Documentation for Alt-N MDaemon

Mailing Lists

Using MDaemon's Mailing List Features.

Mailing Lists, sometimes called Email Groups or Distribution Lists, allow groups of users to be addressed as if they all shared a common mailbox. Copies of email messages sent to the list are distributed to each of the list's members. Lists may contain members with local and/or remote destination addresses, be public or private, moderated or open, be sent in Digest or normal message format, and more.

Mailing List Editor

The Mailing List Editor is used to create and maintain Mailing Lists and can be reached from the Lists New List… or Lists Edit List… menu selection.

Creating a New Mailing List

When the Lists New List… menu selection is chosen, the Mailing List Editor will be opened for creating the new list. Naming the list and designating the domain to which it will belong are the only required parameters for creating it. All other options will contain default settings. You can change these settings while creating the list or you can change them later by editing it.

Modifying an Existing Mailing List

Click the Lists Edit List… menu selection to open the Select Mailing List dialog. This dialog is used to choose the Mailing List that you wish to edit. When a list is selected from this dialog it will be opened in the Mailing List Editor for editing or review.

List Addresses

Name

Specify a name for the mailing list and then choose the domain to which the list will belong form the drop-down list box. Messages directed to this list will use the name and domain specified here (e.g. mylist@mydomain.com). List names cannot contain "!" or "|".

List's "Reply-To:" address

Type the email address to which you want replies to this list to be directed. Enter the list's address if you want replies to be directed back to it. You may enter an address other than the list name, or choose an address from the drop-down list if you want replies to this list to be directed to an alternate address. If you leave this field blank then replies to any list message will be directed back to the sender of that message.

List Properties

This list is private (non members can not post)

When this control is enabled, the list will only propagate messages from list members. Messages originating from non-members will be deleted.

This list is hidden from the global address book(s)

Click this option to hide the mailing list from the WorldClient and LDAP public address books.

This list responds to EXPN and LISTS requests

If this option is selected the membership of the list will be reported in response to an EXPN or LISTS command during a mail session. Otherwise, the list's membership will be kept private.

Messages have list name in Subject

This setting causes MDaemon to enclose the name of the list in brackets (e.g. [ListName]) and add it to the beginning of the Subject: in all messages sent to the list.

Messages have thread numbers in Subject (ie…Subject text {5} )

This switch allows you to toggle whether thread numbers will be displayed in the Subject: header of list messages. They are appended to the end of the subject line in braces and used as a pseudo-thread number. Sorting your inbox by subject will align list mail in chronological order.

Delivery precedence level for this list's traffic

Enter a number from 0-99 in this control. This value signifies the relative sort order of the messages during the delivery process. The lower the value, the higher its importance and the further up it will be in the sort order within a message queue. As a guideline for assigning values: 10 = Urgent, 50 = Normal, and 80 = Bulk.

Replace 'TO:' field with: N/A, list's name, member's full name

Use these options to designate what address will be displayed in the TO: field whenever MDaemon receives a message directed to the list.

N/A -When N/A is selected MDaemon will make no changes to the address displayed. The address contained in the TO: field will appear exactly as the sender of the message entered it.

List's name -This option displays the address of the Mailing List in the 'TO:' field.

Member's full name - When this option is selected, the 'TO:' field will contain the full name and email address of the list member to whom the message is directed, or just the email address if the full name is not available.

Include "[Listname] List Member" in TO: field

When this feature is enabled, "[Listname] List Member" will be displayed in the "real name" portion of the message's TO: field.

Don't distribute messages larger than XX bytes

This control places an upper limit on the size of a message accepted for this mailing list. Messages larger than this limit are sent to the bad message directory.

Membership

Current member count:

This control displays the current number of users subscribed to the list and lists them in the box below. Each member's entry also states his or her "type" of membership: normal, digest, read only, or post only.

Remove

This button removes the selected entries from the Current Members list.

Digest

Select a member and then click this button to make it a "Digest" membership. See Digest for more information on Digest mail.

Read only

Click this button after selecting a list member to give their membership "Read Only" status. They will still receive messages from the list but will not be allowed to send them to it.

Post only/no mail

Clicking this button after selecting a member will set their membership to "Post Only". They will be allowed to send messages to the list but will not receive any.

New member email

Enter the email address of the person you wish to add to the mailing list. Member's addresses cannot contain "!" or "|".

New member real name

Enter the member's name in this field. This name will appear in the "To:" field of their list messages when the "Replace 'TO:' field with: member's full name" option is selected on the Options tab.

Normal, Digest, Read only, Post only

Click the option that you want to be applied to the New Member's Email Address.

Add

This button adds the entry in the New Member's Email Address control to the Current Members list.

