Chebucto Suite Workshop Dec. 13, 1995

Note to all readers: (Workshop Team and Others)

Please give us your feedback on these Workshop notes. The notes form working documents which will provide much of the documentation for Chebucto Suite, and will be updated based on comments and developments. Send E-mail to cfn-tech@chebucto.ns.ca

Bulk Mailer Project

A group discussion was led by David J. Murdoch in which much brainstorming took place. David developed the first prototype for the Bulk Mailer.

Goals:

avoid sending to currently inactive accounts, thus saving significant system resources
avoid obsolete mail in occasional users' mailboxes
record dispatch of each message so user only gets one copy

The bulk mailer is designed for communication with individuals with CSuite accounts. Message content could include system/technical notifications, notice of meetings, other messages of interest to a significant group.
(A MajorDomo List would serve the purpose for external mailings, which do not consume local system resources.)

Key Features:

allow selection of a target group
allow setting start and expiry date
trigger "bulk mail message" when user logs in during target period

Key Elements

Target group list generation / identification
Suggested lists were:
- All users
- All (society) members
- All (society) non-members
- All IP Editors
- All press contacts
- Existing Mailing lists on MajorDomo
- Custom Lists (ie. File of addresses)
Invokation
- Validate users permission to send bulk mail to this group.
- Form and Script to accept message, attachment or file reference. (Mail input might be an alternative method.)
- setup headers
Mailer Mechanism elements
- Login triggers a query to mailer for any outstanding bulk mail
  - The mechanism is not yet finalized, but might involve something like this script segment:
```
                           grep "$USER" list/* | sort > 1
                           grep "$USER" sent/* | sort > 2
                           comm -23 1 2
```
    This would produce a list of messages to be delivered.
  - Notify User: plans for a script generated Welcome Page (g xwelcome to see first draft) which will include a "You have [new] mail" flag line, among other features.
    The current mail message is generated by the system before Csuite is launched and the bulk mailer (will be) invoked.
  - Dispatch Mail: perhaps have script autodeliver message by appending (with locking) to user's inbox file.
  - Cleanup/mark delivered: Append "$USER" to sent/filename for each message sent. Alternatively, one might use sed to change a flag character in the list.