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AEMAIL.DOC
Name of Program: AEMail (Amiga E-Mail)
Version: 1.51 (BETA)
Release Date: March 21, 1998
Written By: John F. Zacharias
AEMail is copyright (c) 1996-98 by John F. Zacharias, all rights
reserved. Permission is given to Beta Testers to test and evaluate the
program in return for feedback on the use of the program and reporting of
any bugs encountered.
AEMAIL SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE;
NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE. ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITY
OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED.
Installer and Installer project icon (c) Copyright 1995-96 Escom AG. All
Rights Reserved. Reproduced and distributed under license from Escom AG.
INSTALLER SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE;
NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE. ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITY
OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED.
This documentation is divided into the following Sections and sub-topics:
I. PROGRAM PURPOSE
II. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
REQUIREMENTS
RESTRICTIONS
REGISTRATION
III. INSTALLATION
IV. CONFIGURATION
TOOL TYPES
INTERLACE=YES
MAIL_DIR=directory-path
CONFIG=configuration-file
MAILCAP_DIR=directory-path
USERID=UserId
PASSWRD=your_password
PASSPROTECT=YES (registered users only)
DOMAIN=Domain_Name
FROM=your_email_address
REALNAME=your_real_name
REPLYTO=reply-email-address
ORGANIZATION=organization-name
POP_SERVER=your_POP_host
SMTP_SERVER=your_SMTP_host
EDITOR=call_line_for_your_editor
TCPLOG=name_of_log_file
DELETEMAIL=YES
FULLHEADER=YES
STRIPDUPS=YES
HDRINREPLY=YES
STARTNET=call_line_for_your_startnet_script
STOPNET=call_line_for_your_stopnet_script
AUTOCONNECT=YES
FLDRFONT=fontname
FLDRFONTSZ=fontsize
AREXXPORT=portname
CONFIGURATION SCREEN
Identity Page
TCP/IP Page
Default Path Page
Other Parameters Page
V. USING AEMAIL
Starting AEMail
Starting AEMail from the Shell
Activating AEMail from the Workbench
Using AEMail as a "MailTo" Agent
Editing String Entry Gadgets
Using the Clipboard with AEMail
Filtering Messages with AEMail
VI. COMMAND ICON TOOL BAR
Display Folder List
Display Address Book
Retrieve Messages
Display Previous Message
Display Previous Folder's Message List
Display Current Folder's Message List
Display Next Folder's Message List
Display Next Message
Compose A Message
Queue Message For Later Delivery
Send Message Immediately
Save Message To File
Print
Delete/Undelete Message
Copy Messages to a New Folder
Transfer Messages to a New Folder
Start TCP/IP Network Connection
Terminate TCP/IP Network Connection
VII. AEMAIL MENUS
Project menu
Configuration...
Open...
Edit...
Save
Save As...
Restore Default
Send Queued Mail
Send AREXX/DOS Command...
Send Last Command
Iconify AEMail
About...
Quit...
Folders menu
New...
Edit...
Delete...
Set Sort Key...
Remove DELETED Msgs
Messages menu
Show
Deleted Messages
UnRead Msgs Only
Compose...
Reply
Use Reply-To...
Use From...
Forward...
Edit...
Select None
Select All
Last Selected
Export...
Copy...
Transfer...
Print
Delete/Undelete...
Display Full Hdr
Incl Hdr in Resp
Retrieve Msgs menu
From POP Host
From Local File...
Excl Dup Msgs
Delete Host Mail
TCP/IP menu
Start Net
Stop Net
TCP Logging File
Active
Purge
Display/Edit...
VIII. AEMAIL WINDOWS
Configuration Screen
Folder List Window
Message List Window
Folder Configuration Window
Filter Selection Window
Examples of using Message Filtering
Set Sort Keys Window
Examples of Setting Sort Keys
Address Book Window
Message Display Window
Attachment Requester
Compose Message Window
Add Attachments Requester
IX. AEMAIL AREXX INTERFACE
Introduction
Synopsis of ARexx Commands
ARexx Commands
Error Messages
X. AEMAIL FILES
mailcap
configuration (s:aemail.cnfg)
folder.config
[folder_Name].config
.addrbook
.signature
Messages
TCP Trace Log File (TCPLOG)
XI. BUG REPORTS & SUGGESTIONS
XII. REFERENCES
XIII. IN CONCLUSION
I. PROGRAM PURPOSE
AEMail is a mail client designed to read, process, compose and send e-mail
from an Amiga computer over the Internet. It provides an easy to use
graphical interface designed specifically for the Amiga. It connects to
an Internet server through AmiTCP or any TCP/IP stack compatable with
AmiTCP. This includes TermiteTCP and Miami. It uses the AmigaDOS editor,
ed, or any other editor of the user's choosing for developing email
messages. No other external programs or modules are required. The POP3
and SMTP protocols are built into the program.
The current version of AEMail supports attachments following the MIME
(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) outline in RFC 1341, 1521, 1524
(Mailcap files), and 1806 as well as UUENCODED attached files. Not all of
the features of MIME headers are fully supported and exceptions will be
noted in the documentation.
AEMail can also be used as a "MailTo" agent in WWW browsers, such as
IBrowse, Voyager and AWeb, which allow the user to specify such an agent
for composing and sending email.
You can also call AEMail from another program to send a message created by
that program.
II. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
REQUIREMENTS
This program can run on any Amiga Operating Systen 2.1 and above.
This program requires a TCP/IP stack compatable with AmiTCP. It has been
tested with the 4.0 Demo Version of AmiTCP, but will possibly run on
earlier versions at level 2.0 or greater. It also has been tested under
TermiteTCP and Miami which use a TCP/IP stack that is compatable with
AmiTCP.
Other TCP/IP software may or may not be compatable with AmiTCP. If the
software uses a socket library (bsdsocket.library) with calls that are
compatable with AmiTCP, it possibly will work.
If you wish to display MIME attachments from within AEMail, you will also
need a 'Mailcap' file. Specifications for how to set up a mailcap file
are given under the X. AEMAIL FILES section below. It is possible to
display attachments with either AmigaDos 2.x or 3.x. Datatypes are not
required for this display.
A sample mailcap file is also provided in the archive. This sample
mailcap file can be used without modification on any system running under
AmigaDos 3.0 or later since it uses multiview as the display agent. If
you are using a version of AmigaDos before 3.0, you will have to modify
the mailcap file to specify your own favorite display program for specific
"Content Type/Subtypes".
RESTRICTIONS
Only one version of AEMail can be running at a time. If you are using
AEMail as a "mailto" mail agent in a browser, you can not have AEMail
running when you invoke your browser if you expect to send any email from
your browser. AEMail will be automatically loaded from the browser when
you click on a "mailto:" link.
This same restiction applies if you call AEMail from an external program
to Queue or Send a message created by that program. However, if you use
and ARexx Script (or command) you can interface with a running copy of
AEMail.
The "Drag Select" option for message list will only work with AmigaDOS 3.0
or above.
While AEMail appears to work fine with a standard configured AMIGA, there
are some possible problems with "system addons" that might not behave
correctly with AEMail.
One such problem had been with hacks or commodities that moved a window to
the front when you clicked into it such as the "Click-To-Front" commodity.
The folder window disappeared. That problem has been corrected. Any
other hack or commodity that automatically brings the current window to
front either when you click on it or when you pass the cursor over it,
should work now. Please let me know if you are still having problems.
Another commodity that causes problems with AEMail is one that
automatically activates the window under the mouse pointer (AutoPoint).
Since AEMail uses multiple windows, it controls which window is active at
any point in time. It is not always the window under the mouse pointer
since that might not cause AEMail to react properly. As a result, if
you activate AutoPoint while AEMail is active, you will experience
flashing windows as AEMail switches control away from the window under the
mouse pointer.
Other system configurations may also cause problems with AEMail. If you
encounter one of these, please send me e-mail describing the problem and
what "add-on" you were using. If it is a public domain program, it would
be helpful if you included the program as an attached archive to your
message. (see Section VI, Command Icon Strip: Compose A message).
When you call an editor that requires a stack size larger than the default
stack size and that program does not create it's own stack, you will have
to create a script for that editor and set the stack size from that
script. Increasing the stack size of AEMail will not work because AEMail
establishes it's own stack size and called programs do not inherit stack
size from the calling program.
If you are having problems with editors and stack size, you can use the
supplied script for CED (s:AEMced.scr) and modify it to your
specifications. One warning, however, if you call a word processor you
will need to ALWAYS save the file as ASCII and that program must be able
to accept an already existing ASCII file when it is called.
You can send me e-mail by using the Address Book Nickname AEMAIL. (see
also Section X, Bug Reports and Suggestions)
REGISTRATION
AEMail is now shareware. Versions prior to 1.15 were "freeware". A
shareware fee of $30 is requested for AEMail. The shareware fee (US Funds
only) should be sent to:
John Zacharias
10004 Vanguard Drive
Sacramento, CA 95827
USA
You must include your Real Name and email address with your remittance. A
handy form has been provided in the file "registration.form" which you can
print out and use for this purpose. If you have more than one email
address with more than one AEMail_Mail directory, please include ALL these
addresses on the "registration.form".
The "registration.form" has an icon which, if you double click on it, will
use the "PrintFiles" program in your SYS:Tools directory to print out the
registration form.
Your registration will be acknowledged by email that must be received by
AEMail. AEMail version 1.43 does have several features that are not
implemented for un-registered users and, in addition for un-registered
users, the message display will be slowed down.
The features in AEMail 1.50 that are not available to un-registered users
are:
Ability to use multiple signature files.
Ability to add user defined headers to a message.
You will not be able to shrink/expand group displays in the Address
Book displays. The standard Address Book display will have
expanded group displays and the Compose window address book
display will have only the group header displayed.
Enhanced speed on message display.
Password protection for separate configurations.
Filtering messages on "Other Message Hdrs".
Filtering messages on the content of the message body.
Certain ARexx commands (see Section IX. AEMAIL AREXX INTERFACE or
consult the AEMail-ARexx.doc)
Future versions of AEMail may also have enhancements that will only be
available to registered users.
For the un-registered "Freeware" version, permission is given to test and
evaluate the program in return for feedback on the use of the program and
reporting of any bugs encountered.
I do ask, however, that, in return for the use of this product, you inform
me of any suggestions you have and of any bugs that you encounter. You
can do that by sending e-mail to me using the Nickname AEMAIL which can be
found in your Address Book when you first load AEMail. (see also Section
X, Bug Reports and Suggestions)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you send your first message with any new version of AEMail, a special
"Notification" message will be sent to me at jzachar@calweb.com. Besides
the normal header information, the body of this message will contain the
following information (obtained from your configuration file):
Your email address
Your Real Name
Your POP3 Server name
Your SMTP Server name
Your SMTP Domain Name
Your editor call
The version of the Exec (OS) that you are using
Your Display ID (from the screen mode setting)
Your Overscan Type (from the screen mode setting)
Base configuration file name
Currently active configuration file name
Mail Directory
This information is provided to help me determine and debug problems with
AEMail. Future versions may contain more or less information as the need
arises. The configuration file name is only that - the file name, and
does not include any configuration information. It is sent primarily to
see what users are using the alternate configuration file feature of AEMail.
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT NONE OF THE INFORMATION THAT I INCLUDE IN THIS
----
NOTIFICATION MESSAGE WILL ALLOW ME OR ANY OTHERS TO ACCESS YOUR EMAIL
ACCOUNT!
Most of the Internet information is public information and can be obtained
from your service provider.
I WILL KEEP THIS INFORMATION IN STRICT CONFIDENCE. IF YOU DO NOT WANT
THIS INFORMATION DIVULGED TO ME, DO NOT USE AEMAIL!
-----------------
I am including this warning because of concerns expressed to me by some
people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This "notification" message will also give me the opportunity to inform
all users of updates to AEMail by e-mail. When I recieve the notification
message your email address is placed in a database for informing you of
updates. If you do not want to be so informed, send me email to that
effect and your name will be removed from the database.
The notification message will not appear in your PENDING folder although
you will see it in your SENT folder after the notification message has
been sent. You will not have an opportunity to change any of the
information. If you feel some of the information is in error, you can
correct it by sending me a separate email message.
Please note that a new notification message will be sent when you upgrade
to a new version of AEMail. This lets me know which version you are
using. Some of the data in future notification messages may also change
to help give me feedback on how AEMail is being used and what setup you
are using.
Also, if you are using multiple configuration files, a separate
notification message will be sent the first time you send mail with any
particular configuration. If you re-install AEMail for any reason you may
have an additional Notification message sent.
III. INSTALLATION
The AEMail Install Script uses the Installer program first provided by
Commodore and later revised by Amiga Technologies. You should use the
Install_AEMail script to install AEMail. It is not recommended that you
attempt to install AEMail by hand since some actions are necessary through
the install script. This is especially true if you are attempting to
install a registered version with the supplied diskette!
Installer and Installer project icon
(c) Copyright 1995-96 Escom AG. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduced and distributed under license from Escom AG.
INSTALLER SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE;
NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE. ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITY
OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED.
To install AEMail simply double click on the "Install_AEMail icon". The
install script provides two user levels that the user can choose:
Intermediate (control of configuration parameters only)
Expert (control of configuration and where files are placed)
The Install script makes an attempt to determine which TCP/IP stack that
you have installed. This controls which defaults will be taken. The way
the install scripts knows which TCP/IP stacks are present is as follows
(you must have installed the particular stack before installing AEMail):
AmiTCP: This is controlled by the presence of the AmiTCP: assign
statement and the presence of the AmiTCP:bin drawer.
Miami: This is controlled by the presence of the Miami: assign
statement. When you installed Miami you should have let
the install create the Miami: assign. This was only
available under later versions of Maimi.
While the Miami: assign is not an absolute requirement
if you are using Miami, it is required if you intend
to use the supplied "startnet.miami" and "stopnet.miami"
scripts supplied with this archive. The scripts will
not even be moved to your AEMail drawer if the Miami:
assign is not present.
TermiteTCP: This is controlled by the presence of the TermiteTCP.prefs
envronomental variable. Also, if you want to pick up
some of the other TermiteTCP variables, such as email
address, you must have run TermiteTCP prior to installing
AEMail (TermiteTCP does not have to be online, however).
The action that takes place at during the install is slightly different
depending on whether AmiTCP has been installed or not. The installation
script determines if AmiTCP is installed by checking for an assignment to
AmiTCP:. This AmiTCP: assignment was automatically created when you
installed AmiTCP.
If the AmiTCP: assignment is present, it will determine where the
installation script will place the AEMail executable. For AmiTCP the
executable is placed in the AmiTCP:bin drawer. If this drawer is not
present, the placement of the executable defaults to an "AEMail" drawer
(created by the script if it does not already exist) on the largest
partition on your hard drive.
If you wish to control where AEMail will be placed, you will need to
execute the Install script at the "Expert" user level.
The reason that AEMail is placed in the AmiTCP:bin drawer if the AmiTCP:
assignment is present, is that the assumption is made that you are using
AmiTCP. The "startnet" and "stopnet" scripts should be in the same
directory that contains AEMail if they are to work without modification.
If you select the Intermediate user level, the following actions will be
taken:
The AEMail executable file will be placed in AmiTCP:bin or, if the
AmiTCP: assignment is not present, on the largest partition on
your hard drive.
Note: No special directory will be created if AmiTCP:bin is
present, otherwise a directory called "AEMail" will be created
for containing the AEMail executable. When the installation
script terminates it will tell you where it placed the AEMail
executable.
The AREXX scripts StartNet.Miami and StopNet.Miami will also
be moved to this drawer if you have Miami installed on your
system as determined by a Miami: assignment.
Your AEMail mail directory will normally be a directory called
AEMail_Mail in AmiTCP: or, if AmiTCP: was not present, in the
AEMAIL directory. The AEMail mail directory will be assigned to
AEMAIL:. If an AEMAIL: assignment already exists, that directory
will be used as the mail directory except that it will be
renamed to AEMail_Mail if it had been named something else.
This operation is automatic and makes updating the AEMail program
easy without disturbing your existing mail files.
The documentation files that you want copied will be copied to a drawer
called "documentation" in the drawer which contains the AEMail
executable.
A special ARexx documentation file (which is also part of the
AEMail.doc and AEMail.guide files, is placed in a drawer called
"ARexx" in the drawer which contains the AEMail executable. This
drawer will also contain some sample ARexx scripts.
If you want the AEMail.readme file, it will be copied to the directory
containing your AEMail executable.
A handy registration form called "registration.form" will be available
in your main AEMail directory. It has an icon which, if you double
click on it, will use the "PrintFiles" program in your SYS:Tools
directory to print out the registration form.
If you are running under AmigaDos 3.0 or greater, the supplied
mailcap file will be copied to the AEMail_Mail directory.
No mailcap file will be copied if you are using AmigaDos 2.1.
An AEMAIL: assign statement will automatically be placed in your
S:User-Startup file.
An "ASSIGN C: SYS:REXXC ADD" will also be added to your s:User-Startup
file to provide a path to your AREXX commands.
As noted above, the default drawer in which your documentation is placed is
a drawer called "Documentation" in the drawer containing your AEMail
executable. This is different from prior versions where the documentation
files were placed in the same drawer as the AEMail executable. Your old
documentation files WILL BE deleted by the installation script. If you
want these retained you will have to re-name them yourself.
If you select either user level you will also be able to provide
configuration data that will be stored in the Tool Types parameters of the
AEMAIL icon. Further, if the AEMAIL: assignment existed at the start of
the installation that assignment will be used. However, if the mail
directory had been called something else, you will be asked if you want to
rename it to AEMail_Mail. If you select NO, the directory will not be
renamed; however, a new AEMail_Mail directory will be created in the same
parent directory and used for the AEMAIL: assignment.
In addition to what is available for the Intermediate user, the Expert user
will be able to select what directories will be used and will be able to
copy the documentation files to a directory of his/her choice. The Expert
user will also be able to select an alternate location for a pre-existing
mailcap file and, if running under AmigaDos 2.1, will be able to build
their own mailcap file.
If you are updating from a previous version of AEMail, it is recommended
that you install at the Intermediate level. That will insure that all of
your old assignments and mail files will be available. Also, you should
not try to configure AEMail with the Install script since you already have
a configuration file assigned.
The one exception to this is if you are updating from a version of AEMail
below 1.10. In this case you will HAVE to install at the Expert level in
order to locate where your old AEMail installation was placed.
Certain configuration parameters must be provided before AEMAIL will run.
These configuration parameters are provided either by Tool Types in the
AEMail icon or through a special configuration screen when you first run
AEMail and saved in an aemail.cnfg file in the S: directory.
The installation script will try to automatically configure certain items
to default values. These include the switch for deleting mail from your
POP Server once it has been transferred to your Amiga and the switch for
stripping duplicate messages. The edit call will default to c:ed and will
open the editor on the Workbench. Also, if you installed TermiteTCP, the
installation script will obtain your POP3 UserID and SMTP Domain Name as
well as your email address from the ttcp-email-address environmental
variable provided TermiteTCP has been run (not necessarily on-line) before
the AEMail installation was performed.
The installation script will allow you to provide additional configuration
parameters as Tool Types in your AEMail icon or to change the default ones.
However, if you are updating from a prior version you may already have an
aemail.cnfg file in your S: directory which will override the Tool Types.
If the S:aemail.cnfg file is present, you will be asked if you want to use
it or if you want to re-configure using tool types. If you select this
option your current "s:aemail.cnfg" file will be renamed to
"s:aemail.cnfg.old" and you can reconfigure through the installation
script. If you need to restore your old "s:aemail.cnfg" file you can
rename the "s:aemail.cnfg.old" to "s:aemail.cnfg"
If these parameters are not provided by Tool Types (through the
installation script) or by an existing configuration file, the
Configuration screen will be displayed upon the initial startup of AEMail.
You can not proceed beyond this configuration screen until certain required
configuration parameters are provided. The absolute minimum configuration
parameters that must be provided are:
POP3 UserID
Password
Your email Address
SMTP Domain Name
Edit Call
A POP Server name and a SMTP Server name must also be provided. However,
if they are missing AND, if the SMTP Domain Name has been specified,
default values will be assigned to these items. These default values will
prepend 'POP." to the domain name for the POP server and 'SMTP.' to the
domain name for the SMTP Server as defaults. Please note: these may NOT
be correct for your POP and SMTP servers. If they are not, you will have
to edit the Configuration and make appropriate changes (see Configuration
Parameters for Identify under Section IV. Configuration in the doc file or
the section on the Configuration screen in the .guide file).
If you have installed and ran TermiteTCP before you installed AEMail, the
only configuration parameter you may have to provide is your password. The
POP3 UserID and the SMTP Domain Name are extracted from the email address
that you gave TermiteTCP. If these are not the correct values you will
have to change them in the Identity page of the Configuration screen.
For AmiTCP or Miami users, you will need to provide your POP3 UserID and
SMTP Domain name as well as your email address.
One of the things that is needed to run AEMail is an editor. By default
AEMail will use the AmigaDOS editor, ed, which comes with all Amigas.
However, you can change this through the install to any editor that you
want provided that you have specified that you want to configure AEMail
when you do the install.
If you are using AmiTCP, it is recommended that you place AEMail in the
same directory that contains your AmiTCP StartNet and StopNet scripts
(usually AmiTCP:bin) although this is not an absolute requirement. If the
directory containing your StartNet or StopNet scripts is NOT the AmiTCP:bin
directory or the scripts have names different from "startnet" or "stopnet",
you will have to add the STARTNET and STOPNET tool types to your AEMail
icon. You can do that with the installation script at either the
Intermediate or Expert user levels.
If you are using TermiteTCP, there are no Start Net or Stop Net scripts.
For Miami, special startnet.miami and stopnet.miami scripts have been
provided with the install of AEMail. If the Miami assign is present, the
install script assumes the Miami startnet and stopnet scripts should be
used over the AmiTCP ones.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR MIAMI USERS: In the TCP/IP Settings page on Miami, the
"Down when Offline" item should be checked and the settings SAVED. If this
item is not checked, it will take AEMail 80 seconds to determine that Miami
is offline if Miami is loaded but not online.
The installation script will automatically create a directory for your
email storage (mail and configuration files) and place TWO ASSIGN
statements in your S:User-Startup file as follows:
ASSIGN AEMAIL: [your-mail-directory-path]
ASSIGN C: SYS:REXXC ADD
The second assign statement is used to provide a path to your AREXX
commands because the only paths visable when you run a program from the
Workbench are the program directory and C:.
If you are using AmiTCP (as determined by the presence of the AmiTCP:
assignment), the default directory that is created is AmiTCP:AEMail_Mail;
otherwise, it will be a directory called AEMail_Mail in the AEMail
directory that has been created.
If an AEMAIL: assignment already exists, the AEMail_Mail directory will
not be created nor will the existing mail or Configuration files in the
directory be disturbed.
If you want to place the AEMail_Mail directory some place else you will
have to specify the Expert user level when you perform the installation.
WARNING: If you are updating and you change the AEMail_Mail directory you
will lose all previous folder configuration data including you registration
information if you are a registered user. You will need to copy this data
yourself from your old AEMail_Mail directory to the new AEMail_Mail
directory.
If you are updating AEMail and you are using the same AEMail_Mail
directory, you will be asked if you want to save your existing
folder.config file to folder.config.old. If you are updating from a
version prior to 1.40, you should reply "Yes" to this request. If you are
re-installing version 1.40 or a later version, reply "No". The format of
the folder.config file changes once you add filters to any folders. By
having the folder.config.old file you can revert to an earlier version of
AEMail by renaming folder.config.old back to folder.config.
The mail directory can start out empty. The AEMail program will generate
any necessary configuration and support files required. The AEMail_Mail
directory can be anywhere on any one of your hard drive partitions (or on a
floppy or other read/writable media); it does not have to be in the AmiTCP:
directory; but it must be mounted when you execute AEMail.
Special Note on Use of multiple configuration files: The normal AEMail
configuration file is s:aemail.cnfg. Starting with version 1.13 you will
be able to assign your configuration file to some other name and location
(you will need the Expert user level to do this). and this will become
your base configuration. Also, the installation will ONLY configure this
base configuration. You will have to use the Configuration screen to
configure any other configuration files for other users. See Section IV.,
Configuration, in the doc files for other multiple user considerations.
As stated above, you will need a "mailcap" file if you want to display MIME
mail attachments. A sample mailcap file is provided on the AEMail program
disk which uses MultiView to display audio, images, and video content types
provided that you have the appropriate datatypes loaded into your system.
This, of course, requires AmigaDos 3.0 or higher. If you are using
AmigaDos 2.1, the mailcap file needs to be modified to reflect the display
programs that you want. The installation script at the Expert level will
help you do this.
If you are running under AmigaDos 3.0 or higher, the installation script
will automatically move the supplied mailcap file to AEMAIL: unless you
specified a different location for a pre-existing mailcap file (Expert
level only).
The mailcap file specifications are given later in this document and in
the AEMail guide file.
A special mailcap file is provided in the "ARexx" drawer to allow you to
display html attachments with your browser. If you wish to use this
feature you will have to copy the mailcap file in the ARexx drawer over the
mailcap file installed with the Installation script. Read the html.readme
file in the ARexx drawer for details of this special mailcap file.
AEMail gets the current time zone from either the locale.prefs file that
is part of AmigaDos or the tz envronmental variable. See "Handling of
Time Zones" below for further information on this.
When the installation script terminates it will store the directory in
which it placed AEMail in the Environmental variable AEMail_dir. This
facilitates updating to future releases of AEMail. The version 1.30 and
later installation scripts, at all installation levels, will look for this
Environmental variable to try to determine where to place AEMail.
The AEMail icon that is created when AEMail is installed will have five
Tool Types entered but commented out. These are:
;PASSPROTECT=YES
;FLDRFONT=
;FLDRFONTSZ=
;CONFIG=
;MAIL_DIR=
These five Tool Types can not be duplicated by the configuration screen.
Consult the AEMail.guide file for the purpose of each of these Tool Types.
They can be activated by removing the ";" at the beginning of the tool type
and adding the appropriate argument information after the "=" sign. You
can do this with the "Information" menu item in the Workbench Menus (click
on the AEMail icon first before using the "Information" menu item).
Special Note: You will see in the Workbench documentation that the method
of commenting out Tool Types is to surround them with parenthesis.
Placing a semicolon in front of the Tool Type works just as well. If you
wish to activate then, you only have to remove the semi-colon.
HANDLING OF TIME ZONES IN AEMAIL
--------------------------------
AEMail will handle time zones in both full hour and half hour increments.
AEMail uses either the "tz" environmental variable, a special "aem_tz"
environomental variable, or the "locale.prefs" file that is part of
AmigaDos to determine your local time zone. The "locale.prefs" file will
only allow for full hour time zone offsets. You can use the "tz"
environmental variable for half hour time zones, but, if this variable is
used by other programs in your system it is suggested that you use the
"aem_tz" variable instead.
To set the time zone in the "locale.prefs" file, execute the Locale
program under your Prefs directory by double clicking on the Locale icon.
At the bottom right of the Locale Preferences window you will see a world
map with a white line through it that indicates the time zone that you are
in. To change this, click on the country you are in. The white line will
move to that position and the Time Zone heading at the top of the map will
reflect the time zone offset for your part of the world. Then click on
the [Save] gadget at the bottom of the window.
Currently AEMail first looks for the environmental variables "aem_tz" or
"tz". The format for "tz" is dictated by SAS_C and should be aaabbbccc
where aaa is the abbreviation for local standard time, bbb is the offset
in hours from GMT (-11 to 12) which is SUBTRACTED from GMT to get the
local standard time. ccc is the abbreviation for local daylight savings
time or "summer time" (in the United Kingdom or Europe). If the time zone
has daylight savings time this should be present even if daylight savings
time is not currently in effect (contrary to the specification for "Tz"
for the SAS-C compiler). AEMail automatically determines when DST or
"Summer Time" is in effect.
AEMail also recognizes an alternate form of "tz" where aaa and ccc can be
abreviations longer than 3 characters. This is desireable in some
European countries. AEMail will also recognize time zones in increments
of one half hour. To specify an half hour time zone, specify it as + or -
hhmm. As an example: +230 would specify a time zone in which 2 and a
half hours are SUBTRACTED from GMT.
You can enter the above with the "tz" environmental variable, but since
this variable might be used with other programs in it's strict sense, an
alternate environmental variable has been provided called "aem_tz".
If "aem_tz" is present it will take precedence over "tz".
If the "tz" or "aem_tz" environmental variables are not present, the
system then attempts to get the time zone offset from the "locale.prefs"
file. Only the time zone offset is present in this file. The
abbreviations for local standard time and daylight savings time are
obtained from a table that is by no means complete. Only the time zone
abbreviations for the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are
contained in this table, so one of the environmental variables is
preferred.
if neither the "tz" nor "aem_tz" environmental variables nor the
"locale.prefs" file are present, the system defaults to CST with an offset
of 6.
NOTE: the standard header in an email message has the time zone offset
sign reversed from that of the "locale.prefs" and the environmental
variables. AEMail automatically makes this reversal, so the offset should
be set to positive for US time zones and negative for European time zones.
They will appear as negative (for US) and positive (for Europe) in the
Date: header.
You can set the "tz" or the "aem_tz" environmental variables by using the
SETENV AmigaDos Command. This must be done from the shell. The syntax to
use is as follows:
SETENV tz aaabbbccc (for tz) and
SETENV aem_tz aaaaaaaaabbbbbccccccccc (for aem_tz)
aaa, your local time zone abbreviation must always be present. If you
don't know your abbreviation (or don't want it in the header), use "xxx".
If AEMail sees xxx it will assume that no abbreviation is present and it
will be left off the Date: header
bbb is the time offset in hours from GMT. Plus indicates that you are
west of GMT and minus indicates that you are east of GMT. Acceptable
values are -12 to 24. If you want to specify a half our time zone it can
be entered as hhmm. If AEMail sees a value of 30 or above it assumes that
a half hour increment is being used. In this case -1200 to 2400 are
acceptable.
If your time zone observes daylight savings time, ccc is the abbreviation
to use for daylight savings time. If ccc is not present, no adjustment
will be made during the times of the year that daylight savings time is
observed.
The result of the SETENV command is only in effect while your computer is
on. If you want to make the "tz"or "aem_tz" environmental variables
always present enter the one of the following AmigaDOS command after the
SETENV command:
COPY ENV:tz ENVARC:tz (or)
COPY ENV:aem_tz ENVARC:aem_tz
Using the "tz" or "aem_tz" environmental variables gives you more control
over which abbreviations will be used for your time zone. However, the
locale.prefs file may be more useful for those that prefer the "point and
click" method of doing things. To set the correct time zone for
locale.prefs, enter the Locale editor in your Prefs drawer. You will see
a time zone map with which you can move the white strip indicating the
time zone on the map. Click either to the left or right of the strip to
move the strip. The correct time zone offset for standard time will be
shown at the top of the map.
Since the locale.prefs does not have any abbreviations, AEMail makes
certain assumptions as to what the abbreviation should be. These
assumptions are as follows:
Time Zone Name Standard DST -----------Time Zone-----------
Time (in "locale") (in email Date:)
Greenwich Mean Time GMT* BST 0 +0000
Atlantic Time AST ADT 4 -0400
Eastern Time (US) EST EDT 5 -0500
Central Time (US) CST CDT 6 -0600
Mountain Time (US) MST MDT 7 -0700
Pacific Time (US) PST PDT 8 -0800
Yukon Time YST YDT 9 -0900
Hawaiian Time HST --- 10 -1000
International Date Line IDL --- 12 -1200
--- indicates this time zone does not observe DST
*Note: GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) is also known as UTC or Universal Time
Coordinated.
If you want to use a different abbreviation or control whether DST is used
or not, you should use the "tz" or "aem_tz" environmental variable.
DST in the United States and Canada begins on the first Sunday in April.
"Summer Time" in the United Kingdom and Europe begins on the last Sunday
in March.
Both DST and "Summer Time" end on the last Sunday in October.
IV. CONFIGURATION
The configuration of AEMail is provided by parameters presented as Tool
Types in the AEMail icon or by a Configuration screen that can be called
up from within AEMail using the "Project/Configuratio/Edit.." menu item.
All configuration items provided by Tool Types can also be provided by the
Configuration screen with the exception of the MAIL_DIR=, the CONFIG=, the
PASSPROTECT=YES, the FLDRFONT=, and the FLDRFONTSZ= Tool Types. These
five Tool Types have special uses, as explained below, that can not be
duplicated by the configuration screen.
Certain configuration parameters can ONLY be provided by the Configuration
screen.
Currently, setting the time zone that you are in is done outside the
AEMail environment. To set the time zone for AEMail see "HANDLING OF TIME
ZONES IN AEMAIL" above.
If you are running AEMail from the shell or as a "mailto:" agent, it must
be either pre-configured (through the S:aemail.cnfg file), or you will
have to use the configuration screens for the configuration. You can
specify an alternate configuration file (other than S:aemail.cnfg) by
using the config= parameter on the AEMail call line.
The first thing AEMail does when it is activated is check to see that
certain configuration information has been provided either through Tool
Types or as contained in the AEMail configuration file. The necessary
items are:
POP3 UserID
Password
From Addr (your email address)
SMTP Domain Name
Edit Call
If these items have not been provided, the following requester will be
immediately displayed:
The following Configuration items are empty
[list of empty items]
They are required items!
The Pop Server call and the SMTP call will also be included in this list
if the SMTP Domain Name was missing.
Also, the Edit Call item, if it is missing, will default to:
C:ed %s
with the editor opening on the Workbench. The only way the Edit Call can
appear in the list is if the General Parameters page of the Configuration
screen had been entered and the Edit call field cleared.
If this requester is displayed, you will be given the following choices:
[Configure AEMAIL now] [Cancel AEMAIL]
If you were to click on [Cancel AEMAIL], AEMail will terminate. You can
not proceed any further until you have entered these items with the
Configuration screen or by providing them as Tool Types.
Clicking on the [Configure AEMAIL now] will bring up the Configuration
screen which is described below following the description of the Tool
Types.
Also, if "Mail Directory" appears in the list of empty items, it means
that the AEMail: assign is not in the system and the MAIL_DIR Tool Type
has not been given. There is no way you can provide this information
through the Configuration screen. You will have to either provide the
ASSIGN statement or add the MAIL_DIR Tool Type. If you use the standard
install script, this should never be necessary.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have included the ASSIGN AEMAIL: statement in the
S:user-startup file and that assignment includes embedded spaces in one of
the directories in the assignment path, the asignment path MUST be
surrounded with quotes. The Install script for Version 1.43 automatically
does this; however, the install scripts for AEMail versions prior to 1.20
did not do this.
The three Tool Types, MAIL_DIR=, CONFIG=, and PASSPROTECT=YES have special
uses. CONFIG= is used to specify an alternate configuration file other
than s:aemail.cnfg that AEMail is to open with. MAIL_DIR= is used to
specify a mail directory other than the one provided by the AEMAIL:
assign. It is used to provide an alternate location for the mail files.
And PASSPROTECT=YES is used to password protect AEMail when you click on
it's icon. Using this Tool Type will call up a requester as soon as you
load AEMail which will force you to enter the password that was configured
for that instance of the configuration file.
If you have two or more users of AEMail on the same system and you want
each user to have different locations for their mail files, you can
establish an alternate location for one of the mail directories. To do
this, you will have to have two different AEMail icons with different
names if they are in the same directory. You can still have only one
AEMail executable, however.
One of the icons will have to be a "Project" icon if you only want one
AEMail executable. To create the project icon execute the "IconEdit"
program which is in your SYS:TOOLS directory. When "IconEdit" is loaded,
go to the Open menu and locate the icon for your AEMail executable.
(don't confuse this with the icon for the AEMail drawer. The AEMail
executable icon looks like a mailbox). Open this icon. To change the
icon to a project icon, go to the Type menu in "IconEdit" and select
Project. Then "Save as" using a different name for this new icon.
You are still not finished, however. You must edit this icon using the
"Information" menu item on the Workbench menu. First change the Project
line (it will say JUNK) to AEMail. If you are in a different directory
then the AEMail executable, you will have to enter the full path name to
that directory. Then add (or change) the CONFIG= Tool Type to reflect
where the configuration file is for that particular user and add (or
change) the MAIL_DIR= Tool Type to give the full path name of the mail
directory for that user. Be sure to include the ending '/' after the
directory name.
