Carbonio Usage
All functionalities provided by Zextras Carbonio CE are available after logging in to the mailbox.
Access to the mailbox only requires using a browser on any device, provided it is connected to the Internet.
Hint
For a better use of the Carbonio CE features, it is recommended to use an up-to-date version of Firefox or Chrome browsers.
On Mobile devices, dedicated application can be used to access specific functionalities of Carbonio CE.
Use the URL of your webmail to access the login page and provide your credentials:
Username: your e-mail address
Password: the same password associated with your username
Version: The choice is either Iris, Carbonio CE’s native GUI or Classic
Note
We use the URL https://mail.example.com/ to denote our fictitious domain and mailbox. Whenever you find it, remember to replace it with the URL of your mailbox.
Once logged in, the user will be on the Home screen from which he can access all the features of his mailbox.
The features of Carbonio CE are grouped in several modules, each accessible from the menu on the left-hand side of IRIS, Carbonio CE default web interface. At a glance, they are:
- Mails
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Manage your inbox and e-mails; add filter and sub-folders.
- Calendar
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Plan your activities and appointments, share them with colleagues and find their shared calendars.
- Contacts
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Display all the information related to contacts and distribution lists.
- Search
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A powerful search engine across all modules of the mailbox.
- Settings
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Define your preferences to customise the appearance of your mailbox and its daily operating functionalities.
Additionally, all the functionalities to search for objects in the mailbox and to create new objects in the various modules have been unified.
The remainder of this section contains usage instructions for the most common tasks that can be carried out from Carbonio CE’s GUI.
Quick Search And Create New Objects Functionalities
Fig. 1 The top bar of Carbonio CE, used to search for objects and to create new ones.
In Carbonio CE, the functionalities to create new objects (email, contacts, calendar appointments and events, and so on) and to search have been integrated into the top bar. For example, it is possible to create a new calendar appointment while reading e-mails or search for contacts when planning an event on calendar.
To do so, use Carbonio CE’s top bar, shown in Fig. 1. Click the blue NEW button to create a new object in the module you are currently in (i.e., while in the calendar, create a new appointment) or the to create a new object in another module.
The search works in a similar way: the white button on the right-hand side of, which changes label depending on the current module, can be used to search in the module the string provided in the text box. Click the to search in a different module. A more advanced search is available in the Advanced search module.
Mails
The Mails module is where you store, create, and arrange new e-mails.
Working with e-mails
By default, e-mails are placed in the Inbox folder upon arrival (unless they are marked as junk email) and in the Sent folder when sent. These landing folders can be changed via the Mails settings page, by setting up filters and move automatically any email to a given folder.
E-mails are arranged in Conversations, meaning that an e-mail with all the replies it receives is packed in one single element in the list. Messages and conversations can be drag-and-dropped to any folder.
Hint
Moving a single e-mail in a conversation is not possible, the whole conversation will be moved.
A right click on the e-mail allows to carry out a number of actions: marking it as read/unread or as spam, print, delete or flag it. A flag is a simple indicator for an email that can be adapted to one’s preference: to name a few, it has some importance compared to other, it needs some action, or it has been processed and can be archived or deleted.
Trash Folder
The trash folder is a special folder in which e-mails marked for deletion are temporary stored, in case they need to be recovered.
An e-mail in the Trash folder will be automatically deleted after a period equivalent to the retention time, by default 30 days.
Junk Folder
Like the trash folder, this is a special folder in which e-mails that are wither marked as spam, or otherwise are unsolicited or undesired, are stored.
Carbonio CE ships with anti-virus and anti-spam engines that are able to automatically infer whether an e-mail is legit or not and mark it as spam. However, in case you think an e-mail is spam but was not processed, it can be manually marked as spam by right-clicking it and selecting Mark as spam.
All the content of the junk folder helps the anti-spam engine to learn and improve its results.
Massive e-mail sending
A massive e-mail sending is the process of sending legitimate e-mails to a large number of e-mail addresses, often used for marketing purposes and using a specific software or online service for this purpose.
