Products.XWFMailingListManager

The mailing-list component of a GroupServer group

Author:	Michael JasonSmith
Contact:	Michael JasonSmith <[email protected]>
Date:	2017-01-23
Organization:	GroupServer.org
Copyright:	This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License by OnlineGroups.Net.

Introduction

This product provides the core mailing-list functionality for GroupServer. It provides the mailing list manager to find lists, and the mailing list to coordinate, or mediate, between the various gs.group.list.* products.

Mailing list manager

The mailing list manager, which gives this product its name, finds a mailing list when provided with an email address. The Products.XWFMailingListManager.XWFMailingListManager class does little, and will do less once the group_email table has been created [2].

Mailing list

The Products.XWFMailingListManager.XWFMailingList class adds posts to a group and sends the email out to all the members. It uses the following products to provide most of the functionality.

gs.group.list.base:

Converts the incoming message into Unicode plain-text body, a Unicode HTML-body, and a list of attachments. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.list.base>

gs.group.list.check:

Checks to see if the message should be processed at all. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.list.check>

gs.group.list.command:

Processes the email-commands, such as Subscribe and Digest on. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.list.command>

gs.group.member.canpost:

Checks to see if the group member is allowed to post. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.member.canpost>

gs.group.list.store:

Stores the message, and files, in the PostgreSQL database. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.list.store>

gs.group.list.email.text

Produces a plain-text version the stored message, reformatted with a prelude, a list of links to files, and a footer. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.list.email.text>

gs.group.list.sender

Performs the necessary modifications of the headers of the message, and sends the message out using SMTP [1]. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.list.sender>

Note:	There is no gs.group.list.email.html product… yet.

The main entry-point into the mailing list code is the manage_mailboxer method, which is used when an email comes into the system [3]. The manage_listboxer method is similar, but it is used when someone posts from the Web (so it skips much if the checking, which it presumes has already happened).

Moderation

The code for moderating a post is also contained within the Products.XWFMailingListManager.XWFMailingList class. It works, presumably, but it is fragile and lacks unit tests. The way moderation works is as follows:

• A post comes into the mailing list. It is checked to see if the member can post, as usual.
• The member is then checked to see if he or she is in the moderated list.
  • If the member is moderated then the post is stored in the mqueue folder of the mailing list object in the ZODB, and everyone informed of the fact.
  • If the member is unmoderated then the message is sent on.
• A moderator then responds to the moderation by making an HTTP GET request for manage_moderateMail. This either
  • Deletes the message, or
  • Sends the queued message through the message-processing queue again.

We are not proud of this code.

Acknowledgements

The mailing list code in GroupServer code was originally based on MailBoxer, by Maik Jablonski. It provided mailing lists to Zope, but lacked a Web interface. The MailBoxer code has been replaced, often many times, but references are still seen, and some of the API is similar.

Resources

• Code repository: https://github.com/groupserver/Products.XWFMailingListManager
• Questions and comments to http://groupserver.org/groups/development
• Report bugs at https://redmine.iopen.net/projects/groupserver

[1]	The gs.email product is used to send the messages out using SMTP. <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.email>

[2]	See Feature 388 Create Group Email Table

[3]	See the gs.group.messages.add product <https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.messages.add.base>