SurgeWeb User Help

Surgeweb end user help.

Labels

SurgeWeb has two slightly different forms of labels with comparitive advantages as below:

Universal labels

Should be used for labels you use frequently and may want to change on multiple messages. This uses IMAP user flags to store the labels.

  • This is efficient
  • Labels can be viewed with another IMAP mail client
  • There is a limit of 22 of these labels - which includes any your IMAP mail clients may create
  • Custom IMAP flags must be explicitly enabled by the server administrator using g_imap_user_flags

Surgeweb labels

Only use if you need more than 22 labels or imap user flags cannot be enabled. Avoid using these on large messages. This stores the label as an additional header in your IMAP message. This requires surgeweb to modify and re-upload your email message to the server.

  • There is no limit on the number of labels that can be created
  • This is less efficient (particularly on large emails), and can only be set on a limited number of messages at a time
  • Labels can only be viewed from surgeweb
  • If you do a "forward attach" the labels will be sent as part of the message headers so the recipient may be able to view them (just like labelling using Thunderbird in POP mode)

Labels can be added and removed from messages as much as you like. However for both types of labels once the label has been created it cannot be deleted (for implementation reasons). You can however rename the display name or hide labels from display.

Both labelling mechanisms should work across surgemail mirrorred servers.

Searching

SurgeWeb has three different ways of searching for messages

Quick search

This is a 'search as you type' browser side 'full text match only' search of the displayed headers of the current page of messages. This is useful for quickly locating certain messages without waiting for the delay involved in going to the server for more advanced searches.
Note: This will not search message bodies or other pages of messages in the currently displayed folder (see hint below)

Full text match only:
joe All messages with the word 'joe' in any of the cached headers
joe blogs All messages with the string 'joe blogs' in any of the cached headers

HINT: When Enter is pressed a "quick search" will be automatically switched to a "folder search" under certain conditions. In particular: if there are multiple pages of messages in a folder, if advanced search syntax characters are found (colon or minus or double quote), or control-enter is pressed.

Folder search

This is a very fast server side headers search of all the messages in one or more folders. This search capability allows for the search for multiple search terms that are 'ANDed' together and allows for searching in in specific fields:
Note: This will not search message bodies, and only searches messages in folders that have already been accessed and indexed by surgeweb (manually refresh by right clicking a folder and select refresh or refresh all)

Basic text searches:
joe All messages with the word 'joe' in any of the cached headers
joe blogs All messages with the word 'joe' AND 'blogs' in any of the cached headers
joe blogs -foobar All messages with the word 'joe' AND 'blogs' EXCLUDING 'foobar' in any of the cached headers
"joe blogs" All messages with the string 'joe blogs' in any of the cached headers
from:"joe blogs" All messages with the string 'joe blogs' in the from header
Specific field searches:
email:joe@domain All messages with 'joe@domain' in any of the recipient fields ie. a "conversation history"
from:marijn@netwin All messages with 'marijn@netwin' in from address
to:joe All messages with 'joe' in to address
subject:webmail All messages with 'webmail' in the subject ie. a "thread view"
date:week All messages received in the last week
valid values: day, week, month
flags:replied All messages that have been replied to
valid values: seen, replied
attachments:any All messages with attachments
valid values: any, true, none, false
More complex searches:
from:marijn@netwin date:week
  All messages from 'marijn@netwin' in the last week
subject:webmail -date:week
  Messages with the word 'webmail' in subject older than one week
from:joe subject:webmail
  Messages from 'joe' with the word 'webmail' in the subject
-flags:replied -date:week
  Messages older than one week that have not been replied to

note: The "Recent" option only searches folders that have been accessed in the last month. The "All" option will search all folders but does not refresh the mesage indexes from IMAP so may not find the message you are looking for. Click any folders in question to refresh the indexes.

Body search

IMAP serverside search of the full message body and headers content. This can take a long time on large folders / or large accounts - expect approx 30 seconds per 100 MB of mail that needs to be searched through. One or more search terms can be specified which will be ANDed together.
Note: This may take a long time

Body search syntax:
joe All messages with the word 'joe' anywhere in the message
joe blogs All messages with the word 'joe' AND 'blogs' anywhere in the message
"joe blogs" All messages with the string 'joe blogs' anywhere in the message

Spam handling

SurgeWeb uses the surgemail user.cgi Friends and spam handling features. Manually correcting false positives and training messages as spam can be done using the following actions in SurgeWeb or in an IMAP client:

Action *** subject
marking
Move
to
notspam
train
isspam
train
Contacts
add
Friends
whitelist
Address
blocklist
SurgeWeb - Buttons on messages having received high spam rating: (single message only)
Press "Spam" button Spam Train Remove
Press "Not Spam" button Cleaned Train AddAdd
 Press "Allow Once" button Cleaned
 Press "Block Forever" button Spam RemoveAdd
 Press "Spam" button deleted Train Remove
 Press "Not Spam" button CleanedINBOX Train AddAdd
 Press "Allow Once" button CleanedINBOX
 Press "Block Forever" button deleted RemoveAdd
SurgeWeb - "More Actions" menu action: (one or more messages)
"Spam" whilst in any folder other than Spam Spam TrainRemove
 "Not Spam" whilst in any folder other than Spam Cleaned Train AddAdd
 "Spam" whilst in Spam folder deleted Train Remove
 "Not Spam" whilst in Spam folder CleanedINBOX Train AddAdd
SurgeWeb - Drag and drop / copy / move: (one or more messages)
IMAP copy / move: (one or more messages)
note: depends on g_imap_spam_train, g_imap_friends settings
 from any folder to Spam folder Spam Train Remove
 from Spam folder to INBOX CleanedINBOX Train Add
 from Spam folder to other folder no special spam handling actions taken
Primary action
actioned in INBOX or other folder
actioned in Spam folder