Branding Outbound Email Disclaimers A Case Study for Domino Ken Gartner Director of Software Development Permessa Corporation

Customer Requirements Centralized Admin with auditable change control Apply business-unit specific branding as MIME, even for non-Domino senders Allow disclaimers to accumulate, with HTML, embedded images and multiple character sets Selection based on sender identity & message properties Must be able to enable and disable disclaimers incrementally across the user population, based on Domino Directory Server-side Domino only Must render in mail clients Keep live health status Troubleshooting support

Centralized Admin with auditable change control

Apply business-unit specific branding as MIME, even for non-Domino senders

Allow disclaimers to accumulate, with HTML, embedded images and multiple character sets

Selection based on sender identity & message properties

Must be able to enable and disable disclaimers incrementally across the user population, based on Domino Directory

Server-side Domino only

Must render in mail clients

Keep live health status

Troubleshooting support

Sample Branded Mail Sent from Domino Client to GMAIL, gaining a branding header and footer as well as several disclaimers

Why a Custom Implementation? Noted Limitations of Domino Disclaimers No central control Must replicate/maintain set of rules for each outbound server No audit trail for changes Limited look and feel options No branding, no embedded images, no preview Server Rules too coarse – Multiple business units handled per server, but different disclaimers for each Domino Mail Policies tedious to administer Person document management Per-message control led to mail template churn

Noted Limitations of Domino Disclaimers

No central control

Must replicate/maintain set of rules for each outbound server

No audit trail for changes

Limited look and feel options

No branding, no embedded images, no preview

Server Rules too coarse –

Multiple business units handled per server, but different disclaimers for each

Domino Mail Policies tedious to administer

Person document management

Per-message control led to mail template churn

Domino Mail Flow

Mime Formats

Branding Policy Example Specify HTML, with syntax check and preview Embedded GIF/JPG Enablement, verbose comments

CD->MIME Conversion Before SMTP out, Router converts ‘native’ messages Most messages are created in MIME format by Notes Client iNotes and Agents create mail that usually is converted too Conversion involves special handling: Domino disclaimers, character set mapping, font mapping, etc, per the names.nsf configuration Message size generally goes up by 50% UTF-8 is generally the safer character set Some companies (like IBM) tend to only send mail out in ‘plain text’ format – most fidelity is lost Inbound messages generally stay in MIME format Roundtrip MIME loses fidelity, sometimes gradually

Before SMTP out, Router converts ‘native’ messages

Most messages are created in MIME format by Notes Client

iNotes and Agents create mail that usually is converted too

Conversion involves special handling:

Domino disclaimers, character set mapping, font mapping, etc, per the names.nsf configuration

Message size generally goes up by 50%

UTF-8 is generally the safer character set

Some companies (like IBM) tend to only send mail out in ‘plain text’ format – most fidelity is lost

Inbound messages generally stay in MIME format

Roundtrip MIME loses fidelity, sometimes gradually

MIME Tips & Tricks When writing HTML for email, tips from the pros: Don’t do it – email support for HTML offers unpleasant surprises However, HTML is colorful and expressive, so: Leave ‘plain text’ unmodified, or at least ‘safe’, as a fallback Use ‘old’ HTML from 1990s Tables, tables, tables & lightweight inline styling Use ‘alt’, ‘title’, ‘height’ and ‘width’ tags with images Be careful with recipient’s screen real estate/bandwidth Embedded images should be small in size Keep branding header thin, for preview panes Test often: Outlook 2007, Gmail, Apple, Domino clients Confirm mail, without image expansion, in clients Would your branding cause your mail to be marked as ‘spam’?

When writing HTML for email, tips from the pros:

Don’t do it – email support for HTML offers unpleasant surprises

However, HTML is colorful and expressive, so:

Leave ‘plain text’ unmodified, or at least ‘safe’, as a fallback

Use ‘old’ HTML from 1990s

Tables, tables, tables & lightweight inline styling

Use ‘alt’, ‘title’, ‘height’ and ‘width’ tags with images

Be careful with recipient’s screen real estate/bandwidth

Embedded images should be small in size

Keep branding header thin, for preview panes

Test often: Outlook 2007, Gmail, Apple, Domino clients

Confirm mail, without image expansion, in clients

Would your branding cause your mail to be marked as ‘spam’?

Summary: Meeting the Goals A central NSF ‘policy store’ holds all branding and disclaimer rules. Protected by ACLs, there is also an audit record made for each change. Individual rules can be scoped to Sender business unit, explicit name or even Domino mailing group membership. A central NSF ‘health database’ tracks how each server is handling the disclaimer processing, summarizing performance and exceptions A mail extension (DLL) runs on the outbound Router process, consults the policy store, examines the message, applies all rules, confirms that all formats and character sets are supported and then modifies the message as necessary. All mail from clients, iNotes and agents is considered. An optional mail template subform is available, allowing users to explicitly disable branding for individual mail, or specify conditions (Confidential, French, etc) to select proper disclaimers

A central NSF ‘policy store’ holds all branding and disclaimer rules. Protected by ACLs, there is also an audit record made for each change. Individual rules can be scoped to Sender business unit, explicit name or even Domino mailing group membership.

A central NSF ‘health database’ tracks how each server is handling the disclaimer processing, summarizing performance and exceptions

A mail extension (DLL) runs on the outbound Router process, consults the policy store, examines the message, applies all rules, confirms that all formats and character sets are supported and then modifies the message as necessary. All mail from clients, iNotes and agents is considered.

An optional mail template subform is available, allowing users to explicitly disable branding for individual mail, or specify conditions (Confidential, French, etc) to select proper disclaimers

Contact Permessa Please check our website, if you are interested to learn more about this topic or would like to learn about our products: www.permessa.com or call us at +1-781-694-2233

Please check our website, if you are interested to learn more about this topic or would like to learn about our products:

www.permessa.com

or call us at +1-781-694-2233