Mailing list web archive?

retroweb

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Joined
Nov 30, 2003
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UK
Hi,

A customer asked this about mailing lists. I've never used mailing lists in DA, so is this possible? The question is below...

On mailing lists that you can create, is there somewhere the mail archives on the web? I have never done a mailing list and it would be of great help if it does.

Regards,
Matt
 
Hello,

I know we don't have such a feature in place. That's not to say it's not dooable.. I know I've seen many lists online, so there is probably a program that will do it for you.. but you'd have to do some hunting. Perhaps someone knows of such software?..

John
 
How to add archives & digest to majordomo?

quote:On mailing lists that you can create, is there somewhere the mail archives on the web? </quote>

********

quote:I know we don't have such a feature in place. That's not to say it's not dooable.. I know I've seen many lists online, so there is probably a program that will do it for you.. but you'd have to do some hunting. Perhaps someone knows of such software?.. </quote>

***********

This was posted way back in February. Can anyone answer this? DA has majordomo for a mailing list. Can DA let customers know how to create the archives and digests, and if not, why not?
 
Hi,

Sorry for being thick but I don't fully understand your question.

Are you looking for a facility to show a history of your mailings to the mailing list?

Rob
 
matrixx said:
Hi,

Sorry for being thick but I don't fully understand your question.

Are you looking for a facility to show a history of your mailings to the mailing list?

Rob

Sorry if I didn't explain myself. I posted a question on the 'e-mail' section of this forum, but I never received an answer.

I'm just setting up a mailing list, and I want to have a digest format and an archives as well as the actual mailing list. I have the mailing list set up, but I can't figure out how to set up the digest and archives and, hopefully, a search engine for the archives.

My host company uses DirectAdmin, and they have majordomo set up on the site to be readily available to use as a mailing list so I set it up, but I could not find information regarding setting up the archives and digest.

This is what my configuration file for majordomo states:


***************

# archive_dir [absolute_dir] (undef) <majordomo>
# The directory where the mailing list archive is kept. This item
# does not currently work. Leave it blank.
archive_dir =

***************

# digest_archive [absolute_dir] (undef) <digest>
# The directory where the digest archive is kept. This item does
# not currently work. Leave it blank.
digest_archive =

***************

# digest_rm_footer [word] (undef) <digest>
# The value is the name of the list that applies the header and
# footers to the messages that are received by digest. This allows
# the list supplied headers and footers to be stripped before the
# messages are included in the digest.
digest_rm_footer =

# digest_rm_fronter [word] (undef) <digest>
# Works just like digest_rm_footer, except it removes the front
# material.
digest_rm_fronter =

***************

# digest_work_dir [absolute_dir] (undef) <digest>
# The directory used as scratch space for digest. Don't change
# this unless you know what you are doing
digest_work_dir =

***************


$digest_work_dir = "/usr/local/majordomo-1.94.5/digest";


$digest_work_dir is a temporary directory where digest files should be placed; this directory should be assigned to wherever you want digests to be stored.


***************



Can anyone give me directions regarding how I can easily set up the archives and digest? I tried looking through the FAQ information and the forums on the majordomo site, but I couldn't understand it.

I saw in the above DA forum response that it looked as though DA couldn't do it in Feb., 2004, but I was hoping that they would have set it up by now - or at least be able to explain to customers how to set it up.

Thanks, and again I apologize for not making myself clear.

Anne
 
Edited 2004/09/23 10:40 PDT to include point 5 below.

DA doesn't do it.

I agree that the instructions on the Majordomo site aren't easy to follow if you don't have a lot of admin experience.

If you can't follow them, then you may have to have someone do the installation for you, as it requires changes to files and directory path creation.

Since majordomo was a very early implementation of a list server, and designed to be installed and maintained by knowledgeable admins, it's not easy to set up, and it's not easy to add lists and users.

(Also, it's designed to integrate with Sendmail, and how it integreates with other servers, such as exim, are NOT well documented.)

Even after it's all set up, you'll still have the following issues:

1) To create digests you'll have to create separate digest lists, and change a lot of the options using the information in the list-owner-info file. Since DA doesn't include the list-owner-info file you'll have to grab one from elsewhere. There's a generic sample on my public download site here.

2) You'll probably also have to set up a directory structure for each digest.

3) You'll have to add rather complex aliases that you probably cannot create through the DA control panel.

4) To create archives you'll have to set up a directory structure for each archive, as well as specific cron jobs.

Added: 5): You still won't have web-based archives; Majordomo has never included web-based archives. You'll have to install a third-party web-based archive system.

Note that we've never installed a complete working majordomo installation on a system also running a control panel, and we don't recommend it.

Note also that majordomo will definitely have problems in the "new world of SPF" without some major patching to change how it forwards posts.

If you've need of more than simple majordomo lists as set up by DA, I'd recommend an install of Mailman, which is completely manageable through a web-based interface once it's installed.

Jeff
 
Last edited:
jlasman said:
DA doesn't do it.

If you've need of more than simple majordomo lists as set up by DA, I'd recommend an install of Mailman, which is completely manageable through a web-based interface once it's installed.

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff,

I really appreciate your detailed, informative response. I'm going to check out Mailman.

Thanks again,
Anne
 
You're welcome :) .

Note that Mailman isn't exactly easy, either, and will require extensive administrative experience to merge with the virtual domain method used by DA.

Note also that I edited my previous response to add point 5, which points out you still wouldn't have web-based archives, as Majordomo never supported that.

Jeff
 
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