Mailbox Delegation in Carbonio Community Edition | Carbonio CE

Mailbox delegation is a widely used feature in email services, allowing multiple users to manage tasks such as reviewing and filtering emails. It’s particularly useful when multiple employees, such as an office team or international organization staff, need access to a single mailbox. This article explains how to delegate a mailbox to another user in Carbonio Community Edition.

What is Mailbox Delegation?

Delegating a mailbox grants a user access to its root folder and all its subfolders. Additionally, it allows the user to send emails on behalf of the mailbox owner. With these permissions, the user can view, edit, and send emails from the delegated mailbox.

To delegate a mailbox via the command line, start by granting the intended user access to the root folder of the mailbox. Here’s an example:

carbonio prov selectMailbox zextras@carbonio.local modifyFolderGrant / account user1@carbonio.local rwixd

In this example, the user user1@carbonio.local is granted full access to the mailbox zextras@carbonio.local.

Here’s a breakdown of the permissions:

• (r)ead: View and search items
• (w)rite: Edit drafts, contacts, and set flags on emails
• (i)nsert: Copy data into folders and create new subfolders
• (x) – Accept invitations
• (d)elete: Remove items and subfolders

To verify that the rights were granted correctly, use the following command to list all folders in the target account:

carbonio prov selectMailbox user1@carbonio.local getAllFolders

The folders from zextras@carbonio.local will appear in user1@carbonio.local‘s mailbox.

In the Carbonio web client, the mailbox will display these delegated folders under:

• Mail

• Calendar

• Contacts

Delegating an Inbox to Multiple Users

Permissions can also be granted to groups, domains, or service classes:

• For a distribution list:

carbonio prov selectMailbox zextras@carbonio.local modifyFolderGrant / group dlist@carbonio.local rwixd

For a domain:

carbonio prov selectMailbox zextras@carbonio.local modifyFolderGrant / domain carbonio.local rwixd

For a Class of Service:

carbonio prov selectMailbox zextras@carbonio.local modifyFolderGrant / cos default rwixd

To check existing permissions, use the getFolderGrant command:

carbonio prov selectMailbox zextras@carbonio.local getFolderGrant /

Revoking Permissions

To revoke access rights, replace the current permissions with none:

carbonio prov selectMailbox zextras@carbonio.local modifyFolderGrant / cos default none

Granting Permission to Send Emails

To allow a user to send emails on behalf of the delegated mailbox, use the following command:

carbonio prov grr account zextras@carbonio.local usr user1@carbonio.local sendAs

You can verify that this permission was granted correctly with:

carbonio prov ckr account zextras@carbonio.local user1@carbonio.local sendAs

If successful, the output will show ALLOWED.

To revoke this permission, use:

carbonio prov rvr account zextras@carbonio.local usr user1@carbonio.local sendAs

Sending Emails from a Delegated Mailbox

Once permissions are set, the user can send emails from the delegated mailbox through the Carbonio web client. When composing a new email, the user can select the mailbox from a drop-down list.

By default, the delegated mailbox will display with no name. You can assign a name in the settings, and it will appear in the email editor when selected.

This allows a user to manage multiple mailboxes with carefully controlled permissions. Granular access ensures that users with read-only rights cannot delete emails, while users without “send-as” permissions are unable to send or reply to emails on behalf of the mailbox owner, preventing accidental or unauthorized actions.