Followup autoresponding?

[Jacob Stetser]

Ok, here's a question that there may or may not be an answer to...

Is there a way to set up an autoresponder on FQ to mail out something immediately when someone mails to the responder, wait a week (or two, or three, etc.) and send a different email?

How would I do it, if yes? If no, is there any possibility of offering this feature in the future, or better yet, is there some way I can, ooh, I like my brainstorms sometimes, redirect mail coming into an autoresponder to a cgi that serves the same purpose?

Going to go sleep now.. night

[Jacob Stetser]

Helloooooo?

Does anyone know the answer to this question? I'm just replying so it won't disappear before anyone answers

Jake

[hearts]

hey Jake...

it appears you are seeking some kind of email client.. ???

Did you check out cgi resources to see what they had along these lines?

and doesn't your autoresponder have some kind of subject line? isn't there a reply to you can add to your autoresponder so when they email from that it would send out another autorepsonse?

do tell.. what is the purpose to this? *i am curious*

and if andrew had some kind of magic to offer ya.. it would have to wait.. cuz he has disappeared.. kinda like burried under lots of upgrades.. lost in his work. *I am not even sure if Deb can locate him*

[Terra]

You are getting into highly customized program arena...

It is very possible to create a program like this utilizing the 'qmail-command' mechanism...

e.g.
updates@icongarden.com

create a /big/dom/xicongarden/.qmail-updates file, and inside:
|mydelayedautoresponder

What this will do is any mail sent to 'updates@icongarden.com' will be piped to 'mydelaydedautoresponder', which you will write... You would would have to write 'anti-looping' mechanism, and autorespond then kick off a cronjob that will execute at some point in the future to send out the following email...

Concept is simple, but the actual guts of the program is only limited by your imagination... I've written a few filters for FQuest that use the 'qmail-command' functionality and pipe them into my perl scripts... All support and sales email goes through my filter, tagged and databased, then forwarded on to Deb and myself... So I know the capability is there...

The power is there, tis only for you to discover how to harness...

--
Terra
sysAdmin
FutureQuest

[Jacob Stetser]

Andrew, you're so good to me

I assume that |mydelayedautoresponder(.pl?) can be (and most likely would be a program?)

That's exactly what I was looking for.. now I have to go cobble together some perl scripts to make the monster I'm trying to create.

Oh, and hearts.. I'm trying to create a script that will followup like a week later when a prospect emails my autoresponder..

Keeps me fresh in the prospect's mind.

Pardon me if I do some object oriented thinking here..

IN ->
email address

OUT ->
autoresponse
email and 1st response date to database

ACTION when receiving email ->
1. fire off email (autoresponder function)

ACTION when activated by cron ->
1. Check database for 1st response dates older than x days
2. Fire off emails to addresses that qualify
3. Erase email/date from database.

Question, since I'm 'rolling my own' email here, I can put in an alternate email address so bounces don't come back to the autoresponder, right?

Question 2, does sendmail/qmail/etc respond to Reply-To addresses or the From addresses? Because I'd rather have bounces go to a bounce address and real responses go to me.. and if mailers send back to From and email programs to Reply-To, that's great.

Aren't there other headers? Bounce-To, Errors-To? or something like that?

Eh, it's late.. night!

[Justin]

I'm no expert, so don't quote me, but I think bounces go to the From address, and you can put whatever you want in that field. Then you can have your Reply-To address whatever you want too.

That's how it works using PHP3, so probably same deal with sendmail (I think PHP3 uses sendmail anyway )


------------------
Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
http://www.vdj.net

[Terra]

It's a bit more complicated than that...

Imaging having to autoreponders talking to each other, it would get in a deadlock between the two unless the communication is broken...

Autoresponders have this functionality built in to stop these types of DOS attacks... (I have seen entire T-3's get flooded from this attack)

What you are looking for is 'Return-Path:', bounces will be null 'Return-Path: <>' per the RFC's (TONS of RFC's on Email)...

You will also need to read the qmail documentation on how to pick up the various fields fed via the '.qmail-command' mechanism...

--
Terra
sysAdmin
FutureQuest

Goto: www.qmail.org/top.html and check into the docs...

What you are trying to write is not exactly trivial, but can be done with proper planning... Handling Email properly can be a complicated thing, I would go out and find one that is already written, study it, and transform the functionality into your own usage...

[Jacob Stetser]

Waaaaaaaah.

Sometimes the learning curve is too steep. But I like mountain climbing!

So I'll keep (spelled keep geek the 1st time) climbing and see if I ever get to the top.

Jake