PMDF System Manager's Guide

The next step is to create a disclaimer channel option file, if needed. The name of the option file is x_option where x is the name of the channel, hence usually disclaimer_option, and the file should be placed in the PMDF table directory.

The option file is used to tell the disclaimer channel what exact actions to perform and where to get the text to add to messages. There are five different places where the disclaimer channel can add text to a message:

• in the header using X-Disclaim headers
• to the top of plain text messages
• to the bottom of plain text messages
• to the top of HTML text messages
• to the bottom of HTML text messages

Note that the option file is not required. If no option file exists, the default operation is to append the text that is in the file disclaimer.txt in the PMDF table directory to the bottom of both plain text and HTML text messages.

By using an option file, you can instruct the disclaimer channel to add text at any combination of the above locations, using different files containing different text for each one. For example, this lets you specify a plain text disclaimer to be added to plain text messages, and text with HTML code to be added to HTML messages.

Similar to the conversion and script channels, you can define multiple disclaimer channels, and invoke different ones based on the DISCLAIMER mapping table. Each disclaimer channel has a different option file, in which you can specify different text. For example, you might want your sales department to have a different disclaimer than the engineering department.

24.3.3.1 Format of the Option File

Option files consist of several lines. Each line contains the setting for one option. An option setting has the form:

option=value

value can be either a string or an integer, depending on the option's requirements.

24.3.3.2 Available Disclaimer Channel Options

The available options are:

DEFAULT_FILE (file-name)

The DEFAULT_FILE option specifies a different default file name or location for the default file to use. This option is not required. If it is not specified, the default file used is pmdf_table:disclaimer.txt.

HEADER (file-name or DEFAULT_FILE)

The HEADER option tells the disclaimer channel to add X-Disclaim headers to the message containing the text in the file specified. The value may also be the keyword DEFAULT_FILE, which indicates that the disclaimer channel should use the text in the default file. If this option is not specified, no headers are added. If the text to be added contains multiple lines, by default a single X-Disclaim header is added containing all of the text, with continuation lines if necessary. The MULTIPLE_HEADERS option may be specified with a value of 1 to indicate that instead multiple X-Disclaim headers should be added, one for each line of text.

HTML_BOTTOM (file-name or DEFAULT_FILE)

The HTML_BOTTOM option tells the disclaimer channel to add the text in the file specified to the bottom of text/html messages (or message parts of multipart messages). The value may also be the keyword DEFAULT_FILE, which indicates that the disclaimer channel should use the text in the default file. If this option is not specified, no text is appended to text/html messages.

HTML_TOP (file-name or DEFAULT_FILE)

The HTML_TOP option tells the disclaimer channel to add the text in the file specified to the top of text/html messages (or message parts of multipart messages). The value may also be the keyword DEFAULT_FILE, which indicates that the disclaimer channel should use the text in the default file. If this option is not specified, no text is prepended to text/html messages.

MULTIPLE_HEADERS (0 or 1)

The MULTIPLE_HEADERS option modifies the action of the disclaimer channel when adding text to messages as X-Disclaim headers. The default value is 0, meaning that only one X-Disclaim header is added to messages, containing the entire text, using continuation lines if necessary. If the value is 1, and the text to be added spans multiple lines, then multiple X-Disclaim headers are added, one for each line of text.

PLAIN_BOTTOM (file-name or DEFAULT_FILE)

The PLAIN_BOTTOM option tells the disclaimer channel to add the text in the file specified to the bottom of text/plain messages (or message parts of multipart messages). The value may also be the keyword DEFAULT_FILE, which indicates that the disclaimer channel should use the text in the default file. If this option is not specified, no text is appended to text/plain messages.

PLAIN_TOP (file-name or DEFAULT_FILE)

The PLAIN_TOP option tells the disclaimer channel to add the text in the file specified to the top of text/plain messages (or message parts of multipart messages). The value may also be the keyword DEFAULT_FILE, which indicates that the disclaimer channel should use the text in the default file. If this option is not specified, no text is prepended to text/plain messages.

Here's an example option file:

DEFAULT_FILE=/myfiles/disclaimer/default.txt HEADER=/myfiles/disclaimer/header.txt MULTIPLE_HEADERS=0 PLAIN_TOP=DEFAULT_FILE HTML_TOP=DEFAULT_FILE PLAIN_BOTTOM=/myfiles/disclaimer/plain/bottom.txt HTML_BOTTOM=/myfiles/disclaimer/html/bottom.htm