Welcome to the AutoShare samples

AutoShare, a freeware EIMS companion application.
A list server and auto-responder for the Macintosh.
This document is copyright © 1996-1997 Mikael Hansen.

Easy Does It. If you would like to set up AutoShare quickly (sort of a right out of the box solution), the following shows you one way of doing so, based on an unmodified AutoShare software package located on your Mac.

An introductory tour

The following is a quick introductory tour to AutoShare: first stepping into the basic configuration and then moving onto AutoShare as a list server and an auto-responder. A list server distributes mail to the subscribers of discussion lists, and auto-responses return mails to users.

The folders on your Mac

First of all, the basic folders for AutoShare are placed in convenient locations.

move the AutoShare folder outside the Samples folder to your server's root folder, so that you have easy access to your software
move the Auto folder inside the Samples folder to your server's root folder, so that your working folders and files have shorter paths
move the AutoShare folder inside the Preferences folder of the Samples folder to your server's System 7 savvy Preferences folder, so that AutoShare has some initial configuration to work with

Configuring AutoShare and EIMS

The basic flow is that EIMS stores mail in a Filed Mail folder for AutoShare and that AutoShare processes the mail and puts it in the Incoming Mail folder for EIMS.

start up AutoShare from the server
- AutoShare picks up the initial configuration from the Preferences file
- from the Preferences menu, choose Miscellaneous and replace domain of both addresses with your desired domains. You should change the user part of the addresses, so they reflect actual EIMS accounts. It is very important that the e-mail address for the bounce account indicates an address that is not usually mailed to from any individual and that the domain reflects the domain of the server. The admin (list master) address on the other hand is the address that people would use to send you mail
- from the Preferences menu, choose Folders and replace Mac HD with your startup disk name
start up EIMS from the server

create an account entitled AutoReply, configure it as Saved as files and specify the Filed Mail folder: <your disk name>:Auto:Filed Mail. Remember that while AutoShare requires a trailing colon in paths, EIMS requires no trailing colon in paths!
create an account entitled AutoShare, configure it as Saved as files and specify the Filed Mail folder: <your disk name>:Auto:Filed Mail
create an account entitled Fun-L, configure it as Saved as files and specify the Filed Mail folder: <your disk name>:Auto:Filed Mail

create an account entitled Fun-L.m, configure it as Mailing list and specify the Fun-L.m document (created later automatically) in the LS folder: <your disk name>:Auto:LS:Fun-L.m
create an account entitled Fun-L.d, configure it as Mailing list and specify the Fun-L.d document (created later automatically) in the LS folder: <your disk name>:Auto:LS:Fun-L.d

To create another auto-response service, AutoShare requires you to create a Default document inside a new folder (named after the service) in the Docs folder, and EIMS requires you to create an auto-response account.

To create another list service, AutoShare requires you to create a list document (named after the service) in the LS folder, and EIMS requires you to create one account configured as Save As Files and two accounts configured as Mailing List.

The following illustration shows AutoShare interacts with all of its standard folders (not including folders for the software, the documentation or the preferences).

When a request for an auto-response is processed, the document in question is fetched from the Docs folder, and before the auto-response file is created, the filter file in question is checked in the Filters folder. Commands to the list server also use the list files in the LS folder, and list contributions furthermore update the digest and archive files in the Archives folder.

Testing AutoShare from your user Mac

It's time to test!

send a mail to autoreply@<domain> and wait for a reponse to be returned to you from the AutoReply auto-response service
send a mail to the list server at autoshare@<domain> with a body of sub fun-l <your name> and wait for a subscription confirmation to be returned to you for the Fun-L list
mail a contribution to the list at fun-l@<domain>. You may want to have a few other users subscribe to the list first to verify that they receive your message, and if you would like to receive your own message from the list, make sure to first send a set fun-l ack message to the list server

Scripting AutoShare

The Samples folder also includes a Scripts folder, in which you may find sample scripts for every AppleScript command that AutoShare supports.

When you are ready for more

Congratulations! You have now completed the introductory tour of setting up AutoShare as both a list server and an auto-responder. The documents of the AutoShare package describe the various features of AutoShare. Extend and verify your server configuration step by step as you move along, and you will soon have a full-fledged AutoShare server offering several services to many users on the Internet. Enjoy!

Last updated on March 2 1997 by Mikael Hansen