Account Data

Intro
Installation
SysAdmin
Accounts 
Domains 
Mapping 
Account Data
Rules 
Transfer
Access
Directory
Data Files
Clusters
Miscellaneous
Licensing
HowTo
  • Domain Files
  • Account Files
  • Mailboxes
  • Personal Web Site
  • Mailbox Access Control Lists (ACL)
  • Mailbox Subscription
  • Public Information
  • Preferences
  • Netscape Roaming
  • The CommuniGate Pro server stores account information in several places. Most of the information is stored in the account service files, while some account data is grouped in the domain files.


    Domain Files

    For each CommuniGate Pro domain, a file directory is created in the Domains subdirectory inside the Server base directory. The directories have the same names as the domains.

    For the main domain, the Accounts file directory is created inside the base directory.

    Inside each domain file directory, a Settings file directory is created. This directory contains the following files:

    Access.settings
    This file has the dictionary format, and contains the names of the users that have administrative access rights to the server or to the domain, and the list of the granted rights. By storing all administrative access rights in one location the CommuniGate Pro Server makes it easier to maintain server security. Only the Access.settings file stored in the main domain Settings directory can contain the server-level access rights. All other files can contain only the domain-level administrative access rights.

    Domain.settings
    This file contains the domain settings.

    RPOP.data
    This file contains the information about all individual RPOP (remote POP) accounts that should be polled on behalf of the domain users.

    Template.settings
    This file contains the Account Template for this domain and provides the default account settings for new accounts in this domain.

    Aliases.data
    This file contains the list of all account-level aliases specified for the domain accounts.

    LISTS
    This directory contains files with the information about the mailing lists created in the domain.

    WebUser
    This directory contains HTML files that customize the WebUser Interface to the domain accounts and mailing lists.
    The Domain Administrator can place HTML and other files into this directory (publish them) using any HTML composer application that supports the POST, DELETE, and MOVE HTTP methods.


    Account Files

    Every CommuniGate Pro account contains at least one (INBOX) mailbox file, and at least two service files. Service files have special file name extensions, and .settings and .info service files always exist. The .settings file contains account settings, while the .info file contains volatile account information, such as mailbox sizes, last UIDs used in each mailbox, etc. Since the .info file is being modified rather often, the CommuniGate Pro server is built to survive .info file corruptions. For example, if the mailbox last UID information is corrupted, the server rescans the mailbox and restores the correct mailbox info.

    The account files are located in the domain file directory or in its subdirectory (see the Domains section for the details).

    For a multi-mailbox account, a directory with the account name and .macnt extension is created, and all account files are stored in that directory. The account service files are stored as account.extension. The INBOX mailbox is stored as the INBOX.mailboxType file.
    Example: for the multi-mailbox account John, the john.macnt directory is created, and the files INBOX.mbox, account.settings, account.info are placed in that directory.

    For a single-mailbox account, the INBOX mailbox is created as a file in the domain file directory or its subdirectory, and it has the accountName.mailboxType file name. The account service files are stored in the same directory as accountName.extension.
    Example: for the single-mailbox account John, the john.mbox, john.settings, and john.info are placed into the domain file directory.


    Mailboxes

    CommuniGate Pro stores received messages in account mailboxes. The server supports several mailbox formats, and the mailbox type is defined by the mailbox file (or directory) name extension. See the Data section for details. The .mbox format is the default format. In order to create a mailbox in any other format, specify the mailbox name with the extension. If you tell the Server (using an IMAP mailer or the WebUser Interface) to create the newmailbox.mdir mailbox, the mailbox newmailbox in the .mdir format is created.


    Personal Web Site

    CommuniGate Pro allows each user to be presented on the World Wide Web with a personal Web Site. The URL for the accountname@domainname account Web Site is:
    <http://domainname:port/~accountname>   where the port is the WebUser port.
    For example, the jsmith@client1.com account has the Personal Web Site at:
    <http://client1.com:8100/~jsmith>

    The Personal Web Site files are stored in the account service directory with the .web file name extension.

    Users can upload files to their Personal Web Sites (can publish files) using any HTML composer application that supports the POST, DELETE, and MOVE HTTP methods (for example, the Netscape Composer). They should use their regular account names and passwords to upload Web Site files. The Domain and Server administrators also can upload files to a user Personal Web Site.

    The list of all files in the Account Personal Web Site can be seen using the following URL:
    <http://domainname:port/~accountname/index.html>
    This page requires the user authentication and it can be used to upload new files to the Personal Web Site and to remove files from the site:

    jsmith@client2.com Web Site Index

    MarkerFile NameSizeModified
    default.html283903:23:01
    Logo.gif187725-Feb-99
    Totals:24716 
    Limits:530720 

    The Personal Web site default (home) page should have the default.html name.

    All Routing Rules discussed in the Access section apply to the Personal Web Site URLs, so an account alias name can be used in the Personal Web Site URL.

    The Account Web Files Limit setting specifies how many files can be placed into the Account Personal Web Site, and the Account Web Storage Limit setting specifies the maximum total size of all Personal Web Site files.

