Installation
upload, activate, check the cron.

01Upload and activate

1. Download the item from CodeCanyon and unzip the download on your computer. In its upload folder you find the module archive mail_desk.zip. Do not unzip that file.
2. Open Setup > Modules in Perfex, click Upload Module, choose mail_desk.zip and upload it.
3. Activate the module named Mail Desk - Shared Team Inbox (version 1.0.0). Its row in Setup > Modules then also has links to Mailboxes and Settings.
4. Give permissions to the staff roles that should use it. The Mail Desk menu entry appears in the sidebar for everyone with at least one Mail Desk permission (Sharing and permissions). Administrators can use everything at once.
5. Add your first mailbox (Connect a mailbox).

Manual alternative: unzip mail_desk.zip, copy the mail_desk folder into Perfex's modules folder over FTP, then activate it in Setup > Modules.

02What activation does

• Creates Mail Desk's own tables with your Perfex table prefix, for example tblmd_accounts, tblmd_threads and tblmd_messages. Perfex's own tables are not changed.
• Adds its settings as Perfex options named mail_desk_… with their default values.
• Creates the encryption key for mailbox passwords in uploads/mail_desk/mail-desk-key.php. The file is a PHP file that prints nothing when someone requests it in a browser. Only if that folder cannot be written is the key kept as a Perfex option instead.

Activating again later (for example after an update) keeps your mailboxes, mail and settings.

03The cron job

Mail Desk reads new mail when Perfex's cron job runs. If your Perfex cron already runs (Perfex needs it for its own reminders and e-mail), there is nothing to add. Mail Desk registers itself with it.

1. Open Setup > Settings > Cron Job in Perfex. It shows the exact command for your server.
2. Add that command in your hosting control panel (for example cPanel > Cron Jobs), as Perfex's own guide on that page describes.
3. Check after a few minutes that Mail Desk > Settings (Sync card) or the Dashboard (Mailboxes card) shows "Last cron run time ago" instead of "The Perfex cron has not run Mail Desk yet".

Each cron run reads a batch of new messages per mailbox (50 by default), then leaves the rest for the next run. Staff can also click Sync now under a mailbox in the Inbox, or on its card in Mail Desk > Mailboxes. Details: How sync works.

04Where files are kept

The attachment folder gets an .htaccess file that denies direct requests (Apache). Files have random names without an extension and are only served through Mail Desk after a permission check. On nginx, .htaccess has no effect; the random names still apply, and you can add a rule that denies /uploads/mail_desk/.