Mail Filters (Rules)

Specifying Account Rules Creating, Renaming and Removing Rules Rule Conditions Rule Actions Auto-Reply Message Have Questions? Visit our support forum How to block an email address

The Applelinks server can automatically process messages using several sets of Automated Rules

ditions, and a set of "actions". The higher priority Rules are checked first.

If a message meets all Rule conditions, the Rule actions are performed, and automated processing either stops, or proceeds checking other, lower-priority Rules.

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Creating, Renaming and Removing Rules

When the list of Rules appears in a browser window, the Rule names and priorities can be modified:

Priority Name Edit Delete disabled 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Edit disabled 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Edit disabled 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Edit

After you have modified the Rule names and/or priorities, click the Update button. The list is displayed re-sorted by priority.

Rules with the disabled priority are not applied to the messages, but they are not deleted from the Account Rules set, and they can be reenabled at any moment.

To create a new Rule, enter its name in the field on the top and click the Create New button.

To remove a Rule, select the checkbox in the Delete column and click the Update button.

To modify the Rule conditions and actions, click the Edit link.

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Rule Conditions

Each Rule can have zero, one, or several conditions. The conditions are checked in the same order they are specified. If a message meets all the Rule conditions, the Rule actions are performed.

The condition operations is and is not process their parameters as "pictures": the asterisk (*) symbols in parameters are processed as wildcards that match zero or more symbols in the tested string. To check that a string contains the @thatdomain substring, the is *@thatdomain* operation should be used, and to check that a string does not end with the somedomain.com substring, the is not *somedomain.com operation should be used.

The condition operations in and not in process their parameters as sets of one or more "pictures" separated with the comma (,) symbols. The tested string is compared to all picture strings. The in condition is met if the tested string matches at least one picture string. The not in condition is met if the tested string does not match any picture string in the specified set.
Note: do not use excessive spaces around the comma signs: spaces before the comma sign become trailing spaces of the previos picture, and spaces after the comma sign become leading spaces of the next picture.

The following Rule conditions are implemented:

From  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

This condition checks that the message From address is (or is not) equal to the specified string.

Sample:

From is

This condition will be met for all messages coming from any account on any of stalker.com subdomains.

Sender    [is | is not | in | not in]  string
Reply-To  [is | is not | in | not in]  string
To        [is | is not | in | not in]  string
Cc        [is | is not | in | not in]  string
Reply-To  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

The same as above, but the message Sender, Reply-To, To, or Cc address is checked.

If a message has several addresses of the given type, the condition is met if it is true for at least one address. If a message has no addresses of the specified type, the condition is not met.

Any To or Cc  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

The same as above, but all message To AND Cc addresses are checked. If the message has no To/Cc addresses, the condition is not met.

Each To or Cc  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

All message To AND Cc addresses are checked. The condition is met if it is true for each To and Cc address of the message, or if the message has no To/Cc addresses.

Sample:

Each To or Cc in

This condition will be met for messages where all To and CC addresses are addresses in the mycompany.com domain or addresses in the mydept.mycompany.com domain.

Return-Path  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

This condition compares the message "Return-Path" (a.k.a. MAIL FROM) envelope address with the specified string.

'From' Name  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

The same as above, but the instead of the address, the "address comment", i.e. the real name included in the From address is checked:

Sample:

'From' Name is

This condition will be met for messages with the following From: addresses:

From: jsmith@company.com (John J. Smith)

From: "Bill J. Smith" b.smith@othercompany.com

From: Susan J. Smith <susan@thirdcompany.com>

Subject  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

This condition checks if the message subject is (or is not) equal to the specified string.

Sample:

Subject is

This condition will be met for messages with the following Subject fields:

Subject: we urgently need your assistance

Subject: Urgent!

Message-ID  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

This condition checks if the message ID is (or is not) equal to the specified string.

Sample:

Message-ID is not

This condition will be met for all messages without the Message-ID flag and for messages that have Message-ID without the @ sign.

