Email Newsletter List Commands
Our Email Newsletter Mailinglist Manager has a number of commands specific to administrators. Whenever you submit an email command message to the Manager, you will receive a notification informing you of how the server interpreted your command(s), and the action(s) taken. The exception is if you use the "end quiet" command at the end of your message. In that case, you will receive no notification. You must be a List, Site or Server Administrator to use these commands. You must use the Login command before being able to use any of the admin commands.
Subscribing to an Announcement List
Subscribing to a Discussion List
Unsubscribing from an Announcement List
Add
The add command lets a list administrator add a member to their list. The syntax of the add command in it's simplest form is:
add listname [sendconfirm] emailaddress [name][quiet]
The sendconfirm, user name and quiet modifiers are optional. Here is an example:
add jazztalk bob@somewhere.com Bob Smith
If you do not specify the send confirm modifier, the confirmation message for that list will not be sent. In other words, if you have the list set to require confirmation, the default behavior of the add command is to bypass the confirmation and set the user's status to "normal". If, however, you use the send confirm modifier, the user will receive a message asking for their confirmation as if they had subscribed themselves.
If you do not specify a user name, the user will be created with no name in their member record. If you specify the quiet modifier, no "hello" message will be sent out to the member. However, if the add command does not succeed, such as if the email address is already a member, you (the person submitting the add command) will be notified. By default, when you add a member with the add command, both the admin and the user receives notification of the action. If a "hello" document exists for the list, that hello document is sent to the user instead of a machine-generated notification. With the quiet modifier, no notification is sent to the user. If you, as the administrator, do not want to receive a notification, you need to use "end quiet" at the end of your command message. See End command. If the list you are adding the user to is set to require passwords, one will be created automatically for that member. With respect to that, it is useful if, in the hello document, you notify the user of their password using a mail merge tag.
Delete
The delete command lets a list administrator delete a member from their list. The syntax of the delete command is:
delete listname emailaddress [quiet]
The quiet modifier is optional. The word "del" may be used instead of the word "delete". For example:
delete jazztalk bob@somewhere.com
If you specify the quiet modifier, no confirming email messages will be sent out. However, if the delete command does not succeed, such as if the email address is not a member, you (the person submitting the delete command) will be notified. By default, when you delete a member with the delete command, both you and the user receives notification that they have been removed. If a "goodbye" document exists for the list, that document is sent to the user instead of a machine-generated notification. With the quiet modifier, no notification is sent to the user or to the administrator.
As an alternative to providing an email address, you can use the member id of the member you wish to delete. For example, if you know member with id 1234 needs to be removed from the list, but you don't know that member's email address, you can use the member id without a problem. An example:
delete jazztalk 1234
You can specify any number of members to delete on the command line. For example, to delete the users "bob@somewhere.com" and "jane@elsewhere.com", you would write:
jane@somewhere.com
The delete command is only available to administrators. You must issue a "login" command before using the delete command. See Login for more information.
Delete from all Lists
You can use a "*" in place of the list name in the "delete" command, and a person will be removed from all lists they belong too. For example, to remove "bob@somewhere.com" from all lists on your server, you would use the command:
delete * bob@somewhere.com
End
The "end" command tells Lyris List Manager that there are no more email commands to process in this message. Lyris List Manager will stop processing your message when it sees the "end" command. The "end" command is optional. If you do not include it, Lyris List Manager will automatically scan to the bottom of your message for commands. Here is an example:
subscribe listname
set listname digest
end
Get Documents
Members of a mailing list can obtain the documents from a mailing with the Get command. The syntax for the get command:
get listname document-name-or-range
Currently, two kinds of documents are available: "hello" and "goodbye". These are the documents that are mailed when someone joins the mailing list, and when someone leaves the mailing list. For example:
get jazztalk hello
get rock-discussion hello
The hello and goodbye documents can also be obtained by sending email to the Command-Listname address "hello-listname@." and "goodbye-listname@."
