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From: [e-mail] (Ryan Alyn Porter)
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi,comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: MailMan WWW email interface v2.0 FAQ
Followup-To: comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi
Date: 29 May 1998 11:55:24 GMT
Organization: Endymion Corporation, http://www.endymion.com
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Message-ID: <www/[e-mail]>
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Summary: A Frequently Asked Questions list for MailMan, version 2.0,
         a web-based internet email interface.
X-Last-Updated: 1998/05/29
Originator: [e-mail]
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi:63664 comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc:26694 comp.answers:31469 news.answers:131254

Archive-name: www/mailman-faq
Posting-Frequency: biweekly
Last-modified: Thursday, May 28, 1998
URL: http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/faq.htm
Created: Friday, May 22, 1998
Maintainer: Ryan Alyn Porter [e-mail]

     Frequently Asked Questions for MailMan version 2.0

              Ryan Alyn Porter [e-mail]
           Copyright ⌐ Endymion Corporation, 1998
                <URL:http://www.endymion.com>

------------------------------

Subject: 1.1) Introduction and Intent

This document is an attempt to answer some of the more
frequently asked questions concerning MailMan, a web-based
email interface from Endymion Corporation.  An HTML copy of
this document is stored online at
<URL:http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/faq.htm>.
This document is not intended to act as marketing materials
for MailMan or for Endymion, this document is intended to
assist us in providing fast and efficient technical support
for MailMan users, 24 hours a day.  I have attempted to
address all levels of reader, from those only barely
familiar with Internet-related software to those with the
task of actually implementing and maintaining MailMan
installations.  Readers of this document are the real judge
of how successfully I have managed to pull that trick off
though.  Let me know if you have any serious issues with the
information contained here.  I have also tried to use simple
and straightforward English, since our users come from all
over the world.  If I have used any idioms that are
difficult to understand in your particular region, please
let me know so that I might make this document more
universally comprehensible.

------------------------------

Subject: 2.1) Table of Contents

1.1) Introduction and Intent

2.1) Table of Contents

3.1) Overview
3.2) What is MailMan?
3.3) What could I use MailMan for?
3.3) How is MailMan different from HotMail, YahooMail,
ExciteMail, etc?
3.4) Where would I find current information on MailMan?
3.5) WhatÆs the short version of how MailMan works from a
technical standpoint?
3.6) Can I customize the interface of MailMan?
3.7) What is the difference between the Standard and the
Professional editions of MailMan?
3.8) What are the basic requirements for setting up a
MailMan installation?
3.9) What standards and protocols does MailMan comply with?

4.1) Licensing
4.2) Is MailMan free?
4.3) What about the source code?
4.4) Why would you want people reading your source code?
4.5) What constitutes a single ôinstallationö of MailMan?
4.6) Why are you picking on Scientology?

5.1) Installation
5.2) What is the difference between the different
installation distributions?
5.3) What is the basic installation procedure?
5.4) What is the installation procedure for a Unix system?
5.5) What is the installation procedure for an NT system?
5.6) I installed MailMan and it doesnÆt work, what do I do?
5.7) What does it mean when I try to run MailMan and the
server says ôCanÆt locate cgi-lib.plö?

6.1) Operation
6.2) How would I use MailMan in conjunction with a 'primary'
mailer on my home or office system?
6.3) Wouldn't IMAP be very well-suited to this type of
scenario?

7.1) Innards
7.2) How do I customize MailMan to blend into my site and
provide a branded interface to my users?
7.3) Is it possible to ærigÆ a MailMan installation with a
default POP3 or SMTP server address so that the user doesnÆt
have to enter them?
7.4) Is it possible to ærigÆ a MailMan installation with a
default POP3 or SMTP server address so that the user canÆt
modify them even if they want to?

------------------------------

Subject: 3.1) Overview

This section provides an overview of the basic top-level
questions about what MailMan is and what it does.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.2) What is MailMan?

MailMan is a system that provides any user with an interface
to his or her own email account from any web browser
anywhere in the world.  MailMan is a piece of software that
runs on a web server as a part of an existing web site that
interacts with a mail server and displays the results
through the web server.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.2) What could I use MailMan for?