Message Size  [is | is not | less than | greater than]  number

This condition checks if the message size is less than (or greater than) the specified number of bytes.

Sample:

Message Size greater than

This condition will be met for messages larger than 100 kilobytes.

Human Generated

This condition checks if the message is not generated by some automatic message generating software.

It actually checks that the message header does not contain any of the following fields:

Precedence: bulk

Precedence: junk

Precedence: list

X-List*

X-Mirror*

X-Auto*

X-Mailing-List

This condition also checks that the message has a non-empty Return-Path.

Header Field  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

This condition checks if the message RFC822 header contains (or does not contain) the specified header field. The additional fields added using the Add Header operation (see below) are checked, too.

Sample:

Header Field is not

Any Recipient  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

This condition compares message "Envelope" addresses and the specified string. If this condition is used in an Account-level Rule, only the addresses routed to that account are checked.

The addresses are processed in the form they had before the Router Table and other routing methods have modified them. If an account has several aliases, this condition allows you to check if a message was sent to a specific account alias.

Messages can be submitted to the server using the ESMTP ORCPT parameter. This parameter specifies how the address was composed on the sending server, before the relaying/forwarding server has converted it to a different address. In this (rare) case, that server can use the ESMTP ORCPT parameter to specify the original address.

Sample:

•  
• a message was composed somewhere and sent to the address user1@domain1.com;
• the domain1.com server received the message and converted that envelope address to user2@domain2.com (mail forwarding);
• the domain1.com server relayed the message to your Applelinks server domain2.com;
• the domain2.com Applelinks server received a message;
• the domain2.com Applelinks server found that the user2 is an alias of the user3 account, and the server routed the message to that user3 account.

If the domain1.com server is an advanced server and informed the domain2.com Applelinks server that the original address was user1@domain1.com, the string <user1@domain1.com> is used when the Recipient condition is checked.

If the domain1.com server has not informed your server about the original address, the <user2@domain2.com> string is used when the Recipient condition is checked.

The condition is met if it is met for at least one envelope address.

Each Recipient  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

The same as above, but the condition is met only if it is met for all message envelope addresses (if used in an Account-Level Rule - for all message addresses routed to that account).

Time Of Day   [is | is not | less than | greater than]  time string

This condition checks the current time of day in the Server time zone. This condition allows you to compose rules that are applied to messages only at certain times of day.

A time string should be specified as hh:mm or hh:mm:ss, where hh is the hour, mm - minutes, ss - seconds. Time strings can contain the am and pm suffices.

Sample:

Time Of Day is greater is less Time Of Day is greater is less

Current Date   [is | is not | less than | greater than]  date string

This condition checks the current time and date. This condition allows you to compose rules that are applied to messages only before or after the specified date and time.

A date string should be specified in one of the following formats:

• DD MM YYYY
• DD MM YYYY hh:mm
• DD MM YYYY hh:mm:ss
• DD MM YYYY hh:mm:ss +ZZZZ
• DD MM YYYY hh:mm:ss -ZZZZ

where:

DD is the day of month

MM is month specified as 3-letter English abbreviation:
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

YYYY is the year

hh is the hour

mm is the minute

ss is the second

+ZZZZ or -ZZZZ is the time zone; if the time zone is not specified, the Server time zone is used.

Sample:

Current Date is greater is less Current Date is greater is less

Current Day   [is | is not | in | not in]  day string

This condition checks the current day of week (using the Server local time zone). This condition allows you to compose rules that are applied to messages only on certain days of week.

Days should be specified either as numbers (0 for Sunday, 6 for Saturday), or as RFC822 abbreviations (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat).

Sample:

Current Day is in

The following conditions can be used in Server-Wide Rules only:

Any Route  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

This condition checks that a message "Envelope" address is routed to the specified string.

The condition is met if it is met for at least one envelope address.

