Defining a Global SMTP Parameter File

The iProcess Email Plug-in uses the global SMTP file to store global values for the SMTP servers you want to use. This is useful because rather than specifying the parameters of your SMTP server for each iProcess Email step, you can define them once in the global SMTP parameter file and reference this file each time you define an iProcess Email step.

Note: You may have defined the SMTP server parameters when installing the iProcess Email Server Plug-in. (For more information, see the TIBCO iProcess Engine Installation.) If you did not do so, you should define them now. For more information on how you do this, see Specify the SMTP Parameters.

You can enter details of more than one SMTP server, using the BackupHost parameter for those after the first. If the first server fails, iProcess tries to fail over to the backup servers, trying each in turn in the order in which they are defined in the file until it succeeds in making a connection with one.

You can customize the global SMTP parameter file, depending on your requirements. The pathname to the global SMTP parameter file is SWDIR/lib/eai_mail.cfg if you are using a Windows server, or SWDIR/libs/eai_mail.cfg if you are using a UNIX server. If you configure custom SMTP parameters in an iProcess Email step, these take precedence over the parameters defined in the global SMTP parameter file.

If you make any changes to the global SMTP parameter file, restart the iProcess Engine. The changes will then take effect automatically.

Alternatively, you can re-register the iProcess Email Server Plug-in using SWDIR/util/sweaireg REG for the changes to take effect. On a Windows server, the command is:

sweaireg REG EAI_MAIL [-m machine_name] -l SWDIR\lib\eai_mail_11_0_0_0.ear –i SWDIR\lib\eai_mail.cfg [-y]

On a UNIX server, the command is:

sweaireg REG EAI_MAIL [-m machine_name] -l SWDIR/libs/eai_mail_11_0_0_0.ear –i SWDIR/libs/eai_mail.cfg [-y]

where:

— EAI_MAIL is the short name of the EAI step type handled by this plug-in.
— machine_name is the optional name of the server in the TIBCO iProcess Engine node cluster on which the plug-in is to be registered. If this value is omitted, the default is the server on which the command is being run. This can be a text string up to 256 characters.
— -y can be used to automatically answer yes to all the sweaireg command prompts so the command is run immediately without displaying the prompts.

For more information about SWDIR/util/sweaireg, see "Managing EAI Server Plug-ins" in the TIBCO iProcess Engine Administrator’s Guide.

Note: In a node cluster configuration, you must run sweaireg for each node in the cluster.

To amend the global SMTP parameter file, open the file in a text editor and make the changes you require.

Shown below is an example of a SWDIR/lib/eai_mail.cfg file. 

# SMTP
Host=mymailserver.com
Port=25
#Backup Hosts (Tried in the order they are defined if primary host fails )
BackupHost=backupserver1.com
BackupPort=26
BackupHost=anotherbackupserver.com
BackupPort=27
RetryMsgCount=5
# Mail
From=username@companyname.com
Charset=ISO-8859-1
# Headers
X-Email-Info-1: This email message has been delivered by the TIBCO iProcess email plug-in.
X-Email-Info-2: Visit www.tibco.com for further information.
X-Email-Info-3: This message is intended for the named addressee only.

The following table describes each of the parameters in the SWDIR/lib/eai_mail.cfg file that you can set:

Parameter

Description

Host

The machine name or the IP address of the machine hosting the SMTP server. If you do not know this, or the next two parameters, ask the system administrator for that machine.

Port

The port number on which the SMTP server is running.

Charset

The character set ID. For example, ISO-8859-1 (this is the commonest character set for English and several other European languages).

Note: The character set must match the character set defined for the TIBCO iProcess Engine. If it does not then this results in incorrect header information being generated for the e-mail messages.

BackupHost

The machine name or the IP address of the machine hosting the backup SMTP server. There can be as many BackupHost entries as there are SMTP servers available for failover.

BackupPort

The port number on which the preceding BackupHost is running. There must be one BackupPort entry for each BackupHost server.

Each BackupHost entry uses the next BackupPort entry it finds as the port for that server. Therefore it is important to ensure that the BackupHost and BackupPort entries are in the correct order.

RetryMsgCount

How many times the plug-in should use a backup server before retrying the primary host. Enter a non-zero numeric value. The default is 3.

Note that:

• If a negative value is entered, it is interpreted as 50.
• If zero or a non-numeric value is entered, the configuration of backup servers has no effect and the plug-in reverts to the main Host.

From

The mail address of the sender. If a value is defined for the From field when defining the iProcess Mail step, then it takes precedence over this parameter. This enables you to specify that mail sent as part of a specific procedure step should be sent from a different address to that otherwise used. The address must exist on the SMTP server, since if it does not, the mail cannot be sent.

X-Email-Info-1, X-Email-Info-2, X-Email-Info-3:

Three items of static text that can be added to the message header for all mail messages. You can use this for standard information that you want to go out on all messages, perhaps information about your company.