A MailMan installation could support a free email
advertisement site.  A different installation of MailMan
could provide essential email access for the students at a
small community college or the students at a large
university.  A different installation of MailMan could allow
the users of a neighborhood ISP to access their local email
accounts through the web without configuring a mail reader.
A different installation of MailMan could provide access to
any email address anywhere in the world for the patrons of a
cyber cafΘ.  Another installation might allow business
workers to stay in touch while away from their desks, even
while at a pay kiosk in an airport or at a borrowed
workstation at another corporation.  Another installation
might allow a family to keep in touch with friends through
GrandmaÆs WebTV box while visiting for Christmas.  There are
other uses for MailMan that we have not even thought of yet.
If you think of others, please let us know.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.3) How is MailMan different from HotMail,
YahooMail, ExciteMail, etc?

Free Internet mail services such as the ones mentioned above
provide the same basic services that MailMan does, but they
provide them through a proprietary web site, generally with
the purpose of selling advertisements to a guaranteed repeat
audience.  Free email sites provide the user with a mailbox
and the server to access the mailbox.  MailMan is different
because it is simply a piece of software, a technology to be
applied in any number of ways.  MailMan works in conjunction
with other mail servers in order to process incoming and
outgoing mail, communicating with those servers though well-
accepted Internet standards such as the POP3 and STMP
protocols.  The primary advantage of MailMan is that
administrators can control their own MailMan installations.
They have the power to specify what mail servers MailMan
connects to, what MailMan looks like when it runs, who has
access to MailMan, etc.  When you use MailMan, you are
accessing the same email account that you normally access,
not a new account that was created just for you to access
through a free email service.  Some free email services
allow you to access your own email address through the
service, but you are still forced into using someone elseÆs
web server and you are forced into watching someone elseÆs
advertisements.  With MailMan you have much more control.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.4) Where would I find current information on
MailMan?

The æofficialÆ MailMan information site is at the Endymion
Corporation web site, at
<URL:http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman>.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.5) WhatÆs the short version of how MailMan works
from a technical standpoint?

The heart of MailMan is a CGI application written in Perl,
version 5.  The mail application generates MailManÆs user
interface dynamically by reading template files filled with
HTML code, processing them, and producing output for the
user through a web server.  To obtain useful email
information, MailMan obtains a userÆs email account
authentication information directly from the user (a
username, password and server name) and communicates with
the userÆs POP3 email server the way that any client-side
mail software ordinarily would.  The user sees a list of
messages and can select messages for viewing, deletion, and
other normal mail tasks.  If a user wishes to reply to a
message, forward a message, or create a new message, MailMan
communicates with an SMTP mail server to send the outgoing
message the way that any ordinary client-side software
would.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.6) Can I customize the interface of MailMan?

One of the primary benefits of MailMan is that the entire
interface that is presented to the user is the result of a
collection of template files that contain ordinary HTML.
These templates can be modified to incorporate specific
branding of any web site as long as they still contain
certain vital keywords that allow MailMan to insert valuable
information.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.7) What is the difference between the Standard
and the Professional editions of MailMan?

The standard edition of MailMan is more of a 'viewer' for a
POP3 server than a complete mailer.  It does not store any
user information on the server side.  It does not store
messages anywhere, so the only messages that you see are the
messages that are actually on the POP3 server at that time.
The professional edition stores messages on the server side
after they have been fetched from the POP3 server, allowing
you to organize them into a folder hierarchy like you might
in Eudora or whatever mail program you ordinarily use.  The
professional edition also stores user settings on the server
side, allowing users to configure options such as a default
SMTP server or a signature message to append to outgoing
messages.  The standard edition is a version that we intend
for use by users as a secondary mail system that will
compliment an existing client-side mail package, the
professional edition is intended for use by novice users as
a primary mailer.  Experienced users will probably not be
happy with any version of MailMan as a primary mailer, just
like they would not use HotMail or ExciteMail for a primary
mailer.

Another difference, on a more practical level, is that the
professional edition is not yet complete, and won't even go
beta for at least two or three weeks.  (This was written on
Wednesday, May 27, 1998, during the public beta of MailMan
version 2.0 Standard)

------------------------------

Subject: 3.8) What are the basic requirements for setting up
a MailMan installation?

In order to make use of MailMan you must have a functioning
web server that has the ability to run Perl CGI
applications.  To read incoming mail you must have access to
a functioning POP3 mail server and to send outgoing messages
you must have access to a functioning STMP mail server.
These are all very common Internet standards and you
probably have access to the necessary mail servers if you
have an Internet email account.

