MailFaces currently reads all it's runtime options from a file that
is specified at startup. By default, this file is named faces.opt.
The options file can have comments anywhere in the file. The comments
can either C++ style comments such as:
// Comment that extends to the end of
the line
or old C style comments such as:
/* This comment starts with "/*";
it can extend over multiple lines
and it ends with */
The first string on the line is the Option keyword. The case of the
keyword is unimportant but, of course, it has to be spelled correctly.
The 2nd string on the line is the value that the keyword is to be set
to. If the value contains blanks or non alphanumeric characters, it should
be enclosed in quotes ("). Most keyword only have one value and all
values are concatenated together to make one value. The following keywords
are exceptions and have multiple values all included on the same line.
(Select, SelectAfter, KillSelect, MailServer)
- AudioSupport
- Specifies whether Audio sounds are to be supported. Specified as "true"
or "false".
- CacheDirectory
- Turns on image caching and specifies the directory where the Cache
will be maintained. This can be either a relative filename like "cache"
or an absolute name like "c:\\mailfaces\\cache".
Note that Window users must use "\\" to specify the "\"
path separator.
- CacheExpire
- Specifies the number of days since being last used, before being eligible for
deletion from the Cache. If the Options--Cache Expire
option is selected from the Menubar, any cache entry that has not been used in this number of days,
will be deleted.
- Debug
- Specifies whether Debug output is to be produced. Specified as "true"
or "false".
- DebugFile
- Specifies the file name where Debug output should be written. This
can be either a relative filename like "debug.log"
or an absolute name like "c:\\log\\mailfaces.log".
Note that Window users must use "\\" to specify the "\"
path separator.
- DefaultAudioURL
- Specifies the URL location of the ".au" audio file that will
be used for all mail that does not have a more specific Audio file specified
in the "Select" statement.
- DefaultImageURL
- Specifies the URL location of the image that will be used for all Mail
that cannot be identified by a Select statement or by the PIcon DataBase
search.
- BuildImageURL
- Specifies the URL location of a background image used when
neither the SelectList or PIcon database gets a match. Instead of using
the DefaultImageURL, we will build a special unique image from a
background image and the From header
- DelayTime
- Specifies the time (in seconds) to delay before checking the Mail server
for more mail.
- DelayTimeLong
- Specifies a longer time (in seconds) to delay before checking the Mail
server for more mail. This longer delay time can be selected at run time
from the Options menu. It is designed for users that have dial-up
attachments to the MailServer for times when you don't want to keep the
connection active.
- HelpURL
- Specifies the URL for the MailFaces Help information.
- Include
- Specifies a filename for a nested Option file. The Options will be
read from the Included file and then the rest of the options will be read
from the current file. Files can be nested to any depth.
- Log
- If specified as "true" than a Log file will be written for important
events that occur while running MailFaces.
- LogFile
- Specifies a filename for the Log file. The default is "faces.log" in the current
directly.
- KillImageURL
- Specifies the URL for used for any mail that matches a KillSelect Statement.
- KillSelect
- Specifies the criteria for a mail message being considered a "Kill"
candidate. Unsolicited e-mail is becoming more of a problem for many users.
The MailFaces support for Kill files is intended to help isolate potential
"Junk e-mail" so that it can be deleted at the server without
the wasted time and effort to download it and read it with your mail client.
In conjunction with the Include statement, it will be possible to have
a common "Kill File" for known producers of "Junk e-mail"
The KillSelect parameter has multiple parameters all of which must be
included on the same line. There also can be multiple KillSelect statements.
See the Select statement for additional information.
The parameters of the KillSelect statement are:
- Header name
- The name of the Mail Header field that will be used for selection.
(e.g. "reply-to"
- Match Expression
- The match expresion can be a quoted string that is matched against the
lower case Header field. For example, the following will match if the
mail header contains the string slip.net:
KillSelect from "slip.net"
Or it can be a Regular Expression.
A Regular expression is specified by preceeding the expresion with "RE".
For Example:
KillSelect from RE ".*@.*slip\\.net"
- If the match string or Regular Expression matches the contents
of the Header field, then this Select statement will be considered a Kill
candidate.
- Much of the SPAM that one gets can be identified by the fact that it
is not addressed directly to the user. In other words, the users email address
is not in the "to:" or "cc:" headers. So there is a special syntax for
identifing mail that is not addressed to a specified email address.
