Different Recall Settings for Different Email Categories

In WinDeveloper Message Recall the most important configuration setting is the length of time emails are held at the server queue. This is the time window during which users are able to cleanly recall an email without the recipients ever knowing.

An Organization may generate hundreds of emails every day. However not all emails are equally important. Some will carry confidential information, others won't. The potential embarrassment and damage caused by an error likewise depends on the type of email involved. Based on this we can conclude that the ability to recall messages is more critical to some emails than to others.

WinDeveloper Message Recall v1.2 introduced the new configuration Overrides functionality. These allow us to specify different recall handling settings for different email categories. In this article we go through some practical examples demonstrating the use of Overrides.

 

Example 1 - Different Recall Time Windows for Internal and Foreign Emails

Two very important email categories that often require different Message Recall handling are:

1. Internal Emails - Emails sent from one local user to other local users.

2. Foreign Emails - Emails sent from one local user to foreign recipients outside the organization.

Let's say we want to allow for a recall time window of 2 minutes in case of foreign emails. However we don't want to hold internal emails for that long, so we shorten the time window to 30 seconds when internal emails are involved.

To do this we need a method to clearly identify Internal Emails. Here we use the organization SMTP domains. These are the domains used to assign emails addresses to our user mailboxes. In this example our domains are:
windeveloper.com
imftune.com
windeveloper.local

Configuration Steps:

1. Open the Configuration and select the General category

2. Under Retain emails queued for (seconds), set the time windows length to 2 minutes so we enter the value: 120. Note that this is the time window Foreign Emails require. So next we will need to create an Override for Internal Emails not to be held that long.

   

3. Click Add at the Override list and configure this as follows:

   • Name: Internal Emails

   • Select Checkbox for: Retain emails queued for (seconds)

   • Set the time window for internal emails to 30 (seconds).

   • Select Apply these settings when - All Recipients match

   • At the address list enter the 3 local domains as follows:
     *@windeveloper.com
     *@imftune.com
     *@windeveloper.local

   

4. Save Changes

With these settings WinDeveloper Message Recall will apply the Override whenever all recipient email addresses match a local domain. If at least one recipient does not match, we are dealing with a Foreign Email and the global settings configured at the main Configuration category are applied.

Note: When configuring the product always keep in mind that Message Recall processing only applies to emails sent from local mailboxes. Emails received from outside are never processed, not even if their addresses match an Override.

Note: If we wanted Internal Emails to be immediately delivered without being held at the queue, we would set Retain emails queued for (seconds) to zero.

 

Example 2 - Extra Recalling Time for Specific Users

In this example we will continue to build on Example 1. Our initial configuration already includes the Override created for Internal Emails.

Let's consider the case when some users are handling confidential information all the time. These users might not afford an error, not even if it only involves internal recipients. In this manner we are defining a new email category. So this time we will need to cater for all of these:

1. Special Users - Users handling highly confidential information that will always require a 2 minute recall time window even in case of internal emails.

2. Internal Emails - All emails sent from one local user to another except when the sender is a Special User. These will have a 30 second recall time window.

3. Foreign Emails - Emails sent from one local user to a foreign recipient outside the Organization. These will have a 2 minute recall time window.

In example 1, we already catered for the Internal and Foreign Categories.

We now need to add another Override to cater for Special Users:

1. At the Configuration | General category click Add

2. Configure the Override as follows:

   • Name: Special Users

   • Select Checkbox for: Retain emails queued for (seconds)

   • Set the time window for Special Users. In this example we use 120 (seconds).

   • Under Apply these settings when select Sender matches

   • Lastly at the address list enter the email address for the users, for example:
     HR@windeveloper.com

   

3. Save the Override and go back to the General category.

   

4. From here select the Special Users Override and click the Up button so as to move it to the top.

   

5. Save Changes

The most interesting point in this example is the Override order. WinDeveloper Message Recall goes through Overrides from top to bottom and stops as soon as it finds a match.

If we look closely at the Special Users and Internal Emails Overrides we see that the two overlap. Whenever a Special User sends an email internally both Overrides could be applied. Thus the order here is important as it determines which of the two is actually applied.

Special Users will always have a recall time window of 2 minutes, whether the email is addressed to internal or foreign recipients. So we put this Override on top to be considered first. If we don't do that, the Internal Emails Override would match internal emails before the Special Users Override is ever considered.