Message Composition and Mailing

soyMAIL message addressing and sending supports native VMS mailboxes and Internet compliant mailing. The message composition page allows the addressing, text editing and attachment of external files (for MIME capable mailing systems).

The composition page comprises three specific panels:

- addressing
- message text
- attachments

When using the message composition page returns to exactly what it was before sending. Careful attention should be given the status message panel for determining message send status. If an error occured (e.g. addressing) this can be corrected and the message send again attempted. Even after a successful send the message is again available for modification and resending if required.

When using the message composition page is closed on successful send, otherwise the status panel needs to be checked for the error description and this corrected before retrying.

The "From:" address seen by the destination is derived from the username and local host name. It can be explicitly set using the Personal name and From address options available from the page.

Addressing

Multiple addresses can be entered into any of these fields, one per line.

To: |  |  |  | [SELF]
Cc: |
Bcc: |
Reply-to: |
Subject: |
|  | Up to three address fields are provided, "To:", "Cc:" and "Bcc:". Initially only the "To:" field is present. Selecting either of the other three buttons opens the respective field. Contact names are displayed in the selection list on the right. These are (in part) derived from the personal list available in soyMAIL. Depending on site configuration other contact lists may be available to open and select from. The associated addresses can be moved into any of the address fields using the respective button. The [SELF] is a special address allowing a copy-to-self to be added to any of the address fields. The "Reply-to:" button and field can be used to specify an address to be replied to different from the "From:" address.

A larger contact name list when selected will expand the number of entries displayed and open a keyword selection dialog below it. Into this field any character or characters may be entered and the contact list will dynamically highlight entries containing that string. Use the key to step one by one through matching entries. To match those beginning with specific characters prefix the entered string with a vertical-bar ("¦"). Changing the string will restart the selection process. Clicking on the message text panel will revert the contact list size.

The message subject line is automatically attributed when composing a reply or forward.

Message Text

The message text edit area provides basic text editing functionality - character-cell insert/delete, text cut/copy/paste, etc. (it is a standard browser, after-all). Message text can be cut-and-paste from other applications in the usual manner. Action buttons to the left of the panel provide the following functionality.

Confirm Send | Send mails the message. Send-Close mails the message and closes the window if the send was successful. Confirm Send prevents the inadvertent sending of an email by prompting for confirmation. Preview displays the current composition as an approximation of what the message may look like. Save stores the current composition in the "Draft Items" folder. Restore opens the "Draft Items" folder to allow selection of saved draft. Signature appends any user-option set signature text to the message text. The selection dialog below the signature button allows one of multiple signatures to be appended (user option). Reset restores any existing message text to before modification. Clear empties the message text. New empties all fields associated with the message. Wrap at 78 changes the sent message text wrapping to the width indicated by the button. 20 x 78 this two-part button allows the height of the text edit window to be adjusted (left side) to 20, 30, 40 and 60 rows, and the width of the message text edit window to 78, 96, and 132 columns (right side).

If the user option "Sent Items Folder" is set a copy of each successfully sent message is placed into the specified folder. The contents of this folder should be purged periodically.

A message originated using the message read button may display one or more name (content-type) below the text edit area if the original contained one or more attachments. These checkboxes allow selective forwarding of those original attachments.

Message HTML

soyMAIL supports plug-in JavaScript-driven HTML editors. These allow HTML messages to be created and replied-to from within the soyMAIL composition page. The capabilities of this editor depends on the package locally installed. Usually there is help available from the editor panel itself. One of these packages must be installed and configured by the site administrator in addition to soyMAIL.

| When available the appropriate editor is selected when replying-to the HTML or plain text message being read. These buttons allow the editor to be switched while using the composition page. The default editor can be selected from the soyMAIL page.

Character Set

When optional compose character sets are configured an additional selector and directionality buttons are displayed.

| The first selection is always the character set of the optioned language (uniformly ISO-8859-1) followed by configured character sets. The character set must always be set prior to editing any message text. The script directionality buttons allow this to be explicitly set if required.

Attachments

Attachments are files added to a MIME-compliant mail message (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME) for access and viewing by the message recipient. Files are either uploaded from the browser-local system to soyMAIL, or saved from attachments of previously received and read messages. When a file has been uploaded to soyMAIL for potential attachment to a message the attachment panel displays buttons, checkbox and file detail.

<name> (size) | On the far left is a delete all button. This removes all uploaded files from soyMAIL. Alongside this is a checkbox that when selected automatically deletes all attachment files after a successful send. Associated with each uploaded file are two buttons, a checkbox, and file detail. The buttons allow individual deletion of each attachment, viewing its content, and the checkbox selection for inclusion as an attachment to the current message.
| This dialog allows a file on the browser-local system to be selected for upload to soyMAIL for potential inclusion as a message attachment. Once the file is selected it is automatically uploaded to soyMAIL.

Uploaded attachments can persist between individual message compositions and mailings. So it is quite possible to include some uploaded files with particular messages and not with others. It is recommended to delete all attachments when finished including them with messages.