Utility provides new ways for sending e-mail messages from IBM i.
Several installers of the MMAIL utility in the past months did contact me asking for some tool that would log all the outgoing e-mail messages from the utility, says Giovanni B. Perotti, developer of MMAIL and owner of www.Easy400.net.
This is a very reasonable requirement from companies relying on e-mail messages for some part of their business, says Perotti.
"To be honest, there is no way (apart from 'certified mail,' not yet supported, as far as I know, on System i) to make sure that a piece of mail did reach a receiver and that it was opened," he says.
"Having thought about this requirement, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to have a log, is a client log.
"Imagine that any message out of MMAIL is blank (blind) copied to a given e-mail address. As a result, this "blind" receiver will get a copy of any message out of this "system." By doing this, there are a number of advantages. The client e-mailer, Outlook or what you have, provides for sorting, scanning, etc., the received messages, much better than any RPG program would perhaps do. It's no cost, it's already there.
"This could solve another issue. As you know, incoming messages can be filtered according to their resulting SPAM level. As an example, my own e-mail account has a SPAM filter set to 3.0. It means that messages with a SPAM level over 3.0 are not delivered into the incoming mail basket, they go instead into the SPAM basket and - unless you do something special- you would never know that you received them.
"Now, messages from MMAIL are assigned a SPAM level from the ISP servicing your e-mail account. Though you may not know it, a SPAM filter level is assigned to your account. Messages with a SPAM level higher than allowed do not come to your incoming mail basket.
"Well then, you could define to MMAIL a number of 'blind' copy receivers, each with a different SPAM level filter. In this way, you could have several outgoing MMAIL message logs and be able to find out whether a given message was not received because of its SPAM level.
"Today, in [the] August 16, 2010 MMAIL release you will find a new command, named WRKMDTBC (Work with Mandatory Blank Copies), see http://www.easy400.net/mmailh/othutils.htm#10a , that allows you to define a number of blind receivers of whatever message is out from MMAIL. It would then be your job to define, at your ISP, the SPAM level filter for such blind receivers.
Says Perotti: "Hope this helps the many who wanted such a service be made available."
Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.
IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn:
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