------------------------------

Subject: 3.9) What standards and protocols does MailMan
comply with?

MailMan uses CGI to communicate with the host web server.
For more information about CGI, consult Nick Kew's CGI FAQ
at
<URL:http://www3.pair.com/webthing/docs/cgi/faqs/cgifaq.shtm
l>.

For the generation of HTTP headers, MailMan conforms as
closely as possible with the proposed standard RFC 2068,
"Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", as well as the
earlier related specifications such as RFC 1945, "Hypertext
Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0."

MailMan's user interface is generated using messages that
comply as closely as possible with RFC 1866, "HyperText
Markup Language Specification - 2.0" and related
specifications.

Persistent state information for the frames-based MailMan
interface is maintained according to RFC 2109, "HTTP State
Management Mechanism".

For communication with incoming internet email servers,
MailMan conforms as closely as possible with RFC 1939, "Post
Office Protocol - Version 3", and was originally based on
the earlier specification, RFC 1725.  MailMan is in strict
compliance with end of line delimiters specified in the POP3
standards documents and should be compatible with POP3
servers regardless of the end of line delimiter used in the
server's host operating system.

For communication with outgoing internet email servers,
MailMan conforms as closely as possible with RFC 821,
"Simple Mail Transfer Protocol".  MailMan does not make use
of enhancements provided by later approved extension
standards such as RFC 1869 or RFC 1870.

The messages that MailMan processes and generates are
compliant as closely as possible with RFC 822, "Standard for
the format of ARPA Internet text messages".  Formatted
messages and messages with attachments are automatically
handled by portions of MailMan which are compliant as
closely as possible with the specifications in RFC 2045, RFC
2046, RFC 2047, RFC 2048 and RFC 2049, "Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)", parts one through five.

All of the above referenced standards documents are
available at <URL:http://www.ietf.org>.

------------------------------

Subject: 4.1) Licensing

This section describes the licensing structure of MailMan.

------------------------------

Subject: 4.2) Is MailMan free?

No, MailMan is not free.  An employee of Endymion
Corporation originally started MailMan as a spare time
project in 1996.  The first version of MailMan was released
through the Endymion Corporation web site in 1997 under the
GNU Public License, in the hope that people would find the
software valuable and contribute to its development.  In the
time since then, many people have downloaded MailMan and
used the application and some have even contributed
suggestions and bug fixes, but nobody has undertaken further
development.  Since MailMan has survived the test of time,
Endymion Corporation has decided to pronounce MailMan an
official, supported product.  We have invested the time and
resources in developing MailMan version 2.0, a vast
improvement over the original freeware incarnation of
MailMan, and we are offering it for license.

Now for the exceptions.  Endymion Corporation automatically
grants a license for free to installations of MailMan that
meet one of the following criteria:

1.   Educational Institutions, including government,
  private, and non-profit institutions.  In situations where
  the nature of your institution is disputed, Endymion
  Corporation reserves the right to require a copy of your
  501(c)(3) form or a local equivalent before granting a
  license.
2.   Non-profit institutions, including religious
  institutions, but with the specific exception of the Church
  of Scientology International or any other religious
  organizations directly related to the Church of Scientology.
  Endymion Corporation reserves the right to require a United
  States federal non-profit tax ID number or a local
  equivalent before granting a license.
3.   Private individuals or families.

All installations of MailMan that do not clearly fit into
one of the three clearly-defined categories above must be
licensed.  So that there is no confusion, installations of
MailMan that must be licensed include, but are not limited
to, the following examples:

╖    Cyber cafΘ mail kiosks
╖    Large ISPs
╖    Small-town ISPs
╖    Free Internet email services
╖    Corporate messaging applications

One license must be purchased for each installation of
MailMan, but each installation can host an unlimited number
of users, unlike MailManÆs primary competition.  For current
information on MailMan licensing policies, please see
<URL:http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/licensing.htm>
.

------------------------------

Subject: 4.2) What about the source code?

