ec-nds/autoresponse

Simple vacation / out-of-office autoresponse settings for Roundcube

dev-main 2026-04-28 08:08 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.4
• roundcube/roundcubemail: >=1.5

Suggests

• roundcube/managesieve: Provides the Net_Sieve library used for server communication

MIT

• plugin
• roundcube
• sieve
• vacation
• autoresponse

README

A clean, self-contained Roundcube plugin that adds a dedicated "Abwesenheitsnotiz" (vacation / out-of-office) entry to the Settings navigation.
It writes and reads a real Sieve vacation script via the managesieve plugin, so the auto-reply is enforced server-side — independent of whether Roundcube is open.

Optimised for Plesk hosting environments. The installation paths and default configuration in this README reflect a standard Plesk server setup. The plugin works on any Roundcube installation, but paths may differ outside of Plesk.

Features

• Enable / disable the auto-reply with a single checkbox
• Custom subject and body for the vacation message
• Optional date range — the reply is only sent between two calendar dates
• Sieve script is saved and activated automatically
• Form input is preserved on validation errors (no data loss)
• Falls back to stored user preferences when the Sieve server is temporarily unreachable
• Automatically deactivates the reply if the end date has passed

Requirements

Requirement	Version
Roundcube	1.4 or newer
PHP	7.4 or newer
managesieve plugin	must be installed & configured
Sieve server	must support the vacation extension

Installation

1. Copy the plugin

Place the autoresponse folder inside your Roundcube plugins directory.

Plesk (default path):

/usr/share/psa-roundcube/plugins/autoresponse/

Other environments — the path depends on your Roundcube installation, e.g.:

/var/lib/roundcube/plugins/autoresponse/

The directory must contain at least:

autoresponse/
├── autoresponse.php
├── config.inc.php.dist        (optional, copy to config.inc.php)
├── localization/
│   └── de_DE.inc              (and any other locales)
└── skins/
    └── elastic/
        └── autoresponse.css

2. Enable the plugins

Edit your Roundcube main configuration file and add both managesieve and autoresponse to the plugins list.

Plesk (default path): /usr/share/psa-roundcube/config/config.inc.php

$config['plugins'] = [
    'managesieve',
    'autoresponse',
    // ... your other plugins
];

Important: managesieve must appear before autoresponse in the list.

3. Configure the Sieve library path (if needed)

The plugin tries to locate rcube_sieve.php automatically by looking in the standard managesieve plugin paths.

On a Plesk server the file is typically found at:

/usr/share/psa-roundcube/plugins/managesieve/lib/Roundcube/rcube_sieve.php

This path is tried automatically. If auto-detection fails (e.g. on non-Plesk setups), set the path explicitly in plugins/autoresponse/config.inc.php:

$config['autoresponse_sieve_lib'] =
    '/usr/share/psa-roundcube/plugins/managesieve/lib/Roundcube/rcube_sieve.php';

Configuration

Copy config.inc.php.dist to config.inc.php inside the plugin folder and adjust as needed.
All keys are optional — the plugin falls back to the corresponding managesieve_* values.

<?php

// Override the ManageSieve host (defaults to managesieve_host)
$config['autoresponse_sieve_host'] = 'localhost';

// Override the ManageSieve port (defaults to 4190 or the system sieve service port)
$config['autoresponse_sieve_port'] = 4190;

// Force TLS (defaults to managesieve_usetls)
$config['autoresponse_sieve_tls'] = false;

// Absolute path to rcube_sieve.php — only needed if auto-detection fails
$config['autoresponse_sieve_lib'] = '';

// Minimum interval (days) between vacation replies to the same sender
// Passed directly to the Sieve :days argument (default: 1)
$config['autoresponse_vacation_days'] = 1;

How it works

When the user saves an enabled vacation notice, the plugin generates and activates a Sieve script like this:

require ["vacation", "date", "relational"];

if allof (
    currentdate :value "ge" "date" "2025-07-01",
    currentdate :value "le" "date" "2025-07-31"
) {
    vacation :days 1 :subject "Ich bin im Urlaub" text:
Vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht. Ich bin derzeit nicht erreichbar.
.
;
}

When the vacation notice is disabled, the active script is replaced with a harmless comment and deactivated:

# autoresponse disabled

Contributing

Feedback, bug reports, and improvements are very welcome!

• Found a bug or something not working?
  Please open an Issue and describe what happened, your Roundcube version, and your server environment (Plesk version, PHP version, mail server). The more detail, the faster it can be fixed.

• Have an improvement or fix in mind?
  Fork the repository, make your changes, and open a Pull Request. Even small contributions — typo fixes, additional locale files, compatibility improvements — are appreciated.

• Not sure whether something is a bug or a configuration issue?
  Open an Issue anyway. Let's figure it out together.

Errors from the plugin are written to the standard Roundcube error log (usually logs/errors.log relative to your Roundcube root) — including that in your issue report is very helpful.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.