In the IUIE, what are the components of a mailing request file?
Note: The following information will be most useful
to IUIE Information Providers, but may also help other IUIE
users with questions about mailing request files returned through
interaction with the mailing functions (e.g., when clicking
Preview from a mailing screen).
For the IUIE's batch mailing service, mailing functions are performed according to the contents of a mailing request file. Each mailing request file is composed of newline terminated lines, and is divided into sections. Each section is denoted with a section identifier in all capital letters on a line by itself.
The possible section identifiers and descriptions of their use follows (only a subset may be available in the first release).
Note: Only certain sections are relevant to each mailing function. For more information, see In the IUIE, what are the mailing functions?
| Section identifier | Description |
|---|---|
| TO | This field is always filled in by the program. A "TO" section is ignored. |
| ADDR | This section starts a list of records that contain, at minimum, an email address. Additional columns can be present to provide merge data. Since this is potentially very large, it should be the last section. |
| AUTH | IUIE is doing proxy access to the IUIE schema, so only
userid is needed.
|
| BCC | This section identifies members of a mass mailing, so that each recipient is unaware of the size or membership of the list receiving the email. |
| BODY | This section defines the body of the email message to be sent. The "BODY" may contain references to "FIELDS", which will have merge data substituted from the "ADDR" section. |
| CC | "CC" is used only on the first mail of an email notification. It is irrelevant for Mail Merge. |
| FIELDS | If the Merge Mail function is being requested, the "FIELDS" section defines the name and order of columns in the records of the "ADDR" section. |
| FROM | "From:" in the email sent, defaults to the user requesting the mailing function, but will be overridden by a "FROM" section in the request file. |
| MAILINGLIST | If present, this section marks the mailing request file as a "Create Mailing List" function. |
| REPLYTO | In the email message sent, "Reply to:" defaults to the user requesting the mailing function, but will be overridden by a "REPLYTO" section in the request file. |
| SUBJECT | This determines the subject line of the email sent. |
| NOTIFY | The IUIE uses this field to send confirmations of successful mailings and the Mail System Administrator for notices of bad addresses and failed mailings. This field will accept only a single campus email address. A LISTSERV address is not allowed. |
Note: It is important to type the email message directly into the mailing request file. If you must compose the message outside of the IUIE, use a plain text editor. Avoid using either Word or WordPerfect, as they introduce invisible characters that Unix can't process; this will cause mailings to truncate or fail.
Also see:
- In the IUIE, how can I use mailing functions in a data extract?
- Access information for the IUIE Mailing functions
Last modified on October 26, 2007.
