Apache::App::Mercury 0.80 - Internal web server messaging for Apache mod_perl

Apache::App::Mercury is a customizable, extensible customer to customer,
store and forward messaging application for Apache mod_perl (1.x).
It uses a relational database (accessed via DBI) to store and retrieve
messages, and uses CGI.pm to display them in standard HTML.  It's design
closely resembles a MVC design pattern, and it handles all message box
navigation, message composition, sending, replying, etc.  In short, it
is a complete web (intra server) messaging application for your Apache
mod_perl server, which can be customized to fit your specific needs
(e.g. private labelling).

It was originally written to provide a basic, easy-to-use secure messaging
system: if it is run on an SSL-enabled server, and your message database
is on an encrypted filesystem, then it's "pretty secure".
I would call it a good balance between security and ease-of-use, since
all messages are encrypted, but users don't need to manage any digital keys.
The fact that all messages are kept on one server could be viewed either as
a security weakness or strength: if that machine is compromised, the
attacker gets all the messages; on the other hand, you can heavily
secure this one machine, whereas if you use a distributed messaging system
users typically store their messages in plaintext on very insecure boxes.
(ie. Windows)

Dependencies:
 o Perl
 o Apache 1.3.x
 o mod_perl 1.x
 o DBI
 o MySQL, DBD::mysql
 o MIME::Lite  (optional: for e-mail auto-forwarding)
 o POSIX
 o Storable
 o Text::Wrap
 o URI::Escape

Note on version: the version is < 1.0 not because it is not ready for
production, but because there is more documentation to be written,
test suites to be written, better installation procedure to be designed, etc.

For detailed installation instructions, see the INSTALL file.

Adi Fairbank
adi@adiraj.org
July 19, 2003