The other day a poster in the Forums asked if it was possible to play a sound file when a new message arrived. I thought this would be a fun plugin to put together and decided to give this a try. I just committed the initial version, called "notices", to SVN. The plugin allows users to play a sound file and/or to pop open a browser window notifying them of a new message. There is still more work to do and I have only tested with Firefox but it's shaping up pretty well. Here are some details:

- The plugin adds two settings to the "General" section of the options page. One enables a sound to be played when a new message arrives, and the other enables a popup window.

- The popup window is created with javascript and closes itself after 5 seconds. If you have a pop up blocker you will need to disable it for the webmail domain for this option to work.

- The sound playing is done with SoundManager2, a neat sound playing system written in javascript and flash. The plugin has a few sounds to choose from and a test link to preview the sounds before selecting one. TheSoundManage2 homepage is here:

http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/

Playing sounds with different browsers is a difficult which is why we are using the soundmanager system which should be compatible with most major browsers and platforms.

Feedback and ideas are welcome. I hope to keep improving the plugin over the next week or two for inclusion in the next release candidate.

Jason