UVa's Central Mail Service (CMS)

Mail Filtering (Server-Side Rules) in CMS

[Nov 23, 2009 14:09] Web access to Microsoft Live@edu accounts now works.

About Mail Filtering

Working with Server-Side Rules

Prioritizing Server-Side Rules

About Mail Filtering

Server-Side Rules process your incoming email messages by directing them to folders (which CMS WebMail calls mailboxes) instead of your Inbox, or by redirecting certain messages to other email accounts for you.

Benefits

Using server-side rules allows you to reduce the number of messages in your Inbox, while conveniently pre-filtering mail relating to a topic, class, project, work group, etc. Since the rules exist on the server, they will affect your email whether you read your UVa Central Mail Service (CMS) email in CMS WebMail or any other email program such as Thunderbird, Mail for Macintosh or Outlook.

Using Server-Side Rules for Your CMS Account

To process messages as they are delivered to your CMS account, create one or more server-side rules. After rules are created, the CMS checks each new incoming message according to your rules and the priorities you have set for the rules. Some important notes:

  • When you create a new rule, it only affects messages you receive after the rule is created. Messages existing in your Inbox at the time of rule creation are not processed by the rule.
  • When an incoming message matches a rule whose action is move to or forward to, the message is no longer available to other rules for further processing.
  • When an incoming message matches a rule whose action is copy to or mirror to, the message continues to be passed to the next rule, if any.

You create and manage server-side rules using the CMS WebMail interface to the CMS. The message sender, recipient name, subject, or other message header are used to create the rule match fields and to process incoming messages.

QUICK START: Creating A Server-Side Rule as You Read Your Email

The simplest way to create a new server-side rule for your CMS account is to:

  1. Connect to the UVa Email Switchboard. If needed, authenticate through NetBadge to view your Inbox and select UVa Central Mail Service (CMS).
  2. Select a message for which you would like to create a rule.
  3. Open the message.
  4. In the upper right of the message display window click the server side rule gold open cog create icon icon (icon interface; in the text interface, click the link for Make Rule).
    • Remember: To stop the rule creation process, click the cancel link that normally appears near the bottom of each Add Rule window.
  5. The first Add Rule window will display. It will appear similar to:

    add rule first screen

    Click the down arrows to choose the existing text for the rule match field(s) you want to use. You will have the opportunity to edit this text later in the rule creation process.

    Multiple selections are treated as logical AND, meaning that all criteria selected must exist in an incoming message for a match to a rule to occur. At the present time, a logical OR is not possible.

    Click the Next button.

  6. The Add Rule Current Rule Matches window will appear. It will be similar to:

    server side rule create window 2

    Use this window to modify the match criteria, or the text of the match field(s) you chose in the previous step (if needed) and to select a rule action.

    Click the Next button.

  7. If you selected an existing mailbox or are sending the match to another email address, go to the next step.

    If you selected CREATE NEW MAILBOX, the next window will prompt you for the name of the server mailbox you want to create. Type the name of the server mailbox into the text box after your selected rule action.

    Click the Next button.

  8. The next Add Rule window provides information about what you have selected thus far and asks you to provide a rule name and priority. The rule name/rule priority Add Rule window is similar to:

    add rule name and priority screen

    To complete the rule creation, give the rule a name and choose a priority for it.

    Then click the Make Rule button.

  9. The last Add Rule window displays the results of the process. It will be similar to:

    add rule results screen

    Review the information to insure it is correct.

    Click the Done link to close the box and return to your Inbox.

Working with Server-Side Rules

First Steps

To create, define and edit, or delete a CMS Server-Side Rule, you will need to:

  1. Connect to the UVa Email Switchboard. If needed, authenticate through NetBadge to view your Inbox and select UVa Central Mail Service (CMS).
  2. Click the Settings tab near the top of the screen.
  3. On the left of the page, click on the link for Server-Side Rules. The Server-Side Rules window is similar to:

    Server Side Rules Window

    Any existing rules that you have will appear in your list of rules.

Creating a Server-Side Rule

After completing the First Steps, to create a new Server-Side Rule:

  1. In the Server-Side Rules window, type a rule name into the box near the Add New button.

    If you do not specify a rule name, your rule will have the temporary name addnewtemprule. You can change this name in the Edit a Rule window. Having unique rule names allows easy management of your rules. Rule name does not affect rule processing order.

  2. Click the Add New button.
  3. Then continue to Defining and Editing a Server-Side Rule, below, to specify criteria for your rule.

Defining and Editing a Server-Side Rule

The Edit A Rule window is similar to:
Server Side Rule Edit Rule Screen
In the above, the name of the rule is bball.

New rules have blank fields, so to define a new server-side rule, specify criteria for it by using the drop down boxes and entering text. To edit an existing rule, change the values shown to values you want. Each rule must have a defined match operation (have a defined match criteria for specific fields and values) and a rule action (what you want to happen to a message that matches the rule). Multiple match operations and rule actions are possible for a single rule.