If you know the document ID or range of IDs of archived messages that you want to retrieve, you can also use the "get" command to retrieve specific message bodies.
For instance, if you subscribe to a mailing list with "index" mode, you receive a nightly summary of the messages from that day, with a get command pre-written to retrieve the message bodies.
The format of the get command for retrieving an archived message (or a set of messages) is:
get listname message-id [message-id]
or you can specify a range with:
get listname (first-message-id)-(last-message-id)
For example:
get jazztalk 100 105 106 109
get jazztalk 100-109
Similarly, you can retrieve all of the messages for a certain date by following the listname with a date or range of dates. The format of the date is yyyymmdd.
Usage:
get listname date[-ending_date]
Thus, if you are requesting messages for only a single date, you can follow this example:
get jazztalk 20000509
On the other hand, if you want to retrieve all the messages for February 2000, you would issue the following command:
get jazztalk 20000201-20000229
Get Documents Example
This is a sample nightly index document from the NeoForum mailing list. Notice that the "get" command is pre-written for the user in the message.
CDLIST Index for Saturday, March 08, 1997.
-----------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: results
From: Jason Smith
ID: 133
Subject: Re: Aborting a cd
From: Bob Jones
ID: 136
Subject: CD-Roms
From: mainp@domain.co.uk (Matt Smith)
ID: 139
Subject: Re[2]: Client/Server?
From: pben@mydomain.com
ID: 141
-----------------------------------------------------
To receive the full text of these messages, send the following command to lyris@lyris.yourcompany.com
get cdlist 133-141
Or, you can retrieve specific messages with a command such as:
get cdlist 133 136
-----------------------------------------------------
Login
All administrator email commands require you to first login, giving your password so that Lyris List Manager can verify your right to use the administrator commands.
Lyris List Manager will look at your email address to determine if you are a Server, Site or List Administrator, and then check the password you gave. If the password you specified with the login command is correct, you will be able to proceed. If it is not, processing of your message will stop.
Note: In order for Server and Site administrators to be able to use administrator commands, their email address must be in their People entry so that Lyris List Manager can validate them. If you are a Site or Server administrator (and not a list administrator), your email address must be in your People information entry. In addition, administrator email commands are only available if your administrator account has a password. Lyris List Manager allows administrators to have a blank password and use the Web interface to administer Lyris List Manager however, because email is inherently a less secure communication mechanism than the web, it requires administrators to have a password in order to use the administrator commands. You can set your password using the web interface, or, for list administrators, by using the "set listname pw=password" command."
The syntax of the login command is:
login password
Lyris List Manager will use the email address you are sending from to identify you. When Lyris List Manager detects a login command, it replaces the password with an XXX in the archived copy it keeps, and in the acknowledgement message that is sent back to you. The reason for this is so that other people looking at your email message, either in your mailbox, or in the incoming mail web page, will not be able to determine your password.
Mailing List Information
The following commands are equivalent and will return general information about a given mailing list:
review listname
stats listname
When sent to the listname-request address, the command syntax is:
review
stats
To obtain a listing of the mailing lists running on a single site, using the lists command:
lists
By default, the review command will only return basic information about a mailing list. However, the list administrator can decide to have the review command return a list of members as well. If you are a list administrator, see Security of Member List for information about this.
Also, the list administrator may decide to not allow non-members to view the basic information that the review command provides. If the list administrator does this, the review command will reply with a message indicating that this information is not available. If you are a list administrator, see Allow Info for information about this.
If the review command is given by an administrator, after the login command, then a full list of the email addresses of the members of the mailing list is also returned. If the list administrator has allowed it, the review command may also return a list of member names and email addresses.
