      <socketType>SSL</socketType>
      <authentication>password-cleartext</authentication>
      <username>domain_%EMAILLOCALPART%</username>
    </incomingServer>
    <outgoingServer type="smtp">
      <hostname>smtp.us.opalstack.com</hostname>
      <port>587</port>
      <socketType>STARTTLS</socketType>
      <authentication>password-cleartext</authentication>
      <username>domain_%EMAILLOCALPART%</username>
    </outgoingServer>
    <outgoingServer type="smtp">
      <hostname>smtp.us.opalstack.com</hostname>
      <port>465</port>
      <socketType>SSL</socketType>
      <authentication>password-cleartext</authentication>
      <username>domain_%EMAILLOCALPART%</username>
    </outgoingServer>
  </emailProvider>
</clientConfig>

autodiscover.php

<?php
$raw = file_get_contents('php://input');
$matches = array();
// assumes <domain name>_<emial account> format for username and no periods before @
preg_match('/<EMailAddress>([^@]+)@([^\.]+).*<\/EMailAddress>/', $raw, $matches);
header('Content-Type: application/xml');
echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>'."\n";
?>
<Autodiscover xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/responseschema/2006">
  <Response xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/outlook/responseschema/2006a">
    <User>
      <DisplayName>Email Account</DisplayName>
    </User>
    <Account>
      <AccountType>email</AccountType>
      <Action>settings</Action>
      <Protocol>
        <Type>IMAP</Type>
        <Server>mail.us.opalstack.com</Server>
        <Port>993</Port>
        <DomainRequired>off</DomainRequired>
        <SPA>off</SPA>
        <SSL>on</SSL>
        <AuthRequired>on</AuthRequired>
        <LoginName><?php echo $matches[2]; ?>_<?php echo $matches[1]; ?></LoginName>
      </Protocol>
      <Protocol>
        <Type>SMTP</Type>
        <Server>smtp.us.opalstack.com</Server>
        <Port>587</Port>
        <DomainRequired>off</DomainRequired>
        <SPA>off</SPA>
        <SSL>on</SSL>
        <Encryption>TLS</Encryption>
        <AuthRequired>on</AuthRequired>
        <LoginName><?php echo $matches[2]; ?>_<?php echo $matches[1]; ?></LoginName>
      </Protocol>
    </Account>
  </Response>
</Autodiscover>

allyn

I did just find this php setup that looks like it might do most of it dynamically. https://github.com/smartlyway/email-autoconfig-php Will have to try this out at some point.

allyn

OK, I think I am done messing with this for a while. Here is my recap:
I ended up going with the https://github.com/smartlyway/email-autoconfig-php version. All dynamic, including iPhone config files. Just need to add the PHP code into index.php files so no .htaccess redirection required.

This code only works with top level domains xxx.com, xxx.org etc. You will have to change the regex if your domain has subdomains or otherwise is different. Also this assumes email address emailaccount@domains.com uses mailbox named domain_emailaccount, and if the email address has periods in it like email.account@domain.com that the mailbox name is domain_email_account. If yours are different, you would need to change the regex and logic in the PHP and HTML. There is some formatting included for visual appeal only.

Accessing the iPhone mobileconfig profiles is done by opening this URL in Safari on the iPhone passing in the email address at the end
https://autoconfig.domain.com/email.mobileconfig?emailaccount@domain.com
The iPhone will prompt to install the profile. User has to provide the password.

Previous config-v1.1.xml is not changed from above.

Autodiscover.xml/index.php

<?php
$raw = file_get_contents('php://input');
$matches = array();
preg_match('/<EMailAddress>([^@]+)@([^\.]+).*<\/EMailAddress>/', $raw, $matches);
$accountname = ucwords(str_replace(array(" ",".","-","_")," ",$matches[1]), " ");
$domain = ucfirst(strtolower($matches[2]));
$account = str_replace(".", "_", $matches[1]);
$username = strtolower($matches[2] . "_" . $account);
echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n";
echo "<!-- " . $accountname . " " . $domain . " " . $account . " " . $username . " -->\n";
?>
<Autodiscover xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/responseschema/2006">
  <Response xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/outlook/responseschema/2006a">
    <User>
      <DisplayName><?php echo $domain . " " . $accountname; ?></DisplayName>
    </User>
    <Account>
      <AccountType>email</AccountType>
      <Action>settings</Action>
      <Protocol>
        <Type>IMAP</Type>
        <Server>mail.us.opalstack.com</Server>
        <Port>993</Port>
        <DomainRequired>off</DomainRequired>
        <SPA>off</SPA>
        <SSL>on</SSL>
        <AuthRequired>on</AuthRequired>
        <LoginName><?php echo $username; ?></LoginName>
      </Protocol>
      <Protocol>
        <Type>SMTP</Type>
        <Server>smtp.us.opalstack.com</Server>
        <Port>587</Port>
        <DomainRequired>off</DomainRequired>
        <SPA>off</SPA>
        <Encryption>TLS</Encryption>
        <AuthRequired>on</AuthRequired>
        <LoginName><?php echo $username; ?></LoginName>
      </Protocol>
    </Account>
  </Response>
</Autodiscover>