If you want password protection (only available to registered AEMail
users) you should also add the Tool Type PASSPROTECT=YES. Do this for
each icon that you want to password protect.
Please Note: The Project icon will also inherit the Tool Types from the
main executable icon; however, if there is an identical Tool Type, the
Project icon's Tool Type will take precedence.
As an example, lets say you have two users named John and Jan. John is
the primary user of AEMail. You install AEMail (using any mode) in a
directory called HD1:AEMail and the default AEMAIL: assign is set to:
ASSIGN AEMAIL: HD1:AEMail/AEMail_Mail
If you wanted your configuration file to be John_aemail.cnfg in the AEMail
directory, you could add the following Tool Type to the AEMail icon in
HD1:AEMail (this can be done with the Install script as the expert mode or
through the Information menu):
CONFIG=HD1:AEMail/John_aemail.cnfg
You could then create another directory in HD1:AEMail called Jan_mail.
This is where Jan's mail will go. Execute "IconEdit" and create a project
icon that could be called "Jan's AEMail". Now select the icon that you
just created and the Information item on the Workbench menus. Change
Jan's CONFIG= Tool Type to:
CONFIG=HD1:AEMail/Jan_aemail.cnfg
and add the MAIL_DIR= Tool Type as follows:
MAIL_DIR=HD1:AEMail/Jan_Mail/
Then, when John wants to use his copy of AEMail and his files, he double
clicks on the main AEMail icon, and when Jan wants to use her copy she
double clicks on the one called "Jan's AEMail". The one restriction is
that you cannot have both copies of AEMail running at the same time. Each
set will be set up with different configuration files so that information
in these files can be different.
If you are a registered AEMail user you can also add the PASSPROTECT=YES
tool type to either of your icons. Please note, however, if you place the
PASSPROTECT=YES Tool Type on the main AEMail executable icon (John's
AEMAIL), the project icon (Jan's AEMail) will act as if PASSPROTECT=YES
was placed on that icon even if it wasn't. However, you can place
PASSPROTECT=YES on Jan's AEMail icon without placing it on the main AEMAIL
icon and the main AEMail will not be password protected.
You can also place the configuration files and mail drawers in different
main drawers. If this is done you will have to remember to put the FULL
PATH NAME to the AEMail executable in the project icon.
Currently, the creation of the project icon and the modifications
mentioned above has to be done by hand. In a future version of AEMail,
the installation script will be modified to do this automatically.
You can configure both instances of AEMail through either the Tool Types
in the appropriate icon or with the configuration screen when you execute
that particular instance of AEMail.
TOOL TYPES
Tool Types have been provided to initially provide certain Configuration
information when AEMail is first activated without the need to build the
Configuration information through the Configuration screens.
To modify or delete any specific Tool Type, select the AEMail icon and
then select the "Information" item from the Workbench menu. You will have
to select the appropiate Tool Type and modify it when it appears in the
string gadget below the Tool Type list.
The current Tool Types utilized by the program are:
INTERLACE=YES
Opens the AEMail Public Screen (AEMAIL-1) in hires, interlace mode. If
this tool type is omitted, the screen will be opened as a hires,
non-interlaced screen.
You can actually have more control over the Screen Mode you desire by
selecting the "Set Screen Mode" button in the AEMail Configuration:
General Parameters configuration display. Selecting a Screen Mode from
the Configuration display precludes the use of this Tool Type.
MAIL_DIR=directory-path
If you do not place the AEMAIL ASSIGN statement in your Startup-Sequence,
you can use this Tool Type to assign your mail directory. This can also
be used to provide an alternate location to the AEMAIL Assign statement
when you have more than one instance of AEMail in your system. This
parameter CAN NOT be provided with the Configuration screen. (DEFAULTS TO
AEMAIL: This assumes that the AEMAIL ASSIGN is present). If you are
using a different directory, be sure and include the ending '/' at the end
of the directory path.
CONFIG=configuration-file
If you do not care to use the standard s:aemail.cnfg file for your
configuration data, but want a file named something else or in a different
location, you can use this tool type. When AEMail opens it will look here
for the configuration file. YOU MUST PRECEDE THE FILE NAME WITH THE FULL
PATH NAME. This parameter CAN NOT be provided with the Configuration
screen, although the initial file can be created, saved, and edited from
the "Project/Configuration" menu. (DEFAULTS TO s:aemail.cnfg)
MAILCAP_DIR=directory-path
Your mailcap file can reside in any directory you want. Use this Tool
Type to assign the mailcap directory path. If this parameter is missing,
the MAIL_DIR path will be used as the mailcap directory path.
The mailcap file must be called "mailcap". Since the mailcap file follows
a standard format dictated by the internet, you can use the same mailcap
file used by another process. That is the purpose of this Tool Type.
This parameter can also be provided with the Configuration Screen
(DEFAULTS TO AEMAIL:).
USERID=UserId
Enter your POP3 UserId for signing onto your POP Server on your Internet
provider (ISP). This may be the same as the one initially used to sign
into your ISP. It is also very possibly (but not always) the part of your
email address that precedes the @ sign. Check with your ISP for what
should be used.
Example: my UserId is "jzachar" so I would enter
USERID=jzachar
for this Tool Type. THIS IS A REQUIRED PARAMETER, but it can be provided
with the Configuration Screen.
PASSWRD=your_password
Enter the password required for signing onto your POP3 server. This may
or not be the same as that used to sign onto your Internet provider. THIS
IS A REQUIRED PARAMETER, but it can be provided with the Configuration
Screen.
SPECIAL NOTE: if the password is provided by a Tool Type it can be read
by anyone that performs an "Information" on the AEMail icon. If you
provide the password through the Configuration screen, it can not be seen.
PASSPROTECT=YES (registered users only)
Use this Tool Type if you want to password protect your copy of AEMail.
This will call up a special password window when you first load AEMail
which will require you to enter your password before you procede. You
will be given three chances to enter the correct password. If the
password fails validation after the third try, AEMail will terminate.
This Tool Type is ignored for unregistered users.
The Password that is used is the one required for signing onto your POP3
server (see above).
DOMAIN=Domain_Name
Enter the Domain name used by your Internet provider's SMTP server. It
very possibly is the same as the Domain part of your email address (the
part following the @ sign)
Example: my Internet provider's domain name is "calweb.com" so I would
enter
DOMAIN=calweb.com
for this Tool Type. THIS IS A REQUIRED PARAMETER, but it can be provided
with the Configuration Screen.
FROM=your_email_address
Enter your FULL email address (i.e. user@domain). This is email address
that you are known by on the Internet.
Example: my email address is "jzachar@calweb.com" so I would enter
FROM=jzachar@calweb.com
for this tool type. THIS IS A REQUIRED PARAMETER, but it can be provided
with the Configuration Screen. If it is missing it defaults to
UserID@Domain. This default action may NOT be correct for your situation,
so be sure to change it if required.
REALNAME=your_real_name
Enter your full name. Example:
REALNAME=John Zacharias
This is an OPTIONAL parameter, but if it is omitted your full name will
NOT be provided in the FROM: address of any messages you send unless you
add it yourself when you compose a message. This parameter can also be
provided with the Configuration Screen.
REPLYTO=reply-email-address
This is the email address that you want all replies directed to. This may
be the same as your FROM email address or it can be a different address if
you want replies sent somewhere else. This is an OPTIONAL parameter and
can also be provided with the Configuration screen.
The standard REPLY-TO address provided here can also be modified each time
you compose a message to send.
ORGANIZATION=organization-name
This parameter is OPTIONAL and, if present, will provide an Organization:
header for any message that you compose and send. This parameter can also
be provided with the Configuration screen.
POP_SERVER=your_POP_host
Enter the name of your POP host. This sometimes is "pop." or "mail."
prepended to your Domain name. As an example, mine is "pop.calweb.com" so
I would enter
POP_SERVER=pop.calweb.com
If this parameter is omitted, "pop.[domain]" will be generated as your
POP_SERVER name provided a domain name has been specified. If your's uses
a differnt name you should use this Tool Type or change it with the
Configuration screen.
This parameter can also be provided by the Configuration Screen.
SMTP_SERVER=your_SMTP_host
Enter the name of your SMTP host. This sometimes is "smtp."
or "mail." prepended to your Domain name. As an example,
mine is "smtp.calweb.com" so I would enter
SMTP_SERVER=smtp.calweb.com
If this parameter is omitted, "smtp.[domain]" will be generated as your
SMTP_SERVER name provided a domain name has been specified. If your's
uses a differnt name you should use this Tool Type or change it with the
Configuration screen.
This parameter can also be provided by the Configuration Screen.
EDITOR=call_line_for_your_editor
Enter the full call parameter required to activate your editor from the
shell. Use "%s" where you would place the file name.
You are no longer restricted to an editor call that does not remain in
control when you call it as you were with previous versions of AEMail. In
other words, a direct call to CygnusEd (CED) is acceptable.
If your editor opens on the workbench screen rather than a screen of its
own, you should prepend "WB;" in front of your editor call. As an
example, the standard AmigaDos ED program always opens on the workbench
screen. An example edit call for the Amiga ED would be as follows:
EDITOR=WB;c:ed %s WINDOW raw:0/0/640/400/AEMailCompose
The window statement in the above call is used to create a full screen
window with an interlaced display.
If you are not using an interlaced display you can remove the WINDOW
parameter or change it to raw:0/0/640/200/AEMailCompose. You can, of
course, make other changes to the window parameters if you desire.
If you are using the Amiga ED you should probably also remove or rename
the ED-Startup file in the S: directory so that you will have a full set
of ED menus.
If this Tool Type is missing, the following call is the default editor
call:
EDITOR=WB;c:ed %s
This defaults to using the Amiga Ed program for your editor.
The specification for your editor call can also be provided by the
Configuration Screen. A convenient check mark item is provided in the
Configuration Screen to open the editor on the Workbench screen.
TCPLOG=name_of_log_file
Enter the full path, including the file name, of your TCP logging file.
If this parameter is omitted, it defaults to "tcplog" in the directory
AEMail is loaded from.
This parameter does not start TCP logging, it only establishes the name of
the TCPLOG file. Logging can be started or stopped at any time by a menu
item (see Section VII. AEMAIL MENUS - TCP Logging File under the TCP/IP
menu). The Logging file can be active when AEMail is started through a
parameter in a Configuration Screen item.
When TCP logging is active, all sends and receives over the TCP/IP
connection are recorded to this file. Each time an AEMail session is
started and logging is active, data is appended to this file. As a result
this file can become quite large. IT IS THE USER'S RESPONSIBILITY TO
PERIODICALLY PURGE (DELETE) THIS FILE. A menu item is provided to perform
this purge and another item to display the log file with your editor from
within AEMail.
NOTE: When there is a need to report a problem, especially with your
TCP/IP connection, the TCP Logging file should be set active and a copy of
the resultant file provided with any feedback on the program activity (see
Section XI, Bug Reports & Suggestions). The file can be sent as an
attachment to any message that you send to AEMail. You probably should
compress the file with LHA before attaching it as an "Applicatio/Octet
Stream" content type with "encoded binary" encoding.
I have discovered that this file comes in handy when analysing problems
with your Internet provider since it time stamps all entries to the
nearest second.
This parameter can also be provided by the Configuration Screen.
DELETEMAIL=YES
This Tool Type sets the initial value of the "Delete Host Mail" menu item
under the RETRIEVE MSGS menu. If this Tool Type is entered, the "Delete
Host Mail" menu item will be initially checked. See the "Delete Host
Mail" item under section VII. AEMAIL MENUS below.
This parameter can also be set by the Configuration Screen or the
DELETEMAIL flag can be set with a menu item and its state can be saved in
the configuration file by selecting the "PROJECT/CONFIGURATION/SAVE" menu
item.
FULLHEADER=YES
This Tool Type sets the initial value of the "Display Full Hdr" menu item
under the MESSAGES menu. If this Tool Type is entered, the "Display Full
Hdr" menu item will be initially checked. See the "Display Full Hdr" item
under section VII. AEMAIL MENUS below.
This parameter can also be set by the Configuration Screen or the
FULLHEADER flag can be set with a menu item and its state can be saved in
the configuration file by selecting the "PROJECT/CONFIGURATION/SAVE" menu
item.
STRIPDUPS=YES
This Tool Type sets the initial value of the "Excl Dup Msgs" menu item
under the RETRIEVE MSGS menu. If this Tool Type is entered, the "Excl Dup
Msgs" menu item will be initially checked. See the "Excl Dup Msgs" item
under section VII. AEMAIL MENUS below.
This parameter can also be set by the Configuration Screen or the
STRIPDUPS flag can be set with a menu item and its state can be saved in
the configuration file by selecting the "PROJECT/CONFIGURATION/SAVE" menu
item.
HDRINREPLY=YES
This Tool Type sets the initial value of the "Incl Hdr in Resp" menu item
under the MESSAGES menu. If this Tool Type is entered, the "Incl Hdr in
Resp" menu item will be initially checked. See the "Incl Hdr in Resp"
item under section VII. AEMAIL MENUS below.
This parameter can also be set by the Configuration Screen or the
HDRINREPLY flag can be set with a menu item and its state can be saved in
the configuration file by selecting the "PROJECT/CONFIGURATION/SAVE" menu
item.
STARTNET=call_line_for_your_startnet_script
This Tool Type is used to specify the call line for your script that
starts up your TCP/IP stack. If you are using AmiTCP, this is normally
the file "startnet" in the AMITCP:bin directory. If you are using Miami,
an AREXX script has been provided with the AEMail archive called
"startnet.miami" and it is located in the AEMail program directory.
A full path name to that script must be entered. If the script is an
AREXX script it should be preceded with "rx " (a space is between the rx
and the script name). The standard AmiTCP startnet script is NOT an AREXX
script even though it uses AREXX commands. It is an AmigaDOS script. The
Miami script, on the other hand, is an AREXX script.
If you do not use the STARTNET Tool Type, AEMail assumes that you do not
have a script. If you activate the "Start Net" item in the TCP/IP menu
and you don't have a startnet script, AEMail's action is to iconify and
allow you to manually start your TCP/IP stack. Connect using the method
prescribed by your TCP/IP stack. When you un-iconify AEMail, AEMail will
immediately check to see if any mail is present on your POP server.
If you are using a TCP/IP stack that can't use a script (such as
TermiteTCP) or you have no script to make connection to your Internet
provider, then this Tool Type should not be used. Then if you select the
StartNet menu item, the system will automatically iconify AEMail and
present the Workbench screen.
Since AmiTCP Demo Version 4.0 puts up a requester on the workbench screen
that must be responded to, AEMail will automatically switch to the
Workbench screen before calling this script. Although the Miami script
does not require manual intervention, the default action is to also switch
to the Workbench screen since this allows you to see the action of the
dialer. When the connection has been made using Miami, the screen will
automatically switch back to the AEMail screen.
The Start Net script can also be set by the TCP/IP page of the
Configuration Screen. The Configuration screen will also allow you to set
whether or not the system switches to the Workbench screen when the Start
Net script is executed.
Note: Check your startnet script to be sure that full path names are
specified. If you are using the standard AmiTCP startnet script, that
script may not be executed from the Amitcp:bin directory (unless AEMail is
executed from there). Therefor, you should verify that Amitcp:bin/ is
prepended to all calls to functions within the AmiTCP/bin directory within
the script. Pay particular attention to the "online" call - it should be
AmiTCP:bin/online. You will also have to move the AREXX commands (such as
WaitForPort and RX) to the C: directory. The installation script will
automatically do this for you.
STOPNET=call_line_for_your_stopnet_script
This Tool Type is used to specify the call line for your script that
terminates your TCP/IP connection. If you are using AmiTCP, this is
normally the file "stopnet" in the AMITCP:bin directory. If you are using
Miami, an AREXX script has been provided with the AEMail archive called
"stopnet.miami" and it is located in the AEMail program directory.
A full path name to that script must be entered. If the script is an
AREXX script it should be preceded with "rx " (a space between the rx and
the script name). The standard AmiTCP startnet script is NOT an AREXX
script even though it uses AREXX commands. It is an AmigaDOS script. The
Miami script, on the other hand, is an AREXX script.
If you do not use the STOPNET Tool Type, AEMail assumes that you you do
not have a script. If you activate the "Stop Net" item in the TCP/IP menu
and you don't have a stopnet script, AEMail's action is to iconify and
allow you to manually stop your TCP/IP stack. You can then disconnect
using the method prescribed by your TCP/IP stack. When you un-iconify
AEMail, AEMail will test to see if you are, in fact, disconnected.
If you are using a TCP/IP stack that can't use a script (such as
TermiteTCP) or you have no script to terminate your connection to your
Internet provider, then this Tool Type should not be used. Then if you
select the Stop Net menu item, the system will automatically iconify
AEMail and present the Workbench screen.
The Stop Net script can also be set by the TCP/IP page of the
Configuration Screen. The Configuration screen will also allow you to set
whether or not the system switches to the Workbench screen when the Stop
Net script is executed. Since terminating your connection with a script
usually does not require any visual interaction, the default action is to
NOT switch to the Workbench screen.
Note: Check your stopnet script to be sure that full path names are
specified. If you are using the standard AmiTCP stopnet script, that
script may not be executed from the Amitcp:bin directory (unless AEMail is
executed from there). Therefor, you should verify that Amitcp:bin/ is
prepended to all calls to functions within the AmiCCP:bin directory within
the script. Pay particular attention to the "offline" call - it should be
AmiTCP:bin/offline. You will also have to move the AREXX commands (such
as WaitForPort and RX) to the C: directory. The installation script will
automatically do this for you.
AUTOCONNECT=YES
When AEMail is first activated it attempts to determine if you are
connected to your Internet provider. If you are not and this Tool Type is
present, AEMail will automatically run your StartNet script.
Before activating this Tool Type, you should check to see if AEMail can
activate your TCP/IP stack properly using the StartNet menu item. If
there are any problems with your StartNet activation they will show up at
this time rather than constantly every time you try to activate AEMail.
WARNING: You should not use this Tool Type if a StartNet script is not
present for your TCP/IP stack. You should activate your TCP/IP stack
manually before you start AEMail.
This parameter can also be set by the Configuration Screen.
FLDRFONT=fontname
This allows the user to specify their own font for the folder strip.
Since the size of the folders in the folder strip is constrained by the
size of the font that you use, you can specify a different font and font
size (see FLDRFONTSZ= below) to reduce the size of the folder strip. If
not specified the folder font will default to the standard Topaz 8 font.
When you enter the font name it is entered WITHOUT the .font suffix and it
must be found in your FONTS: directory.
If you use FLDRFONT= without FLDRFONTSZ=, the resulting font will be the
one you specify at the 8 size. If no such size exists in your FONTS:
directory, it will be computed. This can sometimes be unsatisfactory.
Currently this parameter can only be provided by a Tool Type. A future
version will allow you to specify the font through a special configuration
page.
FLDRFONTSZ=fontsize
This Tool Type is used in conjuction with the FLDRFONT= Tool Type
described above. These two Tool Types allow the user to specify their own
font and font size for the folder strip. Since the size of the folders in
the folder strip is constrained by the size of the font that you use, you
can specify a different font and font size to reduce the size of the
folder strip. If not specified the folder font will default to the
standard Topaz 8 font.
If you use FLDRFONTSZ= without FLDRFONT=, the resulting font will be Topaz
with a computed font size corresponding to this parameter
Currently this parameter can only be provided by a Tool Type. A future
version will allow you to specify the font through a special configuration
page.
AREXXPORT=portname
This Tool Type will allow you to change the default ARexx Port Name. By
default the ARexx Port Name is "AEMAIL1". A "1" will be appended to
whatever port name you specify unless that port is already active in your
system. In this event a number next in sequence will be appended to the
port name.
The ARexx Port Name will be shown in the About message obtained with the
"About" item under the Project Menu.
CONFIGURATION SCREEN
The Configuration screen is displayed on the Workbench when you click on
the [Configure AEMAIL now] button or when you select the
"Project/Configuration/Edit" menu item. The configuration screen is
divided into four pages with the page name shown with a button at the top
of the page area. When you click on any one button that button will
become highlighted and the appropriate page will be displayed.
The four pages are:
IDENTITY
TCP/IP
PATHS
GENERAL
At the bottom of the Configuration screen is a row of buttons as follows:
[USE] [SAVE] [SAVE AS] [CANCEL]
Clicking on any one of these buttons will perform the requested action,
regardless of which page you are on, and return you to the main AEMail
screen.
If you want the configuration information to apply only to this AEMail
session select [USE]. If you want to make the configuration permanent,
select [SAVE]. This will cause a new configuration file to be written and
will also signal that the configuration file is to take precedence over
the Tool Types the next time AEMail is loaded.
Normally the configuration file is either s:aemail.cnfg or the file
specified in the CONFIG= tool type. However, if you opened another
configuration file with the "Project/Configuration/Open..." menu item,
that configuration file will be the current active one.
The [SAVE AS] button does the same as [SAVE] except that a file requester
will be displayed that will allow you to rename and place the
configuration file anywhere you wish. WARNING: when you use the [SAVE
AS] button, AEMail assumes that that file is now your active configuration
file and any saves occuring after that will be to that file. To return to
the base configuration (either s:aemail.cnfg or the CONFIG= file), use the
"Project/Configuration /Reset" menu item.
[CANCEL] will abort the operation without making any changes to the
configuration information.
The [USE], [SAVE], [SAVE AS] or [CANCEL] buttons are active no matter
which configuration page is currently active. When the Configuration
screen is first activated, the Identity page will be active.
Before exiting from the Configuration Screen with [USE], [SAVE], or [SAVE
AS] the required configuration parameters must be present. If not, the
following requester will be displayed:
The following Configuration items are empty
[list of empty items]
They are required items!
This is the same requester that is displayed when AEMail is started
without these parameters being provided. Your choices with this requester
are:
[Reenter Configuration Data] [Cancel Configuration Request]
Clicking on the [Cancel Configuraion Request] will act the same as if you
clicked on [CANCEL] in the main configuration screen. In this event your
"old" configuration data will still be active and if you did not have the
required parameters in the first place, you will not be able to do
anything but enter the data or exit from AEMail.
The one exception to the "old" configuration remaining the same is with
the .headers file. This is always updated no matter which button is
pressed.
Identity Page
-------------
The Identity page appears as follows:
=========================================================================
AEMail Configuration Screen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ IDENTITY ]____________________________________________________________
| |
| POP3 UserID: [ ][CLR][DEFAULT] [CHANGE PASSWORD]|
| |
|From (email) Address: [ ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| Reply To Address: [ ][CLR]{DEFAULT]|
| |
| Real Name: [ ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| Organization: [ ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| POP Server: [ ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| SMTP Server: [ ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| SMTP Domain Name: [ ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
|_______________________________________________________________________|
[USE] [SAVE] [SAVE AS] [CANCEL]
=========================================================================
When this page is first called up, values from the Tool Types or the
current configuration file (which ever takes precedence) will be displayed
in each of the string gadgets.
Appropriate information can be entered into each of the string gadgets. Up
to 99 characters can be entered in each of the string gadgets.
The buttons to the side of each string gadget perform the following
actions:
[CLR] will cause the string gadget to be cleared.
[DEFAULT] will cause default information to be loaded into the
string gadgets as follows:
POP3 UserID: information from the USERID= Tool Type.
From Address: information from the FROM= Tool Type.
Reply To Address: information from the REPLYTO=
Tool Type or, if missing, the From Address.
Real Name: information from the REALNAME= Tool Type.
Organization: information from the ORGANIZATION= Tool
Type.
SMTP Domain Name: Information from the DOMAIN= Tool Type.
POP Server: information from the POP_SERVER= Tool Type
if present; otherwise , if a Domain Name is present,
this will be the domain name with 'pop.' prepended
to it.
SMTP Server: Information from the SMTP_SERVER= Tool
Type if present; otherwise, if a Domain Name is
present, this will be the domain name with 'smtp.'
prepended to it.
If a Tool Type was the only default and it is missing,
nothing is loaded into the corresponding string gadget.
The [CHANGE PASSWORD] button gadget will bring up a special window which
will allow you to add or change your password. This window looks like the
follwing:
|========================================|
|0|Enter Password |
|----------------------------------------|
| |
| Enter your new password below |
| |
| [ ] |
| |
| |
| |
| [START OVER] [ CANCEL ] |
|________________________________________|
The string gadget will be automatically activated when the window is
displayed. You can type in your new password, but for each character you
type, an '*' will appear. After hitting return, the heading "Enter your
password below" will be replaced by the following heading: "For
verification, re-enter your password". You must re-enter your password
and, when you hit return, if the re-entered password matches the first
password, the password window will close. The new password will not take
effect until you hit the [USE], [SAVE] or [SAVE TO] buttons at the bottom
of the Configuration screen. If you hit the [CANCEL] button at the bottom
of the Configuration screen even though the new password has been
accepted, the new password will not be used.
If the re-entered password does not match, the following will appear below
the password entry string gadget:
Password failed Validation!
and the "Enter your password below" heading will re-appear.
If at any time you want to start over with entering the new password, you
can click on the [START OVER] gadget. If you want to cancel the password
entry process you can either click on the close gadget at the top left of
the window or on the [CANCEL] gadget in the window.
Only 30 characters can be entered into the password string gadget.
TCP/IP Page
-----------
The TCP/IP page appears as follows:
==========================================================================
AEMail Configuration Screen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
____________[ TCP/IP ]________________________________________________
| |
|Start Net Call: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| [ ] Start Net Opens on the Workbench |
| |
| Stop Net Call: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| [ ] Stop Net Opens on the Workbench |
| |
| [ ] Automatic connection to Internet Provider on AEMail Start Up |
| [ ] Display disconnect check on AEMail exit |
| |
|Disable Queued Mail Chk [] on connection establishment [] at AEMail exit|
| Disable New Mail Chk [] on connection establishment [] at AEMail exit|
| |
| Check for new mail every [ ] minutes |
|________________________________________________________________________|
[USE] [SAVE] [SAVE AS] [CANCEL]
==========================================================================
The "Start Net Call" and "Stop Net Call" are required if you are going to
start up or stop your TCP/IP connection from within AEMail with a script.
If you are using AmiTCP, this is normally either the file "startnet" or
"stopnet" in the AMITCP:bin directory. If you are using Miami, two AREXX
scripts, called "startnet.miami" and "stopnet.miami" have been provided
with the AEMail archive located in the AEMail program directory.
When first presented, these two string gadgets will contain the values
given in you STARTNET and STOPNET Tool Types or what was last stored in
your configuration file. If these two Tool types are not present, these
two string gadgets will be blank unless a previous configuration file is
present and has these calls.
If you do not want what is presented as the default in these two string
gadgets, you can enter the correct path and script name in the string
gadgets. A full path name to that script must be entered. If the script
is an AREXX script it should be preceded with "rx " (a space is between
the rx and the script name). The standard AmiTCP startnet script is NOT
an AREXX script even though it uses AREXX commands. It is an AmigaDOS
script. The Miami script which comes with AEMail, on the other hand, is
an AREXX script.
The [REQ] button will call up a file requester to allow you the find the
script you want and [CLR] will clear the string gadget.
[DEFAULT] will place the script path and name from your Tool Types in the
appropriate string gadget.
If you need the "Start Net" script or the "Stop Net" script to open on the
workbench screen, click on the approriate check mark gadget for the
particular script. When the TCP/IP Configuration page first opens the
"Start Net Opens on the Workbench" item will be checkmarked.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR USERS OF TERMITE TCP:
If you are using a TCP/IP stack that does not have a Start Net or Stop Net
script (such as TermiteTCP), you should use the [CLR] button to clear
these two string gadgets. Starting and stopping your Internet connection
is then done manually. Then when you use the Start Net or Stop Net menu
item, the action that is performed is to iconify AEMail. You can then
perform the network connection in what ever manner was provided by your
TCP/IP stack software. Once the connection is made, un-iconify AEMail and
AEMail will then check your POP Server for any available messages if that
option was selected (see below).
The "Automatic connection to Internet Provider on AEMail Start Up" check
box provides the same capability as the AUTOCONNECT Tool Type. When
AEMail is first activated it attempts to determine if you are connected to
your Internet provider. If you are not and this item is checked, AEMail
will automatically run your StartNet script. However, the AUTOCONNECT
function will be disabled if you do not have a "Start Net" script.
Except when you are using AEMail as a mailto: agent, when AEMail
terminates and you are still connected to your Internet provider, the
following Requester will be displayed:
Do you wish to terminate your Host connection now?
You will given the opportunity to reply with either a [YES] or [NO]. If
you never want you Internet connection to be terminated when you exit from
AEMail, you can prevent the above requester from being displayed by NOT
checking the "Display disconnect check on AEMail exit" box. By default,
this box WILL BE CHECKED, so, to disable the function, you would have to
click in this box. However, this function will automatically be disabled
if you do not have a Stop Net script.
Please Note: The way AEMail determines if you are still connected is to
check if the "bdsocket.library" is present. This library may become
present when you load your TCP/IP stack software. Even though you may not
be connected the bdsocket.library will then be present, so you will get
the above notification even though you are not actually connected. In
this event replying with either [YES] or [NO] to the requester will have
no effect.
Whenever AEMail is first loaded and is connected to Internet Provider or
if you select "Start Net" from the "TCP/IP" menu, a check will be made for
any mail on your POP server or any mail that must be sent from your QUEUED
folder. Except when you are using AEMail as a "mailto:" agent, this same
check is also performed when you quit AEMail. You can disable any of
these checks by checking the appropriate box in the following lines:
Disable Queued Mail Chk [] on connection establishment [] at AEMail exit
Disable New Mail Chk [] on connection establishment [] at AEMail exit
AEMail also has the capability for checking for mail periodically on your
POP server. This function is performed in the background so you can be
doing other activities while this check is going on. When mail is found,
the following requester will pop up on your screen:
YOU HAVE MAIL!!
n Messages available on the POP Server
Do you wish to receive these messages now?
Replying [YES] to the above requester will start the retrieval of the
messages. If you are in iconify mode when this occurs, the retrieval will
occur in the background without bringing up the AEMail screen.
You can set the time interval for this check by entering the appropriate
number of minutes in the following numeric gadget:
Check for new mail every [ ] minutes
The default time interval is 2 minutes. If you enter a zero in this
numeric gadget, no check will be made.
Default Path Page
-----------------
The Default Path page appears as follows:
==========================================================================
AEMail Configuration Screen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________________[ PATHS ]_____________________________________
| |
| Mailcap Directory: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| TCP Logging File: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| [ ] TCP Logging Active on AEMail startup|
| |
| Retrieve Mail from Directory: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| Save Mail to Directory: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
|Add Attachments from Directory: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
| |
| Save Attachments to Directory: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT]|
|________________________________________________________________________|
[USE] [SAVE] [SAVE AS] [CANCEL]
==========================================================================
String gadgets are provided for giving the full path for each of the
default directories and or file. The directory paths that can be
specified are:
Mailcap Directory: This is the directory that contains your
mailcap file. The file will always be named "mailcap".
The default entry for this is "AEMAIL:".
TCP Logging File: This allows you to enter a file name as well
as a path. The default path and file name is "tcplog" in
the AEMail program directory. If this field is cleared, no
TCP logging can take place. When the [SAVE], [SAVE AS] or
[USE] gadgets are selected, if TCP Logging was active and
the TCP logging File name that was entered is different
from the current log file, the current log file will be
closed and a new file opened. If you clear this field
TCP logging will stop since there is no file to log to.
Whether logging takes place or not should depend on the
"TCP/IP/TCP Logging File/Active" menu item (checkmarked
flag).
You can cause TCP logging to be active when AEMail starts
up by checking the "TCP Logging Active on AEMail startup"
check mark gadget below the TCP Logging File string gadget.
If this item is checked, the logging will become active
when you exit from the Configuration screen. You will have
to turn off the Active flag in the "TCP/IP/TCP Logging File"
menu item to stop logging.
Note: none of the actions mentioned above will take place
until you select [USE], [SAVE] or [SAVE TO] at the bottom
of the Configuration screen. If you select [CANCEL] no
change will be made in your TCP logging activity.
Retrieve Mail from Directory: This is the initial path that will
appear in the file requester when you Retrieve mail from a
file rather than your POP Server. The default directory for
these files is "PROGDIR:" which is your current AEMail program
directory. If you regularly are trying to bring in mail that
was previously transferred using another mail user agent such
as AmiPOP, AirMail, or Voodoo, you should use the directory
that was used for these agents for storing mail. You can
specify any directory of your choosing as the default path
for the Retrieve Mail file requester. You enter that
default in this string gadget.
Save Mail to Directory: This is the initial path that will appear
in the file requester when you select the "Save Mail" icon
in the command icon strip. The default directory for this
path is PROGDIR:, which is your current program directory.
However, you can specify any other path of your choosing as
the default path for the Save Mail file requester. You enter
that default in this string gadget.
Add Attachments from Directory: This is the initial path that will
appear in the file requester when you select the [REQ] button
in the Add Attachment requester (see below under Section VIII.
AEMail WINDOWS. The default directory for this path is PROGDIR:.
However, you can specify any other path of your choosing as
the default path for the Add Attachment requester. You enter
that default in this string gadget.
Save Attachments to Directory: This is the initial path that will
appear in the file requester when you select the [Save] or
[View & Save] buttons in the Attachment requester (see below
under Section VIII. AEMail WINDOW. The default directory for
this path is RAM:. However, you can specify any other path of
your choosing as the default path for the Attachment file
requester. You enter that default in this string gadget.
When this this page is first activated, the values that were last saved in
the current configuration file will be displayed.
The buttons to the side of each string gadget perform the following
actions:
[CLR] will cause the string gadget to be cleared.
[DEFAULT] will cause default information, as described above, to be
loaded into the appropriate string gadget.
[REQ] causes a file requester to appear for selecting the appropriate
directory and file name (TCP Logging File only) to be loaded
into the appropriate string gadget. The file requester will
start out with the last path that was used for that particular
string gadget. If no path was last used, a dummy name of
"VOLUMES" will be used, the requester will flash, and the
volumes and assigns will be displayed.
General Parameters Page
-----------------------
The General Parameters page appears as follows:
==========================================================================
AEMail Configuration Screen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________[ GENERAL ]__________________________
| |
|Printer Device: [PRT: ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT] Top Margin:[4 ]|
| [ ] Include Attachment List in Print Out |
| |
| [ Printer Setup ] [Set Screen Mode] |
| [Set Minimum Headers] |
| |
| [ ] Delete Mail from Server [ ] Display Full Header |
| [ ] Strip Duplicate Messages [ ] Include Header in Reply |
| |
| EditCall: [ ][REQ][CLR][DEFAULT] |
| [ ] Editor Opens on the Workbench |
| |
| Default Reply to Message Parameters |
| |
| [ ] Quote Original Message Text Quote Prefix[> ] |
| |
| Quote Header: [ ] |
|________________________________________________________________________|
[USE] [SAVE] [SAVE AS] [CANCEL]
==========================================================================
The General Parameter page allows you to set up certain general type
parameters such as specifications for your printer device, your screen
mode that you want your AEMail screen to open on, the list of minimum
headers you want displayed in a message, certain default menu checkmarked
items, the specification for your editor, and the specifications for the
default message reply headers.
For the Printer Device you can specify the device that you want to do your
printing on. By default this is PRT:, but you can specify a file if you
care to. If you specify a file, your printer output will be sent as
standard ASCII text with form feeds and margin spacing included in the
output. The [REQ] button will call up a file requester through which you
can enter the path and file name of this printer file. [CLR] will clear
the string gadget and DEFAULT will enter PRT: into the gadget. When this
page is first displayed, the PRT: default will be in the gadget.
You can also specify the Top Margin of the printout with the numeric
string gadget to the right of the Printer Device. The default top margin
is 4.
If you want the list of attachments to appear on the last page of your
printout, you can check the "Include Attachment List in Print Out" box.
By default, this box is checked when you first call up the General
Parameters page.
If you want to modify your printer setup parameters that are normally set
with your PRINTER PREFERENCES, you can click on the [Printer Setup]
button. This will call up the standard Printer Preferences program so
that you can change your printer setup. Please Note that, if you change
the printer preferences, the new preferences will remain in effect when
you quit AEMail.
