The List Gate is a CommuniGate communication module implementing mailing lists and message distribution. The module itself maintains lists information, creating creation?of message digests, and message distribution. Actual message delivery is implemented with the CommuniGate kernel and other CommuniGate modules.
Mailing lists used for message distribution can contain E-mail, Fax, Pager and other addresses supported within the CommuniGate system.
The List Gate can maintain several mailing lists simultaneously. Each mailing list can have its own set of options.
Since the List Gate receives all messages via the CommuniGate kernel, data conversions (as MIME decoding) are always performed.
The List Gate supports the "feed" operation mode, when each posted message is immediately distributed to all subscribers.
The List Gate supports the "digest" operation mode, when posted messages are composed into a digest which is sent to the subscribers at specified time(at a specified time or at specified times).
The List Gate supports archiving of digests and retrieving retrieval of back issues via E-mail.
The List Gate stores subscription lists as tab-delimited text files. It allows you to create applications that can manipulate easily manipulatethat can be easily manipulated with mailing lists.
The List Gate is optimized to process large (multi-thousand subscribers) mailing lists effectively.
The latest version of the CommuniGate List Gate can be obtained from:
http://www.stalker.com
or
ftp://ftp.stalker.com
Installation
Place the CommuniGate List Gate module (the ListGate file) into the Modules folder inside the CommuniGate Folder in the System Folder. Restart the CommuniGate Server.
After the CommuniGate Server is restarted, the List Gate module creates the ListGate Folder inside the CommuniGate folder. For each mailing list created, a folder is created inside the ListGate Folder.
Configuring
When the List Gate module is in the Modules folder on the Server computer, you can configure it from any workstation if you have the "can configure" privilege.
1. Choose ListGate from the Monitor section of the Server menu. The ListGate Monitor window appears.
2. Choose "Add Line…" from the List Gate menu. A dialog box appears and allows you to specify a mailing list name. A mailing list name should be a valid E-mail account (or "user") name, i.e. it should not contain spaces, special symbols as @ or %, etc.
3. After a mailing list is created, its name and icon appear in the List Gate Monitor window. You can configure the mailing list options using by choosing the Line Settings menu command.
4. Enter the mailing list owner name. It should be any local account name or the Postmaster name. The owner is allowed to perform certain operations with the mailing list via E-mail, and the owner can receive all error reports from the mailing list.
5. Select the operation mode. If the Suspended mode is selected, all messages sent to this list are rejected.
6. Select the Maximum Message Size. If a posted message size exceeds the limit, the messages is not posted and it is rejected.
7. Select the Sending MIME mode. When the module distributes a posted message or distributes a message digest, it can specify the MIME mode (disabled, quoted-printable, etc.) to be used when the posted message is sent via the Internet.
8. Select the Should Be Subscribed to Post option if you want the module to check if the author of a message is subscribed to the list. If the author (the From address) is not in the subscription list, the message is rejected.
9. Select the Should be Owner to Post option if you want the module to check if the author is the local CommuniGate user with the same name as set in the Owner Name field.
10. Select the Discard Error reports option if you want the module to include a dummy Errors-To: address into the posted messages. If this option is not selected, the list Owner address is included as the Errors-To: address.
11. Unselect the Can Subscribe via EMail option if you do not want the List Gate to process incoming subscription requests. In this case the subscribers list (the Names file in the list folder) can be modified manually only, using any text editor.
12. Click the Digest button to set the Digest options: the time of day the (first) digest should be posted and how often digests should be posted.
13. If you want to maintain several mailing lists, repeat the steps above for the next mailing list.
Using the List Server
To use the List Gate module services, one should send a message to the "listserver" or the "listserv" account on your system (i.e. if a message is sent via the Internet, it should be addressed to ListServer@your.domain.name). The message subject is ignored and the message body text is processed as a set of the List Server commands. Each command takes one paragraph (i.e. it ends with the Return symbol). The command keywords below are shown in the uppercase , but both lowercase and uppercase keywords are accepted:
SUBSCRIBE list_name mode
This command subscribes the author of the message to the mailing list list_name in the operation mode mode. Mode can be DIGEST or FEED. If the mode keyword is omitted, the FEED mode is used. The command can be shorten to SUB:
subscribe CommuniGate-Info feed
sub CommuniGate-SMTP digest
UNSUBSCRIBE list_name
This command cancels the message author subscription to the mailing list list_name. The command can be shortened to UNSUB:
unsub CommuniGate-SMTP
CHECK
This command checks all mailing lists on this the? CommuniGate System and returns the names of all the lists the message author is subscribed to.remove to
QUIT
This command ends the request message processing with the List Gate module. The rest of the message body text is ignored.
HELP
This command returns a description of the services provided with the CommuniGate List Gate module.
Simplified Subscription
To simplify the subscription process, an alternative subscribing method is supported: to subscribe to a mailing list one should send any message to the list_name-ON account.
Example: CommuniGate-Info-ON@stalker.com
To unsubscribe, any message should be sent to the list_name-Off account:
Example: CommuniGate-Info-Off@stalker.com
Posting Messages
To post a message on a list_name mailing list, it should be sent to the local address list_name. If posting takes place via the Internet E-mail, it should be sent to the address:
list_name@your.domain.name
Digest Composing
When a mailing list is created, a folder with the same name as the list name is created inside the List Gate Folder. This folder contains several text files used when the module distributes messages and composes a digest for this list.
The Subject file is used to compose the digest subject.
The Contents Header file is used to compose the first part of the digest (the Table of Contents header).
The Content Elements file is used when a Table of Contents element is composed.
The Contents Trailer file is used to compose the bottom part of the Table of Contents.
The Digest Trailer file is used to compose the final part of the digest (the text after the last message).
The text in the Feed Header file is inserted in the beginning of each distributed message (i.e. in a message
sent to the "feed" mode subscribes).
The text in the Feed Trailer file is inserted at the end of each distributed message.
You can modify these files with any text editor.
Each file contains a text that is copied into a digest message or a distributed message. Special symbol combinations starting with the $ sign are processed and substituted with text strings. The table below specifies which text string is generated for each special symbol combination:
$L - the mailing list name
$D - the CommuniGate System domain name
$X - the message number in the Content Element, the Digest Number in other places.
Additional special combinations are processed in the Content Element file:
$L -the message subject
$I - the message Message-ID
$F - the message author real name
$f- the message author E-mail address
$n - the message author name (if any), or the message author E-mail address
$t - the date and time the message was sent
Optional numbers? after a special symbol combination can specify how many characters should be inserted. If the string contains more characters than the specified number, the trailing characters are truncated. If the number starts with the digit 0, and the text string contains less characters than the specified number, space characters are added at the beginning of the text string:
$S60 - up to 60 characters of the message subject
$X02 - 2-character number. For the numbers 0-9, a space is added.
Revision History
1.1 15-Dec-96
• The Feed Header and Feed Trailer file inserts are implemented.
• The Can Subscribe via Email option is implemented.
• Bug Fix: the message size limit could not be set to more than 30K
• Bug Fix: the digest Starting Time could not be set to later than 9:00a.m.