    The Web Site setting in the Enabled Services set is used to enable and disable access the Account Personal Web Site.


    Mailbox Access Control Lists

    The CommuniGate Pro Server maintains an Access Control List (ACL) for every mailbox it creates. Each element of the Access Control List contains a name and a set of mailbox access rights granted to that name.

    The Access Control Lists are used to control the Foreign Mailbox Access feature that allows one account user to access mailboxes in other accounts.

    The name in an ACL element can be:

    other account name
    the ACL element specifies the access rights granted to that account user;

    full account name (as user@domain)
    the ACL element specifies the access rights granted to the user of an account in a different domain;

    anyone
    the ACL element specifies the access rights granted to everybody;

    -accountName
    the ACL element specifies the access rights revoked from the specified account user;

    The account owner always has all access rights to all mailboxes in that account. For any other someaccount user, the effective access rights are checked. The effective access rights are the mailbox access rights granted to the anyone name, plus the rights granted to the someaccount name, minus the rights "granted" to -someaccount name.

    The following mailbox access rights are supported:

    l (Lookup)
    If you grant a user the Lookup access right, that user will be able to see this mailbox when it asks the Server to list all mailboxes in your account.

    r (Read)
    If you grant a user the Read access right, that user will be able to open (select) this mailbox and see (read) the messages in this mailbox.

    s (Seen)
    If you grant a user the Seen access right, that user will be able to mark messages as read (seen). Usually a message is automatically marked as seen when a user reads it. But if this access right is not granted to a user reading the mailbox, the mailbox message "seen" status will not be changed.

    w (Write)
    If you grant a user the Write access right, that user will be able to set message flags: i.e. to mark messages as answered or "flagged", and to reset the message flags.

    d (Delete)
    If you grant a user the Delete access right, that user will be able to mark messages as deleted and to compress the mailbox, removing all its messages marked as deleted.

    i (Insert)
    If you grant a user the Insert access right, that user will be able to append message to this mailbox and to copy messages from other mailboxes into this one.

    p (Post)
    This access right is not used by modern mailers.

    c (Create)
    If you grant a user the Create access right, that user will be able to create new submailboxes "inside" this mailbox.

    a (Administer)
    If you grant a user the Administer access right, that user will be able to modify the ACL for this mailbox.

    When a submailbox is created, it inherits the ACL of the "parent" mailbox. I.e. if you create the INBOX/sales mailbox, it is created with the same ACL as specified for the INBOX mailbox.

    The Access Control Lists can be set and modified using either the WebUser Interface or using a decent IMAP client.

    When granting access rights, the real account names, not account aliases should be used. If an account j.smith has two aliases john.smith and jonny, the access rights should be granted to the name j.smith.


    Mailbox Subscription

    The CommuniGate Pro Server allows a user to "subscribe" to some mailboxes. The account mailbox subscription is a simple list of mailbox names.

    Many IMAP mailers use the account subscription and show only the mailboxes the account is subscribed to. The WebUser Interface can also be configured to show only the subscribed mailboxes.

    You can modify the account subscription either via a decent IMAP mailer, or using the WebUser Interface.

    You can use the account mailbox subscription to make some not-so-decent IMAP mailers access foreign mailboxes: make sure that your IMAP client is configured to use the account mailbox subscription, and add the desired foreign mailbox name (see above) into the subscription list.

    Note:Some IMAP mailers tend to rebuild account subscription lists: they empty the subscription, and then subscribe you to all mailboxes in your own account.

    The account mailbox subscription is stored in the account .info service file.


    Public Information

    The CommuniGate Pro Server allows a user to specify a set of attributes (such as phone number, home Web page, job title, etc.) that becomes available to the public via the LDAP interface to the Central Directory.

    The account Public Information is stored in the dictionary format in an optional account service file with the .public extension.

    Users can update their Public Information attributes via the WebUser Interface, or via the ACAP protocol.


    Preferences

    The CommuniGate Pro Server allows a user to store various application preferences in the account and to retrieve them from any computer. This service, known as roaming service is available via both LDAP and ACAP protocols.

    Account preferences are stored in the optional .prefs account service file.


    Netscape Roaming

    The Netscape® Communicator product can use any advanced HTTP server to store and restore its settings.

    To use this Netscape Roaming service, the user should specify the following URL as the Roaming Server URL:
    http://domain[:port]/Settings/
    where domain is the user domain (or the main CommuniGate Pro domain), and port is the CommuniGate Pro User HTTP port.

    The actual account name is not specified in this URL. Access to the /Settings/ realm requires authentication, and the CommuniGate Pro Server opens the account specified in the browser username/password dialog box.

    If the URL used contains the correct domain name of the target account, the account name can be specified as a simple name (i.e. without the domain part), but if the URL contains the name of some other CommuniGatePro domain (because the target domain does not have any A-record), the account name should be specified along with the domain name, i.e. instead of the jsmith string, the jsmith@domain.com string should be used in the Netscape username/password dialog box.

    The Netscape Settings are stored as separate files inside the account service directory with the .roaming extension.


    CommuniGate® Pro Guide. Copyright © 1998-1999, Stalker Software, Inc.