MailMan began life as a GPL product.  Because of our desire
to help to move the world forward just a little bit at a
time by sharing our efforts with others and because of a
general sense of honesty and openness, we are making the
source code for MailMan available under the GNU General
Public License.  Information on the GPL can be found at
<URL:http://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/GPL>. The honesty and
integrity of our user base will determine whether our
experiment in openness is successful, or whether MailMan
must become a completely proprietary product because of the
abuse of a few selfish users.  If you can read our source
code and learn from it, be our guest and please have fun.
If you can read our source code and make suggestions, please
do, we value suggestions on how to improve the product.  If
you can read our source code and port it to new protocols
and environments, we would love to hear about it.  If you
can read our source code and you have ideas about absconding
with a derivative of our code that you will make into your
own product, please read the GNU General Public License at
<URL:http://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/GPL>.

------------------------------

Subject: 4.3) Why would you want people reading your source
code?

Quality assurance.  If you buy a food product, you want to
know what it is made out of.  If you buy a house, you want
to know that it is built of quality materials.  If you buy a
car, you want to know what is under the hood.  If you use a
cryptographic algorithm, you want to know that it has been
verified by outside analysts.  We feel that a lot of very
poor quality software is currently sold because a lot of
software companies do not have to answer to their users.  If
an independent observer looked at the source code for web
browsers from Microsoft and Netscape and told you that the
source code behind the Microsoft product was just beastly
but that the Netscape code is very clean and organized, you
might be more inclined to choose NetscapeÆs browser.  Since
Microsoft does not release the source code for their
product, you do not have the option to evaluate their
browser.  The bugs in Netscape, on the other hand, have been
hunted down and eradicated by thousands of prying eyes.  We
are hoping that by making our source code open and available
that we will be held to a higher standard of quality and
that we will benefit by having some of our mistakes pointed
out by our user base.  This model has worked in the past for
MailMan and we hope that it will continue to work in the
future.

------------------------------

Subject: 4.4) What constitutes a single ôinstallationö of
MailMan?

A single installation of MailMan is defined as both a unique
URL and server that is used to access the MailMan
application.  Most MailMan installations will require
exactly one server and exactly one URL.  For instance,
Endymion Corporation maintains only one installation of
MailMan, on a single server that handles our entire
corporate web site, with a single URL,
<URL:http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/demo/mailman.c
gi>.  If your MailMan installation will be supported by more
than one server, all with the same URL, each server must be
licensed.  In a more likely scenario, if you operate several
virtual domains from the same server and each virtual domain
makes use of a MailMan installation, each different URL that
MailMan is known by must be licensed.  Having several
different virtual domains all access a single installation
of MailMan by the same URL on the same server technically
only requires one license according to our definitions, but
we are a small company and thatÆs not a very nice thing to
do to us.  Please consider doing the right thing and
licensing each installation.

------------------------------

Subject: 4.5) Why are you picking on Scientology?

WeÆre not.  Our intent is to provide MailMan for free to
private individuals and to organizations that are acting
selflessly and could use the applications but might not be
able to budget for it.  For-profit organizations foot the
bill in our little Robin Hood game.  We donÆt think that
this is too much to ask, since the bill that weÆre talking
about is miniscule.  The Church of Scientology does not fit
into our definition of æan organization that acts selflessly
and might not be able to pay for a licenseÆ.  We have
nothing nasty to say about Scientology or the Church of
Scientology other than that.  To each his own.

------------------------------

Subject: 5.1) Installation

This section describes how to install MailMan.

------------------------------

Subject: 5.2) What is the difference between the different
installation distributions?

There are two different distributions of each edition of
MailMan version 2.0, a Unix distribution and an NT
distribution.  In reality either distribution should work on
any server, but we have found it to be more convenient for
our users to package the application in a way that is more
targeted to the final platform.  The primary difference
between the two distributions is that the files in the NT
distribution have been processed so that the lines in the
mail MailMan source file end with a CRLF, while the lines in
the same file in the Unix distribution are terminated with a
simple LF.  If you donÆt know what that means, donÆt worry
about it, itÆs really not that important usually.  Another
difference is that the main MailMan source file in the Unix
distribution is called ômailman.cgiö, while the same file in
the NT distribution is called ômailman.plö.  We have found
that this arrangement reduces confusion in most cases.  If
you disagree about our file naming conventions you are
perfectly welcome to rename the files to whatever you want.

------------------------------

Subject: 5.3) What is the basic installation procedure?

I have described the steps in this item in more detail in
the OS-specific items below, this item provides an overview
of the process.