Default

Click any one of the options next to this button (Normal, Digest, Read Only, Post Only) and then click the button to make that option the default setting for new members.

Import

Click this button to import list members from a text file that has its fields separated by commas (i.e. a comma delimited file). Each entry must be on its own line and all of its fields must be separated by commas. Further, the first line of the file (the baseline) must list the names of the fields and the order in which they appear in the remaining lines. One of the fields must be called "Email" and contain email addresses, and you can have an optional field called "FullName" containing the list member's name. All other fields will be ignored by the importer.

For example:

"Email", "FullName", "Address", "telephone"
"frank@altn.com", "Frank Thomas", "123 Frank St", "817.555.1234"

Imported members do not receive the list welcome packet (if any), and the importer will not check for member duplicates.

Automatically remove dead addresses from list membership

When this feature is enabled, MDaemon will automatically remove an address from the Members list when it encounters a permanent fatal error while attempting delivery. Addresses will also be considered "dead" and removed when their message is moved to the Retry system and subsequently expires from that system.

Enhanced List Pruning

When the Automatically remove dead addresses… control is enabled and you have specified a local mailbox as the return path for the list's messages (see the Returned Mail control on the Notifications tab), each day at midnight MDaemon will attempt to parse problem addresses from the returned mail and remove those members that couldn't be reached. This will aid in more efficiently pruning invalid addresses from mailing lists, especially when you are routing the list's messages to a smart host rather than delivering them directly.

On the Misc tab of Miscellaneous Options there are two controls related to this feature. One of them will cause returned messages that do not contain a parsable address to be deleted. The other will cause all messages that result in a list member being deleted to be saved.

MDaemon will crack list mail

If selected, individual list messages will be created and dispatched to each list member. This will result in numerous individual messages being created which could affect the server's performance. This option is appropriate for a mailing list of around 15 members or less.

Generate a unique Message ID for each copy

When MDaemon cracks list mail it creates an individual copy of the message for each member. If you wish, MDaemon can make certain that each copy of the list message contains a unique identifier.

Route single copy of list mail to this smart host | Host Name

If selected, MDaemon will route a single copy of each list message to the specified smart host. This method employs multiple RCPT TO commands during the SMTP session with the specified host.

Ignore errors when spooling list mail to host

Since some smart hosts will refuse to queue or spool mail for certain domains, the routed approach to list delivery could cause numerous problems. An error code returned from the smart host as a result of this refusal would ordinarily cause MDaemon to abort the delivery attempt. If this switch is set MDaemon will ignore error codes returned from the smart host during delivery of routed list mail thus allowing those members that are accepted a chance to receive the list message.

This host allows [XX] RCPT TO's per message (0=no limit)

Some hosts limit the number of RCPT TO statements that they will accept when you are attempting to route a single copy of a message through them. If you specify the limit in this control then MDaemon will work around it by creating additional copies of the message and dividing the list into smaller groups. Then it will deliver the message to those groups thus avoiding the need to exceed the limitation. This is similar to "cracking" the list, but into groups instead of individuals.

You can now maintain your mailing lists' membership lists in an ODBC compliant database. The ODBC tab of the Mailing List editor is used to select a data source, table, and field mappings for MDaemon to link to the list. When messages arrive for your list one or more SQL queries will be performed automatically and the resulting email addresses will be treated as part of the list's membership.

You can add, remove, and modify members of your list in the database using whatever ODBC compliant database application you choose.

Current ODBC Properties

This section displays the current ODBC properties that you have set up for the mailing list. It displays the database's field mappings and the SQL queries that you have configured to designate each member's membership status (i.e. Normal, Post Only, Read Only, and/or Digest mode).

Connect to new ODBC source

Click this button to open the ODBC Selector Wizard for choosing the system data source that you wish to use for the mailing list.

Selecting and Configuring an ODBC System Data Source for a Mailing List

To use an ODBC accessible database with a mailing list:

1. Open a mailing list (Ctrl+E or Lists Edit List…), switch to the ODBC tab, and click Connect to new ODBC source to open the ODBC Selector Wizard.
2. Select the data source that you wish to use for the mailing list. If there is not a compatible data source listed, create a new one by following the instructions listed under Creating a New System Data Source.
3. Click Next.
4. The data source must contain at least one table with fields for email address and name. If the data source contains one or more qualifying tables, choose the desired table and click Next. Otherwise, click Cancel to exit the ODBC Selector Wizard and then use your database application to add a table to the relevant database before continuing.
5. Use the drop-down list boxes to designate the table fields that will correspond to email address, first name, and last name. Click Next.
6. The ODBC Selector Wizard will construct an SQL query statement based on your selections in Step 5. MDaemon will use it to retrieve normal list member data from your database. You can edit this statement as desired, and include other query statements in the remaining controls to cause members to receive messages in Digest mode, and to designate members as Read Only or Post Only. A Test button is provided beside each control so that you can test your query statements to make sure they retrieve the proper data.
7. Click Next, and click Finish.