Multiple match operations are treated as logical AND meaning that all criteria selected must exist in an incoming message for a match to a rule to occur. At the present time, a logical OR is not possible. Multiple rule actions allow the matched message to be processed in several ways. For example, a message can be copied to a mailbox and sent to another email address.

  1. If needed, specify a name for the rule in the text box at the top of the Edit Rule window.
  2. In the Match Operations section are three text boxes. Click the down arrow at the end of the first text box beneath the words Add New Match to see the rule match fields (From:, Any Recipient, Subject, Header Field). Select the rule match field you want to use.
  3. To select match criteria options (is, is not, begins with, ends with, contains), click the down arrow at the end of the next text box .
  4. In the last text box, enter the value to which you want the rule match field compared.
  5. In the Actions section indicate what you want to happen with the message when there is a match between an incoming message and the rule. Here you select a rule action by clicking Forward To or Mirror To or by clicking Move To or Copy To. If you choose Forward To or Mirror To you must enter a valid email address. If you choose Move To or Copy To click the down arrow at then end of the text box to choose an existing mailbox into which you want the message placed.
  6. After you have specified at least one match operation and one rule action, you can complete your rule by clicking Update, Update and Back to Rules, or Back to Rules:
    Update
    Make changes permanent and remain in the Edit Rule window.
    Update and Back to Rules
    Make the changes permanent and return to the main Server-Side Rules window.
    Back to Rules
    Return to the Server-Side Rules window, abandoning all changes that have been made in the Edit Rule window.

Deleting Components from a Server-Side Rule

To delete one or more of the components (match operation or rule action) for a rule, in the Edit Rule window click the Delete link to the right of the component you want to delete.

Deleting a Server-Side Rule

To delete a Server-Side Rule, on the right side of the Server-Side Rules window, click the Delete link next to the rule you want to remove.

Prioritizing Server-Side Rules

Changing a Server-Side Rule's Priority

To change the priority for a Server-Side Rule, go to the Server-Side Rules window and click the down arrow at the beside the existing rule priority to select a priority number for this rule; 8 is the highest priority. Please read the rule priority caveats to understand how rule priority affects rule processing.

Rule Name

A rule name can be anything you choose. Managing rules is simpler if each rule has its own unique name.

Rule Priority Caveats

A rule's priority determines the order in which the rule is processed, with higher priority number rules (up to 8) being processed before lower priority number rules (down to 1). The default rule priority is 5. Several rules can have the same priority. Rules with a shared priority are evaluated in a random order.

Set priorities and rule actions carefully. If a rule moves or forwards a message, the message will not be processed by any other rules.

Example Priority Rule Scenario

Let' say you want all messages that have the word homework in their Subject: line moved to your Homework folder (mailbox) and also that you want messages from a friend with email address mst3k@virginia.edu to be moved to your Friends folder (mailbox). So, you might create the following rules and priorities:

  • A priority 6 rule to move messages with the word homework in their subject to the Homework mailbox and
  • A priority 5 rule to move messages from mst3k to the Friends mailbox.
The above rules will cause all messages with a Subject of homework (including homework messages from mst3k) to arrive in the Homework mailbox. But all other messages from mst3k will be directed to the Friends mailbox.

Rule Match Criteria

is
Select any message where an exact match exists between the values of the designated selection field(s) - From/Recipient/Subject/Header - and the value(s) of the corresponding field(s) in the incoming message.
is not
Select any message where there is no match between the values of the designated selection field(s) - From/Recipient/Subject/Header - and the values of the corresponding field(s) in the incoming message.
begins with
Select any message where there is an exact match between the values of the designated selection field(s) - From/Recipient/Subject/Header - and the values of the beginning of the corresponding field(s) in the incoming message.
ends with
Select any message where there is an exact match between the values of the designated selection field(s) - From/Recipient/Subject/Header - and the values of the ending of the corresponding field(s) in the incoming message.
contains
Select any message where any part of the values of the designated selection field(s) - From/Recipient/Subject/Header - matches any part of the values of the corresponding field(s) in the incoming message.

Rule Actions

move to
When a message arrives that matches the selection criteria, put the message into the indicated mailbox without putting the message into your CMS Inbox; incoming message is unavailable for processing by other rules
copy to
When a message arrives that matches the selection criteria, put the message into your CMS Inbox and put a copy of the message into the indicated mailbox; incoming message continues to be processed by other rules
forward to
When a message arrives that matches the selection criteria, forward the message to the indicated email address without putting a copy in your CMS Inbox; incoming message is unavailable for processing by other rules
mirror to
When a message arrives that matches the selection criteria, put the message into your Inbox and forward the message to the specified email address; incoming message continues to be processed by other rules

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