How should I reply to my admin concerning helpdesk?

[gian2oo1 0]

I have no clue what my admin is saying, but this is his reply:

 

 

Hello,

The crux of the issue here is to parse the email contents into a database.

 

Please do create the necessary email IDs as suggested in the documentation and tell us which all email addresses are to be parsed into the db.

 

By email alias we mean, transferring all the mails coming to a particular email address to another email address.

 

This particular case is slightly different where you have to create database called osc_mail2db and a php program called osc_mail2db.php.

 

Please ensure if all the steps have been fulfilled and do get back to us with all the necessary facts.

Thank you,

Adith

 

_________________________________

 

This was my first message:

 

Hi, I'm using osCommerce, and i'm trying to install an add-on for it. I think I need my hosting admin to make some mail aliases. I dont understand this fully, but I know this is a peice of cake to your technical staff. Many people are having problems with this, and the author of the add-on replied with this:<

I will mention three types of servers:

 

1) Localhost (Linux. Windows probably needs a third party application).

2) Shared Server (little control over the server)

3) Dedicated Server (some control over the server)

 

1) It's more than likely you have no idea what to do otherwise you would not be reading up to this page on this thread (smile, sooner or later you will get it working)

 

The most important thing to do is to get mails working with your localhost server. I have Gentoo Linux installed, the appropriate documentation for this can be found here:

 

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/desktop.xml#doc_chap6

 

If your server documentation is still alien to you, the only suggestion I have is to test this on the shared/dedicated server and let the server administrator take care of it for you.

 

2) Ask your server administrator! Tell them you need a mail alias entry to parse a script - provide the examples given in the contribution installation text.

 

If your server administrator does not know or has to do research on it, I'd suggest to move to another server hosting company. Hey, this is e-commerce, it should be taken seriously - your server administrator should have the know-how for their own servers!

 

3) A combination of 1) and 2).

 

##

 

I hope that helps somewhat - I am not a unix mail guru so I cannot provide more tips.

 

##

 

The contribution will also work without a mail alias entry, but then incoming emails cannot be tracked and stored in the database. I think the Contact Us page provided needs to be updated in this case as it needs to store the submited information directly in the database instead of emailing it to the mail alias entry (which would not exist).

_________________

Harald Ponce de Leon>>

 

 

It said to look in the documentation for examples, heres the document concerning mail aliases:<<#####

Mail Alias Entry (Sendmail Example)

#####

 

In order to insert incoming emails into the database, a mail alias entry is needed

to pass the email content to the osc_mail2db.php script.

 

Each department the helpdesk has should have its own email address. Each

address should be entered in the mail aliases file.

 

An example mail alias entry for a "sales" department (email = sales@server.com) is:

 

sales: a_backup@email_address.com, "|/path/to/php -q /path/to/osc_mail2db.php config=/path/to/admin/includes/configure.php"

 

The mail aliases file may exist in /etc/mail/aliases - when it has been

modified the linux command "newaliases" needs to be executed.

 

The backup email address part should be a real email address which

emails are forwarded to. This is a backup incase the php script fails.

 

It is important to use the Administration Tool configuration file and not

the Catalog configuration file, as access is needed to the

mime_decode.php class via the DIR_FS_ADMIN parameter.

 

Qmail Example (.qmail-sales)

----------------------------------

 

"|/path/to/php -q /path/to/osc_mail2db.php config=/path/to/admin/includes/configure.php"

 

Proc Mail Example

---------------------

 

:0

* (^To:|^CC:|^Cc:) .*sales@server.com

"|/path/to/php -q /path/to/osc_mail2db.php config=/path/to/admin/includes/configure.php"

 

#####

TODO Suggestions

#####

 

Store file attachments on the server and grant acess to the files via the

Helpdesk frontend.

 

[This is one reason to currently use a backup email address as noted

above incase a customer sends an email with a file attachment]

 

The mime_decode.php class is able to extract file attachments from an

email.>>

 

Some people did get it to work by installing Procmail. I'm just using gian@advancedvitamin.com to send out emails.

 

Do you have any idea how to do this? If so can you do it? Or explain how I can?

 

Thank you very much,

 

- Gian Spicuzza

 

-------------------------------------------

What should I reply to him? What necessary facts does he need?

 

Thanks,

 

- Gian

[Daemonj 0]

Okay, so have you created an email alias or aliases on your server? This is typically performed from your server's control panel.

 

If so, have you added the entry or entries to the /etc/mail/aliases file?

 

If so, what is happening or not happening (whichever the case may be)?

 

If not, complete whichever of the steps above has not been done. ;)

[jaysin 0]

I would reather suggest you to change your Webhost provider :x

[gian2oo1 0]

There is no such folder /ect/mail

 

Should I create it?

 

There is a folder /mail but it doesnt contain /aliases

 

Thanks,

 

- Gian

 

Okay, so have you created an email alias or aliases on your server? This is typically performed from your server's control panel.

 

If so, have you added the entry or entries to the /etc/mail/aliases file?

 

If so, what is happening or not happening (whichever the case may be)?

 

If not, complete whichever of the steps above has not been done. ;)