Report
The report command returns a "normal" Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Confirmation report. The syntax of the report command is:
report listname [nochart | detail | csv] [yyyymmdd-yyyymmdd]
The yyyymmdd-yyyymmdd modifier allows you to specify a starting and ending date. For example, to retrieve a report from January 1, 2000, to March 15, 2000, you would use the range 20000101-20000315, as shown in this example:
report jazztalk 20000101-20000315
By default the report is generated with a one-month history. Thus, if you do not specify a date range, the starting date will be one month prior to today, and the ending date will be today.
The nochart, detail, and csv modifiers allow you to specify the format of the report you will receive. These modifiers are mutually exclusive.
When you use the nochart modifier, the report excludes dates that do not contain any data. For instance, if no one subscribed on 3/14/00, the report will not include that date in the 'subscribe' section.
When you use the detail modifier, the report has an additional section at the end of the general data section. This additional section includes the email addresses associated with the data points present in the general data section.
Review
The review command normally returns basic information about a mailing list to the person who requested it. However, if the review command is requested by an administrator, after a login command, then the review command also returns a full list of the email addresses of the members of that mailing list.
Usage:
review listname [all | names | full | held | unsub | private | expired | confirm]
For example:
login saxophone
review jazztalk
There are many options for the review command. Below is a short description of the function of each:
all - return members of all types (default)
names - return the email addresses and names only (default format).
full - return email addresses, names, and other information.
held - return only those members who are on hold.
unsub - return only those members who have unsubscribed.
private - return only those members who are of private status.
expired - return only those members whose subscriptions have expired.
confirm - return only those members who are of confirm status.
Here are two examples of the review command with an option:
login saxophone
review jazztalk full
login saxophone
review jazztalk names
Search
If you are a member of a mailing list, you can search past messages of the mailing list, and the messages that match your search specification, will be sent back to you via email.
When sent to the List Manager Address, the command syntax is:
search listname [search words]
Lyris List Manager will search for messages which contain any of the given search words. If multiple messages match your search, the search results will be organized so that the messages that matched more of your search terms appear at the top, and messages with equivalent search scores are organized with the newest messages first.
When sent to the listname-request address, the command syntax is:
search [search words]
You can also use the web interface to read and search past messages.
Send
The send command allows you to email a Lyris List Manager document to any number of email addresses. For instance, if you receive a request to join a private list, you might want to send the applicant a document describing the guidelines for being allowed into the mailing list. Or, if you have an announcement you would like to make to a number of people, you can use the send command to send a "one time message" to them, without the work of creating a mailing list.
The syntax of send command is:
send document-name email-address [email-address]
The document-name must be a currently existing Lyris List Manager document. You can also use the line-continuation character"\" to specify as many email addresses as you like, without being restricted by the length of a line.
For example:
send I_am_going_on_vacation \
john@acme.com \
jane@something.com \
bob@widget.com \
robert@elsewhere.com
The From: and Reply-To: of the message sent is by default the email address and name that you are issuing the send command from.
The send command is only available to administrators. You must issue a "login" command before using the send command.
Subscribing to an Announcement List
To subscribe to a list, send an email with no message to join-listname@yourserver
For example:
join-soccer@clio.lyris.net
Subscribing to a Discussion List
To subscribe to a list, send an email with no message to join-listname@yourserver
For example:
join-jazztalk@clio.lyris.net
Unsubscribing from an Announcement List
Unsubscribing from an Announcement List is easy! All of the emails you send from your list contain a url link at the bottom of the email. Just click on the link and you will be automatically unsubscribed.
Unsubscribing from a Discussion List
Unsubscribing from an Discussion List is easy! All of the emails you send from your list contain a url link at the bottom of the email. Just click on the link and you will be automatically unsubscribed.
Which
The which command allows an administrator to determine which mailing lists a particular person belongs to.
The syntax of the which command is:
which <email address>
You can specify as many email addresses on the which command line as you like.
For example, the follow commands are valid:
which bob@somewhere.com
which jane@somewhere.com albert@elsewhere.com
The which command is only available to administrators. You must issue a "login" command before using the send command.