If you want to set your screen mode for AEMail, you can click on the [Set
Screen Mode] button. This will call up a Screen Mode Requester which will
allow you to set whatever screen mode you wish. Your overscan mode can
also be set. This defaults to "OVERSCAN-TEXT". When you save your
configuration settings, the screen mode you selected and the overscan
setting are saved in the AEMail configuration file and will be used the
next time you load AEMail.
The minimum header set that you want displayed in your message can be set
by clicking on the [Set Minimum Headers] button. This will bring up a
requester that looks like this:
|==================================|
|[o] Set Minimum Headers |
|==================================|
| Select/Deselect Headers |
| to be displayed |
|==================================|
|| *bcc: | ||
|| *cc: | ||
|| Content-Transfer-Encoding: | ||
|| Content-Type: | ||
|| *Date: | ||
|| *From: | ||
|==================================|
| Enter New Header |
|[ ]|
| |
| [OK] |
|==================================|
A list of possible message headers is displayed in the scrollable list.
An asterick (*) in front of a header indicates that it has been selected
for inclusion in the minimum header list. Clicking on an item in the list
will select it with an (*). If it is already selected, it will be
deselected (the asterick will change to a blank).
The string gadget at the bottom of the requester is used to enter a header
that is not in the list. Be sure and end the header with a colon (:).
After entering the header, press return and the header will be placed
properly in the scollable list. It will be deselected when it is first
entered in the list. You will have to click on it to select it.
When you are through entering items in the list, click on [OK] and you
will be returned to the General Parameters page. Clicking on the close
gadget at to top of the requester has the same effect as clicking on [OK].
Please NOTE: anything you enter in the list or select/deselect will
remain in the list in that state during the current run of AEMail even if
you click on [CANCEL] in the main configuration window. In other words,
[CANCEL] for the minimum header list has the same effect as [USE].
Clicking on [SAVE] or [SAVE AS] at the bottom of the screen will
permanently save the headers you have selected.
There is no way to delete a header once it has been entered in the list
and saved except by deleting the .headers file in the AEMAIL: directory.
This is really not a problem, however, since, if you entered an incorrect
header and haven't selected it, it will have no effect on the program.
The four check boxes:
[ ] Delete Mail from Server
[ ] Display Full Header
[ ] Strip Duplicate Messages
[ ] Include Header in Reply
have the same effect as the Tool Types DELETEMAIL=, FULLHEADER=,
STRIPDUPS=, and HDRINREPLY=. A checked condition is the same as a YES in
the Tool Type. When you exit from the Configuration screen with either
[USE], [SAVE] or [SAVE AS], the corresponding menu items will be checked
or unchecked depending on the state of these check boxes.
For the EditCall string gadget you must use the full path name of the
editor of your choice plus any parameters you want to use on the call. To
specify where the file name you are editing goes use '%s'. An example
would be:
c:ed %s
Below the EditCall: string gadget is a checkmark gadget which is used to
tell AEMail that your editor will open on the Workbench screen. If your
editor of choice does not open on it's own screen, you must check this
item. The AmigaDos editor, ED, does NOT open on it's own screen; therefor
you must check this item if you are using ED.
The DEFAULT for the EditCall is the information from the EDITOR Tool Type.
If the key word 'WB;' precedes the editor call information in the tool
type, the "Editor Opens on Workbench" item will be checkmarked. 'WB;'
will NOT appear in the EditCall string gadget.
If the EDITOR Tool Type was not provided, the following will be the
default EditCall:
c:ed %s
and the "Editor Opens on Workbench" item will be checkmarked. This
uses the default AmigaDos editor, ed.
If you need to find where your editor is located, [REQ] causes a file
requester to appear for selecting the appropriater program file to be
loaded into the EditCall string gadget.
The section below the heading "Default Reply to Message Parameters" is
used to set up the default actions when you are replying to a message.
The "Quote Original Message Text" box sets up the default action for
quoting the original text in a message. Even though you take the default
of not quoting text, you will be given an opportunity to change you mind
about this when you compose the message.
The "Quote Prefix:" string gadget indicates what is to be placed in front
of each quoted line if an original message is quoted. This, by default,
is '>'; however, you can use any other prefix as the derfault that you
like.
A "Quote header:" will be placed on the line in front of the quoted
material. You can choose what you would like as the default heading and
enter it in this string gadget. By default, the header which will
initially appear in the "Quote Header:" string gadget is:
On &(week), &(date2), at &(time), &(name) wrote:
The & followed by a field name in parenthesis indicates substitution of
data from the original message's headers. The values that can be
substituted are:
&(name) The real name of the sender of the original
message. If the real name is not available,
the sender's email address will be used instead
&(subject) The subject from the original message. Any RE:
or (fwd) will be stripped.
&(week) The day of the week that the original message
was sent.
&(date) The date the original message was sent in the form
DD MMM YYYY, where DD is the day of the month,
MMM is month in the form Jan, Feb, Mar, etc, and
YYYY is the full 4 digit year.
&(date1) Same as &(date).
&(date2) The date in the form MMM DD, YYYY.
&(time) The time the original message was sent in the
form HH:MM xM where HH is the hour on a 12 hour
clock, MM is the minute, and xM is AM or PM.
&(to) The email address the message was sent to. For
mailing lists this could be the name of the mailing
list if that is what appeared in the To: header.
The "Quote Header" is designed to be modified by the user and can be
changed with this string gadget. This is a permanent change if you select
[SAVE] to save the Configuration data or it can be in effect as the
default for only this running of AEMail if you select [USE]. You can
always change this default, however, when you compose a message.
V. USING AEMAIL
Starting AEMail
---------------
AEMail can be started either from the Workbench by double clicking on it's
icon or from the shell. It is recommended that AEMail be normally run
from the Workbench. The shell invocation is primarily designed for
"MailTo" agents in WWW browsers or to call AEMail from another program
that passes a message to it.
Starting AEMail from the Shell
------------------------------
When AEMail is invoked from the shell, there are six optional argument
that can be used as follows:
AEMail [email-addr-of-recipient-of-email] [config=configuration_file]
[pubscr=browser-screen-name] [mail_dir=full-path-to-mail-directory]
[message=full-path-name-of-message-to-send] [CONT]
If either the recipient's email address is present or the "message="
argument is present, AEMail assumes that we are using AEMail as a "MailTo"
agent or you are trying to queue or send a message composed outside of
AEMail. AEMail will load and immediately display the Compose message
window.
If the "message=" argument was used, you will be in the "edit" mode of the
compose screen. You can either edit the supplied message or immediately
[Save in Pending], [Queue Message], [Send Message Now], or [Cancel
Message]. You can also perform any other action on the message including
adding headers, adding attachments, or adding your signature block (see
the Section VIII, Compose Message Window).
The message that the "message=" argument points to must be a complete
message with at least one header. It is suggested that you include at
least a "To: " and "Subject: " header. These should be followed with at
least one blank line before the body of the message.
If both the "mail address of the recipient" argument and the "message="
argument are used, the "mail address" will take precedence over the "To: "
header in the message.
The recipient's name in either the mailto argument or the To header in the
message referenced by the "message=" argument, can be a nickname present
in your Address Book. This is a convenient way to send messages to groups
where you are periodically adding or deleting members from the group.
Just use the group nickname in the "To: " address to send the message to
the entire group.
If the "message=" argument is not present but a recipient's email address
is present, you will enter the compose window in a "new" message mode.
You must compose a message or Cancel the operation in order to procede.
When you exit from the Compose window by clicking on one of the action
requesters at the bottom of the window, AEMail will terminate
automatically unless the "CONT" keyword was present in the argument
stream. If "CONT" is used, AEMail will continue so that you can perform
other AEMail functions. You will then have to quit using the "Quit..."
menu item in the "Project Menu".
The "config=" keyword parameter is used to specify a configuration file
other that the normal s:aemail.cnfg file. All pertanent data on the
AEMail configuration to be used will be in this file. If you wish to
invoke AEMail from the shell and have it run normally (not as a "MailTo"
agent), you can use the "config=" parameter to direct AEMail to use a
different configuration file on startup. To use AEMail in this manner,
you could simply type:
AEMAIL config=[name_of_configuration_file]
The "mail_dir=" is used to override the AEMAIL: assignment for the mail
directory. You must specify a full path name for this alternate mail
directory.
If AEMail is used as a "mailto:" agent for your browser and that browser
passes it's public screen name along with the userid, you can use the
keyword argument "pubscn=" to specify that public screen. AEMail will
then bring the browser's screen to the front when AEMail terminates. If
this argument is missing and the browser opens on it's own screen but does
not, itself, bring the screen to the front when it returns from the
"mailto" command, you might have to manually bring the browser's screen to
the front with the LEFT-AMIGA M key.
When you invoke AEMail from the shell with a email address parameter or a
"message=" argument, you normally will not be able to use any of the
AEMail menus or commands unless the "CONT" key word was used. However,
AEMail will always check for Mail on your POP Server and for Queued
messages to send before displaying the Compose message screen (see initial
AEMail action below) and ask for configuration data if required parameters
are not present in the s:aemail.cnfg file or the config= configuration
file.
If you invoked AEMail from the shell without any parameters, AEMail will
behave the same as if it was invoked from the Workbench by clicking on
it's icon except that tool types will not be utilized. That action is
described below.
AEMail can be run either in an offline or online mode. This means that
you do not have to be connected to your Internet provider when AEMail is
activated. However, to actually receive or send mail via your Internet
provider, you must have your TCP/IP stack (AmiTCP, TermiteTCP, Miami, etc)
running and connected to your provider. You can activate AEMail before
connecting to your provider or after; it makes no difference.
Both a convenient menu item and a command icon have been provided in
AEMail to start your TCP/IP stack ("TCP/IP/Start Net") after AEMail is up
and running provided a script can be used to make this connection. If
a script is not provided for this purpose, AEMail will iconify to allow
you to start your TCP/IP stack manually. A menu item ("TCP/IP/Stop Net")
and command icon have also been provided to disconnect your network
connection.
You can also automatically activate your TCP/IP stack at program startup
by providing the AUTOCONNECT=YES Tool Type described above or by check
marking the "Automatic connection to Internet Provider on AEMail Start Up"
in the TCP/IP Page of the configuration screen. WARNING: for this to
work, you will need to be able to activate your TCP/IP stack automatically
by a script.
Activating AEMail from the Workbench
------------------------------------
To activate AEMail from the Workbench simply double click on the AEMail
icon. You can also activate AEMail from the shell, but, if activated in
this manner, it will not have access to the configuration information
provided by Tool Types. It does, however, have access to the
configuration information in the specified AEMail configuration file
(either s:aemail.cnfg or the file specified with config= in the shell
calling argument).
AEMail opens on it's own 16 color Public Screen. The Public Screen name
is "AEMAIL-1". 4 of the colors are defined by the first four colors of
the workbench screen. The following 8 colors are pre-defined with the
following colors: Red (13R, 0B, 0G), Green (0R, 15G, 0B), Blue (0R, 0G,
15B), Magenta (15R, 0G, 15B), Yellow (15R, 15G, 0B), Orange (15R, 10G,
0B), Brown (10R, 5G, 0B), and Purple (9R, 3G, 9B). These colors have been
preset to provide a consistant color scheme for displaying icons and
folder tab colors. Under consideration is the possibility of allowing
these colors to be user settable in the future.
Since multiple windows are opened by AEMail, the program opens on it's own
screen to allow uniformity in being able to push the screen to the back
(with all of it's member windows) and back again to the front. The
LEFT-AMIGA-M key can be used for this purpose.
You can also iconify AEMail with an iconify bar on the Workbench screen.
A menu item has been provided to perform the iconify action. When this
menu item is selected, the AEMail screen will disappear and a button bar
will appear on the Workbench screen with
AEMail (Click on Close or with RMB to restore)
in the title. When the iconified bar is selected, clicking either on the
close gadget or with the Right Mouse Button (RMB) will restore the AEMail
screen.
There is also a hotkey provided for iconifying AEMail. This is
RIGHT-AMIGA-I. This same hot key will also take AEMail out of iconify
mode. The LEFT-AMIGA-I key will also accomplish this.
Periodically during the running of AEMail, the program will automatically
switch to the workbench screen for executing certain functions and then
switch back when the function is complete.
The first thing AEMail does when it is activated is to check to see that
certain configuration information has been provided. The necessary items
are:
POP3 UserID
Password
Your email address
SMTP Domain Name
Edit Call
If these items have not be provided, the following requester will be
displayed:
The following Configuration items are empty
[list of empty items]
They are required items!
The Pop Server call and the SMTP Server call will also be included in this
list if the Domain Name is missing.
If this requester is displayed, you will be given the following choices:
[Configure AEMAIL now] [Cancel AEMAIL]
If you were to click on [Cancel AEMAIL], AEMail will terminate. You can
not proceed any further until you have entered these items with the
Configuration screen or by providing them as Tool Types.
Clicking on the [Configure AEMAIL now] will bring up the Configuration
screen which was described previously.
If the PASSPROTECT=YES Tool Type was provided (registered users only) the
following window will be displayed:
|========================================|
|0|Enter Password |
|----------------------------------------|
| |
| Enter your new password below |
| |
| [ ] |
| |
| |
| |
| [START OVER] [ CANCEL ] |
|________________________________________|
You must enter your password before you can procede. You will be allowed
three attempts to enter a correct password. If the correct password has
not been entered after three attempts, AEMail will terminate. If the
password is correct, AEMail will continue.
NOTE: since activating the password protection is done by a Tool Type,
password protection is not available when you activate AEMail from the
shell. A later version will allow you to set this option with the
configuration screens, but currently this feature is only available as a
Tool Type.
After verifying that required configuration information has been provided
and that correct password has been entered (if required), AEMail will
check to see if you are connected to your Internet provider. If it is,
connection will be made to your POP server to see if there are any
messages available on the server in your mail box. If there are, the
following requester will appear:
n Messages Available on the POP Server
Do you wish to receive these messages now?
If you click on the [YES] button, those message will be retrieved at this
point. See the RETRIEVE MESSAGES command described in Section VI.
COMMAND ICON STRIP for details on this process.
If you click on [NO], no message retrieval will take place at this time.
You will need to retrieve these messages later using the RETRIEVE MESSAGES
command icon.
After AEMail checks to see if any messages are available on the POP
Server, it also checks to see if any messages are in the QUEUED folder
(messages queued to be sent). If there are, the following requester will
appear:
You have n messages queued to be sent
Do you wish to send these messages now?
If you click on the [YES] button, all of the messages in the QUEUED folder
will be sent immediately. This is the same as selecting the "Send Queued
Mail" item under the "Project" menu or selecting the QUEUED FOLDER and
clicking on the "Send Message Immediately" command icon (see Sections VI.
Command Icon Strip and VII. AEMAIL MENUS below).
If you click on [NO], the queued messages will not be sent at this time.
You will need to send these messages later using either the "Send Queued
Mail" item under the "Project" menu or selecting the QUEUED FOLDER and
clicking on the "Send Message Immediately" command icon.
If you successfully connected at program startup the following message
will appear in the Title bar of the AEMail screen:
TCP/IP session started with [Your-POP-Server-Name]
If you were not connected the following message will appear in the Title
bar:
Not Connected to [Your-POP-Server-Name] Host
You can disable either or both the POP mail check or the queued mail check
at startup by checkmarking the appropriate items in the TCP/IP Page of the
Configuration screen.
When AEMail first starts, three windows are opened in horizontal bands on
the AEMail screen. A window is displayed just below the screen menu/title
bar and provides a contextual help title bar and a Command Icon Tool Bar.
This Tool Bar provides icons for accessing the major functions of AEMail
and consists (from left to right) of the following icons: Display Folder
List, Display Address Book, Retrieve Messages, Display Previous Message,
Display Previous Folder's Message List, Display Current Folder's Message
List, Display Next Folder's Message List, Display Next Message, Compose a
Message, Queue Message for Later Delivery, Send Message Immediately, Save
Message To File, Print, Delete/Undelete Message, Copy Messages, Transfer
Messages, Start TCP/IP Network Connection and Terminate TCP/IP Network
Connection.
The window below the command icon tool bar contains a "folder strip" set
of icons. An icon is provided for each folder with a colored "tab" to
indicate the type of folder (of the user's own choosing). Within each
folder icon is a short name (not exceeding 9 characters) for that folder.
Below this is the total number of messages minus any deleted messages. It
may be followed by the number of un-read messages in parenthesis. If
there are unread messages, both numbers will be displayed in red. These
messages counts will be updated as messages are added or deleted from the
folders.
The height of the folder strip is defined by the font size that is used
for the folder name and the folder contents. The font and font size that
is used can be selected by the user with the FLDRFONT= and FLDRFONTSZ=
Tool Types. The folder icons will adjust accordingly.
Four pre-defined folders are provided: "INBOX" for holding retrieved
messages, "PENDING" which holds messages that the user is currently
composing and has not decided to send as yet, "QUEUED" which holds
completed messages for later transmission, and "SENT" which holds messages
that have been sent and accepted by the SMTP Server. Since these folders
must always be present, you can not delete or change the name of these
folders.
A facility has been provided to allow the user to add as many additional
folders of his own choosing that he wants to the list of folders. As each
new folder is created, an icon will be created and placed next to the last
folder icon. Any number of folders can be created and the "folder strip"
has the ability to scroll horizontally so that all of the folder icons can
be viewed and accessed.
You can use the menu items "Transfer..." and "Copy..." under the MESSAGE
menu to transfer or copy messages between folders.
The last window is placed below the "folder strip" and is used to display
either folder lists, address books, message lists, or messages themselves.
If a non-interlaced screen is provided, the message and address book
displays will start below the Command Icon Tool Bar (overlaying the folder
strip) rather than below the folder strip. This is done to provide more
room for the message or address book display since the number of
displayable lines is limited.
Other windows are also provided which cover the entire screen below the
title bar for the purpose of providing configuration information and for
composing messages.
Each of the windows is described in detail in the WINDOW section below.
While the Command Icon Tool Bar and the folder strip are being displayed,
a contextual help line is provided in the Command Icon Tool Bar window
title bar below the screen's title bar. As you pass the mouse cursor over
any command or folder icon, a description of that command or folder will
be displayed in the window title bar. The main window menu bar should
also be active whenever the mouse pointer moves to the "folder strip" or
above.
All command and folder icons are surrounded by a raised box. Whenever a
command or folder is selected, the box will become depressed.
When AEMail is first activated and you are online and have mail and accept
it's transfer, the message list for the INBOX folder will be displayed.
As each mail message is received you will see it added to the message list
of the INBOX.
If you are offline or there is no mail or mail is not being checked, the
folder list will be displayed. Double clicking on either the name of a
folder in the list or one of the folder icons will cause the message list
for that folder to be displayed.
Double clicking on a message in the message list will cause that
particular message to be displayed.
If you have selected a time increment in the Configuration screen (the
default is 2 minutes), a background process will be started which checks
your POP server every few minutes (as specified by the interval) for
messages. If there are any messages, the following requester will pop up:
YOU HAVE MAIL!!
n Messages available on the POP Server
Do you wish to receive these messages now?
Replying [YES] to the above requester will start the retrieval of the
messages. This requester will only pop up when you are not in the middle
of some function such as composing a message, transferring or saving a
message, printing a message, or performing configuration changes. It will
pop up on the Workbench screen if you have AEMail iconified.
NOTE: if you did not specify that you wanted messages deleted from your
POP server as you transferred them to your Amiga, the "YOU HAVE MAIL"
requester will pop up each time the system checks for mail.
USING AEMail AS A "MailTo" AGENT
--------------------------------
A number of Amiga WWW Browsers allow you to select an external Mail agent
to be used for sending email when a "mailto:" HTML link is specified.
AEMail can be used as such an external mail agent.
On the configuration screen for your browser specify AEMail as your
"mailto:" agent by using the full path name of AEMail and the token for
specifying the "mailto:" email address.
As an example, for Voyager you can specify the following:
Work:AEMail/AEMail %h or
AmiTCP:bin/AEMail %h (if you are using AmiTCP)
as the "mailto:" helper application in the "Network Settings: Other"
Voyager menu or when you install Voyager. Be sure and save your Voyager
settings once you make the change.
The "%h" in the above specification is Voyager's token for where to place
the email address. The specification also assumes that AEMail was
installed in either the Work:AEMail or the AmiTCP:bin drawer. Use the
correct full path for where you installed AEMail. Voyager does not
require a "pubscr=" argument.
Other browsers, if they use this capability, may have a different way to
specify the "mailto" user agent and the token for specifying where to
place the email address. The token may change from version to version of
your browser. Consult your browser documentation for how to do this.
In early versions of AWeb, for instance, you would bring up the "Change
Settings" menu and select "External programs" in the cycle gadget. You
entered the "mailto:" application call with two string gadgets. The first
string gadget specifies the Command string which would be
"Work:AEMail/AEMail" (again the full path name) and the second string
gadget specifies the Argument string which would be "%s pubscn=%s". AWeb
does use the public screen argument. Later versions of AWeb used
different tokens for these specifications. Consult your AWeb
documentation for what should be used.
The documentation for IBrowse, unfortunately, does not provide any
information on how to set up an external "mailto:" agent. However it can
be done. Follow these steps:
Select the Preferences menu in IBrowse
Select Network
Select "Email & Telnet" tab
Under "Mailto:" Set the External mode
For the command give the full path name of the AEMail program and
follow it with %h (like in Voyager)
example: Work:AEMail/AEMail %h
Select O.K.
Be sure to "Save Settings" under the Preferences menu
In order for the "mailto:" agent to work properly, AEMail must NOT be
running when you start up your browser. When you click on the "mailto:"
link, AEMail will be loaded, the Compose message window will be displayed,
you will then be able to compose and send the message, and AEMail will
terminate.
If you have a custom configuration file, you should also add the argument
"config=name-of-config-file" to the "mailto" calling argument. As an
example, using IBrowse or Voyager:
Work:AEMail/AEMail %h config=name-of-file
MailTo Using ARexx
------------------
Rather than use the "mailto:" capability described above, you can also
call an ARexx script which calls the Compose function of AEMail. Such a
script for IBROWSE would be as follows:
/* Arexx AEMail Mailto Compose */
OPTIONS RESULTS
parse arg userid a
ADDRESS AEMAIL1
AEMAIL TO FRONT
COMPOSE MAILTO userid
ADDRESS IBROWSE INFO SCREEN
SCREENTOFRONT result
if (result = 0) then okay1 "Bad Public Screen"
exit
This script requires AEMail to be running when the script is called. A
more sophisticated script could be developed which would automatically
load AEMail if it was not already loaded.
The above script is saved in the REXX: directory as "mailto.aem". The
call that is placed in the "Mailto:" in IBROWSE would be:
rx mailto.aem %h
The advantage of using ARexx is that AEMail can be running while you are
doing your web browsing. If you happen to receive email during this time,
a requester will then pop up saying that you have mail and asking if you
want to read it.
In the ARexx script above notice the statement:
ADDRESS IBROWSE INFO SCREEN
This is actually a MUI ARexx commands that will obtain the public name
of the IBrowse screen. This allows the AEMail Arexx command SCREENTOFRONT
to bring the IBrowse screen to the front after the email has been sent or
queued. For any browser that uses MUI, this script will work if you
change "IBROWSE" to the name of the ARexx Port for that browser.
Editing String Entry Gadgets
----------------------------
A number of windows in AEMail use string entry gadgets for entering data.
These gadgets look like long rectangles with a cursor which allows you to
type in the data you want. There are a number of special key combinations
that can aid you in the entry process. These are:
Cursor Left Move cursor to previous character
Shift Cursor Left Move cursor to the beginning of the string
Cursor Right Move cursor to next character
Shift Cursor Right Move cursor to the end of the string
Del Delete the character under the cursor
Shift Del Delete from the character under the cursor to the
end of the line
Backspace Delete the character to the left of the cursor
Shift Backspace Delete from the character to the left of the cursor
to the start of the line
Return or Enter Terminate input and deactivate the gadget
Tab Terminate input and activate the next string gadget
Shift Tab Terminate input and activate the previous string
gadget
Right Amiga q Undo (cancel) the last editing change to the string
(Note: either q or Q will work)
Right Amiga x Clears the string (either x or X will work)
Right Amiga v Paste the contents of the current clipboard unit
to the string (either v or V will work)
Right Amiga c Copy the string to the current clipboard unit
(either c or C will work)
Right Amiga u Change the current clipboard unit
Right Amiga U Display a list of the current active clipboard
units and their contents
In addition, the following editing functions are available if the IControl
preferences editor has "Text Gadget Filter" selected. Note: either the
upper or lower case alphabetic character will work.
Ctrl A Jump cursor to the start of the string
Ctrl H Delete the character to the left of the cursor
Ctrl K Delete from the character under the cursor to the
end of the line
Ctrl M Same as Return or Enter
Ctrl W Delete the previous word
Ctrl U Delete from the character to the left of the cursor
to the start of the line
Ctrl X Clears the string
Ctrl Z Jump cursor to end of the string.
All of the above characteristics of string editing are standard with the
Amiga with the exception of those keystrokes that involve the clipboard.
The clipboard functions are specific to AEMail, although other programs
may have similar functions using the same key combinations built into
them. For more information on using the clipboard see "Using the
Clipboard with AEMail" below.
Using the Clipboard with AEMail
-------------------------------
On the Amiga, the clipboard provides a facility for passing information
from one program to another, or for saving information for re-use in the
same program. AEMail utilizes the clipboard in several ways:
Each string entry gadget has the ability of copying the current contents
of the string to the clipboard or of pasting the contents of the clipboard
to the string gadget. In that manner information can be saved and re-used
at a later time.
You can also obtain a line from a message, edit it, and save that to the
clipboard; or you can save the entire contents of the message body to the
clipboard. If you are using an editor that also supports the clipboard,
you can retrieve information that you previously copied to the clipboard
and insert it into a message you are composing.
If your browser supports the clipboard, you can use the above method to
capture a URL that is embedded in a message and then paste it into the
browser's URL string.
AEMail supports the use of multiple clipboards (up to 256 separate
clipboard units), so different information can be copied to separate
clipboard units and retrieved later. If other external programs also
support multiple clipboard units you can pass separate pieces of
information to those programs.
With each string entry gadget in AEMail you can use "Right Amiga C" or "Right
Amiga c" (either upper or lower case c) to copy the information from a
string to a clipboard unit. Likewise, you can use "Right Amiga V" or "Right
Amiga v" (upper or lower case v) to paste the information into the string
gadget. This works with all string gadgets except the "Enter Password" or
"Change Password" (in the Identity page of the Configuration Screen) string
gadgets.
Generally speaking when you use the paste operation in a string gadget, it
will replace the contents of the string gadget with the contents of the
clipboard. The exception to this is with the To:, cc:, and bcc: string
gadgets on the Compose Message Window and when editing a string that is
captured from a message (see below).
For the To:, cc:, and bcc: string gadgets, the clipboard data will be
ADDED to what was previously in the string gadget. Any added email
addresses added with the paste operation will be separated from the
previous addresses with a comma.
If you double click on a line in a message that is being displayed, a
special window will open at the top of the screen which looks like this:
|=========================================================================|
|o| Edit and save message line to clipboard |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| [Message line appears here ] |
| |
| [ SAVE CLIP ] [CHANGE CLIP UNIT] [ CANCEL ] |
|_________________________________________________________________________| |
You can use the copy and paste to and from the clipboard unit while you
are editing within the string entry gadget above. However, if you paste
to the string, the data in the clipboard will be inserted at your cursor
position. This is different from all other string entry gadgets where the
pasted data replaces whatever was in the string gadget before. This
feature for the editing and saving of a line from a message can facilitate
building a clipboard line from different lines in the message. To do
this, edit the first line so that just the portion that you want added or
inserted to a second line remains in the string. Copy this to a clipboard
unit ([SAVE CLIP]). Then double click on a second line. Position the
cursor where you want the first clipboard data to appear and perform the
paste operation. The previously copied data will be inserted at that
point.
When you click on either the [SAVE CLIP], [CANCEL], or the close gadget at
the top of the window, the edit window will disappear. Clicking on the
[SAVE CLIP] will save the edited string to the current clipboard unit and
clicking on the [CANCEL] or close gadget will exit without saving.
Warning: using the copy function from within the string gadget will
always copy the current contents of the string to the clipboard whether or
not you click on the [CANCEL] or the close gadget later. There is no way
to undo this operation. However, using the copy function from within the
string gadget will not close the edit window.
Clicking on the [CHANGE CLIP UNIT] in the edit window or typing "Right Amiga
u" (lower case u only) from any string gadget will bring up a special
window that will allow you to change the current clipboard unit. This
window looks like this:
|=======================|
|o|Enter Clipboard Unit |
|-----------------------|
| |
| [ ] (0 - 255) |
| |
| [ OK ] [CANCEL] |
|_______________________|
You can enter any clipboard unit between 0 or 255 in the numeric gadget.
If you type RETURN after entering the number or click on [OK], the
clipboard unit you entered will become the new clipboard unit and the
window will close. Clicking on the [CANCEL] gadget or the close gadget
will close the window without changing the current clipboard unit.
Since you may have data stored in multiple clipboard units and may forget
which clipboard unit has what data, another feature has been provided. If
you type "Right Amiga U" (upper case U - shift and u) while you are editing
a string, the Clipboard Display window will be shown which looks like this:
|===========================================|
|o| Contents of Clip List |
|-------------------------------------------|
| Clip Contents |
| ========================================= |
| | 0 Contents of clip 0 | | |
| | 2 Contents of clip 2 | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| ========================================= |
| |
| [ OK ] [NEW CLIP UNIT] [CANCEL] |
|___________________________________________|
This shows all of the clipboard units that have data stored in them and
the contents of each clipboard unit in a listview. Clipboard units may be
skipped as shown in the illustration above. Since the contents of a
clipboard can be a complete file, the first non-blank line will be
displayed and leading spaces will be stripped. Only text clips will be
displayed. Only 40 characters can be displayed. If the line is longer
than 40 characters, the first 30 characters will be shown followed by
three periods and the last 7 characters.
Only clips with data will be shown. The current clipboard unit will be
highlighted if it contains data. Since it is possible to have a clipboard
unit assigned WITHOUT any data, you may see none of the units highlighted.
You can change to one of the clipboard units shown by clicking on it (it
will become highlighted) and then clicking on [OK]. You can also change to
a clipboard unit not shown by clicking on [NEW CLIP UNIT]. [CANCEL] and
the close gadget will close the window without any changes taking place.
A further feature of this window is to provide an automatic paste
capability by double clicking on one of the units being displayed. That
will automatically paste the contents of the selected unit to the string.
If the selected clip is a file, only the first non-blank line will be
pasted and leading spaces will be stripped. The "Right Amiga V" method of
pasting from within a string gadget also has this feature for multiple
line files.
Another clipboard feature of AEMail is the ability to save the body of
messages and text attachments to the clipboard. When you click on the
[SAVE TEXT] or [ATTACHMENT] button when you are displaying a message you
will be given the chance to save the text as a CLIP and also to change the
clipboard unit. See the "Message Display Window" under VIII. AEMAIL
WINDOWS for a description of the requesters that appear to do this.
Filtering Messages with AEMail
------------------------------
What is message filtering? Message filtering is the ability to direct
incoming messages to specific folders or to automatically exclude certain
messages from being stored in the system.
AEMail has a very powerful message filtering system. It can direct (or
exclude) messages based upon information in the To:, From:, Reply-To:,
Subject:, cc:, bcc:, or Date: headers and (for registered users only) any
other header or text in the body of the message. It can also use the fact
that a message is a reply, has attachments, or is forwarded as filtering
criteria. Information in the header or body text that is checked can be a
word or phrase and wild cards can be used. Information can also be case
sensitive or insensitive as the user desires.
AND and OR relationships can also be made with information coming from
different headers.
Filtering criteria is defined in the folder description which can be be
modified or created by using either the "Edit" or "New" sub-topic under
the "Folders menu". See the description of the "Filter Selection Window"
under Section VIII. AEMAIL WINDOWS in this documentation for a complete
description on how to set up the filtering criteria.
Setting up the appropriate filtering criteria for any folder designed to
receive incoming messages with cause incoming messages (either from your
POP server or from files) to be stored in that folder rather than the
INBOX.
Setting up filtering criteria for the INBOX will automatically exclude any
message meeting that criteria from being stored in the INBOX. In other
words, filtering criteria in the INBOX is used to prevent certain messages
from being stored on your system.
Filtering criteria can not be set up for folders designed for messages
sent out of your system. Only messages as they are being received are
checked. Filtering is done "on the fly" as a message enters the system.
VI. COMMAND ICON TOOL BAR
Below is a description of the "command icon tool bar" and the fuctions
that it performs:
Display Folder List
-------------------
This icon looks like a file cabinet. Clicking on the icon will cause the
folder list to be displayed in the lower window. This list shows each
folder with its short name (INBOX, PENDING, etc), a description of the
folder, the number of unread mesages in the folder, and the total number
of messages in the folder.
Unlike the count displayed in the folder icon, the total number of
messages includes any messages marked for deletion.
Display Address Book
--------------------
This icon looks like a closed book with the letter A on its cover.
Clicking on this icon will display the Address Book window.
Each address book entry contains three fields: Nickname, Real Name, and
UserID (Address). In addition, entries can be provided for groups with a
distribution list. The group is identified with the heading "DISTRIBUTION
LIST" along with the number of items in the list in the top most UserID
field. The UserID's for the members of that list are shown below that
heading.
For items in the distribution list, real UserID's or Nicknames can be
used. An item in the distribution list can also be another distribution
list (In this case, only a Nickname can be used). All nicknames are
expanded to Real Name and UserID when mail is sent.
A checkbox item, called "Expand" to the right of the Address Book headings
allows the user to either expand and show all members of the group or
shrink the address book so that only the group header is displayed. This
item is normally checked indicating the groups are in expanded mode. If
the check mark is removed, the group entries will shrink showing only the
group headings. This feature is only available to registered users.
Currently, address book entries are sorted by Nickname and group entries
are interspersed with single entries. Also Real Names are presented as
first name followed by last name rather than last name, first name.
If you are displaying a message, or have a message selected, when you
click on the Address Book icon, the "Reply-To:" address, if present, will
be transferred to the UserID address in the Address Book. If the
Reply-To: address is not present, the From: address will be used. If a
Real Name is present in the address it also will be transferred. You can
force the From: address to be transferred by holding down the shift key
when you click on the Address Book icon. This process facilitates
transferring names and UserIDs to the Address Book. Please keep in mind
that Reply-To: addresses normally do not have real names associated with
them, but From: addresses many times do. If you want the real name you
may have to hold down the shift key when you click on the Address Book
icon.
The first time AEMail is loaded, a special Address Book entry with a
nickname of "AEMAIL" is created. This entry can be used to send bug
reports and messages about AEMail to my email address.
Address book data is stored in a file in your AEMail directory called
".addrbook".
A more complete description of the Address Book window is given later
under Section VIII. AEMAIL WINDOWS, Address Book Window.
Retrieve Messages
-----------------
This icon looks like an envelope with an arrow coming in. When selected,
AEMail will attempt to connect to the POP host server and transfer any
mail at the server to your Amiga.
If you are in offline mode (you are not connected to your Internet Service
Provider or AEMail can not connect, for some reason, to your POP server),
you will see a requester that asks:
!! We are running in Offline mode !!
Do you wish to receive messages from files?
Clicking on [NO] will terminate the retrieval process.
Clicking on [YES] will bring up a file requester which will allow you to
select one or more files. The default directory for these files is
"AMITCP:" since it is assumed that you are trying to bring in mail that
was previously transferred using another mail user agent such as AmiPOP,
AirMail, or Voodoo; however, you can switch to any other directory and
bring in any file that is in email text format. You can also change the
default directory for retrieving off-line mail with the Path Parameters
page on the Configuration screen.
AEMail automatically recognizes mail stored as individual messages or as
message streams (such as stored by AmiPOP). The only requirement is that
the message stream must separate messages with data beginning:
...<LF><LF>From [UserID]
where [UserID] is the UserID specified in the USERID= tool type or with
the Required Parameters page on the Configuration screen.
This also works with message streams saved by the "Save Message to File"
or the "Export.." item in the messages menu.
