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Help - Setup

The Setup menu allows you to configure Gossamer List's options and preferences: server and email settings, file locations and user permissions are all controlled from the Setup menu.

SQL Server
The SQL Server menu allows you to designate the type of SQL server Gossamer List will use. The SQL setup information you provided while installing Gossamer List will appear here.

If you make any changes to your SQL server, Gossamer List will have to rebuild your database. Select one of the following three options for the rebuild of the new database:

> - Create new default Gossamer List tables in this database but do not overwrite any existing data.

> - Create new default Gossamer List tables in this database and overwrite/erase any existing data.

> - Load table info from an existing set of tables (or resync the def files if you have changed your defs manually).

Click the "Submit Changes" button when you have finished configuring the server options.

Paths and URLs
The options in the Paths and URLs menu allow you to view and set the locations of your Gossamer List files and scripts. A path is the location of a file or group of files on a hard drive, while a URL is the location of a file or group of files on a website. Most of the default settings of these paths and URLs will be correct and will not require changing. Be sure to include "http://" at the beginning of all URLs, and do not include a trailing slash at the end of the URLs and paths. All paths should begin with either a forward slash (/), or a drive letter (c:). Click the "Submit Changes" button to confirm your changes. Note: Windows users should use drive letters at the beginning of all paths.

- priv_path: This field should contain the path to your private Gossamer List files, such as batch (incoming, outgoing and bounce) and template files. This location should not be web accessible. Do not use a trailing slash.

- cgi _url: This field should contain the URL where your public cgi scripts are located is located.

- image_url: This field should contain the URL where all public images used in Gossamer List. It can either be relative (/pics) or absolute (http://server/pics).

Misc Options

- template_set: Choose the template you wish to use.

- template_backups: Choose whether or not to create backup template files. If this option is set to yes, each time you save your template a backup file containing the previous version will be saved as well.

- reg_number: This field should contain your Gossamer List registration number. You will not be able to download plugins from Gossamer Threads if you do not have a valid registration number entered here.

- smptp_server: If you are on a Windows server, this field should contain the name of the smtp server that will be used to send email. Either this field or the mail_path option (but only one of them) must be configured.

- mail_path: If you are on UNIX, this field should contain the path to the "sendmail" program. Either this field or the smtp_server option (but only one of them) must be configured.

- debug_level: This option allows you to enable and disable debug mode. Note: Debug mode should only be enabled when you are doing system maintenance. Debug mode creates significant amounts of overhead, adds large amounts of debug code to the error log and may allow users to obtain access to the server. Make sure to set it back to "disabled" when finished.

- user_sessions: Choose whether or not to generate a session_id. If this is set to "No", users will have to configure their browsers to allow cookies to view the database.

- session_exp: This field contains the amount of time (in hours) that session_ids will be valid for.

- highlight_colour: Choose whether or not keyword search terms will be highlighted while searching for mailings and messages.

- max_attachments_size: This field contains the maximum size (in bytes) of attachments that will be permitted to be attached to mailings.

- max_bounced_emails: This field allows you to set the maximum number of bounced messages you will be able to retrieve from the Check Bounced menu. If there are more messags, you should run the shell script outlined in the Mailings help.

-error_message: You can enter a custom error handler in this field. Gossamer List will display the HTML entered in this field in any error message that is generated. If left blank, the default error message will be shown. You can only use two template tags in this: <%error%> for the error message, and <%environment%> for a complete debug message.

- html_code: This field contains the default HTML that will be used to generate the "subscribe to list" forms created in the Lists menu.

User Signup

- signup_enable: This option determines whether or not new users will be able to signup for their own Gossamer List accounts.

- signup_restricted_email: This field allows you to define email addresses that new users will not be able to sign up with. Enter addresses one per line.

- signup_email_validate: If this option is enabled, new users will be sent a validation code via email which must be acknowledged in order for the new account to be validated.

- signup_admin_validate: If this option is enabled, new user accounts will have to be validated by an administrator from the "User Management" section of the Account menu.

- signup_username_regex: This option allows you to define a regular expression that new users' email addresses will have to match in order to ensure valid email addresses. If you are not familiar with regular expressions, do not modify this field.

- signup_limit_list: This option allows you to define the maximum number of lists users will be allowed to have.

- signup_limit_sublist: This option allows you to define the maximum number of subscribers per list users will be allowed to have.

- signup_limit_email30: This option allows you to define the maximum number of emails users will be allowed to send from their Gossamer List account in a thirty day period.

Stop List

Clicking the "Stop List" link shows a menu allowing you to create and manage a list of subscribers that will be prevented from receiving mailings from you. You can navigate the list of addresses on the stop list just as you would the regular Subscribers menu. Addresses can be removed from the stop list by checking the boxes beside the desired addresses and clicking the "Delete Emails" button. To add addresses to the stop list, click the "Add Emails" button and enter the addresses in the field that appears. Enter emails one per line. Click the "Add Emails" button to confirm the new addresses.

Including a ? in an email address will substitute any single character, while including a * will substitute any combination of any number of characters (including zero). For example, adding "999?@foo.com" to the stop list would prevent "9990@foo.com", "9991@foo.com", "9992@foo.com", etc. from receiving mail. Adding "*@foo.com" would stop "bob@foo.com", "1234@foo.com", "spam@foo.com", etc. from receiving mail.

Global Header & Footer

The Global Header & Footer menu allows you to create headers and footers that will be attached to the tops and bottoms of all messages sent by users from your Gossamer List installation (these headers and footers will be attached in addition to any personal headers and footers users may have created in their Account menu). Whether the HTML or text headers and footers are attached is dependant on whether the message being sent is in HTML or text format.