email.mobileconfig/index.php

<?php
header('Content-Type: application/xml');
echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n";
$email = filter_var($_GET["email"], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
$matches = array();
preg_match('/([^@]+)@([^\.]+)\.(.*)/', $email, $matches);
echo "<!-- email = " . $email . ": " . $matches[1] . "-" . $matches[2] . "-" . $matches[3] . " -->\n";
$email = strtolower($email);
$accountname = ucwords(str_replace(array(" ",".","-","_")," ",$matches[1]), " ");
$domain = ucfirst(strtolower($matches[2]));
$account = str_replace(".", "_", $matches[1]);
$username = strtolower($matches[2] . "_" . $account);
$payloadidstr = strtolower($matches[3] . "." . $matches[2] . "." . $matches[1]);
echo "<!-- " . $email . ": " . $accountname . "-" . $domain . " " . $account . " " . $username . " " . $payloadidstr . " -->\n";
?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>PayloadContent</key>
	<array>
		<dict>
			<key>EmailAccountDescription</key>
			<string><?php echo $domain . " " . $accountname; ?></string>
			<key>EmailAccountName</key>
			<string><?php echo $domain . " " . $accountname; ?></string>
			<key>EmailAccountType</key>
			<string>EmailTypeIMAP</string>
			<key>EmailAddress</key>
			<string><?php echo $email ?></string>
			<key>IncomingMailServerAuthentication</key>
			<string>EmailAuthPassword</string>
			<key>IncomingMailServerHostName</key>
			<string>mail.us.opalstack.com</string>
			<key>IncomingMailServerPortNumber</key>
			<integer>993</integer>
			<key>IncomingMailServerUseSSL</key>
			<true/>
			<key>IncomingMailServerUsername</key>
			<string><?php echo $username; ?></string>
			<key>OutgoingMailServerAuthentication</key>
			<string>EmailAuthPassword</string>
			<key>OutgoingMailServerHostName</key>
			<string>smtp.us.opalstack.com</string>
			<key>OutgoingMailServerPortNumber</key>
			<integer>587</integer>
			<key>OutgoingMailServerUseSSL</key>
			<true/>
			<key>OutgoingMailServerUsername</key>
			<string><?php echo $username; ?></string>
			<key>OutgoingPasswordSameAsIncomingPassword</key>
			<true/>
			<key>PayloadDescription</key>
			<string><?php echo $domain . " " . $accountname; ?> email autoconfiguration profile</string>
			<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
			<string><?php echo $domain . " " . $accountname; ?> Email</string>
			<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
			<string><?php echo $payloadidstr; ?>.autoconfig</string>
			<key>PayloadType</key>
			<string>com.apple.mail.managed</string>
			<key>PayloadUUID</key>
			<string>BDD6C1C4-B470-49C1-AB6B-72CE1DBF728C</string>
			<key>PayloadVersion</key>
			<integer>1</integer>
			<key>SMIMEEnableEncryptionPerMessageSwitch</key>
			<false/>
			<key>SMIMEEnablePerMessageSwitch</key>
			<false/>
			<key>SMIMEEnabled</key>
			<false/>
			<key>SMIMEEncryptByDefaultUserOverrideable</key>
			<false/>
			<key>SMIMEEncryptionEnabled</key>
			<false/>
			<key>SMIMESigningEnabled</key>
			<false/>
			<key>SMIMESigningUserOverrideable</key>
			<false/>
			<key>allowMailDrop</key>
			<true/>
			<key>disableMailRecentsSyncing</key>
			<false/>
		</dict>
	</array>
	<key>PayloadDescription</key>
	<string><?php echo $domain . " " . $accountname; ?> email autoconfiguration</string>
    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
    <string><?php echo $domain . " " . $accountname; ?> email</string>
    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
    <string><?php echo $payloadidstr; ?>.autoconfig</string>
	<key>PayloadOrganization</key>
	<string><?php echo $domain; ?></string>
	<key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key>
	<false/>
	<key>PayloadType</key>
	<string>Configuration</string>
	<key>PayloadUUID</key>
	<string>8A15C321-3F7D-42A0-8F1D-03C414B79EB8</string>
	<key>PayloadVersion</key>
	<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>