It is also assumed that lines have been stored in the file ending in <LF>
and not <CR><LF> (<CR> is $0D and <LF> is $0A).
If you encounter a message stream that does not use the above to separate
messages, please report what was used and what product was used to create
the message stream. A copy of the message stream on floppy or sent to me
as an email attachment would be very handy.
If you are connected to your Internet Service Provider and connection can
be made to your POP mail server, all messages stored on the server will be
transferred to the Amiga. They will be stored as individual messages in
the AEMAIL: directory with cryptic file names.
A progress window will also be displayed which will show the number of the
current message being received, the total number of messages being
received, the percentage of the current message already received and the
total bytes in the message being received. The percentage will be shown
as both a number and a graphic slider.
This progress window also has an [ABORT] button which allows you to
terminate the receipt of the current and all remaining messages from your
POP Server.
PLEASE NOTE: The abort process only aborts the receipt of messages into
the AMIGA, It does NOT abort the transfer of data from the POP Server.
While AEMail disconnects from the server, the server may be unaware of
this and continue to send the remainder of the message. If AEMail
attempts to re-establish contact with the Server while it is still sending
the message AEMail may start to receive the middle of the previously
requested message. AEMail has been programmed to recognize this and will
temporarily report that the POP connection could not be established. Once
the POP Server finishes transferring the message, it should become
available for another connection.
The progress window will be shown both when retrieving messages from your
POP server and from files, however, if you are retrieving a message
stream, AEMail will not be able to correctly determine the number of
messages being retrieved. Therefor the "n of n" indicator will be
incorrect.
If mail on the server is to be deleted, the "Delete Host Mail" item in the
Retrieve Messages menu must be checked. If this menu item is not checked,
mail will NOT be deleted on your POP server. This has no effect when you
are retrieving messages from a file. NOTE: the AEMail Installation
script automatically defaults to deleting host mail. You will have to
un-check this item if you want to keep mail on your POP Server.
Since old mail may not be deleted on your server, a menu item has been
provided under the Retrieve Messages menu called "Excl Dup Msgs". When
this item is checked duplicate messages from the mail server which are
currently stored in any incoming folder will not be stored again. The
only folders not checked for duplicate messages are the PENDING, QUEUED
and any folder designed to hold SENT messages. Again, the default action
with the installation script is to delete duplicate messages.
Currently, like sending messages to your Internet provider, the retrieval
process is run in the same execution mode as AEMail. This means that all
of the messages must be received from the POP host before any other AEMail
process can take place. Again, a future version will move the retrieval
process to a background process so you can proceed with other AEMail
functions while retrieval takes place.
You can be running another program on your Amiga, however when the message
retrieval takes place. If you are in iconify mode when retrieval takes
place it will be done totally in the background although you will see the
"You have mail" requester (see below).
Every time a new message is retrieved AND stored, the total and new
message counts in the folder list AND the folder icon strip will be
updated. Also the top title bar will display the following message:
Message n of n retrieved[/deleted] from [POP server/file], [not] saved
The first n indicates the current message number and the second n
indicates the total number of messages being retrieved. (NOTE: This
message will also appear when local mail files are being transferred, but
the counts may not be accurate if you are retrieving from a message
stream. Also, the retrieval process from local files is so fast, you may
only see the message for the last retrieval.)
The [/deleted] will appear if the message has been deleted on the POP
server and [not] will appear if the message was a duplicate and was not
saved.
You can check for messages on your POP server and retrieve these messages
manually any time you wish by clicking on the RETRIEVE MESSAGES icon.
Also, the user has the option of retrieving messages automatically when
AEMail is first activated (provided you are connected to your Internet
provider), each time you execute your "startnet" script from within
AEMail, and when you quit AEMail.
You can also set a time interval in minutes in which AEMail will
periodically check for new mail. This function is done in the background
and if one or more messages are on your POP server, the following
requester will pop up:
YOU HAVE MAIL!!
n Messages available on the POP Server
Do you wish to receive these messages now?
Replying [YES] to the above requester will start the retrieval of the
messages. This requester will only pop up when you are in the main AEMail
screen and are not in the middle of some function such as composing a
message, transferring or saving a message, printing a message, or
performing configuration changes.
NOTE: if you did not specify that you wanted messages deleted from your
POP server as you transferred them to your Amiga, the "YOU HAVE MAIL"
requester will pop up each time the system checks for mail.
Display Previous Message
------------------------
This icon is a long yellow backward arrow. When you are displaying a
message, clicking on this icon will display the previous message in the
message list. If you are at the first message in the list, a requester
will be displayed informing you of this.
A more complete description of the message display window is given under
Section VIII. AEMAIL WINDOWS, Message Display Window.
Display Previous Folder's Message List
--------------------------------------
This icon is a short backward arrow. Clicking on this icon will display
the previous folder's message list.
A description of the message list is given under Section VIII AEMAIL
WINDOWS, Message List Window.
Display Current Folder's Message List
-------------------------------------
This icon looks like a folder. Clicking on this icon will display the
current folder's message list. This is one way to get back to the current
message list when you are displaying a message and the folder list is
obstructed.
A description of the message list is given under Section VIII AEMAIL
WINDOWS, Message List Window.
Display Next Folder's Message List
----------------------------------
This icon is a short forward arrow. Clicking on this icon will display
the next folder's message list.
A description of the message list is given under Section VIII AEMAIL
WINDOWS, Message List Window.
Display Next Message
--------------------
This icon is a long yellow forward arrow. When you are displaying a
message, clicking on this icon will display the next message in the
message list. If you are at the last message in the list, a requester
will be displayed informing you of this.
A more complete description of the message display window is given under
Section VIII AEMAIL WINDOWS, Message Display Window.
Compose A Message
-----------------
This icon looks like a sheet of paper with a pen on it. The Compose a
Message function brings up the Compose Message window which is described
under Section VIII AEMAIL WINDOWS, Compose Message Window. In this window
you will enter information about the message you are about to compose.
The information you enter includes the Nickname or UserID of the
receipient of the message, the subject and whether or not you want to send
cc's to anyone.
A special [Call Address Book] button is provided that allows you to call
up an abreviated version of the Address Book. By clicking on an address
book name you can transfer the nickname for that address to any of the
To:, cc:, or bcc: fields. You select the field you want to transfer the
nickname to by a special cycle gadget in the address book display.
When the Address Book is displayed from the Compose window, all groups
will show as the group header and number of entries in that group. For
AEMail registered users, an [Expand] checkmarked gadget will allow you to
expand the groups so you can see all of the entries. Exiting from the
Address Book display is accomplished by double clicking on an address (it
will be transferred to the appropriate field and then the Address Book
will be closed) or by clicking on the Close gadget in the window border or
at the bottom of the window.
To compose the message text you would click on the [Compose/Edit Message]
which will call up your editor. When you save and exit from the editor,
you will be brought back to the Compose Message window.
You can specify the format that you want you text to be sent as. You can
select between 8-bit, 7-bit, quoted-printable, or encoded binary (BASE64).
This facilitates sending messages with foriegn character sets through
gateways that only handle 7 bit data. The default is 8 bit. Both
"quoted-printable" and "encoded binary" are 7 bit schemes for representing
8 bit data. When you display a message which is in either
"quoted-printable" or "encoded binary", it will be displayed correctly.
You can also specify any attachments you want to send with the message
through the Add Attachment Requester or you can specify a signature file
or additional headers.
After supplying the required information, you can then save your message
into either the PENDING or QUEUED folder or send it directly. If you
select [Send Message Now] you MUST be connected to your Internet provider.
If a message has been selected in any folder, except the PENDING, QUEUED,
or SENT folders, before clicking on the COMPOSE MESSAGE icon, the compose
will be treated as a reply to the selected message. The original Reply-To
address for the message you are replying to will appear in the To: field
on the Compose window. If the Reply-To: address is not present the From:
field will be used as recipient of the reply. You can force the From:
field to be used by holding down the shift key when you click on the
Compose icon.
If you are not interested in creating a reply, you can change to creating
a new message to be sent to the same (or different) recipient, or you can
forward the message to a different recipient.
If the message selected was in the PENDING or QUEUED folder, you will be
allowed to either edit the selected message or create a new message. If
you edit the message it will be stored back into the the folder you
selected or will be sent (if you click on [Send Message Now]. The old
message will be automatically removed from the system.
If the message selected was in the SENT folder you will only be able to
create a new message.
Queue Message For Later Delivery
--------------------------------
This icon looks like a mailbox. This function is provided to allow the
user to mark messages that you want sent later. Normally, NO MORE EDITING
OF THESE MESSAGES should occur once they are moved to the QUEUED folder.
However, AEMail does allow this to occur. Messages can be moved back to
the PENDING folder with the "Transfer..." item in the Messages menu.
Messages for queuing must come from the PENDING folder. The messages can
also be placed in either the PENDING or QUEUED folders (or sent) by the
Compose Message window.
You can send these messages manually from the QUEUED folder any time you
want by either sending the entire folder or individual messages in the
folder. This is done by selecting the QUEUED folder and clicking on the
SEND IMMEDIATE icon (see above) or by selecting the "Send Queued Mail"
item under the PROJECT menu.
AEMail also allows the user the option of sending queued messages
automatically when AEMail is first activated, or when the program
terminates provided you are connected to your Internet provider (see
Section V. STARTING AEMAIL, above). It will also perform this check when
you make connection to your Internet provider through the StartNet script
unless you have disabled this feature with the TCP/IP Parameters page of
your Configuration screen.
With this option you can compose messages when you are in an off-line
mode, save them in PENDING while you are working on them, and then QUEUE
them when you are satisfied with the message you want to send. The Queued
messages are then automatically sent when you log onto your Internet
Provider by the StartNet command.
If messages are selected in the PENDING folder when you click on the QUEUE
MESSAGE icon, a requester will appear that asks:
Do you wish to queue the entire pending folder
or just selected messages?
The choices available are:
[ENTIRE FOLDER] [SELECTED MESSAGES] [CANCEL QUEUING]
If no messages have been selected (or if all of the messages have been
selected), the entire PENDING folder will be queued without a requester
appearing. Deleted messages in the PENDING folder are never queued.
If there are no undeleted messages in the PENDING folder a notification
requester will appear that indicates that "No messages available to
queue".
The messages that are selected will be placed in the QUEUED folder and
removed from the PENDING folder.
Send Message Immediately
------------------------
This icon looks like an envelope with an arrow going out. An attempt will
be made to send the Selected Message(s) to their recipients. The messages
to be sent must be in either in the PENDING or QUEUED folder. The
messages will be sent from the PENDING folder only if the PENDING folder
is selected; otherwise they will be sent from the QUEUED folder.
If messages are selected, a requester will appear that asks:
Do you wish to send the entire [pending/queued] folder
or just selected messages?
The choices available are:
[ENTIRE FOLDER] [SELECTED MESSAGES] [CANCEL SEND]
If no messages have been selected or all of the messages in the folder are
selected, the entire selected folder will be sent without a requester
appearing. Deleted messages are never sent.
If there are no undeleted messages in the selected folder a notification
requester will appear that indicates that "No messages available to send".
A check will then be made to see if you have an active connection to your
Internet provider. If you do not, a requester will be displayed which
informs the user that we are in offline mode and that the messages can not
be sent.
If you are connected to your Internet Provider, a message will appear in
the top title bar that says "Connecting to SMTP Host to send mail". Once
the SMTP connection is made. AEMail will display "Starting to send n
messages" where n is the number of messages selected to send. If we are
unable to connect or an error is reported back from your Internet
provider, a message will appear in the title bar showing the nature of the
error and the messages will not be sent.
Sometimes, if the error message is from your Internet Provider, you will
not be able to see all of it. If your TCPLOG is active, you will be able
to see it on the Log File, however.
A progress window will also be displayed which will show the current
number of the message being sent, the total number of messages being sent,
the percentage of the current message already sent and the total bytes in
the current message being sent. The percentage will be shown as both a
number and a graphic slider.
If there is more than one recipient for the message, the progress
indicator will also show "Sending to n of n recipients of message" as each
recipient of the message is contacted. This way you will see the progress
of contacting recipients for large groups of recipients.
This progress window also has an [ABORT] button which allows you to
terminate the sending of the current and all remaining messages to your
SMTP Server.
All nicknames used in To:, cc:, and bcc: header fields will be expanded
to the form: Real Name<userid>. Group nicknames will be expanded to the
Real Names and userids of all members of the group, or, if "Send Header
Only" is set for that group, only the group header will be displayed in
the To: field.
When each message is successfully sent, the following message will be
displayed in the upper title bar:
Mail n of n successfully sent to [To: addressee]
The n in the above message indicates the message number and the total
messages to be sent. The [To: addressee] indicates who the message was
addressed to. If it was addressed to multiple addressees, the first
addressee will appear followed by ", et al...".
The message will also be placed in the SENT folder and marked as deleted
in the PENDING or QUEUED folder.
In the current version of AEMail, the send process operates in the same
execution mode as AEMail. This means that you can not perform any other
AEMail operation until the message is either rejected by your Internet
provider or successfully received by your provider (unless you abort the
process). In a future version, this process will be moved to a background
process so that you can perform work in AEMail while the sending of the
message proceeds.
Save (Export) Message To File
-----------------------------
This icon looks like a diskette. A message must be selected before
activating this function and multiple messages can be selected. A message
that is currently being displayed is considered a selected message.
You can save multiple messages as a block of messages or as individual
messages. If you have selected multiple messages a requester will be
displayed as follows:
More than one message marked to save
Do you want to save them as a group
or Individually
If you select Individually
a File Requester will appear
for each message
[Save as Group] [Save Individually]
Unless you are saving the messages as a group, a requester will also be
displayed for each message which will describe the message as to Date,
From, To, and Subject and ask you if you want to perform the requested
action. Selecting [SAVE] will display a file requester in which you will
be asked to enter the file name you want the message saved as, and
selecting [CANCEL] will not save the current message.
If you are saving the message as a group, only the file requester will
appear.
The complete message, including all attachments, is saved in the format in
which the message was received from the POP server except that
CARRAGE-RETURN/LINEFEED sequences are stored as LINEFEEDs alone. Also,
the message ending sequence (.<CR><LF>) is eliminated and any embedded
..<CR><LF> are changed to .<LF> as they would normally appear in a
message.
If the messages are saved as a group, each message will have a special
header separating it from the following message. This header consists of
a line feed followed by:
From [your UserID]@[Your POP Server name] [date]
Only the special header (not the line feed) will appear for the first
message.
This facilitates importing a group of messages back into AEMail. (See
the Retrieve Messages command and the menu item From Local File... under
the Retrieve Msgs menu.)
If you want to save the body of the message or an attachment in its
converted format, you can do that with either the [SAVE TEXT] gadget in
the message display window or with the Attachment Requester that can be
brought up when you display a message with attachments (see Attachment
Requester under VIII. AEMAIL WINDOWS below).
Print
-----
This icon looks like a printer. You must select the messages you want
printed prior to selecting this icon. Multiple message selection works
with this command. If no messages have been selected, you will be asked
if you want to print a list of the messages in that folder. Also, if this
icon is selected while you are in the Address Book, the address book
contents will be printed.
Each of the messages will be printed in the order that they appear in your
message list. All selected messages will be printed whether they are
marked for deletion or not.
A progress indicator will appear as each message is being sent to your
printer which shows the percent being printed and the total bytes being
printed. This progress indicator has an [ABORT] button which allows you
to terminate the printing. However, beware, most printers have a
substantial buffer which will probably receive all of your messages quite
quickly. Once the messages are in the printer's buffer, the printing can
not be cancelled without turning your printer off.
A heading line will be printed on each page of the listing which contains
the following information:
Message Sent on MM/DD/YY (DOW) at HH:MM [AM/PM], [from/to] [name] Page n
where
MM/DD/YY is the date the message was sent (received) or composed,
DOW is the day of the week the message was sent (received) or
composed,
HH:MM is the hour and minute the message was sent (received) or
composed using a 12 hour clock,
[AM/PM] is either AM or PM.
[from/to] if the message was received you will see "from", and if you
composed or sent the message you will see "to",
[name] the full name of the sender or nickname of recipient,
n is the the page number.
On the first page only, if there are attachments, the following line will
appear below the heading line:
This message has attachments (See last page for list).
On a separate page after the message, the attachment list will appear,
providing the "Include Attachment List in Print Out" item is checkmarked
in the General Parameters portion of the Configuration screen. Printing
the attachment list is the default action.
If attachments are a Text or Message type and are either 7-bit, 8-bit, or
quoted-printable encoding format they will be printed following the body
of the message. Other types of attachments you will have to save to a
file and print the file with an appropriate printing program.
Note: no check is made whether a selected message is deleted or not. If
a deleted message is selected it will be printed anyway (this is probably
desireable in certain circumstances). If you don't want to print it,
de-select it!
This function can also print a list of all messages in a folder. To do
this, DO NOT select any messages in the folder. A requester will appear
when you select either the printer command icon or the Print menu item
which says:
No messages selected to print!
Do you want to print a list
of all the messages in the
[name of folder] folder?
[YES] [NO]
By selecting [YES] you will print a list of the messages. Messages will
be printed in the order that they appear in the message list.
Selecting [NO] will terminate the printing function.
Printing uses your Preferences Printer. You should set it up properly
before executing AEMail, but you can set it up while in AEMail by using
the General Parameters page on the Configuration screen. You can also
specify a print file that the output will be directed to.
As a default AEMail will space 4 lines down before starting to print.
This "Top Margin", however, can be changed in the General Parameters page
of the Configuration screen.
Delete/Undelete Messages
------------------------
This icon looks like a garbage can. This will delete OR undelete all
messages that have been selected in a message list. Whether deleting or
undeleting takes place depends on the current status of the message. If
it is currently marked for deletion, it will be undeleted.
This function only marks (or unmarks) messages for deletion. The messages
will actually be deleted only when AEMail exits. The message counts in
the folder icons, however, will only represent undeleted messages. You
can also suppress the display of deleted messages in the message list by
unchecking the Show/Deleted Messages item under the Messages menu.
Copy Selected Messages to a new folder
--------------------------------------
This icon looks like two sheets of paper, one laying over the other. This
will copy all selected messages from the selected folder to a new folder.
When you select this icon a Notification window appears which says:
Select Folder to Copy Messages To!
[CANCEL]
When the window appears, click on the folder icon that represents the
folder you want the messages copied to. The window will automatically
disappear at that time.
The selected messages will be copied to that folder. Messages will remain
in both folders.
Clicking on [CANCEL] before clicking on a folder will cancel the
operation.
As the messages are being copied, the folder message list that the
messages are copied to will be displayed (unless a message is being
displayed). Once the copy is complete, the folder message list from which
the messages are copied will be displayed unless a message is being
displayed.
Transfer Selected Messages to a new folder
------------------------------------------
This icon looks like a sheet of paper with arrows pointing to the right.
It will move all selected messages from the selected folder to a new
folder. When you select this icon a Notification window appears which
says:
Select Folder to Transfer Messages To!
[CANCEL]
When the window appears, click on the folder icon that represents the
folder you want the messages transferred to. The window will
automatically disappear at that time.
The selected messages will be copied to that folder, and the messages in
the folder from which the messages are copied will be marked as "deleted".
Clicking on [CANCEL] before clicking on a folder will cancel the
operation.
As the messages are being transferred, the folder message list that the
the messages are transferred to will be displayed (unless a message is
being displayed). Once the transfer is complete, the folder message list
from which the messages are copied and deleted will be displayed unless a
message is being displayed.
Start TCP/IP Network Connection
-------------------------------
This icon looks like a horizontal jagged line. This will start your
network connection to your Internet Provider using your StartNet script.
It performs the same function as the "Start Net" item under the TCP/IP
menu (see below under Section VII, AEMAIL MENUS.
Terminate TCP/IP Network Connection
-----------------------------------
This icon looks like a horizontal jagged line with a red slash through it.
This will terminate your network connection to your Internet Provider
using your StopNet script. It performs the same function as the "Stop
Net" item under the TCP/IP menu (see below under Section VII, AEMAIL
MENUS.
VII. AEMAIL MENUS
Below is a list of all the current menus and menu sub-items and a description
of their functions:
Project menu
------------
Configuration...
This has five submenu items for controlling your configuration.
These sub-menu items are:
Open...
This brings up a file requester which allows you to specify
a configuration file other than the standard "s:aemail.cnfg"
file. Once you have opened this configuration file it
becomes your current active configuration.
Edit...
The Configuration screen will be activated allowing complete
configuration data to be entered for the current active
configuration file. See the description of the
Configuration screen previously under the IV. CONFIGURATION:
section in this document for details on the configuration
screen.
Save
This will save the current configuration settings in the
currently active configuration file. It serves the same
purpose as the previously "Save Settings" menu item (AEMail
versions prior to 1.13) in which all of the current settings
including the current state of the "Display Full Hdr",
"Incl Hdr in Resp", "Excl Dup Msgs" and "Delete Host
Mail" menu items.
Save As...
This is the same as "Save" except that a file requester
will be brought up which allow you to rename the current
active configuration file. The new name becomes the
new current active configuration file.
Restore Default
This reads in the s:aemail.cnfg file OR the file specified
in the CONFIG= Tool Type OR the config= parameter on the
Shell call to AEMail. The particular file that is used
is referred to as your "base configuration". The base
configuration now becomes your currently active
configuration file.
Send Queued Mail
Will send all messages in the QUEUED folder. See the
SEND MESSAGE IMMEDIATELY command in the COMMAND ICON STRIP
section above. This action will also occur automatically
when you first load and when you exit AEMail provided you
are connected to your Internet provider.
Send AREXX/DOS Command...
This will bring up a requester that looks like this:
|=====================================================|
|o| Send AREXX/DOS Command |
|=====================================================|
| |
| |@| AREXX |[ ][V][CLR][REQ] |
| |
| [ ] Opens On Workbench [X] Execute Asynchronously |
| |
| [ OK ] [ CANCEL ] |
|=====================================================|
The cycle gadget has two states: AREXX and DOS. Select the kind of
command (execute script or program) you want to start. The string
gadget to the right of the cycle gadget is for entering the command.
Unless the command (program or script) is in the same directory as the
AEMail program or REXX: (if it is an ARexx command script), you must
include the full path name. The last command you executed will always
appear in this string gadget when you first call up the requester.
The [V] gadget is used to call up a listview of the past commands you
have executed. You can click on one of these if you want to use a
previous command. The last command you executed will always appear at
the top of the list. The list of commands (up to the last 10) will be
maintained even after you quit AEMail. This list will close when you
click on any item in the list or, if you don't want any of the items,
when you click into any of the other gadgets in the requester.
Yhe [CLR] gadget will clear the string gadget and the [REQ] will call
up a file requester with which you can select the program or script
you want to execute. The initial directory that is used in the
requester is the PROGDIR: if it is a DOS command or REXX: if it is an
ARexx command.
The two checkmark gadgets on the second row are used for DOS commands
only. They will be disabled for ARexx commands.
If "Opens on Workbench" is checked, a switch will be made to the
Workbench screen when the command is executed. This is not necessary
for ARexx command since there is an AEMail ARexx command that will do
this.
The "Execute Asynchronously" checkmark gadget is used to execute the
DOS command in the background. This will allow AEMail to function
when the program that is called is being executed. This item is, by
default, checkmarked. If for some reason you want AEMail to freeze
while the command (program) is being executed, you can un-checkmark
this item. Since all ARexx command automatically execute in the
background, this item is uneccessary for ARexx command scripts.
When you are ready to execute the command, click on [OK]. If you want
to cancel the operation, click on [CANCEL].
Send Last Command
This menu item will send the last ARexx or DOS command without
bringing up the "Send AREXX/DOS command" requester.
Iconify AEMail
You can iconify AEMail with an iconify bar on the Workbench screen
with this menu item. When this menu item is selected, the AEMail
screen will be closed and a button bar will appear on the Workbench
screen with
AEMail (Click on Close or with RMB to restore)
in the title. When the iconified bar is in selected mode, clicking
either on the close gadget or with the right mouse button will restore
the AEMail screen.
Initially the iconify bar will open at the top center of the
Workbench screen, but it can be dragged anywhere on the screen.
AEMail remembers where you dragged the bar so the next time
you iconify, the bar will be at that new position.
There is also a hotkey provided for iconifying AEMail. This is
RIGHT-AMIGA-I. This hot key, and also LEFT-AMIGA-I, will also
restore the AEMail screen when in the iconify mode.
When in iconify mode, periodic checking of mail on your POP server
is still done. If mail is found, the "YOU HAVE MAIL" requester
will pop up on the Workbench mail. You can retrieve the mail
immediately by clicking on the YES gadget. The requester will
disappear and retrieval of messages will occur in the background
and no progress indicator will appear. When you return to the
AEMail screen, the new messages will be in your INBOX folder.
You can also push the AEMail screen to the back exposing the
screen immediately behind the AEMail screen or the WorkBench
screen by hitting LEFT-AMIGA-M when the AEMail screen is being
displayed. This is standard Amiga action.
If the AEMail screen has been pushed to the back, hitting
LEFT-AMIGA-M will bring the screen forward. Note: if other
screens, besides the Workbench screen, are also present, they
may be moved to the front first so that you may have to hit
LEFT-AMIGA-M several times before the AEMail screen appears.
Since there is no screen to bring forward, this will not work
if the iconify action has been taken.
About...
This will display the name, version, and date, of the program
followed by the ARexx Port Name and information as to whether or not
the shareware registration message has been received and who the
version is registered to (with serial number).
Below that is information on how to contact the author of the
program.
Quit...
Exits AEMail.
When this menu item is selected, AEMail first checks to see
if you are connected to your Internet provider. If you are, a
connection will be made to your POP server to see if there are
any messages available on the server. If there are, the following
requester will appear:
n Messages Available on the POP Server
Do you wish to receive these messages now?
If you click on the [YES] button, those message will be retrieved
at this point. If you click on [NO], no message retrieval will take
place.
After AEMail checks to see if any messages are available on the
POP Server, it also checks to see if any messages are in the
QUEUED folder (messages queued to be sent). If there are, the
following requester will appear:
You have n messages queued to be sent
Do you wish to send these messages now?
If you click on the [YES] button, all of the messages in the QUEUED
folder will be sent immediately. If you click on [NO], the queued
messages will not be sent.
After checking for POP messages and QUEUED messages, the following
requester will appear:
Do you wish to terminate your Host connection now?
Selecting the [YES] button will cause the "stopnet" script to be
executed terminmating your TCP/IP connection to your Internet
provider.
You can disable all of these requesters with a checkmarked item
in the TCP/IP display on the Configuration screen. If they are
disabled, the [NO] action will be assumed which each of the
requesters.
Finally, a requester will be displayed that asks:
Do You Really Want to Quit?
Clicking on [YES] will terminate the program and [NO] will return to
the program.
When AEMail exits, all messages marked for deletion will be
deleted and any configuration files in which data has been updated
will be re-written. You will probably see a great deal of disk
activity at this time. While this disk activity is going on, a
window will be displayed on the Workbench screen saying:
Updating all AEMail Configuration Files!
When updating is complete, this window will disappear.
WARNING: DO NOT turn your computer off while this window is being
displayed. If you do your disk will be corrupted!
Folders menu
------------
New...
The Configure Folder window will be activated indicating that a new
folder should be created. See the description of the Configure Folder
window later in this document for details on how to create a new
folder.
Edit...
The Configure Folder window will be activated indicating that the
current selected folder description should be edited. The current
selected folder is the folder that has a depressed frame. You can
change the selected folder by single clicking on the appropriate
folder icon or selecting a folder from the folder list. See the
description of the Configure Folder window later in this document for
details on how to change the folder description.
Delete...
This will delete the folder that has been selected. You will not be
able to delete a folder that has active messages in it. If there are
only deleted messages in the folder, the messages will be immediately
deleted along with the folder. There is no way you can get these
deleted messages back.
Set Sort Key...
Activates the Set Sort Key window for the current selected folder.
See the description of the Set Sort Key window later in this document
for details on how to set the folder sort keys.
Remove DELETED msgs
This will IMMEDIATELY remove ALL messages marked for deletion in the
current active folder. This means that they will no longer appear in
the message list for that folder and they will be physically deleted
from your mail directory.
Before actually removing the messages the following requester will
appear:
This will remove all deleted messages in the
[folder_name] folder
If you continue you can not retrieve them!
You will given the option to either [CONTINUE] or [CANCEL]. If you
select [CONTINUE] all the messages marked for deletion in the folder
will be removed. [CANCEL] will abort the operation.
A busy pointer will be displayed while the messages are being removed.
Messages menu
-------------
Show
This has two checkmarked submenu items for controlling your message
list display. These sub-menu items are:
Deleted Messages
If this sub-item is checked, deleted messages will be shown in the
message list. If it is unchecked, deleted messages will not be
shown. This sub-item is checked when AEMail first comes up.
UnRead Msgs Only
If this sub-item is checked, only unread messages will be
displayed in the message list. If it is unchecked all messages
will be displayed. This sub-item is unchecked when AEMail first
comes up.
Compose...
Activates the Compose Message window, described later in this
document, to create a NEW message to be sent whether or not a message
is currently selected.
Reply
Activates the Compose Message window to reply to the current selected
message. See the description of the Compose Message window later in
this document.
There are two sub-menus which are:
Use Reply-To...
The Reply-To: address of the selected message will be used as the
recipient of the reply. If the Reply-To: address is not present,
the From: address will be used.
Use From...
This forces the From: address to be used as the recipient of the
reply.
If a message is not selected when one of the sub-menu items is
activated an error requester will appear.
Forward...
Activates the Compose Message window to forward the current selected
message. See the description of the Compose Message window later in
this document.
If a message is not selected when this menu item is activated an error
requester will appear.
Edit...
Using this menu item will allow you to edit a message selected in
either the PENDING or QUEUED folders. It has the same effect as
clicking on the Compose icon when you have selected a message in
either the PENDING or QUEUED folders.
If you have not selected a message in either the PENDING or QUEUED
folder when this menu item is activated an error requester will
appear.
Select None
This menu item will de-select all messages in the selected folder.
Select All
This menu item will select all messages in the selected folder.
Selected messages will be marked with an asterick (*) in the first
position of the message in the message list display.
Last Selected
This menu item will re-select those messages that were last selected.
If you did a multiple selection on a group of messages and then
performed an operation on the group of messages (such as deleting,
copying, saving the group to a file, etc.), the messages will be
de-selected as the operation is performed on each message. The "Last
Selected" menu item will allow you to re-select the same previously
selected messages so that you can perform another operation on the
same group of messages.
Export...
Same as the SAVE MESSAGE TO FILE command described previously in this
document.
Copy...
This menu copies all selected messages from the selected folder to a
new folder. When you select this menu a Notification window appears
which says:
Select Folder to Copy Messages To!
[CANCEL]
When the window appears, click on the folder icon that represents the
folder you want the messages copied to. The window will automatically
disappear at that time.
The selected messages will be copied to that folder. Messages will
remain in both folders.
Clicking on [CANCEL] before clicking on a folder will cancel the
operation.
As the messages are being copied, the folder message list that the
messages are copied to will be displayed (unless a message is being
displayed). Once the copy is complete, the folder message list from
which the messages are copied will be displayed unless a message is
being displayed.
Transfer...
This menu moves all selected messages from the selected folder to a
new folder. When you select this menu a Notification window appears
which says:
Select Folder to Transfer Messages To!
[CANCEL]
When the window appears, click on the folder icon that represents the
folder you want the messages transferred to. The window will
automatically disappear at that time.
The selected messages will be copied to that folder, and the messages
in the folder from which the messages are copied will be marked as
"deleted".
Clicking on [CANCEL] before clicking on a folder will cancel the
operation.
As the messages are being transferred, the folder message list
that the the messages are transferred to will be displayed (unless a
message is being displayed). Once the transfer is complete, the
folder message list from which the messages are copied and deleted
will be displayed unless a message is being displayed.
Print
Same as the PRINT SELECTED MESSAGES command described previously in
this document.
Delete/Undelete...
Same as the DELETE/UNDELETE MESSAGE command described previously in
this document.
Display Full Hdr
This is a checkmarked menu sub-item. When checked, all message
headers will be displayed in the message. Since many of these headers
are somewhat cryptic and could be confusing and not always understood
by the user, the normal action is display only certain header lines.
The default action is to display the following headers: From:,
Reply-To: To:, Date:, Subject:, Organization:, cc:, and bcc:, but you
can control this default minimum header list with the General
Parameters page of the Configuration screen.
This menu sub-item is very useful for debugging purpose to see all of
the headers what any particular message carries.
The current state of this checkmarked item is saved in the aemail.cnfg
file whenever the "Save Settings" menu item is selected. It can also
be set or reset by the General Parameters page on the Configuration
screen.
Incl Hdr in Resp
This is a checkmarked menu sub-item. When checked the minimum header
lines will be included for the quoted message when composing a
response. If it is not checked, no header information will appear.
The current state of this checkmarked item is saved in the aemail.cnfg
file whenever the "Save Settings" menu item is selected. It can also
be set or reset by the General Parameters page on the Configuration
screen.
Retrieve Msgs menu
------------------
From POP Host
This will only retrieve messages from the POP Server. See the
RETRIEVE MESSAGES command described previously in this
document for a full explanation of the retrieval process.
If your TCP/IP software is not active or connection to the
POP Server can not be made, the RETRIEVE MESSAGES command
will return silently with the information that the POP Server
could not be reached in the title bar.
From Local File...
This will only retrieve messages from a local file. No attempt
will be made to connect to the POP Server. See the
RETRIEVE MESSAGES command described previously in this
document for a full explanation of the retrieval process.
This menu sub-item allows you to retrieve messages from files
even when online (connected to a host through your TCP/IP
software).
Excl Dup Msgs
This is a checkmarked menu sub-item. When checked, duplicate
messages (ones that were previously retrieved and stored in one
of AEMail's folders), will not be stored. See the description
under the RETRIEVE MESSAGES command for the use and full explanation
of the function of this item.
The current state of this checkmarked item is saved in the aemail.cnfg
file whenever the "Save Settings" menu item is selected. It can
also be set or reset by the General Parameters display on the
Configuration screen.
Delete Host Mail
This is a checkmarked menu sub-item. When checked mail
retrieved from your POP Server will be deleted after it is
retrieved. If it is not checked, mail will not be deleted
and you will have to use the "Exl Dup Msgs" checkmark item
discussed above to insure that a duplicate message are not
retrieved the next time you retrieve messages.
The current state of this checkmarked item is saved in the aemail.cnfg
file whenever the "Save Settings" menu item is selected. It can
also be set or reset by the General Parameters display on the
Configuration screen.
TCP/IP menu
-----------
Start Net
This menu item makes connection to your Internet Provider. It
executes the script that has been assigned by the Start Net
Tool Type or the TCP/IP page of the Configuration screen. If
no Start Net script has been assigned, the action that is
performed is to iconify AEMail. You can then perform the
network connection in what ever manner was provided by your
TCP/IP stack software. Once the connection is made, un-iconify
AEMail.
When this menu item is selected and a "startnet" script has been
assigned, the system will, by default, switch to the workbench
screen and execute the "startnet" script. This allows the initial
dialing window to display. Once your Internet connection has been
made the system will switch back to the AEMail screen.
You can control the switching to the workbench screen by a check-
marked item in the TCP/IP Parameters page on the Configuration
screen.
If you are using AmiTCP, the script that should be run is
AmiTCP:bin/startnet; although the user may specify a different script
and path with the STARTNET Tool Type or in the TCP/IP Parameters page
on the Configuration screen.
If you are using Miami, a "startnet.miami" script has been provided
for connecting with your Internet provider. This is usually run from
the AEMail program directory. This is an AREXX script so you will
have to precede the script name with "rx " (see Section IV,
CONFIGURATION for setting up your Start Net script). This is set up
automatically with the AEMail install provided a Miami: assignment is
in the system.
If you are using a TCP/IP stack that does not have a Start Net script
(such as TermiteTCP), you should be sure that the Start Net call
gadget in the TCP/IP parameters page of the Configuration screen has
been cleared. Your Internet connection is then done manually as
explained above.
Once a connection is made to your Internet provider and you have
returned to the AEMail screen, a connection will be made to your POP
server to see if there are any messages available on the server. If
there are, the following requester will appear:
n Messages Available on the POP Server
Do you wish to receive these messages now?
