Mailing options

AskiaField allows you to define the settings used for all incoming and outgoing mail messages. To set these global mailing options, in the extra tab of the ribbon, select mailing. You can also set options on an individual sample list, over-riding the global settings for that list.

In this topic:

• General settings tab
• Bounce settings tab
• Setting mailing options on an individual sample list

General settings tab

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This tab contains the following options:

• SMTP Server: In this group of fields, enter the details of your outgoing mail server (your system administrator should be able to provide these details).

  Note that:

  • If you have mailing going out on multiple SMTP servers, mailing on each server will be queued separately, so they will be sent simultaneously.

  • Multiple connections are allowed per SMTP server, allowing faster mail sending (if permitted by your mail provider).

• Mail Grouping: When CCA sends out large numbers of mails, it breaks them into groups (e.g. sending 100 mails at a time), to reduce load on the mail server. In send mails per group, enter the maximum number of mails you would like sent in each group. In wait x hours and y minutes between groups, specify the amount of time that CCA should wait after sending one group of mails before another batch is sent.

• Email: In this group of fields, define the properties of the emails that CCA sends out.

  • Note: It is possible to integrate sample list fields into the address fields used to define a dynamic mailing. For example, let's suppose you have a list of contacts who must be mailed with differing "from" mailing addresses. Instead of creating one mailing from each "from" address, you need only create one unique sample list, and enter the field name in the from address field in the mailing tab, inside square brackets, as follows: [fieldname]. You can use field codes and text substitution in the from address, reply-to address, CC address(es) and BCC address(es) fields.

  • From address: the from address that will be used for the mailings (this address can be seen by mailing recipients). If no separate reply-to address is specified, this is the address that recipients reply to if they use their mail client's "reply" feature. You can enter sample list fields in from address.
    It is possible to use a friendly name as well as a basic email address. To do so, simply enter the the following in the From Address field: 
    "The_name_you_want_display_in_the_mail_box" <youremailaddress@mydomain.com> </youremailaddress@mydomain.com>
    
    Note: this syntax can also be used in the Reply-to-address and the CC-address fields

  • Reply-to address: the reply-to address; this is the address that recipients reply to if they use their mail client's "reply" feature. It does not have to be the same as the from address. You can enter sample list fields in reply-to address.

  • Include plain-text alternative: if selected, a plain text message will be included, as well as the standard HTML format message.

  • Add message as attachment: if selected, the message will be added as an attachment to the outgoing email message.

Bounce settings tab

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Bounced mails are automatically detected using a combination of VERP and DSN. A catch-all mailbox is required for this feature to work (or at least a mailbox catching all mails sent to addresses starting with 'cc').

Every outgoing mail is sent using a unique envelope-sender. When a problem occurs, an error message (mostly - but not always - a DSN) is sent to this address. CCA retrieves all mails sent to an unknown address (or at least those starting with 'cc') and will extract the SurveyId, ListId, PanelId and Mail number from it. If the message is a DSN the status code will be extracted.

When a bounced mail is detected:

1. The mailing status is changed from 'success' to 'failed/bounced', visible in the mailing monitor dialog.
2. A message is written in the mailing log, detailing the survey and panel ID.
3. A list event is fired. Available parameters: Mail number, DSN Status code, Bounce reason (translated from DSN status code following RFC 3463).
4. A WebStatistics event is written to the statistics database (if web events are enabled): event 11.

This tab contains the following options:

• Check every n minutes for bounced emails:

  CCA can automatically check for emails it has sent that have "bounced back" (i.e. that have been rejected by the recipient's mail server, possibly because the address is not valid, or the recipient is away).

  In this box, enter the interval, in minutes, that you would like CCA to wait between bounced mail checks.

  You will also need to switch on automatic checking: see the option check for bounced mails below.

  For more information on bounced emails, see note below.

• Check for bounced emails: Select this option if you would like CCA to automatically check for bounced e-mails. The frequency at which the check is made is determined by the option check every n minutes (see above).

• The envelope sender address...:, Use this option to specify the prefix (before the @ symbol) and suffix (after the @) of the "envelope sender" address used on outgoing mails. This is invisible to the recipient, but is used by CCA to identify bounced e-mails.

• Delete unrecognized emails older than N days: If you select this option, all unrecognised e-mails will be deleted after the specified number of days, while CCA checks for bounced mails.

• POP3 server:  In this group of fields, define the properties of your POP3 mail server. This server is used for incoming messages, and these details are used by CCA to connect and check for bounced emails.

  • Enter the server address (e.g. pop3@example.com), the port number, username, password, and whether to use SSL encryption. These details should be available from your system administrator.

  • Note: for bounced email detection to work, the account you specify here must be a "catch-all" account (i.e. an account that receives all emails that are not sent to recognised email addresses on the mail server).

• Retry soft bounced emails: In this section of the tab, you can define one or more attempts to retry soft-bounced emails.

  • You can define what constitutes a soft-bounced email in the lists group of the CCA settings, by listing the DSN results you want to count as hard-bounced (which will not be retried) or soft-bounced (which will be retried).

  • To add a new attempt, click <click to add an attempt...> and then enter the desired delay (in hours) that should have elapsed since the original email was sent before the retry is sent out. For example, the following settings stipulate that there will be up to three retries, happening 1, 3 and 8 hours respectively after the original email was sent out:
    

Setting mailing options on an individual sample list

You can also set mailing options on an individual sample list. These options over-ride any global options in effect.

To set the mailing options on an individual list:

1. In the sample lists window, right-click the list, and select properties from the context menu.

2. Click the mailing tab. For information, see sample list properties, mailing tab.