WASD yahMAIL for OSU (DECthreads)
 February 2004, 1.8.0

WASD VMS Hypertext Services, Copyright © 1996-2004 Mark G. Daniel.
This package (all associated programs), comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under the conditions
of the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, version 2.


WASD  yet another hyperMAIL  provides direct, on-line Web access to a VMS system's native Mail environment via a standard browser. For further information see yahMAIL Usage Guide.


Installation


Development environment was OSU v3.7. Installation steps:

  1. THIS SCRIPT REQUIRES CAREFUL CONFIGURATION
    read the yahMAIL Usage Guide thoroughly first!

  2. build executable

  3. copy executable and support procedure

  4. yahMAIL script startup

  5. add mapping and authorization rules as described in Configuration below

  6. read configuration chapter of yahMAIL Usage Guide again then modify YAHMAIL$CONFIG against local requirements:   $ EDIT YAHMAIL$CONFIG

  7. It is possible to localize the language of the text and messages provided by yahMAIL. Check the file LANG_EN.C for details.


Configuration


As discussed in the documentation, private access to user email requires authentication and authorization. The following rule is an example of what is required in HTTP_PATHS.CONF

  protect /htbin/yahmail/~* www_system:level2.prot

Note that the syntax is different when using the configuration scripting interface. Something more like the following (with thanks to PB@.it for the feedback)

  .ITERATE $xrule $xtemplate $xpath
  .NEXT protect /htbin/yahmail/~* /www_system/yahmail.prot

Authorization issues are the most common problem experienced with OSU. If you don't get a browser username/password authentication dialog then the server is not configured correctly.

The startup procedure must be executed at system startup or if the software is reinstalled or updated. Ensure this becomes part of the Web environment's startup.

For an OSU installation the files are distributed as follows:


Mark G. Daniel
Mark.Daniel@wasd.vsm.com.au
Mark.Daniel@dsto.defence.gov.au

Demonstration & Download
http://wasd.vsm.com.au/
http://wasd.vsm.com.au/wasd/
ftp://ftp.vsm.com.au/wasd/index.html