1. Sympa Mailing List Server
New features in Sympa
New Web interface
Approving posts (in Moderation)
Web Archive and Posted Files
Membership management
Controlling access with Scenari
Creating a list
Defining membership
Customising notifications
S/MIME (and other cool features)
Questions!

2. Sympa Mailing List Server What are mailing lists?
Point
In time
Event
Based
Historical
Personal, active
archive
Phone call
Public,
active
Mailing List
Mailing List
web archive
Communication can be broadly classified using three criteria: personal/public, active/passive, and time frame.
Personal/public – is it directed at a specific person (phone call), or broadcast (possibly to a restricted set of subscribers)(newspaper)
Active/passive – does it come to you (phone call), or do you have to fetch it (newspaper)?
Time frame – tied to a specific time (phone call), tied to an event (a letter), or not tied to a time at all (a history book)?
The only thing I can think of that is Personal/Passive is a message specifically for you in the newspaper small ads.. “If you were the cute blonde on the bus this morning….”. IE, a message specifically for you that you wont receive unless you are actively looking for it.
This is very rough as many forms of communication fit over multiple categories. Also there are things like interactivity to consider.
Mailing lists fill a gap for Public/Active delivery of event-based information.
A list of recipients to forward a given message to
Single or multiple posters (announce/discussion)
Active delivery (not passive, eg Facebook)
No such thing as personal/passive, that would be silly
Web-based historical archives
Facebook
Web forum
Public, passive
Twitter

3. Sympa Mailing List Server New features in Sympa
Self-service list request, creation, management, etc
Virtual list domains with different rules, interface, etc
High level of control over posting and subscription rules
LDAP, SQL and HTTP integration
S/MIME authentication support
Shibboleth/LDAP authentication
Consolidated personal subscription management
Personalisation (Mail-Merge) support
Autoprovisioning of lists
Many new features that the old MailMan system did not provide.
Also, a more user-friendly web interface for administrators!

4. Sympa Mailing List Server Why are we changing?
Efficiency
Bringing all list servers together into a common interface
Roles & Responsibilities project
Bring faculty list servers into common systems
Need new features to provide capabilities required
Improved service
Self-provisioning capabilities
Netaccount Integration = simpler membership management
Stability
New software under active development and support
Also, New features – secure and signed mailing lists! Mail merge capability!

5. Sympa Mailing List Server New Web Interface
One login for all your lists
Shibboleth Integration and single-signon
Creation and configuration of lists
Membership management
Post moderation
Web archive of list postings
Vacation controls
Personal preferences
New terminology: ‘Editor’ is a Moderator. ‘Owner’ is list administrator.
Editors can approve postings, manage membership and archives
Owners can reconfigure list
Editors are notified of new members, new moderated postings, etc
Owners are only notified for major tasks (list removal, etc)
Owners and Editors are notified if their roles change

6. Top banner allows login via Shibboleth, NetAccount password, and generated password (for non-UoA accounts)
Tab row lets you select admin commands, search pages, and different list domains
Departmental list domains can be created for you
Search for lists by name, partial name, or Category (also called a ‘topic’). We can create new Categories if required.
See the list of lists you have subscribed to or are owner/moderator for in the Subscribed Lists box. You can manage your subscriptions in bulk if required (unsubscribe, set vacation settings, etc)
Links are hidden if you do not have the required level of access to use them
Context-sensitive help available everywhere!

7. List information shows list owners and moderators, as well as member count
Can conceal owners and/or moderators as required. Owners can be ‘figureheads’ who are not mailed with list information.
List Information is configurable by list owners
Commands box allows you to manage your subscription, view archives, perform moderation, and administer list memberships and configuration.
Links are hidden if you do not have the required level of access to use them
Shared documents link is here as well, if your list is using this feature.