If you click on the [YES] button, those message will be retrieved at
this point. See the RETRIEVE MESSAGES command described in Section
VI, COMMAND ICON STRIP above for details on this process.
If you click on [NO], no message retrieval will take place at this
time. You will need to retrieve these messages later using the
RETRIEVE MESSAGES command icon.
After AEMail checks to see if any messages are available on the
POP Server, it also checks to see if any messages are in the QUEUED
folder (messages queued to be sent). If there are, the following
requester will appear:
You have n messages queued to be sent
Do you wish to send these messages now?
If you click on the [YES] button, all of the messages in the QUEUED
folder will be sent immediately. If you click on [NO], the queued
messages will not be sent.
After the connection is made, the following message will be displayed
in the screen's title bar:
TCP/IP Session started with [your-domain-name].
If for any reason the connection can not be made, the following
message will be displayed in the screen's title bar:
TCP/IP connection to [your-domain-name] failed.
The "Start TCP/IP Network Connection" command icon will perform the
same operation as the "Start Net" menu item.
Stop Net
This menu item terminates the connection to your Internet Provider.
It executes the script that has been assigned by the Stop Net Tool
Type or the TCP/IP page of the Configuration screen. If no Stop Net
script has been assigned, the action that is performed is to iconify
AEMail. You can then terminate the network connection in what ever
manner was provided by your TCP/IP stack software. Once the
connection is terminated, un-iconify AEMail.
When this menu item is selected and a "stopnet" script has been
assigned, the system will terminate the connection silently in
the background. Since no action is required by the user (unlike
"startnet"), the screen display will remain on the AEMail screen.
If you want to switch to the Workbench screen while the connection is
being terminated, you can do this through a check-marked item in the
TCP/IP Parameters page on the Configuration screen.
If you are using AmiTCP, the script that should be run is
AmiTCP:bin/stopnet; although the user may specify a different script
and path with the STOPNET Tool Type or in the TCP/IP Parameters page
on the Configuration screen.
If you are running Miami, a "stopnet.miami" script has been provided
for terminating the connection with your Internet provider. This
script is usually run from the AEMail program directory. This is an
AREXX script so you will have to precede the script name with "rx "
(see Section IV, CONFIGURATION for setting up your Stop Net script).
This is set up automatically with the AEMail install provided a Miami:
assignment is in the system.
If you are using a TCP/IP stack that does not have a Stop Net script
(such as TermiteTCP), you should be sure that the Stop Net call gadget
in the TCP/IP parameters page of the Configuration screen has been
cleared. Your Internet connection is then terminated manually as
explained above.
The following messages will be displayed in the screen's title bar
when the connection is terminated:
TCP/IP session with [your-domain-name] terminated.
The "Terminate TCP/IP Network Connection" command icon will perform
the same operation as the "Stop Net" menu item.
TCP Logging File
This has three submenu items for controlling your TCP Logging file.
Please read Section X. AEMAIL FILES, TCP Trace Log File for how to
read the entries in this file.
The sub-menu items are:
Active
This is a checkmarked menu sub-item which indicates whether the
TCP Logging is active or not. If a TCP Logging File has not been
defined with the Configuration screen, this sub-item is ghosted.
Clicking on this item when it is not checkmarked will activate TCP
Logging. Clicking on it when it is checkmarked will deactivate
logging.
Purge
This is a handy way to delete all previous TCP Logging entries.
"Purge" will delete the current logging file and open another file
with the same name if logging is active. If logging is not
active, the current logging file will be deleted, but a new file
will not be opened until the Active sub-item is checkmarked.
This menu item can be used whether the logging file is currently
active or not.
Display/Edit...
"Display/Edit" will call your editor to display the current TCP
logging file. The logging file MUST NOT be Active in order to
display or edit it. If it is active you will get a requester that
informs you that you can't display the file beause it is active.
If this happens, de-activate it by turning off the Active
checkmark and then try the "Display/Edit" again.
If a TCP Logging file has not been defined in the Paths page of
the Configuration screen, you will receive a requester saying that
it is not present.
NOTE: The TCP logging file can become quite large and it may take
some time for your editor to bring in the file. Some editors are
slower than others in this regard. If you are using the AmigaDos
editor (Ed), you will see a series of astericks (@) moving across
the screen as the file is being read in. You might want to
periodically purge the file (if it is always active), to prevent a
very large TCP Log file from being created.
VIII. AEMAIL WINDOWS
Configuration Screen
--------------------
See Section IV. CONFIGURATION for a description of the Configuration
Screens.
Folder List Window
------------------
The Folder List window will be displayed in the lower portion of the
screen when AEMail is first loaded and whenever you click on the DISPLAY
FOLDER LIST icon in the Command Icon Strip.
The Folder List window looks like the following:
=====================================================================
Folder List
Name Description of Folder Not Read Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------
INBOX Messages Received nnnnn nnnnn| |
PENDING Messages composed and pending for action nnnnn| |
QUEUED Messages Queued to be sent nnnnn| |
SENT Messages that have been sent nnnnn| |
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx nnnnn nnnnn| |
xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx nnnnn nnnnn| |
| |
=====================================================================
The folder list is a scrolling list. Double clicking on any of the
folders in the list will bring up the Message List window for that folder.
If the Folder Icon strip is also being displayed, double clicking on any
particular folder icon will also bring up the message list for that
folder.
If there are too many folders to fit in the window, you can scroll the
list by using the scroll bar, clicking on the up or down arrows below the
scroll bar, or by using the up or down cursor keys.
Additionally the following keys can be used to move the list as follows:
"Home" or "Cursor Left" moves the listview to the top.
"End" or "Cursor Right" moves the listview to the botton.
"PgUp" or "Shift Cursor Up" pages the listview one "page" up. The
top line of the previous page will be displayed as the bottom
line of the new page.
"PgDn" or "Shift Cursor Down" pages the list view one "page" down.
The bottom line of the previous page will be displayed as the
top line of the new page.
The cursor up/down keys on the keypad will have the same action as
the normal cursor keys with the exception of the shift
feature.
Single clicking on a item in the list or folder icon merely selects that
folder. The selected folder is then the folder referenced by the Folders
Menu group items (Edit.., Delete..., Set Sort Key ...) and by such
commands as Message Delete, Message Copy, Message Transfer, or Message
Select All/NONE.
One of the folders is always active (selected). On program startup, the
active folder will be INBOX. You can always tell the current active
folder by the depressed frame around the folder icon.
Message List Window
-------------------
The Message List window will be displayed in the lower portion of the
screen whenever you double click on either an item in the folder list or
one of the folder icons.
You can also bring up the current folder list by clicking on the
"Display Current Folder's Message List" command icon in the command icon
tool bar. The previous and next folder's message list can also be
displayed from the command icon tool bar.
The Message List looks like the following:
========================================================================
Message List for [folder-name] Folder ([folder Description...])
FLGS Date Time From Size Subject (nnn messages)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NARF MM/DD/YY HH:MM xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
*NARF MM/DD/YY HH:MM xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
. . . . . | |
NARF MM/DD/YY HH:MM xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
| |
========================================================================
The column header line displays the number of messages in the folder as
(nnn messages). This is the total number of messages including those
marked for deletion.
The message descriptions are presented in a scrollable list. You can
scroll the list by using the scroll bar, clicking on the up or down arrows
below the scroll bar, or by using the up or down cursor keys.
Additionally the following keys can be used to move the list as follows:
"Home" or "Cursor Left" moves the listview to the top.
"End" or "Cursor Right" moves the listview to the botton.
"PgUp" or "Shift Cursor Up" pages the listview one "page" up. The
top line of the previous page will be displayed as the bottom
line of the new page.
"PgDn" or "Shift Cursor Down" pages the list view one "page" down.
The bottom line of the previous page will be displayed as the
top line of the new page.
The cursor up/down keys on the keypad will have the same action as
the normal cursor keys with the exception of the shift
feature.
The meaning of the various fields of each message description are as
follows:
FLGS: (starts in the 2nd column)
N indicates an unread message
A indicates a message with attachments (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
R indicates the message is a reply
F indicates the message is a forwarded message.
D (in the same position as N) indicates the message is
a deleted message.
Date: This is the message date from the DATE: header in the form of
MM/DD/YY (2 digit month, 2 digit day, and the last 2 digits of
the year).
Time: This is the time the message was received in the form of HH:MM
(2 digit hour, 2 digit minute). Time uses a 24 hour clock.
From: Is the Real Name (if present) from either the From: or To:
header. If the folder represents messages being sent from
AEMail (PENDING, QUEUED, SENT) then this field will be headed
"To" and the To: header will be used. If the Real Name is
not present in the header, then the UserID will be used
instead. If a Nickname is being used for a message being
sent, then the Nickname will appear.
Size: This is the size, in bytes, of the message in the form nnn,nnn.
If the size exceeds 999,999 bytes then ***,*** will appear.
The size includes the size of the message with all its
attachments.
Subject: Up to 39 characters from the Subject: header after RE: and
(fwd) are stripped. You can tell if the message is forwarded
or is a reply by examining the FLGS field. RE: and (fwd) are
stripped from the Subject: header to allow sorting to place
all messages with the same subject (whether original, replied,
or forwarded) together. You can also control where 'replied'
and 'forwarded' messages go in the list since these use
separate sorting criteria.
An asterick (*) in the first position indicates that the message is
selected. This position will be blank if the message is not selected.
The Message list can be sorted under a number of different categories (see
Set Sort Keys window below).
Double clicking on any message in the message list will bring up the
message display window for that message.
A single click will highlight and select the message. An asterick will
appear in the first column of the line indicating the message is selected.
You can click on another message to highlight and select that message.
Clicking on a message that is already selected will deselect the message.
If you are running under AmigaDOS 3.0 or higher, you can also select (or
deselect) a group of messages by drag selecting. Place the cursor over
the message you first want to select or deselect and then, holding down
the left mouse button, drag either up or down. Whether selecting or
deselecting occurs depends on the state of the first message you select.
Only one message is highlighted. If that message is selected it will be
considered the current message to reply to, forward, or edit when
composing messages.
Other operations such as DELETE/UNDELETE MESSAGE, SAVE/EXPORT MESSAGES,
COPY MESSAGE, TRANSFER MESSAGE, PRINT SELECTED MESSAGES, SEND MESSAGE
IMMEDIATELY, and QUEUE MESSAGE FOR LATER DELIVERY will use the entire
selected list of messages.
Folder Configuration Window
---------------------------
The Folder Configuration window will be displayed over the entire screen
below the top title line when either the "New..." or "Edit..." menu items
are selected from the Folders menu.
The Folder Configuration window looks like the following:
=====================================================================
Folder Name: [ ] (1 - 9 Characters only) [SORT KEYS]
Folder Description: [ __ ]
| |___
Tab Color: [@| Red | |______| [ ] Folder for Sent Messages
=================================================================
|Filter Parameters for Selecting Messages |
=================================================================
| |
| [ ] Not [ ] Start Group [ ] Ignore Case |
| |
| For [@| To: ] [@| Contains ] [] END |
| |
| Search [ ] [] AND |
| |
| [ ] End Group [] OR |
| ___________________________________________________________ |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |^| |
| |_________________________________________________________|V| |
| |
| [ Add ] [Insert] [Modify] [Delete] |
| |
=================================================================
[ SAVE ] [CANCEL]
====================================================================
If you are editing an existing folder, the Folder Name will be filled in,
but the string gadget will be disabled. You will not be able to modify
it.
If you are creating a new folder you must name it with a 1 to 9 character
folder name. This will appear below the folder icon in the folder strip
and in the folder list.
The [SORT KEYS] button is used to call the Set Sort Keys window (see
below) to set the sort keys for the folder.
The folder description can be up to 99 characters, but of course that many
characters will never appear anywhere. Up to 52 characters will appear in
the folder list display under "Description of Folder". This will also
appear in the contextual help line in the window bar preceded by "Folder
for"
The Tab Color is a cycle gadget with the following possible values: Red,
Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Magenta, Brown, or Purple. This provides a
color on the folder tab to help classify the folders according to the
user's preferences. The actual tab color will be displayed to the right
of this cycle gadget.
The checkbox gadget marked "Folder for Sent Messages" is used to indicate
when a folder is for messages that have been sent or ready to be sent
rather than in-coming folders. The PENDING, QUEUED, and SENT folders all
have this box checked.
The special window in the center of the Folder Configuration window is
used to set filter parameters for this folder. A full description of how
this works is given below under "Filter Selection Window". The filtering
parameters are used to distribute in-coming messages to various folders.
For the INBOX, these filters have a special meaning which will reject any
message meeting the filtering criteria. The heading for the filtering
criteria for the INBOX will read "Filtering Parameters for Rejecting
Messages" instead of "Filtering Parameters for Selecting Messages".
Since filtering can only occur with in-bound messages, folders for sent
messages can not have filtering parameters associated with them. For all
folders for "sent" messages, all of the gadgets in the filtering window
will be disabled preventing the entry of any filtering information. This
is true of the PENDING, QUEUED, and SENT folders as well as any folders that
have been added with the "Folder for Sent Messages" box checked.
Finally, you are given the choice of canceling the operation or saving the
folder data in the folder.config file with the [CANCEL] and [SAVE]
buttons.
Filter Selection Window
-----------------------
The filter selection window for setting filter parameters looks like this:
=================================================================
|Filter Parameters for Selecting Messages |
=================================================================
| |
| [ ] Not [ ] Start Group [ ] Ignore Case |
| |
| For [@| To: ] [@| Contains ] [] END |
| |
| Search [ ] [] AND |
| |
| [ ] End Group [] OR |
| ___________________________________________________________ |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |^| |
| |_________________________________________________________|V| |
| |
| [ Add ] [Insert] [Modify] [Delete] |
| |
=================================================================
The gadgets in the top half of the window are used to enter filtering
parameters. The first two checkmark gadgets ([ ] Not, [ ] Start Group)
and the [ ] End Group checkmark gadget at the bottom of the group are
currently disabled. They are designed to be used for advanced selection
criteria that will be added to a future version of AEMail.
The cycle gadget which is prefaced with "For" is used to select the header
that you want to check. This gadget has the following states:
To:
From:
Reply-To:
Subject:
cc:
bcc:
Date:
Msg is Reply
Msg w/Attachments
Msg is Forwarded
Other Message Hdrs (Registered Users only)
Message Body (Registered Users only)
Note: it is unlikely that you would see the bcc: header in an incoming
message even though it is contained in the header list.
To the right of this is a cycle gadget which specifies the condition this
header will be checked for. For the To:, From:, Reply-To: Subject:, cc:,
and bcc: headers, Other Message Hdrs, and Message Body the condition can
be either:
Contains, or
Does Not Contain
For the Date: header it can be one of the following conditions:
Equal
Not Equal
Greater Than
Greater Than / Equal
Less Than
Less Than / Equal
and for Msg is Reply, Msg w/Attachments, Msg is Forwarded it can be:
Is Present
Is Not Present
The argument to be searched against is entered into the string gadget that
is titled "Search". For the To:, From:, Reply-To:, Subject:, cc:, and
Bcc: headers and the "Other Message Hdrs" and "Message Body" you can
enter an argument that has wild cards. The wild cards that are used are
as follows:
? matches any single character.
c* matches zero or more occurances of character c. If an unknown
character is to be matched you can use ?*.
c+ matches one or more occurances of character c (at least one
occurance of c must be present).
\? matches the character ?.
\* matches the character *.
\+ matches the character +.
Any other characters must match exactly (except that case can be ignored -
see below). The match can occur anywhere in the header. The following
are some examples of how the match occurs:
abc matches "abc", "abcdef", or "xxabc"
ab*c matches "ac", "abc", "abbc", or "abbbc", etc. Characters may
be present either before or after the match.
ab+c matches "abc", "abbc", or "abbbc", etc. Characters may be
present either before or after the match. This will not match
"ab+c". You would have to use "ab\+c" for this to occur.
ab?* matches a substring starting with "ab" and ending with "c".
Characters may be present either before or after the match.
ab\*c matches "ab*c" only. However charcters may be either before
or after the match.
WARNING: Please pay particular attention to the characters +, ?, and *.
If any of these characters appear in the information to be matched, you
must use \+, \?, or \* in the argument if you want an exact match to
occur.
If "Other Message Hdrs" is used, you probably would want to use the Header
designation as part of the search argument.
Searching on header data will search the entire string of characters
contained within that header even though that header may span multiple
lines. This means that if an address you want to locate is contained in
the nth line of the To: header, it will be found.
When searching data in the message body, the entire argument must be found
in a single line of the body. If you are searching for a multiple word
phrase which may be broken up onto more than one line, you should specify
multiple arguments with AND separating the arguments.
If you want to ignore the case of the header or message body data when the
comparison is made check the "Ignore Case" item. The "Ignore Case" item
will only ignore the case of the 26 alphabetic characters of the
American/English alphabet. It will not ignore the case of special
characters used in forign alphabets although these special characters can
be used in the Search criteria.
The Search argument for the Date: header can be of one or two formats.
The first format is either:
dd mmm yyyy or
mmm dd yyyy
mmm is the three character month abbreviation: jan, feb, mar, apr, may,
jun, jul, aug, sep, oct, nov, or dec. You can enter either upper case,
lower case, or mixed case month abbreviations (i.e., jan, JAN, or Jan are
all o.k.).
dd is the numeric digits for the day of the month and yyyy must be the
full 4 digit year. If you want any day of a particular month to be used,
leave off the dd parameter. Likewise, using just the 4 digit yyyy will
accept any month and day for that year.
The absence of any of the elements of the date (mmm, dd, or yyyy) will
indicate that that particular element should not be checked. As an
example: if you want only messages for the month of September to be
placed in a particular folder you would enter:
sep
by itself and the condition would be entered as "equal to". This would
capture messages with a Date header of September of any year (Sep 1997,
Sep 1998, etc.). If you were interested in messages with a Date: header
of September of 1997 you would enter:
sep 1997
An alternate method of entering the date would be:
mm/dd/yy or
mm/dd/yyyy or
mm-dd-yy or
mm-dd-yyyy
mm is a one or 2 digit month (1 or 01 to 12), dd is a one or 2 digit day
(1 or 01 to 31) and yy is either a 2 digit or 4 digit year. 0 is invalid
for any of the mm, dd, or yy. If you want to indicate the absence of any
of the elements use xx or XX. As an example, to capture messages with a
Date header equal to any day within September 1997 you could enter:
09/xx/97
Before the search for a Date: header is made, the date in the Date: header
is converted to an internal format. The search argument is also converted
to this same internal format so that the match can be performed correctly.
The Search argument for Msg is Reply, Msg w/Attachments, and Msg is Forwarded
is ignored.
The "END", "AND, and "OR" gadgets are used to indicate that this is the
last comparison argument (END), or that there is another comparison
argument following this with either an AND or OR relationship.
Some examples of specific types of filtering parameters are given below.
The list view in the lower half of the window lists the comparison arguments.
Each comparison arguement is listed on two lines. The first line shows
the header to be checked and the comparison criteria in the following
format:
FOR header-name comparison-criteria (ignoring case)
(ignoring case) will not be present if "Ignore Case" is not checked.
The second line will show the search argument surrounded by quote (")
marks. It will be followed by AND or OR if either of these were
specified. If "Ignore Case" was checked, the Search argument will be in
all lower case characters no matter how it was entered in the Search:
string gadget.
To add a selection criteria to the list, enter the appropriate items in
the gadgets at the top of the window and click on the [ Add ] gadget at
the bottom of the window. That item will be transfered to the listview at
the end of the current list of items.
To modify or delete an item, click on the item in the listview. Clicking
on either the first or second line of any item in the list is acceptable.
The information from the listview will be transferred to the gadgets at
the top of the window. Then make the modifications you want (for modify)
and click on either the [Modify] or [Delete] gadgets at the bottom of the
window.
To insert an item into the list, enter the data in the gadgets at the top
of the window as you did to add an item. This time click on the [Insert]
gadget. The words "Click on item you want to insert IN FRONT OF!" will
appear in yellow at the top of the listview. Now, as instructed, click on
the item you want the selection criteria to be inserted in front of. This
allows you to insert at the head of the list by clicking on the first item
in the list. Clicking on either the first or second line of any item in
the list is acceptable.
All of the selection criteria except for the last item must have an AND or
OR relationship to the criteria following. You can have relationships as
follows:
a OR b OR c
indicating that if any of the conditions (a, b, or c) are met that message
will be selected for that particular folder, or
a AND b AND c
indicating that all of the conditions must be met for that message to be
selected.
Be careful of mixing AND and OR conditions.
a OR b AND c
will work but
b AND c OR a
will not work correctly.
Conditions are checked serially.
In the first example above, if condition a is not met, then b will be
checked. If b is not met no selection is made; however, if condition c is
also met, the message will be selected. If condition a is met the
message will be selected and the b or c conditions are not checked.
In the second example, if condition b is not met, no further check will be
made so that even if a is met, the message will not be selected. In this
example condition a will never be checked.
Advanced selection is designed to get around this problem. HOWEVER, THIS
ADVANCED SELECTION HAS NOT BEEN IMPLIMENTED AS YET! AND WHEN IT IS
IMPLIMENTED, IT WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE TO REGISTERED USERS.
With advanced selection you will be able to group items in this manner:
(a AND b) OR (c AND d)
conditions a and b are a group and conditions c and d are a group. The
checkmarked items "Start Group" and "End Group" are used to specify the
first item in a group and the last item in a group. You will also be able
to embed groups within groups such as
(a AND b AND (c OR d))
and use a not condition for a group such as
(a AND b AND NOT (c OR d))
or simply
NOT (a OR b)
Filtering Restrictions. Currently the following restriction is placed on
filtering. This restriction will be lifted in a later release of AEMail.
Advanced selection (grouping selection criteria as described above), can
not be done.
Other selection criteria (such as size of message) may be added later.
Examples of using Message Filtering
===================================
How would you use message filtering? Here is a practical example of how I
use it. As you all know, when you implement a new version of AEMail and
send your first message a special notification message is sent to me
indicating the version you are using. This notification message is stored
in a special folder for notification messages that I have received. All
of the notification messages indicate what they are in the Subject:
header. However, over the development of AEMail, the format of this
subject header has changed. Before version 1.10 the Subject header looked
like this:
Subject: Registration of AEMAIL (Amiga EMAIL), Version x.xx
From version 1.10 through version 1.15, the Subject header looked like
this:
Subject: AEMAIL Version x.xx Registration
After version 1.15 the Subject header looked like this:
Subject: AEMAIL Version x.xx Notification
Since I am still receiving notification messages back to version 1.03, I
wanted all such notification messages to go into the same folder. The
selection criteria for this folder was set to the following:
For Subject: Contains (ignoring case)
"aemail version ???? registration" OR
For Subject: Contains (ignoring case)
"aemail version ?* notification" OR
For Subject: Contains (ignoring case)
"registration of aemail (amiga email), version"
Notice how I handled the variable of the version number in each case. In
the first criteria I used a fixed replacement wild card (????) to specify
the version number. In the second criteria I used a variable replacement
wild card (?*) and in the third criteria I did not use any wild card for
the version number replacement. That is because the version number occurs
at the end of the line.
Another use of filtering can be used if you are subscribed to a listserve.
The example I will show you is for the Miami list serve. Miami actually
has two listserves: "miami-talk-ml@nordicglobal.com" and
"miami-announce-ml@nordicglobal.com". The To: address usually reflects
which listserve the message is coming from but the Reply-To: address
always reflects "miami-talk-ml@nordicglobal.com".
If you want the folder to include all messages from both listserves you
can set the following criteria for the that folder:
For Reply-To: Contains (ignoring case)
"miami-talk-ml@nordicglobal.com"
If you set up two folders, one for the "talk" message list and the other
for the "announcement" message list you could set the "talk" folder to
reflect the following criteria:
For To: Contains (ignoring case)
"miami-talk-ml@nordicglobal.com"
and the "announcement" folder as follows:
For To: Contains (ignoring case)
"miami-announce-ml@nordicglobal.com"
If messages meet the selection criteria for two different folders, the
first folder in the folder list which meets the criteria will be selected.
So, if you were to have two folders set up as described above (one for
"talk" messages and one for "announcement" messages) and you used the
Reply-To: address instead of the To: address as the selection criteria for
the "talk" folder and if the "talk" folder was first, all of the
"announcement" messages would go in the "talk" folder. However, if the
"announcement" folder was first, then the messages would be distributed to
the correct folders.
You will find that the clipboard capability is very helpful in setting up
your filtering conditions. If there is a particular header that you want
selected, display the message that has that header, and then double click
on the header in the message. Edit out the header designator (To:, From:,
Subject:, etc) and save it to the clipboard. You can save various items
changing the clipboard unit for each item. Then when you are in the
Folder Configuration screen, select the Search string gadget and use Right
Amiga U to call up the clipboard list. Then double click on the item you
want to select on. It will then be automatically pasted into the Search
string gadget.
As was stated in the earlier description of the Filter Selection Window,
the window for the INBOX is used to EXCLUDE messages meeting the INBOX
criteria from entering your system. Use this with CARE! If you exclude a
message and you are deleting messages from you POP server, YOU WILL NEVER
SEE THAT MESSAGE!
Set Sort Keys Window
--------------------
The Set Sort Keys window will be displayed over the entire screen below
the top title line when either the "Set Sort Key..." menu item from the
Folders menu is selected or the [Sort Keys] button is clicked in the
Folder Configuration window.
The Set Sort Keys window looks like the following:
=====================================================================
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Priorities: ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Un-Read Messages: FIRST [ ] Messages with Attachments: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|0| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Replied Messages: FIRST [ ] Forwarded Messages: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|0| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Latest Date: FIRST [ ] Largest Messages: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|0| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Group by FROM at Priority [@|0| Group by Subject at Priority [@|0|
[ ] Order Received
--> at Priority [@|0| [ ] Apply to all Folders
[ ] Latest Received
[LAST SAVED] [LAST USED] [ USE ] [ SAVE ] [ CANCEL ]
=====================================================================
Messages in each of the folders can be displayed in various sort orders
and each folder can have a different sort order. Up to seven levels of
sort priority can be given. The various sorting criteria are shown on
this window and a particular sort order can be given for any sort
priority. The sorting criteria for any particular priority is selected by
the priority cycle gadget under or opposite each criteria. A priority of
0 is used to indicate that this criteria is not used in the sort.
To help visualize which criteria applies to which priority a list at the
top of the window shows the current position of any particular sort
criteria in the priority list. With the exception of priority 0 (no
priority), no two criteria can have the same priority. If this happens,
**DUP** will appear for that priority in the priority list.
If you want the sorting criteria to be used for all folders check the
"Apply to all Folders" box.
At the bottom of the window is the [LAST SAVED], [LAST USED], [USE],
[SAVE], and [CANCEL] buttons. If you want the sorting to apply only to
this AEMail session only select [USE]. If you want to make the sorting
permanent, select [SAVE]. [CANCEL], of course, will abort the operation
without setting any sort keys. The [LAST SAVED] button is used to restore
the sort keys to those last saved and the [LAST USED] is used to restore
the last used sort keys.
If the this window was called from the Folder Configuration Window,
selecting [USE], [SAVE], or [CANCEL] will return you to the Folder
Configuration Window.
The [LAST SAVED] and [LAST USED] buttons will simply restore the
appropriate sorting order and will not terminate the Folder Configuration
Window. You will have to use the [USE], [SAVE], or [CANCEL] buttons to do
that.
Examples of Setting Sort Keys
=============================
You may want your messages displayed in different orders in the Message
List Window. This is the purpose of the "Set Sort Keys Window."
Let's assume that you want your messages displayed with unread messages
first. Within both the unread and previously read sections you want the
messages sorted by the latest date first. To do this click on the Un-Read
Messages: FIRST box and set the priority underneath Un-Read Messages to
1. Then click on the Latest Date: FIRST box and set it's Priority to 2.
Notice that as you change the Priority cycle gadget for Latest Date from 0
to 1 to 2, you will see *DUP* appear in priority 1 as the Date moves
through the priority 1 position.
The final sort window for the above sorting priority will look like this:
=====================================================================
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Priorities: UNREAD DATE ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Un-Read Messages: FIRST [X] Messages with Attachments: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|1| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Replied Messages: FIRST [ ] Forwarded Messages: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|0| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Latest Date: FIRST [X] Largest Messages: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|2| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Group by FROM at Priority [@|0| Group by Subject at Priority [@|0|
[ ] Order Received
--> at Priority [@|0| [ ] Apply to all Folders
[ ] Latest Received
[LAST SAVED] [LAST USED] [ USE ] [ SAVE ] [ CANCEL ]
=====================================================================
When you are satisfied with the order click on [SAVE] to save this order
for this folder only. If you want to use this order for all your folders
click on "Apply to all Folders" before clicking on [SAVE].
Another example might have the messages displayed with unread messages
first, followed by messages grouped by SUBJECT, and within the SUBJECT
grouping, by the latest date received. This, in effect, creates a message
threading condition with like subjects grouped together.
To create this sort condition, click on the Un-Read Messages: FIRST box
and set it's priority to 1. Then set the "Group by Subject at Priority"
cycle gadget to 2. Finally click on the Latest Date: FIRST box and set
it's priority to 3. The final sort window for this grouping would be:
=====================================================================
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Priorities: UNREAD SUBJECT DATE ------- ------- ------- -------
Un-Read Messages: FIRST [X] Messages with Attachments: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|1| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Replied Messages: FIRST [ ] Forwarded Messages: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|0| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Latest Date: FIRST [X] Largest Messages: FIRST [ ]
Priority [@|3| LAST [ ] Priority [@|0| LAST [ ]
Group by FROM at Priority [@|0| Group by Subject at Priority [@|2|
[ ] Order Received
--> at Priority [@|0| [ ] Apply to all Folders
[ ] Latest Received
[LAST SAVED] [LAST USED] [ USE ] [ SAVE ] [ CANCEL ]
=====================================================================
If you want the messages sorted with the earlier messages first within the
subject grouping, you would click on Latest Date: LAST rather than Latest
Date: FIRST.
Since the date sort is controlled by the local date and time that the
message was SENT, you might want to use the Order Received or Latest
Received instead of Latest Date. Order Received will list the messages
with the oldest received first, while Latest Received will list the
messages with the newest received first.
You, of course, can set different sort orders for different folders. In
this case select the folder you want to change the sort order on and DON'T
click on the "Apply to all Folders" checkmark gadget.
Address Book Window
-------------------
The Address Book window will be displayed in the lower portion of the
screen whenever you double click on the ADDRESS BOOK command icon or on
the [Call Address Book] button in the COMPOSE MESSAGE window (see below
under the COMPOSE MESSAGE window description).
If you have a non-interlaced screen (640 x 200), the display will cover
the folder strip to allow more room for the Address Book display. With an
interlaced screen (640 x 400) you will be able to see the folder strip.
The Address Book window looks like the following:
=====================================================================
Address Book
=====================================================================
Nick Name: [ ] Address: [ ] Select [@| To: |
Real Name: [ ] Group [ ] Send Header Only [ ]
Nickname Real Name UserID (Address) [x] Expand
---------------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx DISTRIBUTION LIST WITH n ENTRIES | |
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[ ADD ] [MODIFY] [DELETE] [SELECT] [ EXIT ]
=====================================================================
This window can be used to create, modify, or delete Address Book entries.
It can also be used to select a Nickname to be used as a recipient of a
message when composing messages.
Several of the Command icons remain active when you are displaying the
Address Book window, although there meaning maybe slightly changed. These
are the DISPLAY NEXT MESSAGE icon, the DISPLAY PREVIOUS MESSAGE icon, the
DISPLAY NEXT FOLDER icon, the DISPLAY PREVIOUS FOLDER icon, the DISPLAY
CURRENT FOLDER icon, the PRINT icon, the DELETE icon, and the COMPOSE
MESSAGE icon.
The three fields of an address book entry are: a one to eight character
Nickname, an individual's real name (up to 99 characters), and the address
of the individual (UserId and Domain in the form userid@domain) which is
limited to 70 characters.
Group lists can also be created which distributes a message to a number of
different individuals. The group is identified with the heading
"DISTRIBUTION LIST WITH nnn ENTRIES" in the top most UserID field. The
nnn indicates the number of entries in the group. The UserID's for the
members of that list are shown in alphabetic order below that heading. For
items in the distribution list, real UserIDs or Nicknames can be used. An
item in the distribution list can even be another distribution list
identified by the Nickname for that group. By clicking on the Checkmarked
item "Group", you can identify the entry as a group item.
The checkmarked item identified as "Send Header Only" is only active when
"Group" is checked. If a checkmark is in the "Send Header Only" box, only
the group name will be sent in the To: field when a message is sent to
the group; otherwise, every UserId in the group will be listed in the To:
header. It is a good idea to check this item if you have large groups or
if you don't want the other members of the group to know all the members
of the group.
If a Nickname rather than a UserID is used in the group list Address
field, then, if a modification is made to the UserID of the Nickname, you
do not have to change the item in the Group list. The modification will
be automatic when the group rather than the individual is selected.
When composing a message, a Nickname can be used to identify the recipient
of a message. All Nicknames are expanded to Real Name and UserID when
mail is sent.
For registered users of AEMail, the checkmarked box to the far right of
the list heading labeled "Expand" is used to shrink or expand the group
entries in the list. When this box is not checked, only the group heading
is displayed without the entries in the group showing. When it is
checked, the groups are expanded to show all the members of the group.
When first displayed, this item will be checked. However, the system
remembers the state of this checkmark so if you should shrink the groups,
the next time you select the Address Book only the group headings will be
displayed.
For un-registered users, this item will be checked and ghosted. You will
not be able to shrink the groups.
Address Book entries are sorted by Nickname and group entries are
interspersed with single entries. Also Real Names are presented as first
name followed by last name rather than last name, first name.
This is a scrolling list. If there are too many entries to fit in the
window, you can scroll the list by using the scroll bar, clicking on the
up or down arrows below the scroll bar, or by using the up or down cursor
keys.
Additionally the following keys can be used to move the list as follows:
"Home" or "Cursor Left" moves the listview to the top.
"End" or "Cursor Right" moves the listview to the botton.
"PgUp" or "Shift Cursor Up" pages the listview one "page" up. The
top line of the previous page will be displayed as the bottom
line of the new page.
"PgDn" or "Shift Cursor Down" pages the list view one "page" down.
The bottom line of the previous page will be displayed as the
top line of the new page.
The cursor up/down keys on the keypad will have the same action as
the normal cursor keys with the exception of the shift
feature.
WARNING: if you have selected one of the string gadgets for entering
data, the keys listed above will not work for scrolling the list. You
will have to click outside of the string gadget to re-activate scrolling
with the cursor keys.
For adding entries to the Address Book, the entries at the top of the
window are used to place data in the various fields of the Address Book
entry. If a message was selected when the address book was called, the
Real Name:, if present, and Address: fields are filled in with
information from the Reply-To: header of the message. If the Reply-To:
header is not present, the From: header will be used. You can force the
From: header to be used by holding down the shift key when you click on
the Address Book icon.
Please keep in mind that Reply-To: addresses normally do not have real
names associated with them, but From: addresses many times do. If you
want the real name you may have to hold down the shift key when you click
on the Address Book icon.
If you access the Address Book from the Compose message window during a
"mailto:" call to AEMail, the userid from the "mailto:" will be placed in
the address field. This allows you to assign a Nickname and Real Name to
this address and save it in your Address Book.
If you click on one of the entries in the list view, that entry will be
transferred to the Nickname:, Real Name:, and Address: fields at the top
of the window. If you click on a group entry line which has the Group
Nickname and "DISTRIBUTION LIST ..." in the address portion, only the
Nickname: and the Group name (in the Real Name field) will be transferred
leaving any previous address in the Address field. The "Group" box will
also be checked. This facilitates adding items to a Group list.
When adding an entry to the address book, you must always enter a Nickname
and Address. Real Name is optional, but recommended.
To add a group entry, the "Group" box must be checked. Groups need a
Nickname that is unique (not the same as that used for an individual) and
should have a group description entered in the Real Name: string gadget.
Group entries are entered one at a time. The maximum number of entries
that can be added to a group is 3000. When a message is sent to a group,
the message will be sent to a maximum of 50 recipients at a time. This
takes care of problems when there is a limit on the number of recipient
addresses that a SMTP server can handle at a time.
