UofL's Configurable User Email Gateway

uofl.mail is a CGI program developed by an employee of UofL which generates HTML forms for individual users for use with the cgiemail CGI program. It has several levels of configurability and covers a broad range of private-user email needs, all accessible through a single URL.

uofl.mail relies on cgiemail, so an understanding of that program might help you in more advanced uses of uofl.mail.

Basic Usage

Basic use of uofl.mail is easy; simply make a link to the following URL:

      http://www.louisville.edu/cgi-bin/uofl.mail?userid

inserting your Athena/Groupwise userid or your e-mail nickname in place of the userid in the above address. So, for example, if your Athena/Groupwise userid is jtkirk01, then you would use:

      http://www.louisville.edu/cgi-bin/uofl.mail?jtkirk01

or, if your e-mail nickname is jim.kirk, then you would use:

      http://www.louisville.edu/cgi-bin/uofl.mail?jim.kirk

This will automatically generate a generic email HTML form with fields for the sender's email address, the sender's real name, the subject of the message, and a message body. For an example of a generic email form generated by uofl.mail program, look here:

      http://www.louisville.edu/cgi-bin/uofl.mail

Setting the subject of the message

You also have the option of specifying a subject for the message in the URL. For example:

      http://www.louisville.edu/cgi-bin/uofl.mail?name=jtkirk01&subject=Beam+me+up!

Notice in the example that when specifying a subject, you must prefix the userid with "name=", and that spaces in the subject are specified using a "+".

Intermediate Usage

uofl.mail has an intermediate level of usage. This usage allows you to define different email addresses for yourself, a list of different subjects for the user to specify, as well as different text for the "SUBMIT" and "RESET" buttons on the email form. You do not need to specify anything different in the address, so your URL will be the same as listed above in the "Basic Usage" section.

To utilize uofl.mail in this way, you must first create a configuration file within the "www" directory of your Athena account. The name of this file is .uofl.mail.rc; note the period at the beginning of the name. This file should contain any of the four configuration options: USERID, SUBJECT, SUBMIT, and RESET. You may specify one, all, or any combination of these options in the configuration file. An example configuration file is as follows:

     Userid = jtkirk01@louisville.edu
     Userid = jtkirk01@gwise.louisville.edu

     Subject = A Question About The Enterprise
     Subject = Why The Second Star From The Left?
     Subject = Is Spock's blood really green?
     Subject = Has your new toupee come in yet?

     Submit = Email Kirk!

     Reset = Do NOT Email Kirk!

The following rules apply to the format of the configuration file:

• Each valid line in the configuration file has the format of OPTION = VALUE
• Any blank lines or lines that do not follow this format will be ignored.
• If more than one "SUBMIT" or more than one "RESET" option is specified then only the last one of each specified will be used.

To stop using the intermediate level of uofl.mail, simply move or delete the configuration file. This will prevent the program from finding it and using it to configure the form.

Advanced Usage

The final level of configurability for uofl.mail is the advanced level. This level also relies on a configuration file in your "www" directory, called .uofl.mail.html; note again the leading period. You do not need to specify anything different in the address, so your URL will be the same as listed above in the Basic Usage section.

If the configuration file exists, uofl.mail will forego generating an HTML form on its own, and will use that entire file as the HTML email form. This will require you to setup an HTML email form for use with cgiemail. It is recommended you read the cgiemail help page for more information on how to accomplish this.

Success Pages

uofl.mail will also change the "success" page that is displayed when someone successfully sends email to you through the gateway. If the file .uofl.mail.success.html (note the leading period) exists in your "www" directory, then uofl.mail will display that HTML file as the success page.

NOTE!: This only works for Basic and Intermediate Usage levels. Advanced usage does not implement this feature.

Caveats

If you have both Intermediate and Advanced configuration files, the Intermediate file will always override the Advanced. You must move or delete the configuration file you do not wish to use for uofl.mail to work properly.