8. Sympa Mailing List Server Approving Postings: All things in Moderation
User
Moderator
User makes post
Posting scenario checked
If rejected, notify sender
If accepted, distribute post
If moderated, notify user of moderation, and notify editors of arrival of new post
Admin can confirm or reject post by web or by
‘Scenario’ is a rule set defining who is allowed to perform an action – in this case, who can post to the list.
Scenario outcome in this case may be accept, reject, or require some sort of verification or moderation
Scenario rules can allow some people to post but require others to be moderated
Moderators can approve postings either via the web interface, or by replying to notification using certain subject keywords. All instructions are in the notification .

9. Sympa Mailing List Server Moderator notification email
One new message for list sshi052-test from arrived.
1 messages are awaiting moderation.
To view the messages, please click on the following URL: /ticket/ <
To distribute the attached message in list sshi052-test:
Or send a message to with the following subject:
DISTRIBUTE sshi052-test bf95f771ef3cc4c59ddb1d825ba68054
To reject it (it will be removed):
REJECT sshi052-test bf95f771ef3cc4c59ddb1d825ba68054
The messages moderating documentation:
<
Notification contains embedded links
for moderation can be attached to notification

10. Web-based moderation interface lists all pending emails
Moderator can view s before deciding
Rejection can be set to notify the sender or not; also senders can optionally be added to a blacklist.

11. Sympa Mailing List Server Membership Management
Posting
User:
Subscribe, Unsubscribe
Via or web
May require approval
Blacklist
User
Subscribers
Admin:
Add and remove users
Approve pending
Set blacklists
Explicit adds
External Sources
Admin
Database:
NetAccount groups
LDAP query
Other lists’ members
External files
SQL query
Depending on list configuration, users may subscribe to and unsubscribe from list using either or web interface
List Editors (Moderators) can manually add and remove list members, and administer the Blacklist
Members can be set to ‘mail’ or ‘nomail’, and visible or concealed
If you want a specific non-member address to be able to post to the list, then you should add the address as a ‘nomail/concealed’ list member or Editor. This is a big change from the old MailMan lists which had a separate group for this category.
Exclusions
Database
Deliver!

12. Can see which source members come from (explicit adds, subscription, or external data source)
Can click on users to set options (name, delivery options, etc)
Add or delete users from list, use ‘quiet’ option to avoid sending a notification .
Use ‘Remind’ option to remind users of their list membership, and allow them to unsubscribe
Approve pending subscriptions, administer blacklist, check bounces list and exclusions.
Resynchronise external datasource manually (automatic frequency is set in list configuration, but defaults to Daily in order to not overload LDAP server)

13. Sympa Mailing List Server Web Archives and Posted Files
Automatic archive expiry
Restrict archives to members, moderators, or public
Searchable
View chronologically or by thread
Posted files are similar to Web Dropoff
Restrict posted files to members or public
Allow members or only moderators to post files
Currently, only limited disk space is available for files
Archives kept for 3 years by default; high volume lists may be set lower.
Archive access to members by default; can be changed to public or moderators only.
The Posted Files feature is available, but not generally advertised as we do not yet have sufficient disk quota to handle heavy use of it.
Posted Files allows files to be permanently uploaded to the system for access by list members, in much the same way as Web Dropoff. However in this case they are not deleted automatically and are accessible to all list members (or public, depending on list configuration)

14. Archives set up by month
Searchable for text
View chronologically or by thread
Moderators are able to selectively delete from the archives

15. Sympa Mailing List Server More Advanced Tasks
Access control
List Creation
List configuration management
These are more advanced tasks used by list owners
You can run away now if you want to!

16. Sympa Mailing List Server Controlling access with Scenari
Specific rules for who can perform a task, and what action should be taken.
Result:
Permit action
Deny action
Require approval
Require further authentication
Require Certificate
Check:
How did the person authenticate?
List owner?
List editor/moderator?
Location (IP Address)
LDAP group membership?
Database lookup
Static list lookup
Other list membership status
List moderator approval (subscription, posting)
address confirmation (subscription, posting)
Scenario : a set of rules for what rights should be given to people for a given task
Authenticated by either address, web authentication/token, or client certificate/signed
Many rule sets pre-defined for selection

