Mirroring
External Mailing Lists (in)
Archiving
a Mailing List as a Web Forum
Mailing
List Mirroring - Introduction
How it Works
An Example
Troubleshooting
Resources
Mirroring
Mailing Lists - Introduction
Web Crossing
4.0 provides the ability to mirror external mailing lists. Using
this feature you can:
-
Archive
your external mailing lists inside Web Crossing conference
folders. Each folder corresponds to one mailing list. Discussions
are automatically created as needed according to mail message
title. This allows you to create searchable mailing list archives
that are conveniently separated by discussion topics.
-
Send
messages posted to a discussion out to a mailing list.
Web
Crossing 4.0 also has its own built-in email list server that
works in cooperation with the Web Crossing database closely, allowing
users to subscribe to any folder, folder hierarchy or even individual
discussions. This built-in email list server can send full postings,
mail notifications containing URL links back to the web and even
digests at user-settable times. See section
one for details on using Web Crossing's built-in email list
server.
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So,
why bother using an external mailing list server since Web
Crossing has a built-in mailing list server? There are several
reasons for this:
- Perhaps
the main reason is historic. In previous versions, Web
Crossing did not have its own built-in mailing list server,
so people had to use external mailing list servers. So
for backward compatibility, this feature is preserved.
- It
is also sometimes convenient to be able to mirror an existing
mailing list, even when the mailing list exists outside
of Web Crossing. This feature allows you to provide searchable
web archives for any mailing list, any where in the world.
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When
using an external mailing list server, Web Crossing works in cooperation
with the external mailing list server (such as LetterRip, ListSTAR,
majordomo or any other mailing list server) as shown in figure
1.
Figure
1 - Mailing Lists to Web Crossing Folder Archives
How
it works
- Mail
is received by the mailing list server.
- Received
mail is checked to see if it is for an existing mailing list
and that the mail is from somebody authorized to send mail to
the mailing list. After these checks, the mail is sent to all
the subscribers of the designated mailing list, directly to
the users' mailboxes.
- One
of the subscriber mailboxes is special. It will be used by Web
Crossing to receive new messages for a Web Crossing folder.
You designate the mailbox account name and password while editing
the folder settings.
| Note:
Since Web Crossing 4.0 provides its own user mailboxes,
you can use a mailbox on your Web Crossing server for
this. Or you can use any POP3 mailbox anywhere. Web Crossing
will access any POP3 mailbox to retrieve mail sent by
your external mailing list server. |
Web Crossing will act like a POP3 mail client and check for
new mail every two minutes in the designated mailbox.
- If
new mail is present, Web Crossing mail services will receive
the mail and send it to the designated Web Crossing folder.
- Web
Crossing will then examine the title of the message. If the
title is the same as an existing discussion (ignoring such things
as "Re:" at the beginning of a title), Web Crossing
will post the mail as a new message in the matching discussion.
If Web Crossing cannot find an existing discussion that matches
the title, it will automatically create a new one. This method
allows mailing lists to be archived on the web in a searchable
and organized format that is also easy to browse through.
An
example: Setting up a folder to receive messages from a mailing
list server
For an example,
let's say we want to archive a "Q and A" mailing list
with a "Q and A" folder here in Web Crossing. We have
created a mail address called qanda@webxharbor.com on our
mail server for this.
In
order to check mail in that account, POP3 mail programs such as
Eudora, Outlook Express or Netscape Mail must go to the popmail.webxharbor.com
server and login to the qanda account using the password
qandasecretpwd. These are just the typical POP3 mail settings
everybody receives from their Internet provider for setting up
their own mail program.
Using
this information, lets setup mail list mirroring inside the "Q
and A" folder inside Web Crossing.
First
we go to the "Q and A" folder and click on the small
Edit button or the large Edit Folder button in the
Toolbar. Then we select Mailing List Settings and enter
the needed information, as shown in figure 2.
Figure
2 - Incoming Mail List Mirroring Settings
- The
email receive mailbox is the fully-specified POP3 mailbox
that Web Crossing will use for receiving new messages for
this folder. You must create this mailbox yourself using your
site's mail system. Remember, when entering this information,
don't just enter the email address. You should also include
the POP3 server name as part of the mailbox entry.
- The
email password is just the password needed to check
the POP3 mailbox.
- Mail
list servers often include messages as the end of each mail
sent out. This "signature text" might include such
information as how to unsubscribe from the mailing list. If
you enter text in the Signature text to strip from incoming
email box, matching text at the end of incoming email
messages will be removed from the message before posting to
Web Crossing.
That
is all that is needed. As soon as this is set, Web Crossing will
proceed to check the specified mailbox every two minutes. If there
are new messages present, they will be received and posted to
a discussion inside the folder - creating a new discussion if
necessary.
| Tip:
You can test your email settings without an external mailing
list server. All you really need is a mail account that allows
POP3 access. You can send test mail directly to that mail
account yourself and make sure it is received properly by
Web Crossing. |
Troubleshooting
The
Mailing List Settings don't appear as an option when I Edit the
folder.
Resources
Recommended
Websites
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