DialogWeb Help: Setting Up Table of Contents Alerts

If your organizational infrastructure supports email networking (including SMTP gateways) to receive mail messages from external sources, you can set up an automatic distribution system. Only IP addressing is available for Table of Contents Alerts.

Automatic distribution can be configured in several different ways using various concepts and subroutine programs, depending on the networking hardware, software, and overall architecture. Two common distribution applications are:

• Have all title list messages sent to a special FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) email box created by your email administrator specifically for this purpose. All incoming messages are automatically forwarded to individual email in-boxes. The distribution list is hidden and controlled by you, however, the distribution of messages is transparent and requires no manual intervention. You can include your email address in the distribution list so that you can monitor the delivered messages.
  Email Administrators, please note: You must create an alias to represent the multiple path names to the individual email boxes and invoke a separate delivery to each box. Your system may use a store and forward, SendMail, forward, replicate, redirect, autoforward, majordomo, listserv, subscription alias, autoposting, exploder, or similar function. Nearly every system supports some form of this application and should provide you with the development, test, and support tools you need for implementation. Again, depending on the system and architecture, you must program this functionality at the SMTP Gateway or MTA or internal post office sites.
• Have all title list messages sent to a special email box where they can be examined and then automatically forwarded to a particular distribution list that is based on the results of the examination. For example, whenever sender address and subject lines match certain criteria, which is located in a remote lookup table, a message is forwarded to a specified list of individual email boxes. Other messages may be forwarded to a different list of individuals depending on the examination criteria, most commonly the subject line.
  Email administrators, please note: This can be accomplished by a sophisticated script or macro program or by basic message handling rules. This process should occur transparently, be easily maintained, and be reliable no matter where the individual boxes on the distribution list are located. Hops between various internal gateways and post offices should not be a problem.

Depending on your email administration policy, you may or may not be given authorization to directly control the names and addresses on your distribution lists. Generally, the email administrator can process add and delete requests within minutes.

Other issues that your email administrator should consider are:

• When ordering articles from a Table of Contents Alert email, do not use attachment replies in your email software.
• The forward process must retain the original sender address (with FQDN) in the message envelope so the requested articles reach the person initiating the request, not the distribution list owner. This is essential to the correct and timely processing of Table of Contents Alert article requests.
• The forwarding process must retain the subject line as transmitted in the original message header. The subject line field must allow up to 40 characters.
• Be sure to test distribution scenarios where the distribution list is located on one machine and the member boxes are located on different machines, connect to different email post offices, or are located on several different heterogeneous networks.
• Initial testing with a small distribution list is recommended.
• Implementation should minimize header information yet allow for effective troubleshooting in the event of delivery problems.
• Original reply-to-address messages (with FQDN) should be retained so that any bounce/error messages reach the intended recipient. You might consider having all bounce messages sent to both the sender and the distribution list owner.
• Table of Contents Alert messages are US-ASCII only.
• Unless a distribution list is very large, consider displaying the complete list so that messages do not get forwarded automatically and forwarded again by other list members.
• All distribution list members should be given TO: status so that if an accidental Reply-to-All is activated the entire distribution list is not involved.
• Not all systems support successful delivery receipts. If supported on your system, be sure receipts are sent back in response to the original message envelope.
• The maintenance routines and schedules vary from site to site. It is important to remember that automated distribution depends on regularly updated directories and consistent server availability.
• If working with large distribution lists with high turn over, disparate members, and UNIX-based owners, consider creating lists with list management tools such as Majordomo. Remember that both open and closed lists can be established. With Majordomo v1.90, the list owner has access to a configuration file that can be retrieved, modified, and returned to Majordomo without email administrator intervention.