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Contents
Preface

Internet Services

WebDAV Server
URIQA Semantic Web Enabler
Mail Delivery & Storage
The SMTP Client POP3 Server Storing Email in Virtuoso
NNTP Newsgroups
MIME & Internet Messages
FTP Services
VSP Guide
LDAP

17.3. Mail Delivery & Storage

17.3.1. The SMTP Client

smtp_send (in server string, in sender string, in recipient string, in body string);

send message to SMTP server


17.3.2. POP3 Server

The Virtuoso POP3 Server implementation supports the following commands as defined in RFC - 1939:

The POP3 Server listening port is configured in the HTTP section of the virtuoso.ini.

POP3Port = xxx, in HTTP section.

If the port is not defined in the configuration file then the POP3 server subsystem will be disabled.

Users and passwords of the POP3 Server are described in the system view WS.WS.SYS_DAV_USER over SYS_USERS. These users can be administered from the users section of the Virtuoso Administration User Interface.

The system table DB.DBA.MAIL_MESSAGE is used to stored the messages.


17.3.3. Storing Email in Virtuoso

A generic mail delivery driver enables SMTP servers to deliver email to be stored in either Virtuoso or non Virtuoso SQL database.

Mail storage can occur in a number of ways:

  1. Replacing the default generic SMTP mail handler ( the program "procmail")
  2. Replacing the mail storage settings for individual users Replacing Default SMTP Mail Handler Sendmail

17.3.3.1. Replacing procmail As Default Mail Handler In Sendmail Configurations

When this configuration is in use, the mails for all of your "sendmail" mail recipients are written to a SQL Database table.

  1. Copy the file "odbc_mail.default.ini" to "/etc/odbc_mail.ini"

    Important: Make sure that /etc/odbc_mail.ini is NOT GROUP/WORLD writable. virt_mail will fail to run if it is.

  2. Copy or symbolically link the file "virt_mail" to "/usr/bin/virt_mail"

  3. Edit /etc/odbc_mail.ini and change the login settings to match your current database installation.

    Note: If you don't have or want to use procmail, comment out the "Fallback" setting in the "[Deliver]" section.

  4. Edit the file "/etc/sendmail.cf" as described below:

    Change

    Mlocal, P=/usr/bin/procmail, F=lsDFMAw5:/|@qSPfhn9, S=10/30,
      R=20/40,T=DNS/RFC822/X-Unix, A=procmail -Y -a $h -d $u
    

    To:

    Mlocal, P=/usr/bin/virt_mail, F=lsDFMA5:/|@qSPhn9, S=10/30,
      R=20/40, T=DNS/RFC822/X-Unix, A=virt_mail -c /etc/odbc_mail.ini -l $u -s $g
    

    NOTE: The changes to the F= setting involves removing both the 'w' and 'f' flags.

    The removal of the 'w' flag affects lookups in /etc/passwd, which are no longer required if all mail delivery goes into a SQL Database. The default ini file is set up to maildrop via procmail, which will perform the check correctly.


17.3.3.2. Replacing The Mail Storage Settings For Individual Users

17.3.3.2.1. Using Sendmail
  1. Copy odbc_mail.default.ini to ~the_user_name/odbc_mail.ini

    Important: Make sure that /etc/odbc_mail.ini is NOT GROUP/WORLD writable. virt_mail will fail to run if it is.

  2. At the end of the file ~the_user_name/.procmailrc put something like:

    :0:
    | /usr/bin/virt_mail -c .odbc_mail.ini -l the_user_name
    

    replacing the_user_name with the user you are setting up.

    Note: the '-l ..' parameter is used to relate the local recipient to the database user for which the maildrop is done. See the remarks in the odbc_mail.default.ini file.

  3. Adjust the parameters in .odbc_mail.ini to match your configuration

    Important: disable Fallback delivery in the .odbc_mail.ini file. Comment out the "Fallback =" entry in the .odbc_mail.ini or set it to something that does not involve procmail. This may lead to drop loops, otherwise.


17.3.3.2.2. Using Qmail
  1. Copy odbc_mail.default.ini to ~the_user_name/.odbc_mail.ini

    Important: Make sure that the .odbc_mail.ini file is NOT GROUP/WORLD writable. virt_mail will fail to run if it is.

  2. If you are setting up a .qmail, you can simply do the following:

    | /usr/bin/virt_mail -m qmail -c .odbc_mail.ini
    

    If you are setting up .qmail-default or .qmail-<some_alias_name>, make sure you adjust the RemovePrefix accordingly in the odbc_mail.ini.

    This also works if a single user is receiving mail for an entire (virtual) domain.

    If you want to configure qmail so that user 'db' gets all mail for example.com, do the following:

    1. create a new user db in /etc/passwd etc.

    2. remove example.com from /var/qmail/control/locals

    3. add to /var/qmail/controls/virtualdomains:

      example.com:db
      
    4. adjust /var/qmail/users/assign accordingly:

      =db:db:<uid>:<gid>:<home>:::
      
      +db-:db:<uid>:<gid>:<home>:-::
      

      or run qmail-pw2u < /etc/passwd > /var/qmail/users/assign then run qmail-newu and restart qmail

    5. in ~db/.qmail-default, put:

      | /usr/bin/virt_mail -m qmail -c .odbc_mail.ini
      
    6. in .odbc_mail.ini, set:

      RemovePrefix=db-
      

      Now, mail to info@example.com will be delivered to the qmail alias db-info@example.com and is stored into the database for user 'info'.

