[pmmail-list] Moving Emails via REXX

[Kenn Yuill]

Hello Martin,
  In reply to your e-mail on Thu, 25 Oct 2001 17:52:32 +0100.

Doesn't your REXX routine have to check if the database is available
before sending the coded e-mails?  I presume that it does, so you are
worrying about the e-mail in the pipeline, which you want to leave in
the Inbox since the database is unavailable.  I don't know how any
e-mail client could stop processing them, since they were valid when
sent.  However, perhaps your REXX routine could control an e-mail
server to handle the distribution of these coded e-mails.  That is,
stop distributing these e-mails to PMMail when the database is down.  I
have never used one of these programs, so I don't know their
capabilities.  I recall that there is a small, free one for OS/2, but I
don't remember the name and all of my past V.O.I.C.E. newsletters with
announcements of its updates are in another mailer.

If the routine does check the database and if down, sends the e-mail
with a slight difference in the Subject (e.g. adds !! at the start), a
filter with " &! h.Subject="!!" " should detect this different Subject
and leave those e-mails in the Inbox and process the others, with "Stop
filtering" set to off.

Those coded e-mails with "!!" in the Subject could be handled by a
subsequent filter with " & h.Subject="!!", which would inform the user
by a popup and/or playing a wav file, move these coded e-mails to
another folder for manual processing later or do nothing and allow the
e-mail to pile up in the Inbox.  I am using a script which removes the
trailing "Re:" from the Subject, of incoming e-mails, but it is not my
work so you would have to contact the author if you wished to modify
and use it.  If you wish to have a look at it, drop me a line.  This
script could be applied manually to all of the e-mail in the Inbox or
another folder if moved as above, in order to remove the "!!" from
their Subjects, call your processing routine and act as a catchup
process to restore the e-mail to a normal condition, once the database
is available.

This setup may allow the validation process to continue while the
database is down and should work, unless I have missed the point
completely, which won't be the first or last time.

It is unfortunate that PMMail/2 doesn't have filters for individual
folders and you may be able to automate the movement of e-mail from one
folder to another as in StarOffice (see below).

My first thought, when I read your message, was that StarOffice could
accomplish this by the use of filters for any folder, not just the
Inbox.  It has been awhile since I've set up filters with SO, but it
can do the actions above with ease.  I think that you could set up an
automated movement of e-mail as well, but I would have to review SO
again.

HTH.

Ciao,
    Kenn
__________________________________________________________
The Original E-mail below, sent by Dr. Martin R. Hadam on Thu, 25 Oct
2001 17:52:32 +0100 to pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com, stated:


 I'm currently developing a rexx-based routine to validate email
addresses entered from a website: as usual, the submitter is sent a
coded email to the address provided which needs to be returned by the
submitter for the validation purposes.

 All this is working as anticipated with PMMAIL handling the incoming
confirmations via REXX and finally moving the email to a "processed"
folder.

 There is one problem with error handling, though: When the database
is
down or inaccessible for some reason, processing should be stopped and
those files should not move to the "processed" folder. It could then
be
easily seen when "unprocessed" and "unread" files accumulate in the
inbox.

 While I can cope in my rexx script with the situation, I don't see
how
to *conditionally* change/abolish a "move" directive in the filter. Is
that possible, after all? Or do I have to go write my own error
routine
including logging (and reprocessing) of all relevant files? Or is
there
a like solution already out that I do not know about?

 Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 Martin
 __________________________________________________________
  Always act as if life is a joyous journey.         
    Kenn Yuill    Warp 4.0/FP10    Java 1.18 
        PMMail/2 2.1 Demo.  Communicator 4.61 
            The Beautiful Ottawa Valley, Ontario, Canada 
 __________________________________________________________
               - A Thought for Today -
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
    - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 __________________________________________________________

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