Mail Classes

GreenArrow Engine’s SimpleMH system classifies mail into Mail Classes. Each message that’s processed by SimpleMH is assigned a Mail Class, which is used to determine which SimpleMH Mail Features to use.

A comparison of SimpleMH and Raw Injection can be found in the Injecting Mail page.

SimpleMH’s headers are described in the SimpleMH Headers page.

Mail Class Selection Precedence

There are multiple methods available for specifying which Mail Class a message will use. When multiple methods are used for the same message, the first match in the following list is used:

1. The X-GreenArrow-MailClass header
2. The GREENARROW_MAILCLASS environment variable (either in an IP relay authorization or passed as a variable while using a local injection option
3. SMTP AUTH username matching
4. $DEFAULT_MAILCLASS_SUB in SimpleMH’s configuration file
5. $DEFAULT_MAILCLASS in SimpleMH’s configuration file

Adding a Mail Class

To add a Mail Class to GreenArrow Engine’s configuration, complete the following steps:

1. Login to the GreenArrow Engine Web Interface.
2. Navigate to Configure => Mail Classes:
   
3. Click the Add Mail Class button:
   
4. In the New Mail Class form, complete the following fields, then click Save:
   1. Name - The name that you wish to assign the Mail Class. This is the value that you’ll be able to use later when including the X-GreenArrow-MailClass header in messages belonging to this Mail Class. The following rules apply to Mail Class names:
      1. Names may consist of letters and underscores.
      2. The “a” Mail Class is reserved and may not be created.
      3. Two or more underscores may not appear next to each other. For example, “server__a__email” is invalid, but “server_a_email” is valid.
   2. Virtual MTA - The VirtualMTA to assign mail in this Mail Class to.
   3. Mailing List ID - The ListID to assign mail in this Mail Class to.
   4. Override Default Bounce Address - The Bounce Address to use for mail in this Mail Class.
   5. BCC All Messages - Add a BCC to every email sent using this Mail Class.
   6. Add Custom Headers - Add custom X- headers to emails sent using this Mail Class.
      1. A maximum of 1024 bytes are allowed.
      2. Only X- headers may be entered.
      3. The only X-GreenArrow headers allowed are (see SimpleMH Headers for usage):
         1. X-GreenArrow-DKIM
         2. X-GreenArrow-DKIM-Only-Using-Domain
         3. X-GreenArrow-Signing-Selector
   7. Track Clicks and Opens - Turns click and open tracking on or off for this Mail Class.
   8. Handle Unsubscribe Links - Turns unsubscribe link processing on or off for this Mail Class.

   9. Pass Bounce Messages Through - Send a copy of each bounce message back to the original Return-Path recipient. Engine will still process the bounce locally when using this feature.

      If you enable this feature, make sure that the original Return-Path domains have throttling configurations in place which allows Engine to deliver these bounces as quickly as they come in. Otherwise, the bounce pass through messages could fill up GreenArrow’s queues as they wait to be delivered. That situation has the potential to slow deliveries to a crawl system wide.

   10. URL Domain - Choose the URL Domain to use in Click + Open tracking for mail sent via this Mail Class.
   11. Archive a Sample of Messages - Archives sample messages to a table in GreenArrow Engine’s PostgreSQL database.
   12. Automatically Seed Mailings - Causes SimpleMH to send sample messages belonging to this Mail Class to the GreenArrow Monitor seed list. Sends to addresses in GreenArrow Monitor’s seedlist occur once a day, and are evenly distributed between the times that GreenArrow Engine receives the message numbers designated in the Number of emails to start seeding at and Number of emails to finish seeding by fields:
       1. Number of Emails to Start Seeding At - Set this field’s value to the daily message volume below which, you don’t want automatic seeding to take place. The field is hidden unless the Automatically seed mailings box is checked.
       2. Number of Emails to Finish Seeding By - Set this field’s value to the minimum number of messages that would be sent on a day that automatic seeding occurs. If this field is set to a value that’s higher than the number of messages that are sent, then only a portion of the GreenArrow Monitor seedlist will be sent to. The field is hidden unless the Automatically seed mailings box is checked.
   13. Convert Text-only Messages into HTML - converts text only messages to HTML. If this box is checked, additional fields appear, which allow you specify an HTML header, HTML footer, the text that should appear for converted links, and regular expression operations to perform before, and after conversion to HTML.
   14. Modify HTML messages - If this box is checked, additional fields appear which allow you specify how you’d like HTML messages to be modified.
       

Editing a Mail Class

To edit an existing Mail Class, complete the following steps:

1. Login to the GreenArrow Engine Web Interface.
2. Navigate to Configure => Mail Classes:
   
3. Click the Edit button next to the Mail Class that you wish to edit:
   
4. Fill in the form, then click Save. This form’s fields are described in the Adding a Mail Class section above.