  3. Adjust the parameters in .odbc_mail.ini to match your configuration


17.3.3.2.3. Using Courier
  1. Copy odbc_mail.default.ini to ~the_user_name/.odbc_mail.ini

    Important: Make sure that the .odbc_mail.ini file is NOT GROUP/WORLD writable. virt_mail will fail to run if it is.

  2. If you are setting up a .courier, you can simply do the following:

    | /usr/bin/virt_mail -mcourier -c .odbc_mail.ini

    If you are setting up .courier-default or .courier-<some_alias_name>, make sure you adjust the RemovePrefix accordingly in the .odbc_mail.ini.

    Note: although courier is very similar to qmail in this respect, it is different from qmail in how it handles exit codes. If you use -mqmail while running under courier, you'll get the wrong exit codes, so mail is bounced instead of retried.

    Note also that if delivering to multiple recipients in a .courier file, make sure the virt_mail is specified first. This is because if the virt_mail fails with a temporary error, the other recipients will get another drop when courier re-attempts to deliver the mail.

    Right:

    \w
    | /usr/bin/virt_mail -mcourier -c .odbc_mail.ini
    ./Maildir
    

    Wrong:

    ./Maildir
    | /usr/bin/virt_mail -mcourier -c .odbc_mail.ini
    
  3. Adjust the parameters in .odbc_mail.ini to match your configuration

17.3.3.2.4. Using EXIM

Here are code snippets for Exim that perform maildrops into the odbc database.

## IN TRANSPORT SECTION

# Delivers into the database
odbc:
  driver = pipe
  command = /usr/bin/virt_mail \
	-c /etc/odbc_mail.ini \
	-s "${if def:return_path{$return_path}{MAILER-DAEMON}}" \
	-l "$local_part"
  user = USERNAME
  return_path_add
  delivery_date_add
  prefix =
  suffix =
  temp_errors = 73 : 74 : 75
  return_fail_output

# NOTE: Make sure the USERNAME in the 'user = USERNAME' setting matches
# the owner of /etc/odbc_mail.ini, because this file must have mode 0600.
# Consider creating a new user account for this delivery only.
# You should specify 'user = root' here only if Fallback delivery is
# configured in /etc/odbc_mail.ini (for procmail fallback delivery
# for instance)


## IN DIRECTORS SECTION

# Attempts delivery of all mail into the database
to_db:
  driver = smartuser
  transport = odbc
  require_files = /etc/odbc_mail.ini
  #
  # uncomment line below to deliver all mail to db-XXX into the database, for any
  # value of XXX. For this to work, set "RemovePrefix = db-" in
  # the [Translate] section in /etc/odbc_mail.ini
  #prefix = db-


17.3.3.3. Mail System Tables

The electronic mail accounts are regular SQL accounts.

Id (MM_ID) of the message is unique per account/folder (folder can be 'Inbox' etc.)

See Also:

Mail system tables


17.3.3.4. Pop3 Client

The Virtuoso POP3 Client implementation can retrieve messages from any POP3 server.

array pop3_get (in host varchar, in user varchar, in password varchar, in buffer_size integer, [in command varchar], [in exclude_uidl_list vector]);

get messages from a POP3 server

17.3.3.4.1. Commands

UIDL - get only UIDL's of messages.

DELETE - delete messages after downloading.

Examples

1. To get 10 KB. messages from the server 'openlinksw.com' POP3 port 110, user name 'user_1', password 'pass_1'

	Pop3_get ('openlinksw.com:110', 'user_1', 'pass_1', 10000);

2. To get and delete 5 KB. messages from the server 'openlinksw.com' POP3 port 110, user name 'user_1', password 'pass_1'

	Pop3_get ('openlinksw.com:110', 'user_1', 'pass_1', 5000, 'DELETE');

3. To get UIDL's of 100 kb. messages from the server 'openlinksw.com' POP3 port 110, user name 'user_1', password 'pass_1'

	Pop3_get ('openlinksw.com:110', 'user_1', 'pass_1', 100000, 'UIDL');


17.3.3.5. The Virtuoso Mail Sink

The Virtuoso Sink is used to store messages received by Windows 2000 IIS SMTP Service into the MAIL_MESSAGES table in Virtuoso. It consists of an executable, run as a service, and a VBscript for registering a COM object with the IIS, interfacing it with the Virtuoso Sink

The User ID(s) in MAIL_MESSAGES to whom the message belongs to is determined by parsing the To: field in the mail message into a list of recipients. For each entry in the list, if an @-sign is found, the user ID will consist of the characters to the left of it, otherwise the whole entry is used.

17.3.3.5.1. Registry Entries for the Virtuoso Sink.
<<<<<<<< VirtuosoSink.reg
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OpenLink Software\VirtuosoSink]
"User"="dba"
"Password"="dba"
"DSN"="Virtuoso"
"ConnectionCount"=dword:00000001
>>>>>>>> VirtuosoSink.reg

These are the registry entries used by the Sink service. ConnectionCount is the number of connections to Virtuoso to be pooled.


17.3.3.5.2. Installation

Use these commands to install the Virtuoso Sink:

See Also:

The MSDN page for more information about registering sinks.


17.3.3.5.3. Sink Operation

When the service starts it opens a pool of connections to Virtuoso and waits for a COM event. When the COM callback gets called, the service invokes a stored procedure and passes the message text to it. The procedure then stores the message into the database. In event of lost connection to the database, the service would try once to re-establish it and re-execute the stored procedure call. Errors and successful message routings are entered into the Windows 2000 Application Log.