Creating and Managing Lists

How to get here

Use the Add /Edit List page to create or modify a list. See Types of List Server Mailing Lists for information on lists.

Domain Name | List Name. The current domain name used for the list server followed by the List Name.

Directory. Displays top directory path of specified list.

General Options

• List Name. Enter a list name with no spaces. List Name can not be updated once created.
• Mail List Name (Title). Enter a descriptive title to help the list administrator identify the list. The name must be from 3 to 23 characters in length (spaces are OK).
• List Owner's E-mail Address. Enter the fully qualified e-mail address of the account list owner that the list runs under. This is the mail account that receives all messages (such as Subscribe and Unsubscribe requests) to the list. It is also the account from which help messages are sent and to which error messages are sent. This can be preset when creating new lists using the Default List Settings.

  Note: The List Owner e-mail address will not have access to the List Administration pages unless the e-mail address is same as the local list administrator or has List Administrator permissions for the local domain. See the User Properties page.

• Local List Admin (User ID). Enter only the User ID (do not add the full e-mail address) that resides on the local domain for the list administrator. This will allow local list administration permissions for only the specified list.

  Important: To allow permissions for all lists, the User ID can be given List Administrator rights See the User Properties page.

  Note: The list administrator and list owner are usually the same person, but a "dummy" user account can be set up to be the list owner in order to hide the identity of the list administrator or to give the impression of more people being involved in the list management.

• Maximum Message Size (bytes). Enter the maximum size of a message that can be sent to this list. Enter 0 to allow messages to be of unlimited size. This can be preset when creating new lists using the Default List Settings.
• Number of Recipients Per Message. Enter the number of recipients each SMTP process will send to. To calculate this number divide the expected number of subscribers by 25, and enter the result. This can be preset when creating new lists using the Default List Settings.

  Tip: It is recommended that no more than 25 processes be used by any list.

List Subscribers. Click this link to search or update users e-mail addresses for a selected list.

Inbound Rules. Click this link to view the Inbound delivery rules, which sort incoming mail messages for each list server mailing list.

Help Message. Click this link to edit the help text that is sent to anyone who requests help (by sending a list command to imailsrv@domain ) or sends an invalid command to this list. This link will become active after the list has been created.

Subscribe Message. Click this link will edit the confirmation text that will be sent to each person who submits a successful subscribe request to this list. This link will become active after the list has been created.

Security Options

Security Options will determine whether you want a list to be moderated or unmoderated as well as to determine who has access to the list.

• Allowed Posters. Drop down list of select users that can post to the list.
  • Anyone. Select to let anyone with an e-mail account post mail to a list.
  • Subscribers. Select to let only the list subscribers post mail to a list.
  • Moderators. Select to let only the list owner post mail. Moderator is used when you want the list owner to review all messages before they are posted to the list.
• Disallow Subscription (ie: Private List). Select to reject subscribe requests to a list. List subscribers can only be added one of the following ways:
  • List administrator using IMail Administrator to edit the Users file.
  • List administrator using IMail Web Messaging to change user list permissions.

    Note: Unsubscribe requests cannot be disabled.

• Allow List Unsubscribes Based on Subject Line. Select this option if you want the list-server mailing list to also accept an Unsubscribe command specified in the message Subject line. When users want to unsubscribe from the list-server mailing list, most list servers expect the Unsubscribe command to be specified in the body of the mail message.

  When selected, the list-server mailing list will accept the following commands in the Subject line to unsubscribe to a list:

  • unsubscribe
  • remove
  • signoff

    Important: If the list requires a password, passwords are case-sensitive and there must be no leading spaces after the password. See example below.

    Example:

    The following example assumes there is a list named beer that allows unsubscribes based on the Subject line on an e-mail domain named domain.com.

    To unsubscribe from the list:

    TO: imailsrv@domain .com

    Subject:Unsubscribe beer

• Disable List Command. Select if you do not want users to receive a list of the subscribers to your list-server mailing list. If not selected, users can obtain a list of the users subscribed to a list by addressing a message to the list server (for example, imailsrv@domain.com ) and issuing the list [listname] command in the body of the message.

  Note: List owners can always receive a list of subscribers regardless of whether the Disable List Command option is selected and regardless of the list type.

• Enable Posters List. Select to let any user with an e-mail address in the posters' list post to any type of list. If the Use Password option is enabled, users in the posters' list must enter a password.