Creating a New System Data Source

To create a new ODBC system data source for use by a mailing list:

1. Open a mailing list (Ctrl+E or Lists Edit List…), switch to the ODBC tab, and click Connect to new ODBC source to open the ODBC Selector Wizard.
2. Click New DSN to open the Select Data Source dialog. Switch to the Machine Data Source tab.
3. Click New... to open the Create New Data Source dialog.
4. 
   
5. Select System Data Source, and click Next.
6. 
7. Select the database driver for which you wish to set up the data source, and click Next.
8. 
9. Click Finish to display the driver-specific setup dialog. The appearance of this dialog will vary based on which driver you have selected (Microsoft Access Setup dialog shown below).
10. Designate a Data Source Name for your new data source and provide any other information required by the driver-specific dialog (such as creating or specifying a database, choosing a directory or server, and so on).
11. Click OK to close the driver-specific dialog.
12. Click OK to close the Select Data Source dialog.

Subscribe

Allow people to subscribe to this mailing list via email

This switch controls whether or not the list will allow potential members to subscribe to the mailing list by sending a subscription request to MDaemon.

Authenticate subscription requests

With this switch set MDaemon will attempt to authenticate the subscription request. The mechanism employed to accomplish this consists of MDaemon generating a unique password string for the subscription transaction. A message is sent to the potential member which contains this unique password. Once the potential member responds by replying to this message MDaemon will then add the member to the mailing list's membership.

Authenticate autoresponder generated subscribers

Click this option if you want authentication to be required when the member is added via the Add Sender to This Mailing List Auto responder feature.

Unsubscribe

Allow people to unsubscribe from this mailing list via email

This switch controls whether or not the list will allow members to quit the mailing list by sending an unsubscription request to MDaemon.

Authenticate unsubscription requests

With this switch set MDaemon will attempt to authenticate the unsubscription request. See Authenticate Subscription Requests for a discussion of the mechanism employed to accomplish this.

Authenticate autoresponder generated unsubscribers

Click this option if you want authentication to be required when the member is removed via the Remove Sender From This List Auto responder feature.

Time to Live (global for all mailing lists)

Outstanding authentication requests expire after XX minutes

When someone is subscribed or unsubscribed, this is the amount of time that they have to confirm the subscription command before it will be discarded. MDaemon will generate a confirmation message and send it the subscribed address. The recipient must reply to the message within the designated time limit before the subscription command will be considered valid. This value is global; it applies to all MDaemon mailing lists not just the one that is currently being edited.

Subscribing To Mailing Lists

To subscribe to a mailing list, send an email message addressed to MDaemon (or any alias thereof) at the domain hosting the mailing list, and place the Subscribe command as the first line of the message body. For example, there is a mailing list called MD-Support being hosted by altn.com. You can subscribe to the list by composing a message addressed to "mdaemon@altn.com" and placing the value: SUBSCRIBE MD-Support@altn.com as the first line of the message body. The message subject is irrelevant and can be left blank.

You can also utilize MDaemon's Auto Responder features to automatically subscribe members to a list when they send messages to an auto-responder enabled account.

Finally, new to MDaemon version 8 is a subscription feature that can be used to cause MDaemon to recognize email addresses of the formats "[list]-subscribe@domain.com" and "[list]-unsubscribe@domain.com" (as long as the list actually exists) in order to facilitate an easier method for users to join and leave your mailing lists. For example: suppose you have a list called MyList@altn.com. People will be able to subscribe/unsubscribe to your list by sending an email message to MyList-Subscribe@altn.com and MyList-Unsubscribe@altn.com. The content of the subject and message body is irrelevant. Also, when this feature is active MDaemon will insert the following header into all list messages:

List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:<List>-Unsubscribe@domain.com>

Some mail clients can pick up on this and make an UNSUBSCRIBE button available to users automatically.

This new feature is located on the Misc tab of Miscellaneous Options.

New Member Welcome File

If specified, the file listed here will be processed and mailed to all new members just after they subscribe. The file is processed and handled exactly the same way as Auto-Response scripts and may therefore contain any macro available to them.

Apply This Suppression File

If specified, the file listed here will be used to suppress messages sent from specified users. For a discussion on suppression files see Address Suppression.

Apply This Header/Footer File

The contents of the files specified here will be used as the header and/or footer file for list messages.

