JoomlaPlug!

Having been on the look out for ages for a solution for email for joomla users to access This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it mail accounts, I came across Roundcube. Initially I was looking for a solution that would enable auto-creation of email accounts. There was a thread on the Roundcube forum indicating work on that.

Then I discovered that the roundcube project was also being developed by Ovidiu at Joomlaplug. Being a big fan of JoomlaCloner, I am hoping that this is going to be a good solution for what I need.

I have some questions both as to the scope and function of the component - as there does not seem to be (at this point) much detailed manual for the component.

I got it installed (suffered the common 2M file size upload issue) but uploaded the folder and accessed locally fir the component install. Actually, the install doc in the folder headed me in pretty much the wrong direction. After following the instructions to create databases, edit htaccess files, and chmod anything that moved, it left me in a mess. Whereas, installing the same via the component install was straight forward.

However I am unclear about a few things:

1) The email component login and subsequent mailbox page seems to be completely independent of the wesite's Joomla environment. Even when you logout you are returned to the login module, not the site. Is there some setting I am missing that actually integrates into the site, so acts as a stand alone?

2) I can see that roundcube sets up several tables in the joomla database, including a list of users. How does this list relate to registered users? What is the advantage of setting up roundcube as a joomla component rather than as a standalone webmail fontend in a separate directory on the site? It seems to be possible to log into the webmail panel even if the user is removed from the users list in the component as they are create again on login to webmail.

3) I am seeing "Virtual User file" and "Virtual Query" in the Generla tab of the config of the component. I have no idea what these do. Is there some info anywhere on what they are and how they are managed?

4) My original interest in Roundcube sprung from work being done on auto-registration onto the mailserver - although it seemed only to work with cpanel. Did anything ever come of this? Currently, as far as I understand it, there is still a requirement for the mail box to be manually created on the mail server. Is this correct?

Thanks for any help pointing me in the right direction
Allister