After correctly filling in the top portion of the window, click on the
[ADD] button to add the item to the list. Except for group Nicknames,
there can't be a duplicate Nickname when adding to the list. An already
existing group Nickname will cause the entry to be added to that groups
distribution list.
To modify an entry, the Nickname for the entry must already exist in the
list. You can not modify Nicknames. If you need to do this, delete the
old entry and add a new one. For individual entries, you can modify
either the Real Name: or Address: fields. For group entries you can
only modify the Real Name: field. If you need to modify an address in
the distribution list, delete the old one and add a new one.
One of the reasons that Nicknames are preferred in distribution lists is
that, if you need to modify a user's address, you can do so by simply
modifying the Individual's entry. The address in the group is then
automatically updated by reference.
Selecting one of the entries in the address list will move the data from
that entry to the fields at the top of the window. Make the modifications
you want then click on the [MODIFY] button to make the modifications.
To delete an entry, select it in the list and then click on the [DELETE]
button. You can also use the DELETE icon to do this.
The [SELECT] button is used only for one special purpose. If the full
Address Book was called from a "mailto:" call to AEMail, this button is
used to select an address from the Address Book and place it in the
appropriate recipients address line while composing the message. The
Address Book display is slightly different if it was not a "mailto:" call
(see below).
When you click on the [SELECT] button, the Address Book display is closed
and the COMPOSE MESSAGE window is re-activated. To determine which header
field is to receive the address, the "Select" cycle gadget at the top of
the window is used. There are three items for this gadget: To:, cc:, and
bcc:. Determine which field should receive the address and then click on
the [SELECT] button. The Nickname for the selected item is transferred to
the appropriate field in the compose window.
If the Address Book was not called from the Compose window, the "Select"
cycle gadget will be ghosted and can not be used. If the Address Book was
called from the COMPOSE MESSAGE window, clicking on one of the address
fields before calling the Address Book will automatically select the
appropriate field in the "Select" cycle gadget.
You can avoid using the [SELECT] button for returning to the COMPOSE
MESSAGE Window by double clicking on an item in the Address Book list
view.
If the Address Book was not called from the COMPOSE MESSAGE window,
instead of double clicking, the COMPOSE MESSAGE command icon can be
selected when in the Address Book window. When this is done, the COMPOSE
MESSAGE window is activated for composing a new message with the selected
address field always being the To: field. The selected address in the
Address Book will be moved to the To: field.
The [EXIT] button is used to exit from the Address Book window without
performing any address selection for a composed message. You will need to
[EXIT] from the Address Book if you want to quit AEMail.
If the Address Book was called while displaying a message, clicking on the
DISPLAY NEXT MESSAGE or the DISPLAY PREVIOUS MESSAGE icons will
automatically exit from the Address Book and display either the next or
previous message in the currently displayed message list.
If you click on the DISPLAY NEXT FOLDER, the DISPLAY PREVIOUS FOLDER, or
DISPLAY CURRENT FOLDER icons, the Address Book will be closed and the
appropriate message list for the selected folder will be displayed.
If the PRINT icon is selected while you are displaying the Address Book,
you will get a printout of your complete address book. All individual
entries will be displayed first followed by group entries. Unless a group
is too large to fit on one page, an attempt will be made to ensure that a
group will be printed in it's entirety on a page.
When the Address Book is be called from the COMPOSE MESSAGE window and the
COMPOSE MESSAGE window was not activated during a "mailto:" call to
AEMail, the Address Book display will be slightly different. It will look
like this:
=====================================================================
|+| Address Book For Compose
=====================================================================
Nickname Real Name UserID (Address) [ ] Expand
---------------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx DISTRIBUTION LIST WITH n ENTRIES | |
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx DISTRIBUTION LIST WITH n ENTRIES | |
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx| |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Click on Address Book entry to transfer to [@| To: | field [ CLOSE ]
=====================================================================
This is an abreviated window which does not have the string gadgets for
creating or deleting Address Book entries. It is designed for selecting
addresses to transfer to the COMPOSE MESSAGE window only. When you click
on an address in the window it will be transferred to the appropriate
field in the COMPOSE MESSAGE window as determined by the cycle gadget at
the bottom of the window. There are three items for this gadget: To:,
cc:, and bcc: (the same as the "Select" cycle gadget in the full Address
Book window. Select which field should receive the address and click on
the address in the Address Book. You can select multiple addresses; the
window will not close until you click on either the Close gadget at the
top of the Address Book window or the [CLOSE] button at the bottom of the
window. The Address Book window will also close if you double click on a
name (It will be transferred and then the window will close).
You can also select which field you want to receive the address by
clicking into the appropriate field in the COMPOSE MESSAGE window. You
will see the cycle gadget switch to that field and the cursor will
disappear from the field since the Address Book window will again become
activated.
When the Address Book is called from the COMPOSE MESSAGE window it will be
in the un-expanded state. If you are a registered user, you can expand
the group names by clicking on the "Expand" checkmark gadget to the right
of the listview headings.
You can also have the full Address Book display called from the COMPOSE
MESSAGE window by holding down the shift key when you click on the [Call
Address Book] gadget.
NOTE: When AEMail is loaded it will automatically create an address book
entry for the Nickname AEMail with an address for my email address:
jzachar@calweb.com. You can use this entry whenever you wish to report a
bug or send a message concerning AEMail to me.
Message Display Window
----------------------
The Message Display window will be displayed in the lower portion of the
screen whenever you double click on a message in the message list window.
If you are already displaying a message, clicking on the NEXT or PREVIOUS
command icons will display either the NEXT or PREVIOUS message.
If you have a non-interlaced screen (640 x 200), the display will cover
the folder strip to allow more room for the message display. With an
interlaced screen (640 x 400) you will be able to see and use the folder
strip.
To re-display the Message List, click on the "folder" icon on the Command
Icon Tool Bar or one of the folders in the folder icon bar (if visable).
The message is divided into two sections: message header information,
which is always present, and a scrolling list that displays the message.
Header information will also be displayed in the scrolling message
listview, but only those header lines that you want displayed.
The message header portion of the screen is set up as follows:
From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: DOW, MMM DD YYYY HH:MM:SS
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [ATTACHMENT]
Subject: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The From: and To: fields will show the Real Name (if present) from the
appropriate header. If the Real Name is not present in the header, then
the UserID will be used instead. If a Nickname is being used for a
message being sent, then the Nickname will appear.
The Subject field will have the RE; or (FWD) preappended to the field for
messages that are REPLIES and/or are FORWARDED.
If the message has attachments, either MIME or UUENCODED, the [ATTACHMENT]
button will appear at the right of the To: line. If no attachments are
present this button will say [SAVE TEXT] instead. Clicking on the [SAVE
TEXT] button will bring up the save text requester along side the [SAVE
TEXT] button which is described below under "Save Text Requester".
The complete message will be displayed in the message listview including
any text type attachments. If the attachments are UUENCODED attachments
or are non-text type attachments, they will not be shown, but can be
retrieved by clicking on the [ATTACHMENT] button. This will bring up an
attachment requestor which is described below under "Attachment
Requester".
Messages that are encoded with "Quoted-Printable" notation as well as text
messages encoded with encoded binary (BASE64) will be correctly displayed
as well. Since these types of messages will be saved with their encoding
intact when saved using the SAVE MESSAGE icon or the "Export..." item
under the Messages menu, the [SAVE TEXT] gadget has been provided to save
message text correctly decoded for messages without attachments. For
messages with attachments, the first entry in the Attachment list is the
body of messages itself.
The message display is a scrolling list. There are four methods that you
can use to scroll the message:
(1) Use the scroll bar to the right of the message.
(2) Use the scroll arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar.
(3) Use the up and down cursor keys. You can also move the listview
with other keys as follows:
"Home" or "Cursor Left" moves the listview to the top.
"End" or "Cursor Right" moves the listview to the botton.
"PgUp" or "Shift Cursor Up" pages the listview one "page" up. The
top line of the previous page will be displayed as the bottom
line of the new page.
"PgDn" or "Shift Cursor Down" pages the list view one "page" down.
The bottom line of the previous page will be displayed as the
top line of the new page.
The cursor up/down keys on the keypad will have the same action as
the normal cursor keys with the exception of the shift
feature.
(4) click the mouse on the list display and while holding down
the left mouse button, move above or below the display.
When you lift up on the mouse button after the list
starts to scroll, you can continue to scroll by moving
the mouse up or down. Clicking into the display will
stop the scrolling action.
While messages are loaded into the listview, you will not see them until
they are completely read. A busy pointer will be displayed until the
listview is completely built.
For un-registered users, the message display will be quite slow to load
although you will be able to see the message as it is being loaded into
the display. If you want a faster display load, register AEMail!
================
You can also edit and save lines from the message to the clipboard by
double clicking on any line in the message. This will open a window at
the top of the screen for editing and saving the line to the clipboard.
See the section "Using the Clipboard with AEMail" under V. USING AEMAIL.
Save Text Requester
===================
When you click on the [SAVE TEXT] button on the Message Display Window, a
a tiered set of five buttons will appear to the left of the [SAVE TEXT]
gadget that look like this:
[ VIEW ]
[ SAVE FILE ]
[ SAVE CLIP ][SAVE TEXT]
[ CLIP UNIT ]
[ CANCEL ]
Clicking on one of the buttons will perform the appropriate action as
described below. With the exception of [CLIP UNIT], the buttons will
disappear at the completion of the action.
[VIEW]
This will display the message text with the program you selected
in the "mailcap" file for the "text" MIME type. If a program was
not pre-defined for this MIME type, this button will be disabled
(ghosted). This option is given so that you can select special
message display programs to display the message and perhaps
perform special operations of the message. As an example, you
could specify an editor which would allow you to make
modifications to the message and then save portions of it to a
file or clipboard.
[SAVE FILE]
A file requester will pop up which allows you to select
a file to save your message to. If the message used a coding
scheme such as quoted-printable or encoded binary it will be
properly converted before it is saved. The default directory
designated to receive this text file is RAM:; however, you can
change this with the file requester or set a different
default with the Default Path Parameters display on the
Configuration screen.
[SAVE CLIP]
If the text has an encoding type of 7-bit, 8-bit, or
quoted-printable, you can save it to the current clipboard unit.
If the text is encoded binary, this button will be ghosted.
[CLIP UNIT]
This will bring up the requester that allows you to change the
current clipboard unit (see "Using the Clipboard with AEMail"
under V. USING AEMAIL).
[CANCEL]
This gadget is provided to exit from the request without
performing any action.
Attachment Requester
====================
When you click on the [ATTACHMENTS] button on the Message Display Window,
an Attachment Requester will be displayed. It looks like this:
|============================================================|
|o| Attachment List |
|============================================================|
| MimeType/SubType File Name |
| ========================================================== |
| | 1 SHOWN text/plain | | |
| | Description: (None) | | |
| | 2 VIEWABLE image/gif castle.gif | | |
| | Description: Picture of a castle | | |
| | 3 SAVE ONLY application/octet-stream aemail.lha | | |
| | Description: The AEMail archive | | |
| ========================================================== |
| |
| [ VIEW ] [VIEW & SAVE] [ SAVE FILE ] |
| |
| [ SAVE CLIP ] [ CLIP UNIT ] [ EXIT ] |
|____________________________________________________________|
This requester is initially placed at the top center of the window
partially obscuring the command and folder icons and the top portion of
the message. You can drag the requester around the window to expose other
items of the display. You can also use the scroll bar on the message
display listview to show different parts of the message; however, none of
the commands on the command or folder bar or the menu bar can be activated
until after you click on the [EXIT] button in the Attachment Requester.
The SHOWN designation is used for any attachment that is displayed in the
message window. This is generally any attachment that has a MIME type of
text or message. However, standard Mailcap entries have been included in
the Mailcap file to also display and save these attachments from the
Attachment window.
Any message with attachments will generally have one section (the initial
message) which is displayable text and will be shown as an attachment with
the SHOWN designation. You will also be able to VIEW all SHOWN parts of
the message separably. You will always be able to save any item in the
list in it's un-encoded form.
UUENCODED attachments will have the designation UUENCODED displayed in the
MIME types/subtypes field.
Any attachments that do not have a MIME type of text or message will have
either a VIEWABLE or SAVE ONLY designation. The VIEWABLE designation is
used for those MIME types/subtypes which have a program designated in the
mailcap file for displaying this MIME type/subtype. If no program is
designated for this MIME type/subtype the SAVE ONLY designator will appear
on the attachment line and the [VIEW] and the [VIEW & SAVE] buttons will
be disabled.
UUENCODED attachments are always SAVE ONLY attachments.
To select an attachment to view, view & save, or to save only, select the
appropriate attachment line in the list view gadget. You can select the
main description line (with number, mime type, and filename) or the second
line with the "Description:" heading.
After selecting the attachment, the buttons below the listview will
perform the following actions:
[VIEW]
This will display the attachment with the program you
selected in the "mailcap" file for this MIME type/subtype.
If a program was not pre-defined for this MIME type/subtype
this button will be disabled and you will not be able to
display the attachment. You will also see SAVE ONLY rather
than VIEWABLE on the description of this attachment.
[VIEW & SAVE]
A file requester will pop up which allows you to select
a file to save your attachment to. The default directory
designated to receive attachments is RAM:; however, you can
change this with the file requester or set a different
default with the Default Path Parameters display on the
Configuration screen.
If a file name was provided in either the Content-Type: or
Content-Disposition: headers, the file name will be shown
on the attachment description and will be pre-set as the
filename in the file requester. You can, of course, change
this name if you wish.
After the file is saved, the attachment will be displayed
with the program you selected in the "mailcap" file.
If a program was not pre-defined for this MIME type/subtype
this button will be disabled and you will not be able to
display the attachment. You will also see SAVE ONLY rather
than VIEWABLE on the description of this attachment.
[SAVE FILE]
A file requester will pop up which allows you to select
a file to save your attachment to. The default directory
designated to receive attachments is RAM:; however, you can
change this with the file requester or set a different
default with the Default Path Parameters display on the
Configuration screen.
If a file name was provided in either the Content-Type: or
Content-Disposition: headers or with the UUENCODED "begin"
line, the file name will be shown on the attachment
description and will be pre-set as the default filename
in the file requester. You can, of course, change this
name if you wish.
You will always be able to save any attachment even if it
is SHOWN and a filename is not specified.
[SAVE CLIP]
If the attachment has an encoding type of 7-bit, 8-bit, or
quoted-printable, you can save the attachment to the current
clipboard unit. If the attachment is not a text type attachment
(encoded binary), this button will be ghosted.
[CLIP UNIT]
This will bring up the requester that allows you to change the
current clipboard unit (see "Using the Clipboard with AEMail"
under V. USING AEMAIL).
[EXIT]
After performing all the operations you wish for any
particular attachment, click on this button to remove
the Attachment Requester. This requester also has a
CLOSE gadget which you can also use to exit from the
requester.
Compose Message Window
----------------------
The Compose Message window is brought up whenever you click on the COMPOSE
MESSAGE command icon or select the Compose..., Reply..., or Forward...
sub-menus under the Messages menu. If a message is selected when you
click on the COMPOSE MESSAGE command icon it will act as a "Reply to this
message" action.
The Compose Message window will cover the entire screen. You must proceed
sequentional through the actions or cancel to abort the compose operation.
The Compose Message window looks like this:
=====================================================================
Compose a Message (Signature: [full path of signature file active])
=====================================================================
To: [ ][CLR] [Call Address Book ]
cc: [ ][CLR]
bcc: [ ][CLR]
Reply To: [ ][CLR] [ Use Default ]
Subject: [ ][CLR]
[] New Message [] 7-Bit
[] Reply to Message [] 8-bit
[] Forward Message [] quoted-printable
[] encoded binary
[ ] Quote Original Message Text Quote Prefix[> ]
Quote Header: [ ]
[ ] Add Signature Block [Select Signature] [ Edit Signature]
[Compose/Edit Message] [ Add Headers ] [Add Attachments]
[Send Message Now] [Queue Message] [Save In Pending] [Cancel Message]
======================================================================
The title bar on the Compose Message window will contain the full path
name to the current, in use signature file.
When the Compose Message window first appears and if the message is a
replied message, the following requester will appear if the replied
message had To: recipients other than yourself:
|=========================================================|
| Multiple Recipients |
|---------------------------------------------------------|
| The message you are replying to |
| has other To: recipients. |
| Do you want to send the reply |
| |
| [o] to only the sender of the original message? |
| [ ] to all To: recipients of the original message? |
| [ ] cc: to all To: recipients of the original message? |
| [ ] bcc: to all To: recipients of the original message? |
| |
| [ Continue ] |
| |
|=========================================================|
With this requester you can send the message you are composing to none of
the other recipients, directly to all the other recipients (in the To:
line), as a cc to all the recipients, or as a bcc to all the other
recipients.
If there is a single recipient to the message and that recipient is the
same as either your From: or Reply-To: address, you will not see the
requester. Also, when the list of recipients is transferred to the
appropriate address line in the Compose window, any address that is the
same as your From: or Reply-To: address will be stripped. If you want
to send the message also to the From: or Reply-To: address you will have
to add the address yourself.
When you have selected the action you want, hit [Continue] and the list of
To: recipients will be transferred to the appropriate string gadget in
the Compose Message window.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATION: If the message you are replying to was received by
a version of AEMail prior to 1.42, you will not be able to transfer
recipients that extend beyond one line. You can solve this problem,
however, by saving the message you want to reply to to a file (using the
export function) and then reading it back into version 1.43 of AEMail.
To read it back in using the "From Local File.." menu item under the
"Retrieve Msgs" menu.
One point of warning. If the recipient of the original message was the
name of a list rather than the name of an individual, you will also see
this requester. Unfortunately, there is no way to know that the recipient
name is a list name rather than an individual name. In this event, you
should always select "to only the sender of the original message" since
the list name is probably not a valid recipient.
If there were cc:'s to the original message, you may also see the
following similar requester for sending to the cc: recipients:
|=========================================================|
| Multiple Recipients |
|---------------------------------------------------------|
| The message you are replying to |
| has one or more cc: recipients. |
| Do you want to send the reply |
| |
| [o] to only the sender of the original message? |
| [ ] to all cc: recipients of the original message? |
| [ ] cc: to all cc: recipients of the original message? |
| [ ] bcc: to all cc: recipients of the original message? |
| |
| [ Continue ] |
| |
|=========================================================|
Again, after you have selected the action you want, hit [Continue] and the
list of cc: recipients will be transferred to the appropriate string gadget
in the Compose Message window.
If the message is a replied message, the To: string gadget will also be
filled in with the Reply-To: address from the message you are replying to
or, if that is not present, the From: real name and user ID of the
message you are replying to. This is in addition to any action caused by
the previously mentioned requesters.
You can force the From: address to be used by holding down the shift key
when clicking on the "compose" icon or selecting the menu sub-item "Use
From..." on the Reply menu item of the Messages menu.
Also, if the message is the result of a "mailto:" call, the To: string
gadget will be filled in with the userid passed by the "mailto:" call.
If the message is a replied or forwarded message, the Subject: string
gadget will be automatically filled in with the subject from the replied
or forwarded message. RE: or (fwd) will also automatically appear in
front of the subject.
You may enter names, either Nicknames or Real Names and/or UserIDs, for
any of the To:, cc:, or bcc: fields. If a Real Name and/or UserID is
entered, it should be entered as
Real Name<userid@domain> or
userid@domain(Real Name) or
userid@domain
The domain can be left off if the recipient is at the same domain as the
user. However, it is best that the full userid@domain be used so there is
no confusion with Nicknames.
If a Nickname is used it will be automatically expanded when the message
is sent.
If multiple users are placed in any of the To:, cc:, or bcc: fields they
must be separated by commas. Each of the string gadgets (To:, cc:, or
bcc:) can hold a string up to 4096 charcaters long. This allows you to
build up quite a long list of recipients; however, using a group Nickname
is preferable since only one name is needed in the string gadget.
If the users you are sending the message to are in your Address Book, you
can click on the [Call Address Book] button. This will call up an
abreviated form of your Address Book (see Address Book window discussion
above) and you can select the user you want. Clicking on the user will
transfer the Nickname for that user to the appropriate field indicated by
the cycle gadget at the bottom of the Address Book window (To:, cc: or
bcc:). The Nickname for the user will be automatically added to the
appropriate field in the Compose window. If you make a mistake and the
wrong name is added or it is added to the wrong field, you can use the
backspace key to remove the offending nickname or the [CLR] gadget to
completely clear the field.
The Address Book window will remain displayed to allow you to select
multiple names. Multiple names in any field will be automatically
separated by commas.
To exit from the Address Book display, either click on the Close gadget at
the top of the Address Book window or the [CLOSE] button at the bottom of
the window. Alternately, you can double click on the last name you add to
a field.
You can also use the [Call Address Book] gadget to place the userid from a
"mailto:" call into your Address Book. In this case the full address book
will be shown rather than the abbreviated one. You can also access the
full Address Book by pressing the shift key when you click on the [Call
Address Book] gadget (see the discussion of the Address Book window
above).
All of the gadgets in the Compose Window remain active when you are
displaying the abbreviated form of the Address Book. They are not active
when you display the full Address Book. The "select" cycle gadget in the
Address Book can be used to select the field you want the address
transferred to, or alternately, you can click into the field you want and
the cycle gadget will automatically be set to that field. When you do
this, the Address Book window will immediately become activated to allow
you to select the address you want or to move the Address Book list view
with the cursor keys.
The cc: field is used to send a "carbon copy" of the message to the
people in the list on the cc: line. The cc: header will appear on the
message sent to the To:, cc: and bcc: recipients. The bcc: field is
used the send a "blind carbon copy" to the people in that list. The bcc:
recipients will not be identified to any of the recipients of the message.
The Reply To: field is used to place a Reply-To: address header in the
message. This field is intended for people who want replies directed to a
different email address than their From: address. The configuration item
"Reply-To:" will automatically be loaded into this field when the compose
window is displayed. If the Reply To: address for this message should be
different than the configured Reply-To address, then place it here. If
you click on the [ Use Default ] button, your configured Reply-To address
will be placed in this field. If the Reply To: field is left blank, no
Reply-To: header line will be added to the message.
The Subject: field is used to create a subject header for your message.
If the message is a reply, RE: will be placed in front of the subject.
If the message is forwarded, (fwd) will be placed after the subject.
The [CLR] gadget to the right of the To:, Reply To:, Subject:, cc:, and
bcc: string gadgets allows you to easily clear the data in the
appropriate string gadget.
Below the Subject field is two columns of Radio buttons for selecting the
type message to create and to specify the encoding method for the message
body. The first column of radio buttons specifies the message type to
create. These can be:
Compose a new Message
Reply to Message
Forward Message
Edit Message
Which buttons appear depends on the way the Compose Message window was
called.
"New Message" and "Edit Message" appear if a message was selected from the
PENDING or QUEUED folders and the COMPOSE MESSAGE command icon was
selected or the "Edit..." menu item was selected from the Messages menu.
The "Edit Message" button is initially highlighted.
"New Message", "Reply to Message", and "Forward Message" appear if a
message was selected from an input folder (such as INBOX) and the COMPOSE
MESSAGE command icon was selected or one of the "Reply" or "Forward..."
menu items were selected from the Messages menu. If a "Reply" sub-menu
item was selected, the "Reply to Message" button will be initially
highlighted. If "Forward..." is selected, the "Forward Message" button
will be intially highlighted.
Only "New Message" appears and is highlighted if no message was selected,
if the "Compose.." menu item was selected, or if a message in the SENT
folder was selected.
"New Message" also appears if the Compose message window was activated by
a "mailto:" call from a browser. If a "message=" argument was provided on
the shell call to AEMail, both the "New Message" and "Edit Message" will
appear and the "Edit Message item will be highlighted..
If the "Edit...", "Reply" or "Forward..." menu items are selected and a
message was not selected, an error message appears. If the "Compose..."
sub-menu is selected, a new message will always be created. Likewise,
messages cannot be replied to or forwarded from the PENDING, QUEUED or
SENT folders. If the "Edit..." menu item is selected, the message must
come from either the PENDING or QUEUED folder.
You can always change the preferred type of message to one of the other
ones allowed by clicking on the appropriate message type.
The radio button column on the right of the window is for the encoding
method for the message body. Four items appear here:
7-Bit
8-Bit
quoted-printable
encoded binary
The default is 8-bit. Some Internet gateways, however, can not handle
8-bit data - only 7-bit. If this is the case with your situation, select
7-bit, or if your message contains characters above ASCII 128 (most
foriegn character sets have these types of characters), select
"quoted-printable" or "encoded binary".
The "quoted-printable" encoding is preferred in this instance. You will
be able to read most of the raw message except for the extended character
set characters. The "encoded binary" encoding will encode the message in
BASE64 encoding which is totally un-readable in it's raw format. AEMail,
however, is able to handle the translation of both "quoted-printable" and
"encoded binary" in the message body for both sending and receiving
messages.
If the message is a reply, the "Quote Original Message Text" box will be
checked if you have selected this option in the General Parameters page of
the Configuration screen. You can un-check this box if you don't want the
original text quoted in the message (or check it, if the default action
was not to include text). For all other types of Compose windows, this
checkbox will be disabled.
The "Quote Prefix:" string gadget will indicate what is to be placed in
front of each quoted line. This, by default, is '>'; however, you can add
whatever you like here (such as the person's initials followed by : or
>). You can also permanently change this field with the General
Parameters page of the Configuration screen.
A "Quote header:" will be placed on the line in front of the quoted
material. Currently, the default header which will appear in the Quote
Header: string gadget is:
On &(week), &(date2), at &(time), &(name) wrote:
The & followed by a field name in parenthesis indicates substitution of
data from the original message headers. The values that can be
substituted are:
&(name) The Real Name of the sender of the original
message. If the Real Name is not available,
the sender's UserId will be used instead
&(subject) The subject from the original message. Any RE:
or (fwd) will be stripped.
&(week) The day of the week that the original message
was sent.
&(date) The date the original message was sent in the form
DD MMM YYYY, where DD is the day of the month,
MMM is month in the form Jan, Feb, Mar, etc, and
YYYY is the full 4 digit year.
&(date1) Same as &(date).
&(date2) The date in the form MMM DD, YYYY.
&(time) The time the original message was sent in the
form HH:MM xM where HH is the hour on a 12 hour
clock, MM is the minute, and xM is AM or PM.
&(to) The email address the message was sent to. For
mailing lists this could be the name of the mailing
list if that is what appeared in the To: header.
The "Quote Header" is designed to be modified by the user and can be
changed with the string gadget. This change is only in effect for this
message however. You can permanently change the "Quote Header" with the
General Parameters page of the Configuration screen.
Whether on not the quoted message's headers are to be included in the
quote is controlled by the "Incl Hdr in Resp" item under the Messages main
menu. If this item is checked the "Date", "To", "From:", "Reply To:",
"Subject:", "cc:", and "bcc:" headers will be displayed from the original
message. If it is not checked, no header information will be included.
The amount of header information in the quoted message is also controlled
by the "Display Full Hdr" item in the Messages menu.
The row of gadgets below the "Quote Header:" is used to specify
characteristics of your signature file if you want one. They work in
conjunction with the full path name of your current active signature file
shown in the title bar of the Compose Message window.
If a signature file is present, the "Add Signature Block" box will be
checked and the path name of that signature file will appear in the title
bar. If a signature file is not present, this checkbox will be disabled.
The default signature file is AEMail:.signature. However, if you are a
registered user, you can change to any other signature file by clicking on
the [Select Signature] gadget. This will call up a file requester in
which you can select the appropriate file. The file does not have to
exist; you can create it with the [Edit Signature] gadget.
If you are an un-registered user, the [Select Signature] button will be
ghosted and you can only use the standard AEMail:.signature file.
If you want to create or edit the current selected signature file, you can
click on the [Edit Signature] button. This will call up your editor to
allow you to create or edit the selected signature file. After you have
edited or created your signature file in your editor, save the file and
exit from the editor. This will return you to the COMPOSE MESSAGE window
and the "Add Signature Block" check box will be enabled.
If you do not want the signature block placed at the end of your message,
uncheck the Add Signature Block box.
Note: if the message is being edited, the Add Signature Block box WILL
NOT be checked. This is done to prevent two signature blocks being added
to the message. However, rather than disable this item, it is left to
allow the user to add a signature block in the event one was not added to
the original message or you selected the "New Message" radio button.
The [Add Attachments] button brings up the Add Attachments Requster which
is described below. This requester allows you to add one or multiple
files as attachments to your message. You can bring up this requester at
any time. If it is brought up a second time, the old attachment
information will appear in the attachment list. You can add to this
information or delete entries as you desire.
The [Compose/Edit Message] gadget calls up the editor you specified in the
General Parameters page of the Configuration Screen. If you are editing a
previously composed message, you will see that message in your editor
window. You can make changes as appropriate. Also, if you specified
"Quote Original Message Text" you will see the quoted text. You can
delete and insert lines as appropriate.
One of the things you will NOT see in the editor window are your message
headers or the signature block unless it is an edited message. The
signature block is always added after you compose the message. If this is
a "new" message, you will see a blank editor screen when the editor is
first called. Enter whatever text you wish to use in your editor's window
and then select "Save" and "Quit" from your editor's menus. This will
return you to the Compose Message window.
You will not be able to edit or add headers when you [Compose/Edit
Message]. If you need to add additional headers to a message you can use
the [Add Headers] gadget to add the headers. This feature is ONLY
available to registered users. Un-registered users will find this gadget
ghosted.
Clicking on the [Add Headers] gadget will bring up the Add Headers window
which is very similar to the "Information" window for a icon which is
called from the Workbench menus. The Add Headers window looks like this:
|=============================================================|
|[o] Add Additional Headers |
|=============================================================|
| |
| ====================================================|
| Headers | | ||
| | | ||
| | | ||
|[ NEW ] | | ||
| ====================================================|
|[DELETE] [ ]|
| |
| [ SAVE ] [CLEAR ALL] [CANCEL] |
| |
|=============================================================|
Your additional headers will appear in the scrolling list. To add a
header to the list, click on [NEW] and enter the complete header line in
the string gadget below the scrolling list. Be sure and include the
header identifier as well as the header text. To add this new header to
this list hit the [RETURN] key. To transfer a header to the string
gadget for editing or deleting it, click on the header line in the
scrolling list. Clicking on [DELETE] will then delete the header from the
list. If you want to edit the header, make the changes you want and then
hit [RETURN]. When you are satisified with the headers you want to add,
click on [SAVE] and the new headers will be saved and added to your
message. [CLEAR ALL] will clear all the headers from the list and
[CANCEL] will cancel the operations.
At the bottom of the Compose Window is a row of four action buttons as
follows:
[Send Message Now] [Queue Message] [Save In Pending] [Cancel Message]
If you decide that you do not want to compose a message after
all, click on the [Cancel Message] button to exit the COMPOSE MESSAGE
window.
Otherwise, if all the correct information has been added in the
COMPOSE MESSAGE window, click on the appropriate action button
at the bottom of the window. [Save In Pending] will save your newly
created message in the PENDING folder. [Queue Message] will place the
message in the QUEUED folder and [Send Message Now] will send the message
provided that you are connected to you Internet Provider. If you were
unsuccesful with sending the message, it will be stored in the QUEUED
folder to allow you to immediately send the message when you re-connect to
your Internet Service Provider.
Add Attachments Requester
=========================
When you click on the [ADD ATTACHMENTS] button on the Compose Message
Window, an Add Attachments Requester will be displayed which looks like
this:
|=============================================================|
|[o] Add Attachments |
|=============================================================|
| |
| Filename: [ ][REQ]|
|Attachment Description: [ ]|
| Content Type/SubType: [ ]|
| =====================================|
| | text/plain | ||
| | text/enriched | ||
| | text/richtext | ||
| =====================================|
| Encoding: |@| Plain Text ||
| |
| Mime Type/Sub-Type FileName Encoding |
|=============================================================|
|| | ||
|| | ||
|| | ||
|| | ||
|=============================================================|
|[ ADD ] [DELETE] [ APPLY ] [CANCEL ]|
| |
|=============================================================|
The Filename string gadget should contain the FULL path name and filename
of the attachment. Clicking on the [REQ] gadget will bring up a file
requester which will allow you to select the appropriate file. The
filename portion of this string will be used as the "file=" parameter of
the Content-Type MIME header and as the "filename=" parameter of the
Content-Disposition MIME header.
The initial directory that is chosen for the file requester is the
directory that was set up in the "Add Attachment from Directory" string
gadget in the Configuration: Default Path Parameters (see Configuration
Screen under IV. Configuration above). If you are adding multiple
attachments to the message, clicking on [REQ] will bring up the last
directory that you used.
If you enter a non-existant file, an error requester will be displayed
when you try to [ADD] the file to the attachment list.
The Attachment Description is an optional string gadget for entering a
description of the attachment. If present, this string gadget will create
a Content-Description MIME header.
Content Type/SubType is a string gadget which contains the MIME Content
Type/Subtype entry which will appear on the Content-Type MIME header.
THIS IS A REQUIRED ENTRY UNLESS YOU ARE ADDING AN UUENCODED attachment.
It is not used for UUENCODED attachments.
A scrolling list below this gadget is used to select an appropriate
type/sub-type. Predefined type/subtypes, as defined in RFC 1341 and
RFC 1521, are included in this list as follows:
text/plain
text/enriched
text/richtext
message/rfc822
message/partial
message/external-body
multipart/mixed
multipart/alternative
multipart/digest
multipart/parallel
application/octet-stream
application/postscript
image/gif
image/jpeg
audio/basic
video/mpeg
Also added to this list will be any additional type/subtypes added through
the mailcap file and any type/subtypes encountered when displaying
attachments during THIS RUN OF AEMAIL. AEMail has no way to remember
differing type/subtypes that it encounters unless they are included in the
mailcap file.
You can also add your own type/subtype by directly entering it in the
Content Type/SubType string gadget. Unless the type/subtype is well known
and published, you should pick one of the existing types (text/, message/,
application/, image/, audio/, or video/) and use a subtype beginning with
"x-". As an example, you might want to define an IFF image (not part of
the mime published standard) as:
image/x-iff
It is suggested that you use a mailcap entry for the image/x-iff to cause
it to permanently appear in the list of Content Type/Subtypes.
Attachments must be in the format you select. AEMail will do no
conversion. As an example, if you select application/postscript, the file
you attach should already be in postscript format.
Also, DO NOT use the follwing types/subtypes:
message/partial
message/external-body
multipart/mixed
multipart/alternative
multipart/digest
multipart/parallel
All of the multipart types are not supported except at the highest level
(specifying the initial attachment list), and this is done automatically
by the program.
The encoding cycle gadget has four states as follows:
Plain Text
Quoted-Printable
Encoded Binary
UUENCODED
Generally, "Plain Text" should be used for:
text/
message/
The exception to this is when the attachment contains characters outside
the range of ASCII 32 to ASCII 128 and you ISP can not handle 8-bit codes.
If the document you are attaching contains these characters (usually
present in documents using foriegn character sets), you should use
"Quoted-Printable" or "Encoded Binary" encoding.
Generally speaking "Encoded Binary" should be used for the following
types:
application/
image/
audio/
video/
"UUENCODED" should be selected if you want the attachment to be in
UUENCODED format. You can not mix UUENCODED attachments with MIME
attachments!
When a type/subtype is selected, the appropriate encoding format is
automatically selected. Of course, you can change this with the cycle
gadget if there is a need.
Once all of the attributes for any particular attachment are selected,
click on the [ADD] gadget to add the attachment to the attachment list.
If the Filename field or Content Type/Subtype field (other than for
UUENCODED attachments) is blank an error requester will appear indicating
that you must have a valid entry in these fields. As many attachments as
you want can be added to this list, but you can not mix MIME type
attachments with UUENCODED attachments.
If you wish to delete any particular gadget, select the attachment from
the list and click on [DELETE]. There is no way to modify attachment
attributes once they have been added to the list. If you want to do this,
first click on [DELETE], make the appropriate changes, and then click on
[ADD].
Once you are satisfied with your attachment list click on [APPLY]. The
Add Attachments Requester will disappear and the attachments will be
automatically added to your message after it is composed.
If you decide that you don't want to add attachments after all, click on
[CANCEL] and the attachments will not be added when you compose your
message.