Notification Options

Send a message to

This control lists an address that will be notified when the selected events take place.

When a user subscribes to this mailing list

If selected, a note will be sent to the address specified in the associated control each time someone subscribes to the mailing list.

When a user unsubscribes to this mailing list

If selected, a note will be sent to the address specified in the associated control each time someone unsubscribes to the mailing list.

When a message arrives which exceeds the max size limit

If selected, a note will be sent to the address specified in the associated control each time someone sends a message to the mailing list that is larger than the maximum acceptable size. Such messages are moved into the bad message directory.

Notification Options

Notify non-members of message rejection (private lists only)

When non-members of a private list send mail to the list, MDaemon will inform them that the list is private. They will also be given instructions on how to subscribe to lists.

Notify subscribers/unsubscribers on the status of their requests

When this checkbox is enabled MDaemon will send a completion notification message to the user that has been subscribed/unsubscribed to the Mailing List.

Returned Mail

Send all mail returned to the list to

Here you specify who should receive any returned mail generated from list traffic. For example, a mailing list with 100 recipients will generally have 10-20 undeliverable addresses either due to address changes or down servers or whatever. The SMTP system will generate and return to the sender of the message notification mail concerning these undeliverable conditions. You can configure who should receive these messages for your mailing lists. You can also specify that no one should receive them in which case MDaemon will place list mail into the mail stream in such a way that return mail will not be possible.

List Administration

Password

Enter the lists access password in this control.

List Moderation

This list is moderated by

If set, the list will be moderated by the specified user. Moderated lists forward all posts to the moderator. The moderator alone may submit or forward messages to the list.

Anyone can post who knows the list's password

If this option is checked the moderator can assign a password to the mailing list. Messages submitted to a moderated list that have the appropriate password specified as the first X characters of the subject line will not be subject to moderation - that is, the message will be immediately posted as if it had come from the moderator.

For example: to bypass the moderator on a moderated list called MDSUPP, which has a password of ALTN, make ALTN the first 4 characters of the message subject.

Membership limit

Limit this list's membership to [xx] members (0=no limit)

With this feature you can place an upper limit on the number of people who are allowed to subscribe to the Mailing List. Enter a zero into this field if you do not wish to limit list subscriptions.

Digest Settings

Enable digest support for this mailing list

This control determines whether this mailing list support message digests. When digest support is enabled, a copy of each message sent to the mailing list will be archived. Members of the mailing list who have elected to receive traffic from this list in digest form will be sent these archived messages in a compact and easy to use indexed format.

Insert HTML shortcut links into digest messages

When this control is enabled, MDaemon will convert all URLs found within digest messages to hypertext links.

Force all members to use digest mode

By default, list members can control whether they wish to receive list traffic in digest or regular format. This control forces all members to use digest mode irrespective of the mode they may have chosen for themselves.

Storage format

Select the MBF file that individual messages placed into the digest will be conformed to. The default DIGEST.MBF file provides typical functionality comparable to most other mailing list software. For complete details on how to create MBF files see Creating and Using MBF Files.

Edit MBF

Click this button to edit the Mailbox Format file listed in the Storage format control.

When to Spool Digest Messages

Send digest mail at 9, 12, 3, 6 am and/or pm

Mailing list digests must periodically be sent to those list members who are set to receive mail in digest format. These controls allow you to configure when you wish MDaemon to do this.

Spool digest mail if [XX] messages have accumulated (0 = N/A)

Sometimes digests should be sent to list members based upon the number of messages that have accumulated rather than (or in addition to) specific times. This control allows you to specify the number of messages that the list will accumulate before sending the digests to digest mode list members.

Spool digest mail if [XX] lines of message text received(0 = N/A)

This control will cause Digest mail to be sent immediately when a digest grows to this many lines of text.

Permanent Archive

Archive digests into a file catalog / which catalog do you want to use?

These controls allow you to place digest messages into a file catalog so that back-issues of the digests can be collected in the future. MDaemon will generate a unique archive name for each digest and place it into the catalog you specify.

New to this version of MDaemon is support for Public IMAP Folders. Public folders are extra folders that are available to multiple IMAP users, unlike personal IMAP folders, which are typically only accessible by a single user. The controls on this tab are used to cause all messages destined for this Mailing List to be automatically copied to one of your public folders.

Public Folder

Copy list messages to a public folder

Enable this control if you want this list's messages to be copied to one of your Public Folders in addition to being delivered to the list as usual.

Select a public folder

Click the Public Folder that you wish to associate with this list's messages.

New

Click the New button if you wish to create a new Public Folder for use with this list. This will cause the Public Folders dialog to be opened.