Chapter 6 Customizing Advanced Features in Mail

This chapter describes how to perform advanced customizations. It also provides HTML files, their location, and details on features that are fully customizable.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• Files for Customizing the Mail User Interface

• Understanding Shared Folders

• Default LDAP Attributes for Users

In addition to the features mentioned in Chapter 5, Customizing User Interface Features in Mail, many other features are fully customizable. However, to take advantage of these features, an in-depth knowledge of JavaScript is required. You might also face migration problems when attempting to reconfigure JavaScript files.

Files for Customizing the Mail User Interface

Table 6–1 lists the user interface related FrameSet files of Communications Express user interface that are fully customizable.

Attachment Options

You can modify the following attachments options in mail:

• Browse button

• Attach, Cancel, Help buttons

HTML File Mapping

The HTML file that controls the attachment related features is attach_fs_lr.jsp.

Collect Mail from Another Server

You can modify the following labels that appear when collecting mail from another server:

• POP server name (text field)

• POP user ID (text field)

• Password (text field)

• Delete messages from server (select button)

• Save to folder (list box)

• Collect, Cancel, and Help (button)

HTML File Mapping

The HTML file that controls the mail collection feature is collect_fs_lr.html.

Message Composition

The message composition feature enables basic mail functions.

You can modify the following message composition options:

• Compose new message

• Reply to the sender

• Reply to all recipients of the message including the sender

• Forward message to others

• Move message to folder

• Delete message

• Navigate through messages using Prev or Next icon

HTML File Mapping

The HTML file that controls the message composition feature is msg_fs_lr.html.

Mailbox Management

The Mail tab enables access to a mailbox.

You can modify the following mailbox management tab options:

• Get new message

• Compose new message

• Search for message

• Move message to selected folder

• Delete message

• Undelete message

• Select message

• Select all messages

• Collect external messages

HTML File Mapping for Mailbox Management

The HTML file that controls the mailbox management tab feature is mbox_fs_lr.jsp.

Return Receipt

The return receipt feature enables the management of return receipts.

HTML File Mapping

The file that controls the return receipt feature is receipt_fs_lr.html.

Understanding Shared Folders

A shared folder is a folder in which you can store messages that can be accessed by other users. Communications Express manages access to the shared folders by granting others access to the shared folders.

Sharing folders is a two-step process that involves sharing and subscribing.

To Share Folders

1. A user shares a folder granting permissions to specific users.

2. The users who were given permissions to that folder then subscribe to it.

   For more information on Shared Folders, see Sun Java System Communications Express Online Help, that can be accessed by clicking the Help button on Communications Express user interface.

Default LDAP Attributes for Users

The Communications Express Server loads a default set of LDAP attributes for a user at the start of a session. These attributes are provided in Example 6–1.

Example 6–1 Customizable LDAP attributes

cn
givenName
mail
mailAlternateAddress
mailAutoReplyMode
mailAutoReplySubject
mailAutoReplyText
mailAutoReplyTextInternal
mailAutoReplyTimeout
mailDeliveryOption
mailForwardingAddress
mailQuota,mailMsgQuota
preferredLanguage
sn
uid
vacationEndDate
vacationStartDate

For more information on the attributes required or allowed by LDAP object classes for Communications Express, see Sun Java Communications Suite 5 Schema Reference

You might want to obtain other customized LDAP attributes from the server. For example, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) might have a custom LDAP attribute assigned to all users called myuserclass. This attribute could denote different types of users that access services, including Communications Express. Possible values for this attribute are regular and vip.

Before adding custom attributes to the directory, ensure that the directory schema supports these new attributes. The global set of schema for Directory Server can be found in the entry named cn=schema.

For more information on extending directory schema, see Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.0 Administration Guide.

After extending the directory schema, you can add the new attribute to a user or a group entry. To add custom attribute to a user entry you need to modify the entry in servletsconf section using the ldapmodify command. For more information on ldapmodify command, see Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.0 Man Page Reference:

Depending on the type of user ( the value of the myuserclass LDAP attribute), different advertisements are presented to the user when they log into Communications Express (Communications Express is customized to display banner advertisement). If the customized client has access to the myuserclass LDAP attribute, the type of user can be determined and the relevant banner advertisement for that user type is displayed.

To obtain other customized LDAP attributes from the server, use the configutil command to modify the service.http.extrauserldapattrs configuration parameter. The attributes are read-only by default. If the user wants to modify an attribute using the Communications Express code, the attribute needs to be marked read-write by appending the suffix.

Example 6–2 assumes the user wants to display banner advertisements depending on the class of the user and that the client program allows the user to edit a link to a home page:

Example 6–2 Display of Banner Advertisements Depending on the User Class:

configutil -l -o service.http.extrauserldapattrs -v 
				“myuserclass,homepage:w “