KillSelect notto "me@mysystem.com"
However you should note that in addition to being the case for most SPAM,
this is also true of most email that is being sent
because you are on a mailing list and also for email where you are on
the "bcc" list (Blind Carbon Copy). So you should be sure if you use this
that any mailing list that you are on have specific Select statements earlier
in the Options file. If you are likely to be on the bcc: list for email,
then you want to be sure to have Select statements for the "from" address.
For example: in my case, most of the bcc: mail that I get is from people
that I work with so I have a Select statement for the company mail address.
- Image URL
- This optionally specifies the image that will be used to to represent
this mail message. If not specified, the KillImageURL statement
will be used.
- Optional keyword "AutoDelete"
-
If this is specified then e-mail will automatically be deleted from the
server (With no warning, so be sure your Regular Experession is correct!)
- MailServer
- Specify the Login information for the Mail Server. You can have multiple
MailServer statements. The format is:
MailServer type hostname username password
where:
- type: The Protocol used by the Server (POP3 or
IMAP)
- hostname: The network name of the mail server.
- username: Your user name on this mail server.
- password: The password used on this server.
If any of the above parameters are left blank or specified as "*Prompt*"
then you will be prompted at runtime. Note that the "*Prompt*"
must be enclosed in quotes.
- NamedSelect
NamedSelect slip from "slip.net"
Or it can be a Regular Expression.
A Regular expression is specified by preceeding the expresion with "RE".
For Example:
NamedSelect slip from RE ".*@.*slip\\.net"
See the Select statement for more information.
Example of using NamedSelect statement and and() to select
Email that I have sent to myself. The Select statement specifies
the image to associate with this email and indicates that the
"user exit" code should be invoked.
NamedSelect FromMe sender "jthomas@cruzio"
NamedSelect ToMe to "jthomas@cruzio"
Select "all(ToMe FromMe)" "file:c:/jthomas/icons/jthomas.gif" exit
- NoMailURL
- Specifies the URL of the image that will be displayed when there is
no mail in the Mailbox.
Example
NoMailURL "file:/c:/mailfaces/images/nomail.gif"
- PIconDBDomainOnly
- If specified as "true", then only
the Domain name will be looked up in the PIconDB Database. In conjunction
with the Cache feature, this will result
in much better performance because the Domain image file will often be
found in your cache. If specified as "false",
then the user@domainname will be looked up in the cache, and if not found then
the user@domainname will be looked up in the PIconDB Database and if still not found then
the domain name will be looked up in the PIconDB database.
The default is true
- PIconDB
- Specifies the PIcon Database access information.
If you want to search more than one database, you would use multiplePIconDBstatements.
The format is:
PIconDB url dbnames [PROXY ProxyHost ProxyPort]
where:
- url:
- URL specifying the name of the system that
contains the PIcon Database and the name of the "piconsearch" CGI program.
The default PIconDB url is "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch".
Note that the port number :800 is strongly recommended.
- dbnames:
- Specifies the names of the PIcon collections that are to be searched.
The names are separated by the "+ character.
The actual names used are dependent on the server specified above. In the case of
the cs.indiana.edu server, the possible names are "users",
"usenix", "domains" and "misc". In almost all cases,
you want to specify just "users+domains" for the cs.indiana.edu server.
- PROXY proxyHost proxyPort
- If your system uses a Proxy server to access servers outside of your firewall,
then these parameters would be used to specify the host name and port for the
Proxy server.
Example of single database, using PIconDBDomainOnly
PIconDB "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch" "users+domains"
PIconDBDomainOnly true
Example of multiple databases, with Proxy and without PIconDBDomainOnly
PIconDB "http://dilbert.com/cgi-bin/piconsearch" "users"
PIconDB "http://www.cs.indiana.edu:800/piconsearch" "users+domains" PROXY gateway.dilbert.com 8000
PIconDBDomainOnly false
- PIconDefer
- PIconDefer statements are used to defer the use of PiconDB icons until after it
checks the SelectAfter statements for more specific icons
- PIconIgnore
- PIconIgnore statements are used to ignore specific PiconDB icons
- Select
Specifies the criteria for matching a Mail message with an Image and
Audio URL.
The Select parameter is special in 2 ways. First, it has multiple parameters
all of which must be included on the same line. Secondly, there can be
multiple select statements.
The parameters of the Select statement are:
- Header name
-
The name of the Mail Header field that will be used for selection.