Clicking on the Close Gadget at the top of the window has the same
effect as if you clicked on [CANCEL].
If you are editing a message which has attachments and you select the
[ADD ATTACHMENTS] button in the Compose Window and then decide you do not
want to change the attachments you have previously added, you should click
on [APPLY]. Clicking on [CANCEL] at this point will bring up a special
warning requester which says:
Continuing will delete all previous attachments
Use APPLY if you wish to keep them.
[CONTINUE] [APPLY ATTACHMENTS]
To keep the attachments you should click on [APPLY ATTACHMENTS].
IX. AEMAIL AREXX INTERFACE
Introduction
------------
AEMail has a very powerful set of ARexx commands that can be used to
control AEMail from external ARexx scripts. You can also execute ARexx
scripts and AmigaDOS scripts from within AEMail with the use of the "Send
AREXX/DOS Command" and the "Send Last Command" items in the Project Menu
(see VII. AEMAIL MENUS).
When you want to send commands from an ARexx script to AEMail, you must
tell ARexx how to locate the AEMail ARexx message port. The AEMail ARexx
Port Name is normally "AEMAIL1". You can change this port name with the
use of the "AREXXPORT=" tool type (See TOOL TYPES under Section IV.
CONFIGURATION). The current Arexx Port Name is shown in the About message
obtained with the "About" item under the Project Menu.
You tell ARexx what the message port name for AEMail is by using the ARexx
ADDRESS commmand in an ARexx script like this:
ADDRESS AEMAIL1
If you call an ARexx script from AEMail, the ADDRESS command is
automatically set to the AEMail ARexx message port.
After each command directed at AEMail from an ARexx script is executed,
the standard ARexx result variable, RC, will report the success or failure
of the command. A 0 in RC indicates that the command was understood and
executed successfully. An RC value other than 0 indicates an error
severity indicator. The exact error text is reported in the Arexx
AEMAIL.LASTERROR variable.
All of the AEMail ARexx commands also report back information if they
were executed successfully (RC = 0). This information is reported in the
ARexx variable RESULT. To receive this information you must supply the
following ARexx command at the beginning of the ARexx script:
OPTIONS RESULTS
You will notice that some commands have possible negative numbers for
RESULT values. The RESULT variable usually returns either a numeric value
or a string. If a numeric value is returned and if it is positive and
above zero, the expected result was achieved. If the value was 0 or
negative, the expected result was not achieved. Some commands that
normally return strings in the RESULT variable may also return a NULL
string or a negative numeric value. The negative numeric value is used to
denote various reasons the string value was not returned. If there is
only one reason, the command will normally return a "0" or a NULL value;
but if there is more than one reason, the additional reasons will be
indicated with a negative number. An example would be a command that is
expected to return the Subject: from the current message. A result of
NULL or blank indicates that there was no Subject: header and a result of
"-1" indicates that there is no current message. These two conditions
need to be distinguished.
Below is a both a list of the currently available AEMail ARexx commands
and a section which describes each command in detail. Many of the
commands are available to registered users only. These will be so noted
in the command list.
Some of the commands are composed of multiple words. To avoid confusion
these multiple words are sometimes separated by an underline character
("_"). As an example "ADDRESS_BOOK" separates ADDRESS and BOOK with the
underline. This is to avoid confusion with "ADDRESS" which is a standard
ARexx command. If an underline is required, it will be shown in the
command syntax.
QUOTING: Some command have parameters with embedded ARexx command
characters such as +, -, |, etc. To avoid the possibilty of ARexx
interpreting these as ARexx operations, the parameter should be surrounded
by quotes (either single or double quotes). An example of where this is
very important is the first parameter of the OKAY2 command. Each of the
possible responses in the OKAY2 command is separated by a vertical bar
("|") such as "OK|CANCEL". The entire response parameter needs to be
surrounded in quotes as shown or otherwise the vertical bar will be
intrepreted by ARexx as an "inclusive or" operation.
Another condition requiring quoting is passing strings with embedded
spaces. This usually requires a bit of "creative" quoting because ARexx
always strips at least one set of quotation marks from all strings.
Fortunately ARexx considers both the double quote (") and the single quote
(') as quotes. To provide for the proper treatment of strings with
embedded spaces (such as some file and path names or title strings), you
have to use a double grouping of quotes.
For example:
GETFILENAME '"The Title String"' '"A file name path"'
will send "The Title String" and "A file name path" to AEMail which will
recognize these strings as two quoted operands.
ARexx variables which might have embedded spaces in their contents must
also be quoted as above. You can do this as follows:
filename = "A file name path"
title = "The Title String"
GETFILENAME '"'title'"' '"'filename'"'
This ensures that ARexx, when it strips off a set of quotation marks and
replaces the variables with their contents, will also pass a set of
quotation marks around the resulting strings. AEMail will then recognize
the passed strings as two string operands rather than many unconnected
words.
Synopsis of ARexx Commands
--------------------------
The following is a list of the currently available AEMail ARexx commands.
This list also indicates which commands are only available to registered
users with an (R) following the command.
A complete description of all of the commands and the command variations
follows this list.
ADDRESS_BOOK (R) Manipulates the AEMail Address Book
BCC (R) Returns the BCC header in a message
CC (R) Returns the CC header in a message
COMPOSE Composes a message
CURRENT IS SELECTED Makes the selected message current
DATE (R) Returns the DATE header in a message
EXTRACT (R) Parses a name string to real name or email address
FIRST (R) Selects first message in folder or name in name string
FLAGS (R) Returns the flags in a message
FOLDER (R) Returns information on folders
FROM (R) Returns the FROM header in a message
GETCLIP (R) Get a clip from the clipboard
GETFILENAME Brings up the AEMail file requester
GETNUMBER Brings up the AEMail numeric requester
GETSIZE (R) Returns the size of a message or message body
GETSTRING Brings up the AEMail string requester
LAST (R) Selects last message in a folder
MESSAGE (R) Sets various flags in a message
NEXT (R) Selects next message in folder or name in name string
OKAY1 Brings up AEMail notification requester
OKAY2 Brings up AEMail notification requester with responses
PREVIOUS (R) Selects the previous message in a folder
QUEUE Queues a passed message
REPLYTO (R) Returns the REPLY-TO header in a message
SAVE (R) Saves a message or message text
SCREENTOBACK Brings a screen to the back of the display
SCREENTOFRONT Brings a screen to the front of the display
SUBJECT (R) Returns the SUBJECT header in a message
TO (R) Returns the TO header in a message
ARexx Commands
--------------
The following is a description of all of the currently available AEMail
ARexx commands in alphabetical order. Shown with each of the commands is
what you can expect to have returned in the RESULT variable. Please note
the use of the OKAY1 and OKAY2 commands. You can use these to report back
information to the AEMail user. These commands put up a requester with
the information you provide.
You will also notice in the command descriptions the use of the term
"current message". This applies to ARexx commands only and is not the
"selected message" that is indicated by an asterick (*) in the displayed
message list; although, you can make the most recent (current) "selected
message" the "current message" (see the CURRENT IS SELECTED command below)
and you can "select" a current message (the MESSAGE SELECT command).
Initially "current message" is un-defined, but once it is defined it will
remain defined through multiple calls from ARexx scripts until AEMail
terminates or the "current message" is changed through the use of another
ARexx command.
ADDRESS_BOOK
This command is used to manipulate the AEMail Address Book. There are a
number of variations of the ADDRESS_BOOK command. They are listed below.
If the correct command keyword ("LIST", "FIND", "ADD", etc.) is not
present, an RC code of severity level 5 will be returned and
AEMAIL.LASTERROR will contain "101: Syntax Error".
Note the use of the parameter called "userid". This can be either an
email address or a referenced nickname pointing to another individual or
group entry. When a userid is returned, you can test if it is a nickname
by using the ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname TYPE command.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK LIST ALL [pad]
ADDRESS_BOOK LIST GROUP [pad]
ADDRESS_BOOK LIST INDIVIDUAL [pad]
This command will list the nicknames in your address book. The operand
"ALL" will list all of the nicknames, the operand "GROUP" will list just
the group nicknames, and "INDIVIDUAL" will list just the individual
nicknames.
Normally each nickname is separated by a space. However, this can be
changed by a specifying a pad string at the end of the command. You can
use the LF keyword to specify a line feed or use some other character
sequence for the pad string. As an example: ", " will insert a comma
followed by a space between each nickname in the list.
RESULT: The list of nicknames separated by the pad character.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK FIND nickname [userid]
This command is used to find out if a particular userid (email address or
referenced nickname) is contained in a group entry in the Address Book.
You can explicity give the userid or the email address can be obtained
from the current message. If the userid is not specified, both the From:
and Reply-To: addresses from the current message will be used to check if
the email address is in the group entry specified by nickname. The
nickname operand is required and must be a group nickname.
RESULT: -3 No current message if userid not given
-2 The nickname is not for a group entry in the Address
Book
-1 The nickname given is not in the Address Book.
0 The userid was not found
1 The userid found. If not supplied, the userid that
was found was an email address from the From: address
in the current message.
2 The Reply-To: address in the current message was found
in the group.
3 Both the Reply-To: and From: addresses were found.
Note: these addresses may actually be the same.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK CREATE GROUP nickname ["SEND-HEADER-ONLY"|SHO],
FROM|REPLYTO|userid description
This entry creates a new group entry in the Address Book. When you create
a group entry you must have one userid (email address or referenced
nickname) entry to place in the group. You are not allowed to have a
group without any entries.
The nickname for the new group must be supplied and it must not be greater
than 9 characters. It can not, of course, match any existing nickname.
"SEND-HEADER-ONLY" is an optional keyword operand which sets the "Send
Header Only" flag in the group entry and must be quoted. You can use the
shorthand abreviation "SHO" instead of the full "SEND-HEADER-ONLY" string.
The userid which is added can be explicity specified or it can be the
email address taken from either the From: or Reply-To: address in the
current message. Use the keyword operands "FROM" or "REPLYTO" to specify
which header field in the current message is to be used. If you specify
"REPLYTO" and that header is missing, an error condition will be returned
(see below).
There is no validation performed on the user_id. If it is an email
address it should be one word without any intervening spaces. It should
be within a quoted string to avoid confusion with ARexx special symbols.
If it is a nickname with embedded spaces it must be double quoted (two
pairs of quote marks - ie, '"........"'.
The description operand is placed in the "Real Name" field in the Address
Book entry and must be given. It may have embedded spaces and should be
quoted. If you want quotes to appear in the group description you should
use the ARexx method for including embedded quotes (i.e.,
'"....string...."' or '"'variable'"'.
RESULT: -4 The REPLYTO operand was specified and there is no
Reply-To: header in the current message.
-3 No current message if userid not given
-1 The nickname given is greater than 9 characters.
0 The nickname given was already defined in the Address
Book.
1 The group entry was successfully created.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK ADD TO GROUP nickname FROM
ADDRESS_BOOK ADD TO GROUP nickname REPLYTO
ADDRESS_BOOK ADD TO GROUP nickname userid
This command adds an userid (email address or referenced nickname) to an
existing group in the Address Book. The nickname operand specifies the
group the userid is to be added to and is a required parameter.
The userid which is added can be explicity specified or it can be the
email address taken from either the From: or Reply-To: address in the
current message. Use the keyword operands "FROM" or "REPLYTO" to specify
which header field in the current message is to be used. If you specify
"REPLYTO" and that header is missing, an error condition will be returned
(see below).
There is no validation performed on the user_id. If it is an email
address it should be one word without any intervening spaces. It should
be within a quoted string to avoid confusion with ARexx special symbols.
If it is a nickname with embedded spaces it must be double quoted (two
pairs of quote marks - ie, '"........"'.
RESULT: -4 The REPLYTO operand was specified and there is no
Reply-To: header in the current message.
-3 No current message if userid not specified.
-2 The nickname is not for a group entry in the Address
Book
-1 The nickname given was not found.
0 The userid given was already defined in the group.
1 The userid was successfully added to the group.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK ADD INDIVIDUAL nickname FROM [real-name]
ADDRESS_BOOK ADD INDIVIDUAL nickname REPLYTO [real-name]
ADDRESS_BOOK ADD INDIVIDUAL nickname userid [real-name]
This command adds a new individual nickname to the Address Book. The
nickname for the new group must be supplied and it must not be greater
than 9 characters. It can not, of course, match any existing nickname.
The userid which is assign to the new nickname is required and can be
explicity specified or it can be the email address taken from either the
From: or Reply-To: header in the current message. Use the keyword
operands "FROM" or "REPLYTO" to specify which header field in the current
message is to be used. If you specify "REPLYTO" and that header is
missing, an error condition will be returned (see below).
There is no validation performed on the user_id. If it is an email
address it should be one word without any intervening spaces. It should
be within a quoted string to avoid confusion with ARexx special symbols.
If it is a nickname with embedded spaces it must be double quoted (two
pairs of quote marks - ie, '"........"'.
The real-name operand is placed in the "Real Name" field in the Address
Book entry. It is an optional entry. It may have intervening spaces. It
should be quoted. If you want quotes to appear in the group description
you should use the ARexx method for including embedded quotes (i.e.,
'"....string...."' or '"'variable'"'.
If a current message is used to obtain the userid (either the "FROM" or
"REPLYTO" keyword operands) any real name supplied with the header will
take precedence over the real-name operand if it is present.
RESULT: -4 The REPLYTO operand was specified and there is no
Reply-To: header in the current message.
-3 No current message if userid not specified.
-1 The nickname given is greater than 9 characters.
0 The nickname given was already defined.
1 The nickname and userid was successfully added to the
Address Book.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK DELETE FROM GROUP nickname FROM
ADDRESS_BOOK DELETE FROM GROUP nickname REPLYTO
ADDRESS_BOOK DELETE FROM GROUP nickname userid
This command deletes a userid from the group indicated by nickname.
The userid which is to be deleted is required and can be explicity
specified or it can be the email address taken from either the From: or
Reply-To: address in the current message. Use the keyword operands
"FROM" or "REPLYTO" to specify which header field in the current message
is to be used. If you specify "REPLYTO" and that header is missing, an
error condition will be returned (see below).
There is no validation performed on the user_id. If it is an email
address it should be one word without any intervening spaces. It should
be within a quoted string to avoid confusion with ARexx special symbols.
If it is a nickname with embedded spaces it must be double quoted (two
pairs of quote marks - ie, '"........"'.
If the userid is the only userid in the group, it will not be deleted.
No group can exist without at lease one userid. In this special case a
RESULT code of -5 will be returned. To delete the one remaining userid
you must delete the entire group (see "ADDRESS-BOOK DELETE GROUP" below.
RESULT: -5 The userid specified was the only userid in the
group and WAS NOT DELETED. Use the "ADDRESS_BOOK
DELETE GROUP" command to delete entire group.
-4 The REPLYTO operand was specified and there is no
Reply-To: header in the current message.
-3 No current message if userid not specified.
-2 The nickname is not for a group entry in the Address
Book
-1 The nickname given was not found.
0 The userid was not present in the group.
1 The userid was deleted from the group.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK DELETE GROUP nickname
This command deletes the entire group specified by nickname and all of
it's associated userids.
RESULT: -2 The nickname given is not for a group entry in the
Address Book
-1 The nickname given was not found.
1 The group was successfully deleted.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK DELETE INDIVIDUAL nickname
This command deletes the nickname provided. It must be the nickname for
an individual.
RESULT: -2 The nickname given is for a group entry in the
Address Book. No deletion was performed.
0 The individual's nickname was not present.
1 The individual's nickname was successfully deleted.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname TYPE
This command obtains the type, group or individual, for the Address Book
entry specified by "nickname".
RESULT: -1 The nickname given does not exist.
0 Nickname was for an individual entry.
1 Nickname was for a group entry.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname REALNAME
This command obtains the "Real Name" or Group Description for the Address
Book entry specified by "nickname".
RESULT: -1 The nickname given does not exist.
NULL or blank No real name was present.
"Real Name" or group description string
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname USERID
This command obtains the userid for the Address Book entry specified by
"nickname". This command can only be used with Individual nicknames.
RESULT: -2 The nickname given is not for an individual entry.
-1 The nickname given does not exist.
"userid" This may be either an email address or a referenced
nickname. Use the ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname TYPE
command to determine if it is a nickname rather than
an email address.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname "SEND-HEADER-ONLY-FLAG"|"SHO-FLAG"
This command obtains the state of the "Send Header Only" flag for the
group entry specified by "nickname". The operand can be specified as
either "SEND-HEADER-ONLY-FLAG" or "SHO-FLAG" and must be quoted. This
command can only be used with Group nicknames.
RESULT: -2 The nickname given was not for a group entry.
-1 The nickname given does not exist.
0 The "Send Header Only" Flag was OFF.
1 The "Send Header Only" Flag was ON.
***
Syntax: ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname COUNT
This command obtains the count of userid entries in the group entry
specified by "nickname". This command is can only be used with Group
nicknames.
RESULT: -2 The nickname given was not for a group entry.
-1 The nickname given does not exist.
n The count of userids in the group entry.
BCC
Syntax: BCC
This command returns the bcc: header of the current message without the
bcc:. It has no operands.
RESULT: -1 No current message
NULL or blanks No bcc: header
bcc: header
CC
Syntax: CC
This command returns the cc: header of the current message without the
cc:. It has no operands.
RESULT: -1 No current message
NULL or blanks No cc: header
cc: header
COMPOSE
All of the variations of the COMPOSE command bring up the AEMail compose
window for further action. If for any reason the Compose window returns
any error such as the failure to open the Compose window or an out of
memory condition, the error will be returned in AEMAIL.LASTERROR with the
RC set to a severity level of 20. This error will not have an error
number associated with it.
The syntax of the various variations of the COMPOSE command are as
follows:
***
Syntax: COMPOSE
The COMPOSE command without any operands brings up the Compose window to
compose a new message.
RESULT: 0: User canceled message compose. No message composed.
1: Message composed and placed in PENDING folder.
2: Message composed and placed in QUEUED folder.
3: Message composed and sent.
***
Syntax: COMPOSE NEW MESSAGE
The Compose window will be brought up to compose a new message.
RESULT: 0: User canceled message compose. No message composed.
1: Message composed and placed in PENDING folder.
2: Message composed and placed in QUEUED folder.
3: Message composed and sent.
***
Syntax: COMPOSE REPLY
The Compose window will be brought up to compose a reply to the current
message using the Reply-To: address as the recipient. If the Reply-To:
address is not available, the From: address will be used.
RESULT: -1: There is no current message defined.
0: The user cancelled the operation. No message was
composed.
1: Message composed and placed in PENDING folder.
2: Message composed and placed in QUEUED folder.
3: Message composed and sent.
***
Syntax: COMPOSE REPLY FROM
The Compose window will be brought up to compose a reply to the current
message using the From: address as the recipient.
RESULT: -1: There is no current message defined.
0: The user cancelled the operation. No message was
composed.
1: Message composed and placed in PENDING folder.
2: Message composed and placed in QUEUED folder.
3: Message composed and sent.
***
Syntax: COMPOSE FORWARD [userid]
The Compose window will be brought up to forward the current message. If
the userid (email address or referenced Address Book nickname) is
provided, this will be used as the recipient (To: address) of the
forwarded message; otherwise, the To: address will be blank and user will
have to provide it.
RESULT: -1: There is no current message defined.
0: The user cancelled the operation. No message was
composed.
1: Message composed and placed in PENDING folder.
2: Message composed and placed in QUEUED folder.
3: Message composed and sent.
***
Syntax: COMPOSE MAILTO userid
The Compose window will be brought up to compose a new message to be
mailed to the recipient indicated by the userid. The userid can be either
an Address Book nickname or a full email-address and must be given.
No validation is made on the userid. If it is invalid, either the user
will receive an error when the message is sent or a message will be
received indicating "Returned mail: User unknown".
RESULT: 0: The user cancelled the operation. No message was
composed.
1: Message composed and placed in the PENDING folder.
2: Message composed and placed in the QUEUED folder.
3: Message composed and sent.
***
Syntax: COMPOSE "message-file-name"
The Compose window will be brought up and the message file indicated by
"message-file-name" will be read into the system and used as the message
to edit. This message must have correctly formatted headers. Only the
To:, From:, Reply-To:, Subject:, cc:, and bcc: headers will be recognized.
A blank line must separate the headers from the body of the message.
The "message-file-name" should be the full path name of the message file
and it should be quoted since the path will contain characters that ARexx
will attempt to interpret as operators or possibly embedded spaces.
Any address provided with the To: header can be either an Address Book
nickname or a full email address. Multiple To: addresses can be provided
as well as multiple cc: or bcc: addresses.
No headers have to be provided with the message. The headers can be
provided on the Compose window. However, if this is done, a blank line
MUST precede the message body in the message file.
Additional RC type errors can be received by this command if the
message-file-name is invalid or an error occurred reading in the message
file. Each of these errors have a severity level of 5 with one of the
following messages placed in the AEMAIL.LASTERROR variable:
105: Error Opening Passed Message
106: Error retrieving passed message
If you would like to use the File Requester to obtain the file name before
passing it to this command, you can use the GETFILENAME command to obtain
the full path name of the message.
No validation is made on the To: address in the message. If it is
invalid, either the user will receive an error when the message is sent or
a message will be received indicating "Returned mail: User unknown".
RESULT: 0: The user cancelled the operation. No message was
composed.
1: Message composed and placed in PENDING folder.
2: Message composed and placed in QUEUED folder.
3: Message composed and sent.
CURRENT IS SELECTED
Syntax: CURRENT IS SELECTED
This command makes the currently selected message the current message.
The currently selected message is the message that is highlighted in the
message list or the message that is currently being displayed. The
message may or may not have a selection asterick.
RESULT: 0 There was no selected message.
1 Current message is now the selected message.
DATE
Syntax: DATE
DATE MDY
DATE DMY
DATE YMD
This command returns the Date: header of the current message header
without the "Date:".
Without an operand, this command returns the date as it was received in
the Date: header of the message. With the operand "MDY" it returns the
date as mm/dd/yy. The operand "DMY" returns the date as dd/mm/yy and
"YMD" returns yy/mm/dd. All of the fields are two digits which means that
yy will be the last 2 digits of the year.
The alternate formats are provided so that the date field can be stored in
a data base such as one created with "Final Data".
RESULT: -1 No current message
NULL or blanks No Date: header
Date: field
EXTRACT
Syntax: EXTRACT REALNAME name-string
EXTRACT USERID name-string
This command extracts either the REALNAME or the USERID (email address
or address book nickname) from a name string that is usually the result of
the FIRST TONAME, FIRST CCNAME, FIRST BCCNAME or NEXT NAME commands
(see below). Because of the various formats of a name string; ie,
email-address (Full Name)
Full Name <email-address>
email-address
addressbook-nickname
it is easier to use this command rather then to use standard ARexx
commands to parse the name string.
If you use the ADDRESS_BOOK GET nickname TYPE command you can determine if
a userid that is returned is a nickname or email address.
The name-string variable should be quoted since it will contain blanks and
other characters ARexx may not like including double quote marks. As an
example:
OPTION RESULTS
FIRST TONAME
name=RESULT
if name = "" THEN EXIT
EXTRACT USERID '"'name'"'
emailaddr=RESULT
ADDRESS_BOOK GET '"'emailaddr'"' TYPE
if RESULT = 0 THEN OKAY1 emailaddr" is an individual nickname."
ELSE if RESULT = 1 THEN OKAY1 emailaddr" is a group nickname."
RESULT: NULL or blank No real name if REAL-NAME operand used.
Either the real name or userid string.
FIRST
This command is used to select the first message in the current folder or
to select the first name string from the list of To: or cc: recipients.
***
Syntax: FIRST
FIRST NEW
FIRST SELECTED
FIRST DELETED
Without an Operand this command selects the first message in the current
selected folder as the current message.
With the NEW operand, this command selects the first un-read (new) message
in the current selected folder as the current message.
If a message is unread but deleted, it will NOT be considered an un-read
message.
With the SELECTED operand, this command selects the first selected
(message marked with an asterick) message in the current selected folder
as the current message.
With the DELETED operand, this command selects the first message marked as
deleted in the current selected folder as the current message.
NOTE: The order of the messages in the folder is the un-sorted order.
This generally means that the first message is the oldest message in the
folder.
RESULT: 0 No messages of the particular type in the folder
1 First message is now the current message.
***
Syntax: FIRST TONAME
FIRST CCNAME
FIRST BCCNAME
This command returns the first name from the appropriate header field
(To:, cc:, or bcc:) in the current message. The name can be in one of the
following formats:
email-address (Full Name)
Full Name <email-address>
email-address
addressbook-nickname
Names in the header recipient lists are separated by commas; however, a
comma may be embedded within a real name if the real name is surrounded by
quotes.
If you wish to extract either the Full Name, email-address, or the
addressbook-nickname from the RESULT you can set the RESULT to a variable
and then use the EXTRACT command with that variable as the argument.
RESULT: -1 There is no current message
NULL or blank There are no names in this field.
The first name in the appropriate header.
FLAGS
Syntax: FLAGS
This command returns the flags for the current message. The flags are
returned in the RESULT field as indicated below. A message can have
multiple flags which means that a value will be returned with the two or
more values for the flags added together. As an example, a message that
is unread and new with attachments will return a value of 11. You will
need to use the ARexx operator for logical AND to isolate the flag you
want.
Here is a piece of ARexx code to isolate a message that is unread:
OPTION RESULTS
FLAGS
IF RESULT = -1 THEN OKAY1 "There is no current message"
ELSE DO
IF RESULT & 2 THEN OKAY1 "This message is unread"
ELSE OKAY1 "This message has been read"
END
Note the distinction between flag values 1 (for New) and 2 (for Unread).
Generally, when a message is first read into the system both flags are
set. If the message is read, both flags are turned off. However, if the
message should be deleted without being read, the Unread flag will be
turned off but the New flag will remain on. If that message then becomes
un-deleted and the New flag is still on, the Unread flag will be turned
back on.
RESULT: -1 No current message
0 There is a current message but no flags are set
1 Message is New and unread (can be deleted)
2 Message is unread but not deleted
4 Message is a reply
8 Message has attachments
16 Message has been forwarded
32 Message is deleted
64 Message is selected
FOLDER
There are a number of variations of the FOLDER command. They are listed
below:
***
Syntax: FOLDER
The FOLDER command with no operands is used to return the current selected
folder name.
RESULT: 0 No folder currently selected
The folder Name (i.e., "INBOX", "QUEUED", etc.)
***
Syntax: FOLDER LIST_FOLDERS [pad]
This command will list all of the folders in your system. Normally each
folder is separated by a space. However, this can be changed by
specifying a pad string at the end of the command. You can use the LF
keyword to specify a line feed or use some other character sequence for
the pad string. As an example: ", " will insert a comma followed by a
space between each folder name in the list.
Notice that the keyword here is LIST_FOLDERS with an underline between
LIST and FOLDERS. If the keyword was simply LIST it might be
mis-interpreted as a folder named LIST.
RESULT: The list of folders separated by the pad character.
***
Syntax: FOLDER folder-name
This command selects the the folder indicated by folder-name.
RESULT: -1: folder-name is invalid. Could be the result of a misspelling
of one of the operands used with the FOLDER commands so that
the operand is mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
0: The folder folder-name could not be selected.
1: The folder folder-name was selected.
***
Syntax: FOLDER DESCRIPTION
FOLDER folder-name DESCRIPTION
FOLDER folder-name SELECT DESCRIPTION
This command returns the description of either the selected folder or, if
present, the folder indicated by folder name. If the folder name is
present, it will not become the new selected unless the SELECT keyword
immediately follows it. This allows you to obtain the description of a
folder without selecting it.
NOTE: If the folder-name is left off the command and any of the
parameters is misspelled, it could result in the misspelled parameter
being mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
RESULT: -1: folder-name is invalid. Could be the result of a misspelling
of one of the operands used with the following FOLDER commands
so that the operand is mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
The description of either the folder specified with folder-name
or the selected folder.
***
Syntax: FOLDER NUMBER_MESSAGES
FOLDER folder-name NUMBER_MESSAGES
FOLDER folder-name SELECT NUMBER_MESSAGES
This command returns the number of messages contained in either the
selected folder or, if present, the folder indicated by folder name. If
the folder name is present, it will not become the new selected folder
unless the SELECT keyword immediately follows it. This allows you to
obtain the number of messages from a folder without selecting it.
Please note the spelling of the operand NUMBER_MESSAGES with the underline
between NUMBER and MESSAGES. This makes the operand string longer than a
folder-name so that it does not interfer with any existing folder-name.
NOTE: If the folder-name is left off the command and any of the
parameters is misspelled, it could result in the misspelled parameter
being mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
RESULT: -1: folder-name is invalid. Could be the result of a misspelling
of one of the operands used with the following FOLDER commands
so that the operand is mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
n: The total number of messages in the folder including ones that
are unread or deleted.
***
Syntax: FOLDER NEW_MESSAGES
FOLDER folder-name NEW_MESSAGES
FOLDER folder-name SELECT NEW_MESSAGES
This command returns the number of new (unread) messages contained in
either the selected folder or, if present, the folder indicated by folder
name. If the folder name is present, it will not become the new selected
folder unless the SELECT keyword immediately follows it. This allows you
to obtain the number of new messages from a folder without selecting it.
If a message is unread but deleted, it will not be included in the count
of new messages.
Please note the spelling of the operand NEW_MESSAGES with the underline
between NEW and MESSAGES. This makes the operand string longer than a
folder-name so that it does not interfer with any existing folder-name.
NOTE: If the folder-name is left off the command and any of the
parameters is misspelled, it could result in the misspelled parameter
being mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
RESULT: -1: folder-name is invalid. Could be the result of a misspelling
of one of the operands used with the following FOLDER commands
so that the operand is mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
n: The number of new or unread messages in the folder.
***
Syntax: FOLDER DELETED_MESSAGES
FOLDER folder-name DELETED_MESSAGES
FOLDER folder-name SELECT DELETED_MESSAGES
This command returns the number of deleted messages contained in either
the selected folder or, if present, the folder indicated by folder name.
If the folder name is present, it will not become the new selected folder
unless the SELECT keyword immediately follows it. This allows you to
obtain the number of deleted messages from a folder without selecting it.
Please note the spelling of the operand DELETED_MESSAGES with the
underline between DELETED and MESSAGES. This makes the operand string
longer than a folder-name so that it does not interfer with any existing
folder-name.
NOTE: If the folder-name is left off the command and any of the
parameters is misspelled, it could result in the misspelled parameter
being mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
RESULT: -1: folder-name is invalid. Could be the result of a misspelling
of one of the operands used with the following FOLDER commands
so that the operand is mis-interpreted as a folder-name.
n: The number of deleted messages in the folder.
***
FROM
Syntax: FROM
This command returns the From: header of the current message without the
"From: ". It has no operands.
RESULT: -1 No current message
NULL or blanks No From: header
From: header
GETCLIP
Syntax: GETCLIP
GETCLIP n
GETCLIP UNIT n
This command will return the current contents of the clipboard in the
result variable. If "UNIT n" or "n" is not specified, it will be from the
current active clipboard. If "UNIT n" or "n" (without UNIT) is specified
it will be from the clipboard unit specified by n.
If the clipboard unit is specified, the current active clipboard will be
changed to that unit UNLESS the clipboard unit was non-existant.
RESULT: NULL or blank This clipboard unit is empty or non-existant.
Data from the clipboard unit.
***
Syntax: GETCLIP UNIT
This command will return the current active clipboard unit number. Notice
that is similar to the previous command WITHOUT the clipboard unit number
(n).
RESULT: n This current active clipboard unit number.
GETFILENAME
Syntax: GETFILENAME
GETFILENAME title
GETFILENAME title defaultpath
This command brings up the AEMail file requester so you can solicit file
names that can be used with commands that require file names.
If no operands are provided with this command, the file requester will
have "ARexx File Request" as the default title in the requester and a
default path of PROGDIR: (the directory from which AEMail was called).
The second form of this command allows you to provide your own title in
the file requester which may be more descriptive of what kind of file you
want.
The third form gives the user the ability to provide both a title and a
default file path and (if wanted) filename. This is particularly useful
if you want to reference a different directory than your program
directory. A default filename can be part of this path.
NOTE: If you supply a default path without a filename (directory only) you
must end the string with ":" or "/" to indicate that it is a directory and
not a filename path.
Be very careful in using this command since this is one that will require
"creative" quoting to insure that you have no more than two operand
strings. As an example you should use something like this:
GETFILENAME '"The Title String"' '"A file name path"'
This will send "The Title String" and "A file name path" to AEMail which
will recognize these strings as two quoted operands.
RESULT: NULL or blank if the no filename was entered or the requester was
cancelled.
The full path and filename of the file that was selected.
GETNUMBER
Syntax: GETNUMBER
GETNUMBER title
GETNUMBER title default
GETNUMBER title default min
GETNUMBER title default min max
This command brings up the AEMail numeric requester so you can solicit a
numeric value.
If no operands are provided with this command, the numeric requester will
have "ARexx Enter Number" as the default title in the requester and a
default value of 0.
The second form of this command allows you to provide your own title in
the numeric requester which may be more descriptive of what purpose you
want the number for.
The third form gives the user the ability to provide both a title and a
default numeric value.
The fourth form gives you the ability to provide a minimum value that can
be entered, and the fifth for allows both a minimum or maximum value. f
a value outside this range is entered, the screen will flash. Also, the
minimum and maximum limits are given in a text string below the numeric
entry gadget.
Be very careful in using this command since this is one that will require
"creative" quoting for the title to insure that strings between embedded
spaces are not interpreted as part of the numeric values. As an example
you should use something like this:
GETNUMBER '"Enter a number between 3 & 7"' 5 3 7
This will place "Enter a number between 3 & 7" in the title bar of the
requester, use 5 as the default value in the numeric entry gadget, and set
the minimum and maximum possibilities to 3 and 7 respectively. This will
also recognize the full title string as a proper quoted operand.
RESULT: NULL or blank if the the requester was cancelled.
n The numeric value entered in the requester.
GETSIZE
Syntax: GETSIZE MESSAGE
GETSIZE TEXT
This command will get the size of the Current Message. If the operand
"MESSAGE" is given, it will be the size of the complete message. If the
operand "TEXT" is given, it will be only the size of the text portion of
the message (Message size less the header size and any attachment size).
RESULT: 0 No Current Message
The size of the Current Message or just the text size.
GETSTRING
Syntax: GETSTRING
GETSTRING title
GETSTRING title defaultstring
This command brings up the AEMail string requester so you can solicit a
string from the user.
If no operands are provided with this command, the string requester will
have "ARexx Enter String" as the default title in the requester with no
default string.
The second form of this command allows you to provide your own title in
the string requester which may be more descriptive of what purpose you
want the string for.
The third form gives the user the ability to provide both a title and a
default string that will appear in the requester when it is first brought
up.
Be very careful in using this command since this is one that will require
"creative" quoting to insure that you have no more than two operand
strings. As an example you should use something like this:
GETFILENAME '"Enter a Folder Name"' '"INBOX"'
This will send "Enter a Folder Name" and "INBOX" to AEMail which will
recognize these strings as two separate quoted operands. Since INBOX is
one word, it does not have to have the special quoting on it but can be
simply 'INBOX'.
RESULTS: NULL or blank if the no string was entered or the requester was
cancelled.
The string that was entered in the requester.
LAST
Syntax: LAST
LAST NEW
LAST SELECTED
LAST DELETED
Without an Operand this command selects the last message in the current
selected folder as the current message.
With the NEW operand, this command selects the last un-read (new) message
in the current selected folder as the current message.
If a message is unread but deleted, it will NOT be considered an un-read
message.
With the SELECTED operand, this command selects the last selected
(message marked with an asterick) message in the current selected folder
as the current message.
With the DELETED operand, this command selects the last message marked as
deleted in the current selected folder as the current message.
NOTE: The order of the messages in the folder is the un-sorted order.
This generally means that the last message is the newest message in the
folder.
RESULT: 0 No messages of the particular type in the folder
1 Last message is now the current message.
MESSAGE
This command is used to set various flags on the Current Message. After
the execution of this command, the message list, if it is currently being
displayed, will be re-displayed with the changed status. The forms of
this command are as follows:
Syntax: MESSAGE SELECT
This command marks the Current Message as selected.