1.   Unpack your distribution
2.   Copy the distribution to the location on your web
  server where it will be installed, ô/public_html/mailman/ö
  for example.  Make sure that the following files are
  present:
  ômailman.cgiö or ômailman.plö (it comes under different
  names), ôcgi-lib.plö, all of the ôi_*.gifö files, and all of
  the ôt_*.htmö files.
3.   Make sure that your copy of ômailman.cgiö or
  ômailman.plö is executable, and is executable by your web
  server.  If you donÆt know how to do this, consult an expert
  on your operating system and web server.

ThatÆs it, it looks too simple to believe, but that is the
basic process.  In most cases it will be that simple, and
MailMan will run æout of the boxÆ.  Once you have performed
the above three steps, merely access the application through
the URL that you have given it.  In the above example, the
URL to access MailMan would likely be
<URL:http://yourserver/mailman/mailman.cgi> or
<URL:http://yourserver/mailman/mailman.pl>

------------------------------

Subject: 5.4) What is the installation procedure for a Unix
system?

This item provides a more detailed explanation of the above
procedure for Unix systems.  Before you install MailMan,
make sure that you have Perl 5 installed.  On most Unix
systems, especially web hosting systems, Perl will already
be installed.  If Perl is not installed, or if Perl version
5 is not installed, consult your system administrator.

1.   Copy the distribution to the location that you want to
  unpack it in.  ô/public_html/mailman/ö in the above example.
2.   Unpack the distribution with tar.  On most systems you
  can type ôtar ûzxvf <distribution>.tgzö and your system will
  expand the file.  You should now have a collection of
  ôi_*.gifö files, ôt_*.htmö files, ômailman.cgiö, ôcgi-
  lib.plö, and some documentation (this document, in
  particular).  On systems where that doesnÆt work, try
  ôgnutar ûzxvf <distribution>.tgzö.  If that doesnÆt work,
  you will have to manually unzip the file with ôgunzipö and
  then untar the file with ôtar ûxvf <distribution>.tarö.  If
  all else fails, fetch the NT distribution and unzip it.
3.   Make sure that your copy of ômailman.cgiö is executable
by issuing the command ôchmod 755 mailman.cgiö  Your copy of
ôcgi-lib.plö must also be executable.  ôchmod 755 cgi-
lib.plö.  Also, just to be sure, make sure that your
ôt_*.htmö and ôi_*.gifö files are marked so that the web
server process can read them.  Sometimes you can read your
own files, but you inadvertently have your files set so that
your web server canÆt access them.  These are the same rules
that you should be following when you publish ordinary web
content.  ôchmod 644 i_*.gif t_*.htmö should do the trick.
4.   Make sure that the first line of the ômailman.cgiö file
refers to the correct location of your Perl interpreter.  Be
warned that it probably does not.  You can find out where
your Perl interpreter is located on most Unix systems by
typing ôwhere perlö on the command line.  Some system
administrators keep Perl 4 and Perl 5 both installed at the
same time, with ôperlö referring to Perl 4 and ôPerlö or
ôperl5ö referring to Perl 5.  If your system operates this
way, make sure that you are referring to the correct
location of Perl 5.  MailMan will not operate with Perl 4.

Check your installation by loading ômailman.cgiö in your web
browser through your web server.  In the above example, the
URL to access MailMan would likely be
<URL:http://yourserver/mailman/mailman.cgi>.

------------------------------

Subject: 5.5) What is the installation procedure for an NT
system?

This item provides a more detailed explanation of the above
procedure for NT systems.  Before you install MailMan on an
NT system, make sure that you have Perl 5 installed.  For
more information on where to get Perl 5 and how to install
and configure it for NT, please consult Evangelo Prodromouæs
Perl for Win32 FAQ at
<URL:http://www.endcontsw.com/people/evangelo/Perl_for_Win32
_FAQ.html>

1.   Copy the distribution to the location that you want to
  unpack it in.  ô/public_html/mailman/ö in the above example.
2.   Unpack the distribution.
3.   If you are using IIS, make sure that the directory
  where your MailMan installation resides is marked executable
  in the IIS administration interface.  Also make sure that
  your ômailman.plö file ends in an extension that will be
  recognized by your system as a Perl 5 script.  Most of the
  time ômailman.plö will do the trick, but your installation
  of Perl 5 may be different.