  The posters' list is stored in a file named POSTERS.LST located in IMail Top Directory\Lists\listname.

• Use Password. Select to require a person to use a password before posting to the list. The password must be the first entry in the message Subject field. The password must be enclosed in brackets and colons. For example, Subject:[:password:]Unsubscribe beer

  The Use Password setting affects different list types as follows:

  • If Use Password is selected for an anyone list (open), all posters are required to enter a password to post to the list.
  • If Use Password is selected for a subscriber list, the subscribers are required to enter a password to post the list.
  • If Use Password is selected for a moderated list, the moderator is required to enter a password to post to the list.

Posters File. Click this link to view, modify, or enter an e-mail address for users that can post messages to the selected list.

Kill File. Click this link to view, modify, or enter an e-mail address for users that are no allowed to post messages to the selected list.

Digest Settings

To set up a list-server mail digest, first enable digest mode, then set the digest options.

• Enable Digest Settings. Select this option to allow users to group the messages sent to this list into a digest.
• Strip Non-Text Attachments before Posting. Check box to enable the option to strip non-text attachments, such as graphic files, from messages when the digest posting is sent.
• Digest Mailbox. Enter the e-mail address where list postings are stored before the digest mailing is sent out. A copy of all postings will be sent to list_administrator-mailboxname@yourhost.com. This mailbox has the following characteristics:
  • After a posting is sent to the digest list, the Digest Mailbox is emptied and a copy is made in the format: digestmailboxMMDD.mbx where digestmailbox is the name of the Digest Mailbox, MM is the month, and DD is the day of the posting.
  • The list administrator can view the mailbox from the Web Messaging client and can delete or add messages before the posting is sent. The list administrator can also view posted digests by the MMDD format described in the previous paragraph.
• Subject Line for Digest Postings. Enter the text that you want to appear in the digest posting subject line.
• Include Headers and Trailers When Posting to Digest Mailbox. Select this option to have the posted digest messages include the header and or trailer messages. We recommend turning off this option because it will make the digest larger and the digest includes its own header and trailer.
• Enable Digest Header. Select this option to include a header message at the beginning of the posted digest. For example, you can enter the subscribe/unsubscribe information for the digest and have it appear at the beginning of every message.
  • Digest Header Message. Enabled, enter the header message you want to be included at beginning of every message. This information is saved in the "digest_header.txt" file.
• Enable Digest Trailer. Select this option to include a trailer message at the end of the posted digest. For example, you can enter the subscribe/unsubscribe information for the digest and have it appear at the end of every message.
  After this option is selected, the message text box is enabled. Enter the trailer message you want to include with the digest messages. This information is saved in the digest_trailer.txt file.
  • Digest Trailer Message. Enabled, enter the trailer message you want to be included at the end of every message. This information is saved in the "digest_trailer.txt" file.
• Enable Message Separators. Select this option to specify lines or characters that will automatically separate messages in the digest posting.
  • Digest Message Separators. Enabled, enter the lines or characters that you want to use as a separator between every digest message. This information is saved in the "digest_separator.txt" file.

Subscribers. Click this link to search, add and delete digest subscribers. See Subscribing to a Digest.

Scheduling. Click this link to configure the scheduling of processing messages for Digest subscribers.

Advanced Settings

• Reply-To list (vs. Sender). Select this option to have replies from a subscriber go to the list. Clear this option to have replies from a subscriber go to the sender of the original message.
• Enable Subject Modification. Select this option and enter text in the text box to prepend a text string to the subject line of every message sent to the list. For example, if you enter [Discussion List] as the prepended text, a message with the subject, "Parrot," will appear on the list server with the subject line: Subject: re:[Discussion List] Parrot. The default text is the name of this list.
• Enable Header. Enables the option to display text at the beginning of every message sent to the list.
  • Header Message. Enabled, allows a header message to be created that will display at the beginning of the list message. This information is saved in the "header.txt" file.
• Enable Trailer. Enables the option to display text at the end of every message sent to the list.
  • Trailer Message. Enabled, allows a trailer message to be created that will display at the end of the list message. This information is saved in the "trailer.txt" file.

Save. Click to save your changes.

Cancel. Click Cancel to exit without saving changes.

Related Topics

Testing the List

List Administration

Types of List Server Mailing Lists

Searching Lists for a User