Note: only the "local part" of the parsed and routed address is checked. If, for example, an envelope address <user@client.com> was processed with the Router record

client.com = relay.host.smtp

then the envelope address (to be sent to a remote host relay.host) will have the local part user, not user@relay.host.

If you plan to use this type of Rule condition, use the Test button on the WebAdmin Interface Router page to see how various addresses are routed.

Each Route  [is | is not | in | not in]  string

The same as above, but the condition is met only if it is met for all message envelope addresses.

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Rule Actions

Each Rule can have zero, one, or several actions. If a message meets all the Rule conditions, the Rule actions are performed.

The following Rule actions are implemented:

Stop Processing

This action should be the last one in a Rule. Execution of this Rule stops and no other (lower-priority) Rules are checked for that message. The message is stored in the INBOX.
 

Discard

This action should be the last one in a Rule. Execution of this Rule stops and no other (lower-priority) Rules are checked for that message. The message is not stored in the INBOX, but the positive Delivery Notification is sent back to the message sender (if requested).

Sample:

IF From is *that_annoying_guy@*
THEN
Discard

 

Reject [error message text]

This action should be the last one in a Rule. Execution of this Rule stops and no other (lower-priority) Rules are checked for that message. The message is rejected, and a negative Delivery Notification is sent back to the message sender.
If the action parameter text is not empty, it is used as the error message text.
You can still store the rejected message using the Store action before the Reject action.

Sample:

IF Subject is *UCE*
THEN
Reject   please do not send such messages here

 

Mark operation [, operation...]

This action sets or resets the specified flag(s) for the message. Initially, the set of message flags is empty.

• The Read operation adds the Read (Seen) flag to the message flag set, the Unread operation removes the Read (Seen) flag.
• The Flagged operation adds the Flagged flag to the message flag set, the Unflagged operation removes this flag.
• The Answered operation adds the Answered flag to the message flag set, the Unanswered operation removes this flag.

When a message is stored in a mailbox as a result of the Store in action, as well as when a message is stored in the INBOX after all Rules are applied, the message is stored with the specified flag set.

Sample:

IF Sender is *list*
THEN
Mark Flagged

 

Add Headers header fields

This action adds RFC822 header fields to the message. Initially, the set of additional message header field contains the Retrun-Path field generated using the return-path in the message envelope.
When a message is stored in a mailbox as a result of the Store in action, as well as when a message is stored in the INBOX after all Rules are applied, the message is stored with the additional header fields.

Sample:

IF Subject is *purchase*order*
THEN
Add Headers X-Special-Processing: order

Note: the following actions are not implicit "Discard" actions, and they do not prevent the original message from being stored in the INBOX. If you want, for example, to redirect a message without keeping a copy in your INBOX, specify the Redirect action followed with the Discard action.

 

Store in mailbox name

The message is copied to the specified mailbox in your account. The mailbox should already exist.
If the mailbox name is specified as ~user_name/mailbox_name, the message is stored in the mailbox_name mailbox in the user_name account. You should have the Insert access right to that mailbox.

Sample:

IF Subject is *Make*$*
THEN
Store in ~postmaster/abuse
Discard

 

Vacation Message (Auto-Respoder)

Each Account has one built-in rule to generate Auto-Reply messages. This Rule condition is "human generated", the Rule action is "Reply". Only the text of the Reply message can be modified:

Vacation Message (Auto-Respoder)
Dear ^F! I'm on vacations right now, please contact me after 10-Nov-1998. Sincerely, Me.

Auto-Reply

If this option is not selected the Auto-Reply Message Rule is disabled. If this option is selected, the Auto-Reply Message Rule is enabled with the lowest priority.

The specified text is used to compose a reply message. The reply is sent to the original message From address.

The specified message text can contain macro symbols that are substituted with actual data when a reply message is composed:

^S is substituted with the Subject of the original message;

^F is substituted with the From address of the original message;

^T is substituted with the Date field of the original message;

^I is substituted with the Message-ID field of the original message.