RESULT: -1 There is no Current Message.
0 The Current Message is already marked as selected.
1 The Current Message is now marked as selected.
***
Syntax: MESSAGE UNSELECT
This command marks the Current Message as un-selected.
RESULT: -1 There is no Current Message.
0 The Current Message is not marked as selected.
1 The Current Message is now marked as un-selected.
***
Syntax: MESSAGE DELETE
This command marks the Current Message as deleted.
RESULT: -1 There is no Current Message.
0 The Current Message is already marked as deleted.
1 The Current Message is now marked as deleted.
***
Syntax: MESSAGE UNDELETE
This command marks the Current Message as not deleted.
RESULT: -1 There is no Current Message.
0 The Current Message is not currently marked as deleted.
1 The Current Message is now no longer marked as deleted.
***
Syntax: MESSAGE READ
This command marks the Current Message as being read.
RESULT: -1 There is no Current Message.
0 The Current Message is already marked as being read.
1 The Current Message is now marked as being read.
***
Syntax: MESSAGE MAKE NEW
This command marks the Current Message as unread or new.
NOTE: If the message was marked as deleted, only the "new" flag is set;
otherwise, both the "new" and "unread" flags are set.
RESULT: -1 There is no Current Message.
0 The Current Message is already marked as unread (new).
1 The Current Message is now marked as unread.
***
Syntax: MESSAGE SELECT ALL
All messages in the current selected folder are marked as selected. This
command does not change the Current Message status.
RESULT: 0 There are no messages in the selected folder.
1 All of the messages in the selected folder are marked as
selected.
***
Syntax: MESSAGE SELECT NONE
MESSAGE UNSELECT ALL
This command can be expressed in either form above.
All messages in the current selected folder are marked as un-selected.
This command does not change the Current Message status.
RESULT: 0 There are no messages in the selected folder.
1 All of the messages in the selected folder are now marked as
un-selected.
NEXT
This command is used to select the next message in the current folder or
to select the next name string from the list of To: or cc: recipients.
***
Syntax: NEXT
NEXT NEW
NEXT SELECTED
NEXT DELETED
Without an operand this command selects the next message, regardless of
it's status, in the current selected folder as the current message.
With the NEW operand, this command selects the next un-read (new) message
in the current selected folder as the current message.
If a message is unread but deleted, it will NOT be considered an un-read
message.
With the SELECTED operand, this command selects the next selected (message
marked with an asterick) message in the current selected folder as the
current message.
With the DELETED operand, this command selects the next message marked as
deleted in the current selected folder as the current message.
NOTE: The order of the messages in the folder is the un-sorted order.
This generally means that the order of the messages in the folder is that
older messages are before newer messages.
RESULT: 0 No more messages of the particular type are in the folder.
At the end of the message list.
1 The next message is now the current message.
***
Syntax: NEXT NAME
This command returns the next name from the header field that was
referenced by the last FIRST command. A FIRST TONAME, FIRST CCNAME, or
FIRST BCCNAME command must have been issued prior to issuing the first
NEXT NAME command. Each NEXT NAME command that is issued retrieves the
next name in that header field. Once the end of the name list is reached,
another FIRST command must be issued before another NEXT NAME command is
issued. The name can be in one of the following formats:
email-address (Full Name)
Full Name <email-address>
email-address
addressbook-nickname
Names in the header recipient lists are separated by commas; however, a
comma may be embedded within a real name if the real name is surrounded by
quotes.
If you wish to extract either the Full Name, email-address, or the
addressbook-nickname from the RESULT you can set the RESULT to a variable
and then use the EXTRACT command with that variable as the arguement.
RESULT: -2 The name string has not been started with the
FIRST command.
NULL or blank You are at the end of the list. There are no
more names in the current header field.
The next name in the appropriate header.
OKAY1
Syntax: OKAY1 text
This commands presents the AEMail notification requester containing the
supplied text. If there are any ARexx specific command operators within
the text stream, the stream should be surrounded in quotes.
The notification requester has one button marked "Continue". Clicking on
this button will terminate the requester and the OKAY1 command.
Warning: Be careful of the size of the text string that you pass to this
command. If the string is too long without intervening line feeds, the
"Continue" button could be positioned off the screen and you will have no
way to terminate the requester. This can be particularly true of returned
strings that are being displayed. It is best to use the ARexx LEFT()
function to insure you have a short enough string.
RESULT: 1 Always returned
OKAY2
Syntax: OKAY1 responses text
This commands presents the AEMail notification requester containing the
supplied text. If there are any ARexx specific command operators within
the text stream, the stream should be surrounded in quotes.
"responses" provides a list of possible responses to the requester. Any
number of responses can be provided. Each response must be separated by
the vertical bar ("|"). The entire response string must be surrounded by
quote marks.
The notification requester has as many buttons as they are responses. The
wording in these buttons is controlled by the response string. Clicking
on any of these buttons will terminate the requester and the OKAY2
command.
RESULT: 0 The last response in the response string was selected.
1 The first response was selected.
n The second through nth (last - 1) response was selected.
PREVIOUS
Syntax: PREVIOUS
PREVIOUS NEW
PREVIOUS SELECTED
PREVIOUS DELETED
Without an operand this command selects the previous message, regardless
of it's status, in the current selected folder as the current message.
With the NEW operand, this command selects the previous un-read (new)
message in the current selected folder as the current message.
If a message is unread but deleted, it will NOT be considered an un-read
message.
With the SELECTED operand, this command selects the previous selected
(message marked with an asterick) message in the current selected folder
as the current message.
With the DELETED operand, this command selects the previous message marked
as deleted in the current selected folder as the current message.
NOTE: The order of the messages in the folder is the un-sorted order.
This generally means that the order of the messages in the folder is that
older messages are before newer messages.
RESULT: 0 No more messages of the particular type are in the folder.
At the beginning of the message list.
1 The next previous is now the current message.
QUEUE
Syntax: QUEUE "message-file-name" [MAILTO userid]
The message file indicated by "message-file-name" will be read into the
system and will be placed in the QUEUED folder. This message must have
correctly formatted headers. A blank line must separate the headers from
the body of the message.
The "message-file-name" should be the full path name of the message file
and it should be quoted since the path will contain characters that ARexx
will attempt to interpret as operators. It may also contain embedded
spaces. If it does contain embedded spaces, double quote pairs must be
used, ie. '"filename string"' or '"'variable'"'.
Any address provided with the To: header can be either an Address Book
nickname or a full email address. Multiple To: addresses can be provided
as well as multiple cc: or bcc: addresses.
Instead of a To: address provided in the message the optional MAILTO
keyword can be used to provide a userid which can be an Address Book
nickname or an email address. The MAILTO address will be added to any
addresses provide with a To: header.
If the From: or Reply-To: addresses are not given, these addresses will be
taken from the default From: and Reply-To addresses.
Any Date: header is ignored since the Date: header will be constructed
when the message is sent.
Any other non-standard headers can be supplied in the message file and
they will be included with the message.
Only the To: header has to be provided unless the MAILTO parameter is
given. If the MAILTO parameter is used, no headers have to be provided
with the message. However, if this is done, a blank line MUST be the
first line in the message file.
Additional RC type errors can be received by this command if the
message-file-name is invalid or an error occurred reading in the message
file. Each of these errors have a severity level of 5 with one of the
following messages placed in the AEMAIL.LASTERROR variable:
105: Error Opening Passed Message
106: Error retrieving passed message
No validation is made on the To: address in the message. If it is
invalid, either the user will receive an error when the message is sent or
a message will be received indicating "Returned mail: User unknown".
RESULT: 1: Message was placed in the QUEUED folder.
REPLYTO
Syntax: REPLYTO
This command returns the Reply-To: header of the current message without
the "Reply-To: ". It has no operands.
RESULT: -1 No current message
NULL or blanks No Reply-To: header
Reply-To: header
SAVE
This command can save the current message or selected messages or the text
portion of a message to a file. The current message or current message
text can also be directly returned in the RESULT variable. The Current
Message text can also be saved to the clipboard.
The various forms of this command are given below:
Syntax: SAVE MESSAGE
This command will return the Current Message in the RESULT variable. This
will be the complete message including all headers, message body, and all
attachments.
WARNING: This will return only the first 4092 characters of the current
message. Line Feed characters will be included at the end of each line in
the message.
You can use the GETSIZE MESSAGE command to obtain the size of the message
to see if it will fit.
RESULT: NULL or blank There is no Current Message
The message (up to 4092 characters)
***
Syntax: SAVE MESSAGE [TO] filename
This command will save the Current Message to the file whose complete path
and file name is filename. This should be a quoted variable. You can
solicit a filename by using the GETFILENAME command before issuing this
command.
The keyword TO is optional.
The message saved is the complete message including all headers, message
body, and all attachments. Except for available disk space, there is no
limit on the size of the message. Line Feed characters will be included
at the end of each line in the message.
RESULT: 0 There is no current message
1 The current message has been saved.
***
Syntax: SAVE SELECTED MESSAGES [TO] filename
This command will save all of the selected messages in the current
selected folder to the file whose complete path and file name is filename.
This should be a quoted variable. You can solicit a filename by using the
GETFILENAME command before issuing this command.
All of the messages will be saved in the single file specified as a block
of messages.
The keyword TO is optional.
The messages saved include the complete message including all headers,
message body, and all attachments. Except for available disk space, there
is no limit on the size of the message. Line Feed characters will be
included at the end of each line in the message.
RESULT: 0 There is no messages selected
1 The current message has been saved.
***
Syntax: SAVE TEXT
SAVE TEXT NOLF
This command will return the text body of the Current Message in the
RESULT variable. This will be only the body text without headers or
attachments.
Normally the text is returned with a line feed separating each line. If
you use the "NOLF" operand, this line feed will be left off. This means
that the body lines will be one continuous string of data. This can be
very helpful if you have a short message generated by a forms command sent
by email in a web page.
WARNING: This will return only the first 4092 characters of the current
message body text. Line Feed characters will be included at the end of
each line in the message unless NOLF is specified.
You can use the GETSIZE TEXT command to obtain the size of the message
body to see if it will fit.
RESULT: NULL or blank There is no Current Message
The message text (up to 4092 characters)
***
Syntax: SAVE TEXT [TO] filename
This command will save the text body of the Current Message to the file
whose complete path and file name is filename. This should be a quoted
variable. You can solicit a filename by using the GETFILENAME command
before issuing this command.
The keyword TO is optional.
The text saved is only the body text without headers or attachments.
Except for available disk space, there is no limit on the size of the
message text. Line Feed characters will be included at the end of each
line in the message.
RESULT: 0 There is no current message
1 The current message text has been saved.
***
Syntax: SAVE TEXT [TO] CLIPBOARD
SAVE TEXT [TO] CLIPBOARD n
The first form of this command will save the text body of the Current
Message to the clipboard unit that is currently active. The second form
will allow you to save the text to the clipboard unit specified by n.
You can determine which clipboard is currently active by using the GETCLIP
UNIT command.
If you use the "n" parameter, the currently active clipboard unit will be
changed to n after the command is successfully executed (RESULT of 1).
The keyword TO is optional.
The text saved is only the body text without headers or attachments.
Except for available RAM space, there is no limit on the size of the
message text. Line Feed characters will be included at the end of each
line in the message.
RESULT: 0 There is no current message
1 The current message text has been saved to the clipboard.
***
Syntax: SAVE "string of text" [TO] CLIPBOARD
SAVE "string of text" [TO] CLIPBOARD n
The first form of this command will save the string of text passed as a
quoted string to the clipboard unit that is currently active. The second
form will allow you to save the string to the clipboard unit specified by
n.
You can determine which clipboard is currently active by using the GETCLIP
UNIT command.
If you use the "n" parameter, the currently active clipboard unit will be
changed to n after the command is successfully executed (RESULT of 1).
The keyword TO is optional.
The keyword TO is optional.
The string saved must be quoted to allow for embedded spaces and special
characters. As an example:
SAVE '"This is a string of characters"' TO CLIPBOARD 3
will save the string "This is a string of characters" to clipboard number
3.
The string is limited to 119 characters. If a larger string is given it
will be truncated at 119 characters.
RESULT: 1 The string has been saved to the clipboard.
SCREENTOBACK
Syntax: SCREENTOBACK AEMAIL
SCREENTOBACK WORKBENCH
SCREENTOBACK public-screen-name
This command brings either the AEMail screen, the Workbench screen or
the named public-screen-name to the back of the display.
RESULT: 0 The public-screen-name is invalid or no longer open
1 The specified screen has been moved to the back.
SCREENTOFRONT
Syntax: SCREENTOFRONT AEMAIL
SCREENTOFRONT WORKBENCH
SCREENTOFRONT public-screen-name
This command brings either the AEMail screen, the Workbench screen or
the named public-screen-name to the front of the display.
RESULT: 0 The public-screen-name is invalid or no longer open
1 The specified screen is now the front most screen.
SUBJECT
Syntax: SUBJECT
This command returns the Subject: header of the current message without
"Subject: ". It has no operands.
Also, the RE: and (fwd), if present, is stripped from the header string.
You can use the FLAGS command to determine if the current message is a
reply or forwarded message.
RESULT: -1 No current message
NULL or blanks No Subject: header
Subject: header
TO
Syntax: TO
This command returns the To: header of the current message without the
"To: ". It has no operands.
RESULT: -1 No current message
NULL or blanks No To: header
To: header
Error Messages
--------------
When a command returns an RC value other than 0 the RC code represents a
severity code. Severity codes are usually 5 or 20. A string error
message will also appear in the AEMAIL.LASTERROR variable. These errors
can be interrogated and displayed.
The errors that you can expect from AEMail are as follows:
"100: Unknown command"
"101: Syntax Error"
"102: No Operand Required"
"103: Missing Operand"
"104: Too Many Operands"
"105: Error Opening Passed Message"
"106: Error retrieving passed message"
"110: Out of Memory"
Additional errors which will not have a error message number associated
with them are:
"Unable to open input mail file"
"Error reading input mail file"
"Unable to open output file"
"Error writing to output file"
X. AEMAIL FILES
The following are the various files used by AEMail. Normally, they all
reside in the AEMAIL: directory with the exception of the aemail.cnfg
file, the TCPLOG file and the mailcap file. The aemail.cnfg file normally
resides in the S: directory, and both the TCPLOG file and the mailcap
file may or may not reside in the AEMAIL: directory depending on the
user's preference.
You can override the AEMAIL: assign by using the MAIL_DIR= Tool Type and
you can change the name an location of the aemail.cnfg file with the
CONFIG= Tool Type.
SPECIAL NOTE: If the AEMAIL: assign is missing or is incorrect and you do
not have a MAIL_DIR= Tool Type, you will not be able to run AEMail.
With the exception of the mailcap file, you can begin AEMail without any
of the other files being present. They will be automatically created as
you process messages or do other AEMail actions.
The mailcap file, if used, MUST be setup prior to executing AEMail. This
can be done using any text editor.
The following are the AEMail files:
mailcap
-------
The mailcap file is used to establish programs that should be executed to
display MIME attachments. Use of this file allows AEMail to use any
AmigaDOS operating system 2.1 or above.
The mailcap file is a standard Internet file which is specified in RFC
(Request For Comment) 1524. Since it is standard, you can use a mailcap
file that was created for another program that specified a display program
for the same type of files. That is the reason that AEMail allows you to
specify the directory that contains the mailcap file with the Tool Type
MAILCAP_DIR= or with the Configuration Screen. If you do not include this
Tool Type or change the specification in the Default Path section of the
Configuration Screen, the mailcap directory will default to the AEMAIL:
directory.
AEMail only uses the two required fields of the RFC 1524 standard. Other
fields are ignored at this time.
Each mailcap file consists of entries that describe the proper handling of
one media type at the local site. A mailcap file consists of a sequence
of such individual entries separated by LINE FEEDS. Blank lines and lines
starting with '#' are considered comments and are ignored. Long entries
may be continued on multiple lines if the line to be continued ends with a
backslash character ('\'). In this event, mutiple lines are to treated as
a single mailcap entry. Note that for such "continued" lines, the
backslash must be the last character of the line to be continued.
Each mailcap entry consists of a number of fields each separated by a
semicolon (';'). The first two fields are required, and must occur in the
specified order. The remaining fields are optional and may appear in any
order. NOTE: At this time AEMail does not use these optional fields and
if they are present, ignores them. Because of this, these optional fields
WILL NOT be discussed in this documentation.
The general format of a mailcap entry is:
content type; view command [; ......] LINE FEED
The first field is the content type, which indicates the type of data this
mailcap entry describes how to handle. It is to be matched against the
type/subtype specification in the "Content-Type" MIME header (see the ADD
ATTACHMENTS REQUESTER described in section VIII. AEMAIL WINDOWS above).
If the subtype is "*", it is intended to match all subtypes of the named
content type.
Examples of the content type field are:
images/gif
which is intended to match only the images/gif type/subtype whereas
images/*
matches all image types (images/gif, images/jpeg, etc).
The second field, view command, is a specification of how the attachment
meeting the content type specification is viewed. For any particular
operating system, this would indicate how the program is called. For
AEMail this would include the entire path name for calling the program and
any parameters that are needed on the command line. A "%s" is used to
indicate the substitution of the attachment name. The entire entry should
be surrounded by quotes. As an example:
"sys:Utilities/multiview %s screen"
would call multiview placing the displayed attachment on its own screen
(the "screen" parameter).
If you needed to have the display on the Workbench screen you can add the
keyword "wb;" in front of the program path. As an example, if you wanted
multiview to open on a window on the Workbench screen, you could use:
"wb;sys:Utilities/multiview %s"
Note the use of the quotes (") surrounding the parameter. This is
necessary so that the mailcap interpreter will be prevented from treating
special characters (such as ';') as part of the mailcap syntax.
Also note the absence of the "screen" keyword. The above call would push
the Workbench screen to the front when MultiView was called and the
Workbench screen would be used for the MultiView window. The only problem
with this is you would be limited to the number of colors and the
resolution specified for Workbench. Some other programs, however, might
only be able to open as a window on the Workbench screen and would be
hidden by the AEMail screen when those programs were called unless the
"wb;" parameter was specified.
An example of a complete mailcap entry to use multiview to display all
images would be:
image/*; "sys:Utilities/multiview %s screen"
Any image/ type, regardless of the subtype, would be displayed providing
there was an appropriate data type present for that image subtype.
A sample mailcap file is included with the archive which uses MultiView
for text, message, sound, image, and video files. Since MultiView is a
3.x program using datatypes, this mailcap file will ONLY work with 3.x
systems. To make it work for 2.x systems, you would need to change the
display programs to your favorite programs that work with 2.x. You might
also have to be specific as to the subtype for a specific display
type/subtype. If you install AEMail on a 2.1 system using the provided
installation script, you will be able to create the mailcap file provided
you selected "Expert" mode for the installation "user mode".
The following is the sample mailcap file used for AmigaDos 3.x that uses
MultiView as the display agent. Please note the use of the "screen"
parameter which tells MultiView to open on it's own screen rather than the
WorkBench screen. This allows the use of all colors in the image's
palette.
text/*; "sys:Utilities/multiview %s"
message/*; "sys:Utilities/Multiview %s"
image/*; "sys:Utilities/multiview %s screen"
audio/*; "sys:Utilities/multiview %s screen"
video/*; "sys:Utilities/multiview %s screen"
General Configuration File (aemail.cnfg)
----------------------------------------
The s:aemail.cnfg file is the General Configuration file. This file
contains various configuration information including the version and
revision number of the AEMail version that was last loaded. A special
flag in this file indicates whether this file should take precedence over
the Tool Type entries.
This file is normally placed in the S: directory rather than the AEMAIL:
directory. The reason for this was that if you changed the location of
the AEMAIL: directory, AEMail would not be able to locate the new
configuration file the next time you loaded AEMail. Also, the S:
directory is more commonly used to store configuration files for AMIGA
programs.
You do not have to store this file in the S: directory nor do you have to
name it "aemail.cnfg". This is only the default name and location for
this file. With the use of the CONFIG= Tool Type or the config= parameter
on the shell call for AEMail, you can rename the file and place it
anywhere you want.
Starting with AEMail version 1.13 you can also have multiple configuration
files. This allows you to set up multiple configurations for different
users of AEMail. You can select which configuration you want through the
"Project/Configuration/Open" menu item.
If the configuration is never changed with the Configuration Screen, the
Tool Type entries will take precedence. If either the [SAVE] or [SAVE TO]
gadgets in the Configuration Screen is selected, or the
"Project/Configuration/Save" or "Project/Configuration/Save to" menu items
are selected, the General Configuration File will always take precedence.
The s:aemail.cnfg (or CONFIG= Tool Type or config= shell parameter) is
referred as your base configuration file. You can always return to the
base configuration through the "Project/Configuration/Restore Default"
menu item.
If you display the AEMail General Configuration file with a text editor,
you will find that not all portions of the file are readable as text. The
only way you can create and update the general configuration file is
through AEMail itself.
As part of this file is your password stored in encrypted format.
.headers
--------
The .headers file provides a list of message headers. Those that you want
displayed in the message as "minimum headers" are preceded by an asterick
(*); all other headers are preceded by a space.
The .headers file may not be present. If it is not, the following are
displayed as the "minimum headers":
Date:
From:
Reply-To:
To:
cc:
bcc:
Subject:
See the discussion on configuring minimum headers in the General
Parameters page of the Configuration Screen.
folder.config
-------------
This file gives the general information about each of the folders
including:
Flags (long word, 4 bytes): general flags concerning this folder
Name (9 bytes including ending NULL): short folder name
Pen (1 byte): pen number for folder tab
Sort Keys (8 bytes): the permanent sort keys for the folder
Folder Description (string ending in LINE FEED): the folder
description. If this is a folder for one of the pre-set
folders, this string will be empty (LINE FEED only) unless
the user has decided to change the folder description.
Each Filter string ending in a LINE FEED. Each string begins with 4
bytes that provide filter parameters as follows:
1 byte indicating the header to be searched
2 bytes of flags
1 byte indicating the compare criteria
Three successive LINE FEEDS ends each folder config entry.
For those fields that are strings: if the field is empty there will be a
LINE FEED with no data preceding it. If filters have been specified, each
filter will have at least 4 bytes followed by the search arguement (if
present) and a LINE FEED.
folder.config files for versions prior to 1.40 can be read by AEMail
version 1.40 or later. However, once a filter has been added, earlier
versions can not properly read the version 1.40 or later folder.config.
If no filters are added, earlier versions of AEMail can still read the
folder.config file.
It is suggested that you copy your current folder.config file to
folder.config.old before implementing AEMail 1.40. The Install script
will do this for you with a prompt.
NOTE: if for some reason your folder.config file becomes corrupted or is
accidently deleted, you can restore all of the folders and the messages
within them by doing the following:
delete any current folder.config file (or rename it so it is
no longer recognized).
Run AEMail. Add any additional folders that you previously
had added. (INBOX, PENDING, QUEUED and SENT will automatically
be created). You must use the exact name you had previously
used.
The new folders will show 0 messages.
Quit AEMail.
Re-Run AEMail. The new folders should now show the appropriate
number of messages provided a valid [folder_Name].config
file was present for that folder. The name of the new
folder must exactly match the [folder_Name] in the
[folder_Name].config file.
[folder_Name].config
--------------------
For each of the folders that contain messages there will be a
configuration file which gives information on the messages in that folder.
The name of the file will be the short folder name with ".config" appended
to it.
For this version of AEMail, the [folder_Name].config file contains the
following information for each message in the folder:
Message Flags (word, 2 bytes): Flags describing the message.
File Code (long word, 4 bytes): this field is a binary field
which is used to derive the file name for the message file
itself.
Message Size (long word, 4 bytes): size of message.
Body Displacement (word, 2 bytes): the position where the
body of the message starts.
From (string ending in LINE FEED): the information in the
From: field in the message header.
Subject (string ending in LINE FEED): the information in the
Subject: field in the message header. The RE: and FWD:
headings at the beginning of the Subject header are
stripped, but indicated by flags in the Message Flags field
so that the exact subject field can be reconstructed.
Date (string ending in LINE FEED): the information in the
Date: field in the message header.
To (string ending in LINE FEED): the information in the
To: field in the message header.
Reply-To (string ending in LINE FEED): the information in the
Reply-To: field in the message header.
cc (string ending in LINE FEED): the information in the
cc: field in the message header.
bcc (string ending in LINE FEED): the information in the
bcc: field in the message header.
For those fields that are strings: if the field is empty, there will be a
LINE FEED without any data preceding it.
NOTE: For AEMail versions prior to 1.42, only the first header line of
any particular header type (ie, To:, cc:, etc.) was saved in the header
strings of the [Folder_Name].config file. For version 1.42 and later, the
complete header string is saved with all lines of the particular header
type. Up to 4096 characters can be saved (if there are that many lines
for a particular header type).
This is particularly important for messages that have multiple To: or cc:
recipients. This means that the complete list of recipients can be
examined in Filter commands and also provides the capability to send
replys to all the recipients of a message.
This does create a problem, however, if the [Folder_Name].config created
by Version 1.42 or later is read by a version of AEMail prior to 1.42.
The Version 1.42 or later [Folder_Name].config file that contains any
message that has long multiple recipient lists (more than one line) can
not be read correctly by versions prior to 1.42. If you need to revert to
an earlier version of AEMail, you can do the following:
With Version 1.42 or later, export (save) all messages with multiple
recipients that were read by 1.42 or later to a file. You do not have to
worry about messages read by earlier versions.
Delete all of the messages you just saved.
Then, from the earlier version of AEMail, retrieve from file the messages
you just saved. The header lines will be truncated by the earlier
version.
The reverse is also possible. Messages with multiple recipients read by
earlier versions will have their header data truncated. You can export
(save) the message to a file and then re-read it into AEMail with all
header data intact.
.addrbook
---------
This file provides address book information. Each record looks like this:
Version (word, 2 bytes): The address book version. Prior to
Version 1 of the address book, this and the following field
did not exist. The flag $8000 identifies this as a
legitimate version field to distinguish the addess book
file from version 0. NOTE: The Address Book version is
NOT the same as the AEMail Version. The Address Book
version only changes when the format of the Address Book
changes.
Flags (word, 2 bytes): Flags describing group actions. In
Version 0, the flags field was given in the high order byte
of the count field which limited the group count to 255.
Count (word, 2 bytes): If this field is zero, the entry is
a single user entry. If this field is greater that zero
it represents a group entry and indicates the number of
UserIds in the group.
Nickname (string ending in LINE FEED): the Nickname for this
entry (both group or user).
Real Name (string ending in LINE FEED): the Real Name for
individual users or the group description for group
entries.
UserID (one or more strings ending in LINE FEEDS): The number
of UserID fields is determined by the count at the
beginning of the record. For individual users, this MUST
be the UserID and Domain for that user. For group users
this can be a Nickname that points to the real user.
For a description of how entries in the Address Book can be created and
displayed see the Section VIII, AEMAIL Windows: Address Book window.
.signature
----------
This is a flat ASCII file that contains the signature block that is to be
appended to any composed messages. Each line of the signature block must
end in a LINE FEED.
A facility is provided when composing messages to create and or edit this
signature block (see the Compose Message window description in Section
VIII above).
Starting with AEMail Version 1.20, multiple signature files can be used.
These signature files can be named whatever the user wishes and can be
placed wherever the user wishes (Registered Users ONLY).
Messages
--------
Each message is stored as an individual file with a cryptic file name
generated from the File Code in the [Folder_Name].config file. This name
begins with "AE" and ends with "M" with a number of numeric digits in
between. The message is stored as a flat ASCII file as it is received
from the POP Server with any CARRAGE RETURNS in a CARRAGE RETURN/LINE FEED
sequences stripped. This follows the Amiga format for ASCII files.
The complete message is stored along with any attachments as they were
orginally received. Any particular message can be copied to a named file
anywhere in your system through the "SAVE MESSAGE TO FILE" command. If
you have an off line program that can process a mime message or a message
with UUENCODED attachments, you can use that program against this file to
extract the attachments or you can save that attachment directly with the
Attachment Requester in the Message Display Window (Section VIII).
If messages are left in the PENDING or QUEUED folders, two additional
files may be created when AEMail terminates. If attachments were added to
the message when it was created, a file with the same name as the message
file but with "AT" appended to it will be created. This file contains
information about the attachments. A second file may be created if
additional headers were created. This file has "HD" appended to the
original message name.
Both of these files are deleted when AEMail is loaded and the PENDING and
QUEUED message lists are created internally. The files are re-created if
the messages remain in the PENDING or QUEUED folders when AEMail
terminates.
PLEASE NOTE: if the [folder_Name].config file is deleted you will lose
all capability of retrieving your messages unless you have previously
copied them to named files.
TCP Trace Log File (TCPLOG)
---------------------------
This file is present if you have specified
TCPLOG=name-of-log-file
in the Tool Types parameters or named a "TCP Logging File" in the Default
Path Parameters page of the Configuration screen. Since
"name-of-log-file" must be the full path name of the log file, this file
may or may not reside in the AEMAIL: directory
The TCP Trace Log File traces every TCP transaction. Each time AEMail is
started the following record is written to the file:
Logging Beginning at DD MMM YR HH:MM:SS
where DD is the day of the week, MMM is the month (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc), YY
is the 2 digit year (97) and HH, MM, and SS are the hour (24 hour clock),
minutes, and seconds.
Each logging record will consist of a 38 byte header and up to 82 bytes of
either descriptive information or actual data received or sent over the
TCP interface. The header consists of a 21 byte date/time stamp (DD MMM
YR HH:MM:SS) and 16 byte routine name of the routine in AEMail that called
the trace.
If data is displayed, instances of a CARRAGE RETURN will be displayed as
<CR> and of LINE FEEDS as <LF>. If the data exceeds 82 bytes, <---> will
be placed at the end of the line.
When AEMail terminates, or the TCPLOG file name is changed by the Default
Path Parameters page of the Configuration screen, the following record is
written to the file:
Logging Ending at DD MMM YY HH:MM:SS
Each AEMail session is stacked behind the previous one, so that the file
can become quite large. Periodic purging of the file can occur by
deleting the TCPLOG file in between sessions of AEMail. Also, a new file
is created when you change the name of the TCPLOG file with the
Configuration screen.
XI. BUG REPORTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Bugs should be reported to:
jzachar@calweb.com
by email. You can also use the nickname AEMAIL which has been
automatically stored in your address book.
In reporting bugs, be as complete as possible in describing the
circumstances leading up to the bug. It would be helpful if you indicate
all actions (mouse clicks, etc) that you took before the problem occurred.
If you are having problems connecting to your Internet provider, or
sending or receiving mail, you should activate the TCP Log file (See
Section X, AEMAIL FILES: TCP Trace Log File) and send a copy of the log
as an attachment to your message. You might want to block out any
password that is contained in the file before you send it to me, however.
You can do that with any text editor.
I would also appreciate any suggestions that you have for improving
AEMail. I will not guarantee that I will accept all suggestions or that I
will necessarily implement them in the next release; however, I do take
each suggestion seriously. In the past I have implemented a number of
suggestions made by my testers. I will attempt to respond to each
suggestion that is made.
In making suggestions keep in mind some of the restraints that I have
placed on AEMAIL:
(1) The program should be able to be run on any version of
AmigaDos 2.1 or greater, and
(2) with the exception of TCP/IP stack software (ie., AmiTCP, Miami,
or TermiteTCP) AEMail should not require any extension to your
system that does not come with a standard AmigaDOS release. This
effectively rules out MUI. Using an editor of your choice meets
this criteria since you can use the standard AmigaDOS editors, ED
or MEMACS, which come with the standard AMIGA systems.
When reporting bugs or making suggestions, please be as complete as
possible in describing the circumstances that brought about the problem or
how the suggestion could be implemented.
XII. REFERENCES
A number of software packages are mentioned in this documentation.
Details on how to obtain these packages are given below:
TCP/IP STACKS
AmiTCP A TCP/IP stack for use with the Amiga. AmiTCP
is copyright (c) 1994, 1995 by Network Solutions
Development, Inc.
AmiTCP was developed by Network Solutions Development,
Inc., P.O. Box 32, FIN-02151 Espoo, Finland.
A demo 4.0 version is available on AmiNet sites in
countries other than USA or Australia. It can also
be found on many BBS's.
The commercial version is distributed by Village
Tronic Marketing GmbH, Wellweg 95, D-31157 Sarstedt,
Germany, and is available from many Amiga dealers and
mail order houses.
World Wide Web home page for Network Solutions
Development, Inc is:
http://www.xgu.fi/biz/NSDI/
email addresses: info@nsdi.fi
AmiTCP-Support@nsdi.fi
AmiTCP-Group@nsdi.fi
Miami A TCP/IP stack compatible with AmiTCP. This stack
is very simple to install and configure. Miami is
copyright (c) 1996, 1997 by Holger Kruse. It is
currently shareware and is available at
http://www.nordicglobal.com/miami.html
on the WWW or it may be available on local BBS's.
Some versions are available on AmiNet, but if you want
the latest version consult the web page listed above.
email addresses: kruse@nordicglobal.com
kruse@america.com
If you are using Miami, the "Down when Offline" item
in the TCP/IP Settings page for Miami should be
checked and your settings saved. This will prevent
Miami from waiting 80 seconds before returning a
failure when you try to access the Internet when you
are "Offline".
TermiteTCP A TCP/IP stack compatible with AmiTCP. This stack is
very simple to install and configure. TermiteTCP is
copyright (c) 1996 by Oregon Research, 16200 S.W.
Pacific Hwy, Suite 162, Tigard, OR 97224.
This is a commercial product available at many Amiga
dealers, mail order houses, or directly from Oregon
Research.
World Wide Web home page for Oregon Research is:
http://www.orres.com/~orres/
email address: support@orres.com
WWW BROWSERS
IBrowse Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 by Omnipresence Intl.
IBrowse is a commercial product distributed by Oregon
Research in the United States and HiSoft in the
United Kingdom and can be obtained from Amiga dealers
or mail order houses. A demo version and upgrades can
be obtained from the Omnipresence WWW site at:
http://www.omnipresence.com/ibrowse
and on AmiNet.
Voyager NG Copyright (c) 1995-97 by Oiver Wagner. Voyager is
available for download from AmiNet or the
http://www.vapor.com/support
WWW site.
email address: owagner@lsd.wupper.de
AWeb-II Copyright (c) 1996 by AmiTrix Development.
Both a public domain demo (AWEB) and a commercial
(AWEB II) version is available. The public domain
demo version can be found on AmiNet (AWeb v1.2b),
many BBS's, or on the AmiTrix WWW site:
http://www.networkx.com/amitrix/aweb.html
The commercial version (AWEB II) can be obtained from
Amiga dealers or mail order houses.
email addresses: sales@amitrix.com
support@amitrix.com
Mailing address: AmiTrix Development
5312-47 Street
Beaumont Alberta, Canada T4X 1H9
XIII. IN CONCLUSION
As payment for receiving and using this unregestered BETA version of
AEMail, I would like any bugs, comments, or suggestions reported to me.
You can send me email at
jzachar@calweb.com
or use the AEMAIL Nickname created in your Address Book.
You can also register AEMail for a shareware fee of $30. See the
discussion on REGISTRATION under Section II. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.
See the Section X, Bug Reports and Suggestions above for the reporting
procedure.
If you give a unregistered version of this program to anyone else to use
and evaluate, please include the complete archive as distributed. This
includes the AEMail program, the installation script, and all
documentation and readme files.
The complete archive is being posted on AmiNet and may be posted to any
BBS. If it is posted to any particular BBS, I would appreciate it if the
SYSOP of that BBS would send me an email message indicating the BBS it was
posted to.
Future versions of AEMail are planned that will implement the following
features:
Asynchronous retrieval of messages from a POP server
Asynchronous sending of messages to the SMTP server
Even faster message display routines
Locale support
Built in message editor
Other features suggested by users
I have a web site at:
http://www.calweb.com/~jzachar/
The latest version of AEMail will be posted to this web site. Major
releases will also be posted on AmiNet.
Whenever a new version of AEMail is available, I will email all users for
which I have received notification messages (see Registration in Section
II) with notice of the new version. If you do not wish to receive this
notification, please email me at jzachar@calweb.com.
Thanks,
John Zacharias
jzachar@calweb.com
www: http://www.calweb.com/~jzachar/