Carbonio CE users may be allowed to send an e-mail to all or to most of their colleagues (internal users) in special circumstances (e.g., company-wide announcements), but they should never send massive e-mails to external e-mail addresses, because the risk is that the company’s e-mail server enter a blacklist and all the e-mails it delivers are marked as spam,making communication with external companies (like suppliers and customers) very difficult.
Calendar
The calendar module allows to keep track of the appointments, meetings, and events you need to attend to and share them with your colleagues.
Beside using NEW, a new appointment can be created with a click of the mouse on the desired date and time on the calendar. The only difference is in the start (and end) date and time: by using the button, they are set to the current date and time, by clicking the calendar they are taken from the clicked date and time.
Contacts
In the Contacts module you can keep track of all the people with whom you exchange e-mails and group them in address books. Existing address books appear on the column on the right of the module’s list.
You can create new contact by using the NEW button and selecting New Contact; they will be stored under the Contacts section of the Contacts module.
Addresses of people to whom you send an e-mail are automatically added to the Emailed Contacts.
Deleted contacts land in the special Trash address book, which keeps them until you manually empty it. To do so, right-click the address book and select Empty trash.
A right-click on the address book allows to carry out a few action on it and its content: edit, share, empty, or delete it. Moreover, new address books can be created.
For each contact, icons allow to carry out different actions: delete, move, or write an e-mail to the contact.
Hint
To move the contacts from one address book to another, you can also drag the contact and drop it on the destination address book.
If any colleague has shared an address book, you can click the FIND SHARES button under Shared Address Book and provide the e-mail address. You will see all the address books shared by the user.
Search
The Search module vastly improves the search capabilities of the quick search top bar. Click the ADVANCED FILTER button to open a dialog that will help you refine the search criteria on all your e-mails.
You can combine multiple search criteria, some of which are inclusive or exclusive (i.e., you can search for e-mails with or without attachments, that are flagged or not, and that are read or unread), while other allow to provide values for almost any other property of an e-mail, including sender or recipient, subject or keywords, type of attachment, and limit the search according to a period of time or to a size interval.
Moreover, you can search on tags given to the e-mail and limit the search to specific folders. When all criteria have been entered, click SEARCH to start the search, while clicking RESET will clear the dialog.
In the resulting list of result, click any e-mail to open it. To further refine the search, click the blue bar above the list of e-mails. The dialog will reopen, with the same criteria entered before: here you can add more constraints or change some of them.
Settings
The Settings module allows to customise both the appearance and the behaviour of the modules. Configuration options are grouped in categories: General, Mails, Calendar, and Contacts.
General
Theme Options
Choose whether the Dark Mode is enabled or not.
Out of Office Settings
These setting allow you to define the behaviour of Carbonio CE when e-mails are received within a time period during which you are not available. You can choose whether automatic replies are sent and to whom: you can also send a different message to people outside your organisation or decide to notify only your colleagues (i.e., people in your organisation).
Define also the time period during which you will be away. By default, an appointment that matches the time period is created on your calendar.
Application versions
Informative panel reporting the versions of Carbonio CE’s components.
Account
Click LOGOUT to exit the current session.
Mails
Displaying Messages
The options here control how the e-mails are displayed in the mailbox and how often to check for new emails (i.e., polling interval).
Other options allow to set the colour of incoming messages and
which is the default query over e-mails, that is, which e-mails are
shown upon logging in. By default, the query is in:inbox,
meaning that all messages in the Inbox are displayed.
Receiving Messages
These settings define the response to incoming e-mails. Notification e-mails can be sent to a third party and different types of desktop notification can be combined (pop-ups, flashing browser title, highlight of mail tab). Notification can be restricted to e-mail landing in the inbox or in all folders (in case you defined Filters, see further on).
Choose also where to store e-mails sent from yourself, whether to send automatic read receipts and if duplicate messages should be deleted.
Signatures
Define signatures that can be appended to the e-mails that you write. Use the textarea to write a plain text or HTML (default) signature, assign a name to them and add to the library by clicking the ADD SIGNATURE button.
Set Default Signatures
Choose from the signature library which signature to append by default to new e-mails that you write or to replies and forward.
Filters
Filters determine how to move incoming or outgoing e-mails to folders within your inbox.