Check your installation by loading ômailman.plö in your web
browser through your web server.  In the above example, the
URL to access MailMan would likely be
<URL:http://yourserver/mailman/mailman.pl>.

------------------------------

Subject: 5.6) I installed MailMan and it doesnÆt work, what
do I do?

1.   Make sure that you have your permissions set on the
  files mailman.cgi and cgi-lib.pl, so that both are
  executable.  The exact mechanism of doing this is different
  on every operating system.  On unix, make sure that the
  permissions on both files read "-rwxr-xr-x" when you do an
  "ls -alt".  You manage this with "chmod 755 mailman.cgi cgi-
  lib.pl".  If you're using any    other OS, ask an expert on
  your OS.
2.   Make sure that your web server understands that a file
  ending in ".cgi" (or ô.plö or whatever your copy is called)
  is a CGI script and that it should run "mailman.cgi" when
  you invoke it.  If your web server isn't happy with the
  ".cgi" extension, feel free to rename it to ".pl" or
  ".runthis" or whatever makes your web server happy.  If you
  change the extension, or even the name, of mailman, you
  shouldn't have to change anything else and it should just
  run.  MailMan dynamically identifies its own location each
  time it runs.  This one varies from web server to web
  server, and if you don't know how to deal with this issue,
  ask an expert on your web server.
3.   Make sure that MailMan's templates are readable to your
  web server.  Keep in mind that just because they are marked
  readable to you, they are not necessarily marked readable to
  your web server, since the server generally runs as a
  different user.  In Unix, you probably want your permissions
  for your "t_*.htm" files to read "-rw-r--r--", which you can
  achieve with "chmod 644 t_*.htm".  On any other OS, if you
  don't already know how to do it then ask an expert on your
  OS.
4.   Make sure that MailMan's templates are located in the
  directory that your web server will set to the 'current'
  directory when MailMan runs.  This will USUALLY be the same
  directory that the script is located in, but not
  necessarily.  Some web servers set the current directory to
  places other than where the script itself is located.  If
  you have one of these servers and MailMan runs but your
  templates are AWOL, consult with your sysadmin or an expert
  on your web server, or see section 5.7 of this FAQ.

------------------------------

Subject: 5.7) What does it mean when I try to run MailMan
and the server says ôCanÆt locate cgi-lib.plö?

The most likely cause of an error complaining about not
being able to find ôcgi-lib.plö is that MailMan is ælostÆ.
This happens when your server runs your CGI applications
with a current directory other than the actual directory
that the application is located in.  If your MailMan
installation is in ô/public_html/mailman/mailman.cgiö for
instance, your server might instantiate MailMan with
ô/public_html/mailman/mailman.cgiö as the current directory,
in which case everybody is happy.  It also might instantiate
MailMan with ô/usr/local/somedir/ö as the current
direcotory, in which case MailMan has no way of locating its
own templates and dependencies.  Luckily, there is a simple
fix for this.  At the top of the ômailman.cgiö file there is
a line that allows you to manually set the variable
ô$strLocationö to an absolute path that describes the
location of your MailMan installation.  In the above example
you would set ô$strLocationö to ô/public_html/mailman/ö,
letting MailMan know where it should look for dependencies
and templates.  Note that ô$strLocationö must be a complete
directory name, with an absolute root and the terminating
ô/ö or ô\ö character, depending on your operating system and
file system.

------------------------------

Subject: 6.1) Operation

This section describes how to work MailMan from a userÆs
point of view.

This section is still incomplete, sorry, check back after
the MailMan public beta is over for a more current copy of
this document with more useful information for this section.

------------------------------

Subject: 6.2) How would I use MailMan in conjunction with a
'primary' mailer on my home or office system?

We wish that there were other sources that we could
reference that could explain the basics of using several
different mailers at once.  Unfortunately we don't know of
any.  If you know of any good write-ups with suggestions for
novice users on this subject please let us know.

The key issue involved is configuring your mailer to leave
its messages on the internet mail server after it has
downloaded them.  If you receive a message from your boss on
your computer at work and you decide that you would really
rather go home and reply to the message after dinner, you
can't do that if your mailer at work deletes the message
from the server after it checks the message.  If you set
your mailer at work to not delete the message from the
server, when you get home and check your mail, the message
will still be there waiting for you to reply to it.  Using
MailMan in conjunction with other mailers is no different.
All that you need to do is configure all of your mailers to
leave messages on the mail server by default, and perhaps
select one mailer as your 'official' mailer that is allowed
to delete your messages.  Most quality mail clients have
options to leave messages on the server but delete them
after a set number of days have passed.  This option is
extremely helpful when using many different mail clients to
access the same mailbox.