17. Sympa Mailing List Server Creating Lists
Self-service : Request a list online
Custom virtual domains for groups requiring it
Choose a Template, or copy an existing list
Select list name, description
Make any changes to list configuration
Request aliases (Service Desk)
Possibly request approval for list creation (Service Desk)
A Scenario is used to specify who can request lists in this domain
Templates can be created at top level or at domain level
Templates can be used in ‘batch mode’ to create whole groups of lists at once, by passing the parameters in a pre-created text file
aliases are created and managed by the Service Desk
If you do not have authority to create a list, but may request one, then Service Desk can approve a pre-configured but not yet activated list
Pre-configured templates makes it very easy for anyone to create a list

18. Only staff can create lists; if you have a departmental list server, then you may be able to grant create rights to other people.
Staff may only request lists in domains, not activate them. Contact Service Desk to activate.
Create by copying the definition of an existing list, or from a preconfigured template
List Owners may also delete or rename their lists
Create a new list from a template, or by copying the configuration of an existing list. Then make your own modifications.
New templates can be created if there is a particular set of configuration that is frequently requested
Lists can be created in bulk from XML or CSV exports in the correct format

19. Sympa Mailing List Server Controlling Membership
Posting
Who can subscribe?
Who can unsubscribe?
List owners can add people
Link to one or more LDAP groups (e.g. NetAccount)
Link to external Database
Link to external address list via HTTP
Include members from another list
Can allow unsubscription of members retrieved from external sources!
Blacklist
User
Subscribers
Explicit adds
External Sources
Admin
Scenario is used to control subscribe, unsubscribe, post
Blacklist blocks all commands (post, subscribe, unsubscribe) for address
Users can subscribe or unsubscribe: a scenario is selected for rules
External datasources are usually synchronised daily (the same as Netaccount/LDAP synch frequency) but this can be more frequent
Can be zero or many external sources
External sources can be LDAP (Netaccount), SQL, other lists, text files retrieved by HTTP, etc
Can allow some to unsubscribe but not others
Custom scenario might be required; this can take some time if you need help.
Exclusions
Database
Deliver!

20. Sympa Mailing List Server Customising Notifications
Disposition:
Editor
Subscriber
Ask for approval
Sent to editor
Moderated
Confirm your post
AuthKey
Rejected
Rejected
Editor == Moderator
Approval can be by reply , via web interface, or via embedded link in notification
Header/footer only added to plain text s, only if not signed, so rarely used these days. RFC Header fields used instead.
Notification s in template format; can contain symbols.
Template format is extremely powerful – and complex. The TT2 scripting language manuals are all available online.
Approved
Add header and/or footer
Deliver

21. Sympa Mailing List Server S/MIME (and other cool features)
S/MIME Signatures
Only Signed messages will be accepted on the list
Protects list from forged postings on official lists
Does not work with Personalisation feature!
Recipients MUST have S/MIME capable mail reader
Can sign or encrypt list postings before delivery with List key
Possibly more trouble than it is worth!
Personalisation
All postings are merged with member data using TT2 templating
Allows “Dear Sid Bloggs…” message personalisation
Can add any other custom data fields to list membership
Awkward to automatically populate custom fields
Does not work with S/MIME signatures!
Was used to create list owner notification s
Using S/MIME signatures for authentication is complex, and only works if you are sending an S/MIME signed message with no alternate unsigned part (Outlook sends an unsigned part by default)
Sending a compatible S/MIME message will pass the signing through, so it is not compatible with Personalisation (which modifies the message)
An S/MIME message is only readable by a compatible mail reader (eg, Outlook). Others will just see a .p7m attachment.
Lists can have their own S/MIME certificate and sign the message at distribution time.
TT2 templating used for personalised messages. The field names are not obvious; For example, [% user.gecos %] is replaced by the subscriber’s full name, if known.
Lists taking membership from external sources may also require an external source for the Name attribute, if you want to use it.
S/MIME is good for lists where you want to guarantee that only certain people can post; however your message may not be readble by the final recipient’s mail client.

22. Sympa Mailing List Server If you want to know more…
Questions
After this long, do you want to ask questions, or would you rather escape?