In the list of active filters, click CREATE to define a filter and, in the dialog that appears, configure the condition(s) that need to be matched, the action applied, and give the Filter a name. Filters are applied in a top-down fashion, so in case of multiple active rules, choose whether to stop processing other following filters.
When multiple rules are defined, only those among the Active Filters are used to process e-mails. Filters can be managed individually by selecting them and using the buttons << ADD (activate an available filter), REMOVE >> (disable an active filter), EDIT (modify a Filter), RUN (execute a Filter), and DELETE (remove a filter).
Calendar
General
General setting for Calendar allow to customise how the calendar and its events are displayed, how invitations are managed, and how remainders behave.
The calendar can be shown for the next Month, Day, Week, or Work Week, and it is also possible to choose which day would start the week (usually Sunday or Monday).
Appointments and invitation can be accepted automatically and the notification e-mail deleted.
Reminders can be set up in different way: by playing sounds, showing a popup or flashing the browser’s bar.
Work week
Define the times when your daily work week starts and ends.
Creating Appointments
You may select on which calendar events and appointments are created by default and if the default time zone is used or can be chosen when creating new appointments.
Apple iCal
Allow delegation for Apple iCal.
Permissions
Configure access to free/busy information of appointments, which can be restricted to selected internal users, to configured domain(s), to everyone (i.e., internal and external users), or none.
Moreover, you can limit the users who can send you invitations.
Contacts
Options
You can define how to populate your Contacts and the behaviour of the autocomplete feature. New contacts can be added automatically, while the search for colleagues’ address can use the GAL by default.
Autocomplete can take advantage of the GAL and of shared contacts,
while typing a , can be used as a shortcut to confirm the
currently highlighted suggestion.
APPs for Mobile Devices
Currently, a mobile application to access a Carbonio CE mailbox is available.
As new components like Chats and Files will be available for Carbonio CE, dedicated mobile app will be made available as well.
Mobile clients: Mail
Carbonio Mail is the official and free app for Carbonio and Carbonio-CE users.
Carbonio Mail mobile app is available for both Android and iOS. Allows you to access all your Carbonio E-mails, calendars, and contacts from your mobile devices.
These are the main features of the Carbonio Mail app:
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Download
Carbonio Mail is available for download on the Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zextras.iris
It is required that the Android version be equal to or higher than 5.0
iOS version is available for download on the Apple’s App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/carbonio-mail/id1490253524
It is required that the iOS version be equal to or higher than 14
Carbonio Mail configuration
The mobile application is enabled by default on all users. These are the only server side requirements:
Port 443/HTTPS must accessible from the Internet
A valid SSL/TLS certificate
The user with whom you log in via the Carbonio CE Mail App must be existing and active
Login via Carbonio Mail
In order to use Carbonio Mail App, follow these steps:
Download the application (see the Download section)
Activate (see the Notifications section)
Login via app
Fig. 2 Login screen of Carbonio Mail app.
In order to login, in Fig. 2 provide the following date:
E-mail account name
Password
Server name, which must match the FQDN. It’s not necessary to enter the port number as 443 / HTTPS is set by default.
Note
Scan of QR codes is not supported on Carbonio CE!
Authentication
Carbonio Mail mobile app connects to the server through an HTTPS secure connection and Carbonio responds with its certificate. This process (called SSL handshake) provides data integrity and data privacy to the information transferred between the client and the server, which is encrypted, provided that the SSL certificate is active and not expired.
Notifications
Android devices manufacturers have strict default settings on which apps can display notifications, sometimes causing the Carbonio Mail App not to be able to notify new messages.
To make sure that your device allows all required notifications, follow these steps:
Log out from the app
Access the device’s Settings, then enter the Apps & Notifications menu
Select the Carbonio Mail app from the list of all installed apps
Enter the Notifications section
Enable the notifications (first option on the top)
Enable the banner notification on the Appointment and E-mail subsections
Log back in
Notifications should now work!
Warning
For push notifications to work on the device, the Carbonio CE server must be able to communicate with the notifications.zextras.com service on port 443 (The exact URL to which notifications are sent is: https://notifications.zextras.com/firebase/ )