------------------------------

Subject: 6.3) Wouldn't IMAP be very well-suited to this type
of scenario?

Yes, IMAP is the perfect solution to the problem of
synchronizing multiple different internet client
applications.  IMAP supports persistent mail storage in
folders on the server side so that all mail clients,
regardless of location, have a synchronized impression of
what the user's current mail situation is like.  MailMan
does not currently support IMAP because it is not nearly as
widely accepted as POP3 as a mail server protocol, and
because there are a fixed number of hours in a developer's
day.  We sincerely hope that IMAP becomes more prevalent and
demand for an IMAP version of MailMan increases, and we hope
that the existing versions of MailMan will be successful
enough to support the development of an IMAP version.  If
you would personally like to see an IMAP version of MailMan
with full server-side folder support, drop us a line at
[e-mail] and let us know that you are out there.
If the demand is high enough we will naturally be compelled
to develop a product.

------------------------------

Subject: 7.1) Innards

This section describes the inner working of MailMan for
installation administrators that want to customize their
installations.

This section is still incomplete, sorry, check back after
the MailMan public beta is over for a more current copy of
this document with more useful information for this section.

------------------------------

Subject: 7.2) How do I customize MailMan to blend into my
site and provide a branded interface to my users?

All of MailMan's output is defined by a collection of HTML
templates.  The templates are the ".htm" files that begin
with "t_" in your distribution.  We have provided a sample
look and feel for MailMan that you are welcome to use for as
long as you like.  When you begin the customization process,
simply open the templates in any HTML editor and make your
modifications.  Remember that the behavior of MailMan is
dictated by hidden fields contained within the HTML
templates, so make sure that you go slowly and check your
results often, as it may be possible to 'break' your
installation by accidentally deleting or modifying important
keywords.  We hope to provide more detailed information on
what MailMan's keywords are and what they mean in this
document at a later date.

------------------------------

Subject: 7.3) Is it possible to ærigÆ a MailMan installation
with a default POP3 or SMTP server address so that the user
doesnÆt have to enter them?

Yes.  The POP3 server used is referred to in the HTML
templates by the substitution keyword ôSERVERö.  Hunt down
everywhere that MailMan allows the user to supply this value
through a form field.  The only place where this should
happen is in the template ôt_login.htmö.  Find this
form field:

         <input type="text" name="SERVER" size="30">

And replace it with:

         <input type="text" name="SERVER" size="30"
               value=öpopserver.mydomain.comö>

The box will now be filled in by default for the user when
they log on, but experienced users will still be able to aim
MailMan at specific servers.

The SMTP server used by MailMan is specified by the keyword
ôOUTGOINGö.  Change the form fields that set the ôOUTGOINGö
keyword in both ôt_f_messageform.htmö and
ôt_nf_messageform.htmö in order to rig the outgoing SMTP
server to something specific.

------------------------------

Subject: 7.4) Is it possible to ærigÆ a MailMan installation
with a default POP3 or SMTP server address so that the user
canÆt modify them even if they want to?

Yes.  The POP3 server used is referred to in the HTML
templates by the substitution keyword ôSERVERö.  Hunt down
everywhere that MailMan allows the user to supply this value
through a form field.  The only place where this should
happen is in the template ôt_login.htmö.  Find this
form field:

         <input type="text" name="SERVER" size="30">

And replace it with:

             <input type="hidden" name="SERVER"
               value=öpopserver.mydomain.comö>

The box will now not even show up, and users will not have
the option of specifying a server.  This makes things
considerably simpler for novice users if the server
addresses are static.  You will probably want to do more
surgery than this to make your login page look reasonable.

The SMTP server used by MailMan is specified by the keyword
ôOUTGOINGö.  Change the form fields that set the ôOUTGOINGö
keyword in both ôt_f_messageform.htmö and
ôt_nf_messageform.htmö in order to rig the outgoing SMTP
server to something specific.

------------------------------
           Copyright ⌐ Endymion Corporation, 1998