Announcements of new sympa release

[David Verdin <>]

Title: Sympa 6 train is on the rails! [Comité Réseau des Universités]

Sympa Announce

Table des matières

• Sympa 6 train is on the rails!
  • Sympa 6.0
    • New mailing architecture
    • Scheduled sendings
    • Less data in files, more in database
    • Web style
    • Password
    • List cloning
    • Translations
    • Miscellaneous
  • Sympa virtual machine

Sympa 6 train is on the rails!

The CRU is proud to bring you the first release of Sympa version 6, along with the first release of the Sympa virtual machine!

• Download
• Release notes

So these are the new versions available in the Sympa world:

• 6.0 is the new stable version. That means that all bug fixes will now apply to both Sympa 6.0 and 6.1 versions; support for the version 5.4 will be restricted to drastic - security - issues and gradually cease, support for 5.3 and older versions is finished.
• 6.1 will be the new unstable version of Sympa. It is in alpha test right now and will be open for beta test soon.

Please note that all the latest Sympa features will be presented during the Fall 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting.

• We will introduce the latest features during a side meeting
• We will also be able to speak about our experience in using Sympa as a group manager in virtual organizations.

Feel free to contact us during this event. We are really looking forward to meet Sympa users from the other side of the ocean!

Sympa 6.0

New mailing architecture

New bulk.pl daemon installed with Sympa. This daemon is dedicated to mail distribution and allows to parallelize this process on a single server as well as on multiple servers. The main bulk.pl processes will automatically fork new processes, depending on the amount of messages left in the database. You can control this behavior with the parameters bulk_fork_threshold, bulk_max_count,bulk_fork_threshold.

Messages spool used by the bulk.pl daemon is stored in the database, in two tables :

• bulkspool_table : one entry per message
• bulkmailer_table : subset of receipients for each message

New associated sympa.conf parameters :

• bulk_fork_threshold : minimum number of packets in database before the bulk forks to increase sending rate
• bulk_max_count : max number of bulks that will run on the same server
• bulk_lazytime : number of seconds a slave bulk will remain running without processing a message before it spontaneously dies
• bulk_wait_to_fork : number of seconds a master bulk waits between two packets number checks
• sympa_packet_priority : default priority set to a packet to be sent by the bulk (for future use)
• pidfile_bulk : location of the daemon PID file

Scheduled sendings

You can trigger messages distribution day and time. This can be set on a per-list basis.

Less data in files, more in database

Storage of configuration in database is on its way! The colors used in the web interface are now stored in database. This is our proff of concept, opening the way towards a full storage of configuration and spools in database. These features will be important to make Sympa redundant. the first visible effect of this feature is the Sympa GUI color editor : you just have to edit colors and save them to make your Sympa server even more beautiful!

Web style

[Olivier Lumineau, CRU] Fresh new web CSS for the web interface. Here is the list of changes in the web interface :

• New css.tt2
• A new Sympa logo
• New navigation menu through list admin menu and server admin menu
• Miscellaneous modifications in templates (list_admin_menu.tt2 not used anymore)

WARNING : if you customize your own templates you may notice some mess in the page layout. In such a case compare your templates with the new distributed version and report any difference to your own files...

Password

Replace storage of password with encryption by md5 fingerprint. This make remind password impossible. So now a one time ticket table is created ticket are sent by email as an authentication token. Ticket can be used for lost password, create account, moderation request . It should be generalized to all operation that need a email chalenge.

List cloning

Want to create a new list that really looks like that other one you own since a year? Just click on the “clone list” button and bam! your list is created with the axact same configuration as the original, safe for the owners.

Translations

Four new languages are now available by default in Sympa:

• Bokmal (B. C. Aasgaard)
• Polish (L. Zygmanski)
• Finn (J.P. Paloposki)
• Vietnamese (C. Siddall)

Thanks to the translators for their efforts!

Miscellaneous

• New propertie in object message : spam_status . This feature is used in modindex (listing of message awaiting moderation) to show message tagged as spam. Messages suspected as spam are not included into messages sent to list editor. 4 new related parameters :
  • antispam_feature default off
  • antispam_tag_header_name default X-Spam-Status
  • antispam_tag_header_spam_regexp default ^\s*Yes
  • antispam_tag_header_ham_regexp default ^\s*No

• Message moderation : [Peter Hart] Added a new function for the moderation of messages. Upon rejection of messages, personnalised messages can be created, saved and used to give more information as to why these messages were refused by the moderator.
• New verify_netmask scenario condition. [Peter Hart] exemple : verify_netmask('1.12.123.00/24') (changes in intanet scenarii are just comment because we don't have access to the local netmask of installation).
• Extended the ldap_alias_manager.pl [Roland Hopferwieser] It used template to create LDAP entries. Also added a simulation mode for debug purpose.

Sympa virtual machine

In order to help you test the latest Sympa features, we built a VMware machine on which Sympa and a Dokuwiki farm are installed. They are set up to work together. That means that you will be able, with a simple click to create a wiki associated to the list you want. That work was done by Gael Merlin, of CRU.

So once your VM is installed, you will have a blank Sympa server, ready to use and fully set up. you just need to provide basic network information to put it into action.

You can download your Sympa vmware server and get additional informations on the Sympa web site.

Enjoy!

—
Best regards,

The Sympa authors

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