(e.g. "reply-to"
The Header name can be proceeded with the not operand to indicate
that this selection will match if the header field does not match the
following Match Expression.
The header name can be "recipient" which is a special name that causes
both the to and cc headers to be searched.
Instead of a Header name and Match Expression, you can code either
"all(name1 name2)" or "any(name1 name2)" to allow
AND and OR logic in your selection statements. This is used in conjunction
with the NamedSelect statement.
- Match Expression
The match expresion can be a quoted string that is matched against the
lower case Header field; for example:
Select from "slip.net"
Or it can be a Regular Expression.
A Regular expression is specified by preceeding the expresion with "RE".
For Example:
Select from RE ".*@.*slip\\.net" "image URL"
If the match string or Regular Expression matches the contents
of the Header field, then the image specified by this Select statement
will be used.
If the match string is "" then match will be true if the specified header
is present. For example:
Select list-subscribe "" "file:./images/mailinglist.gif"
Those not familiar with "Regular Expressions" may want
to refer to this article on
Perl
Regular Expressions Regular expressions are both powerful and difficult
to understand. In general, you can code very simple match Expressions
to match your Mail messages. For example, if you want to select any mail
from some user with the userid of "donna@yahoo.com" you could code the
following:
Select from "donna@" "file:/c:/icons/donna.gif"
The above would match any mail from donna@yahoo.com.
Of course, it would also match any mail from
Madonna@yahoo.com, but really, how often do you get E-mail from Madonna!
However with Regular expresions you could code:
Select from RE "^donna@yahoo\\.com" "file:/c:/icons/donna.gif"
This would only match email from donna@yahoo.com
- Image URL
- This specifies the image that will be used to to represent this mail
message. The URL can point to an image on any WWW site or can point to
an image on your system by using "file:/path/image"
An alternative is to specify "PICONDB" which will cause the PIcon
found in the PIcon Database to be used.
Some sample icons are distributed for use with MailFaces.
These can be refered to as file:./images/name.gif
- Audio URL
- This is an optional parameter and if specified the sound file represented
by this URL will be fetched and played (depending on the setting of AudioSuppport.
- SMS
- This is an optional parameter and if specified a celluar Short Message will be sent to the
a selected cellphone. The message will consist of the mail subject,
who it is from, and as much text as will fit in the SMS limit (160 characters).
Refer to the distributed faces.opt file
for some more examples of Select statements.
- SelectAfter
The SelectAfter statement has the same format as the Select statement
but it is processed at a different time. The order of search to match a
piece of e-mail to an image is as follows:
- Select Statements
- KillSelect Statements
- PIcon Database search
- SelectAfter Statements
- DefaultImageURL
One reason that you might want to use a SelectAfter statement is if
you want to show the PIcons from the PICON database for individuals in
your department, but if they don't have a PICON, then you still want to
show that it is mail from someone in your department via a special icon.
For Example:
Select from "boss@" "http://www.dilbert.com/dept755/boss.gif"
SelectAfter from "@dept755.dilbert.com" "http://www.dilbert.com/dept755/dept.gif"
With the above statements, "boss.gif" will always be used
for boss regardless of whether he or she has a PIcon. Anyone else that
has a PIcon will have it displayed and anyone in dept755 that does not
have a PIcon will be represented by "dept.gif"
- SendMailHost
- This specifies the mailServer that is used to send outgoing mail.
It is usually the same as the Mailserver.
Currently this is only required if you are using the SMS facility
to send SMS messages via EMail.
Example:
SendMailHost mail.cruzio.com
- ShowMaxPIcons
- This specifies the number of PIcons that will be displayed on the screen.
If you have more, a scrollbar will be used to display the additional PIcons.
The default is 10.
- ShowMinPIcons
- This specifies the minimum number of PIcons that will be displayed on the screen.
This controls the minimum width of the window.
The default is 4.
- SMSEmail
- This specifies an email address for the cellular company that is providing
the Short Message Service (SMS). You need to contact your cellular provider
to determine this. If your provider is Cingular and you want an SMS
message sent to your cellphone, then you specify your cellphone number and
mobile.mycingular.net. For example:
SMSEmail "8315551234@obile.mycingular.net"
- Version
- Specifies the MailFaces Version that this Options file is designed
to support. This is used to support upgrades of the Options file for new
versions of MailFaces
Example:
Version 1.2
[
Index
|
Overview
|
Install
|
Options
|
Usage
|
Notes
]