New Message: Mail-to-Weblog for Manila

[webmaster at userland.com]

A new message was posted:

Address: http://manila.userland.com/discuss/msgReader$181

By: Jake Savin (jake at userland.com)

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The Mail-to-Weblog feature makes it easy to post to your weblog by simply sending an email to your site.
When this feature is enabled, Manila periodically checks for new messages in a POP email account that you specify, and posts new messages whose subject matches your "secret subject" to your weblog.
Messages which are posted to your weblog will be deleted from your POP account. All non-matching messages will be left on your mail server.
This feature is available now on all UserLand-hosted Manila sites. To install the feature on your own server, see the Notes for Server Managers section <a href="#notesForServerManagers">below</a>.
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How to
   Here's how to enable Mail-to-Weblog in your Manila site:
   1. Go to the Mail-to-Weblog prefs page in your Manila site: Click the Prefs link in the Editors Only menu, then click the Mail-to-Weblog link.
   2. Click Yes next to "Enable the Mail-to-Weblog feature?" (<a href="http://static.userland.com/images/manila/mailToWeblogManila1.gif">Screenshot</a>.)
   3. Enter your POP account information in the Account Information section. If possible, you should use a separate email account from your regular account, in order to prevent conflicts when checking for new mail. (<a href="http://static.userland.com/images/manila/mailToWeblogManila2.gif">Screenshot</a>.)
   3. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
   Manila is now configured to check your email account for new messages. When an email is received whose subject matches your secret subject, it will automatically be posted to your site.
   Note: UserLand's servers check for new mail every 15 minutes, so you may need to wait up to 15 minutes for your email to be posted. Server managers can edit this time interval via the Frontier Admin Site.
Authorization options
   You can configure how Mail-to-Weblog authorizes incoming email messages to be posted to your weblog using the Secret Subject and Authorized Senders sections of the Mail-to-Weblog prefs page. (<a href="http://static.userland.com/images/manila/mailToWeblogManila3.gif">Screenshot</a>.)
   There are three options for verifying emails by their subject:
   1. You can require that the subject exactly match the secret subject. This is the most secure but least flexible option.
   2. You can require that the subject begin with the secret subject. With this option enabled, you can have Manila generate news item titles using the portion of the subject after the secret subject.
   3. You can have Manila ignore the subject, posting all messages to your weblog. This option should only be used if you have a separate email account for Mail-to-Weblog, since it will consume all messages sent to the account. You might use this option to post all messages from a mailing list to a website.
   In addition to the secret subject options, you can restrict Mail-to-Weblog postings to only allow email messages from authorized email addresses, using the Authorized Senders prefs. By default, messages are posted only if they come from the managing editor(s) of the site.
Titles
   Manila can create titles for Mail-to-Weblog posts using the date, the subject of the email, the first sentence of the email, or no title at all.
   If you choose to use the subject of the email, the secret subject part will be removed from the title of the post.
Notes
   If your site is a news-items site, Mail-to-Weblog can be configured to post as pending news items, rather than posting immediately to the home page.
   The Mail-to-Weblog feature assumes that email messages are in plain-text format, and you should use the plain-text option in your email program when sending email to your weblog.
   Mail-to-Weblog will attempt to preserve simple text formatting like line-breaks and paragraph breaks. If you want to do additional formatting, you can embed HTML markup in the plain-text of your email message, but Mail-to-Weblog will not recognize formatting in HTML-formatted messages.
   Attachments in incoming Mail-to-Weblog messages are ignored (and deleted from the POP server along with the message).
   There is limited support for traditional (non-news-items) Manila sites. For these sites, incoming emails will be posted at the top of the current home page. If there's no home page for the day when the email is received, Mail-to-Weblog will automatically flip the home page and post the email on the new home page.
Notes for Server Managers
   Here's how to enable the Mail-to-Weblog feature on your own server:
   1. <a href="http://frontier.userland.com/howToUpdate">Update</a> Frontier.root, mainResponder.root and Manila.root.
   2. Open the Manila Preferences page in the Settings section of the Frontier Admin website.
   3. In the Mail-to-Weblog section, check the box to enable the Mail-to-Weblog feature, and click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
   Mail-to-Weblog is now enabled. The Mail-to-Weblog prefs page is now available to managing editors of sites on your server.