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Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

Title:*OLD* ALL-IN-1 (tm) Support Conference
Notice:Closed - See Note 4331.l to move to IOSG::ALL-IN-1
Moderator:IOSG::PYE
Created:Thu Jan 30 1992
Last Modified:Tue Jan 23 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4343
Total number of notes:18308

213.0. "NETWORK.DAT & "mail routing"" by TAV02::SHAPIRA () Wed Mar 11 1992 14:39

Hi,

Here is an interesting question (at least I think so...)

The need is for the following scenario: Each user belongs to one "office".
In the center of the office there is a "mail manager" (specific ALL-IN-1 user).
Each and every official mail to any of the users in that office is passed
through this manager.
Each and every "personal" mail is going directly to the user without passing
through the manager. The sender of a message is responsible to decide if
it is an offical mail or personal. effectivly we need "mail routing".
The number of users in an office may very from 1 to xxx...

Suggested solutions so far:

1. System nicknames. That works fine and we are using it. But, SN opens the
ALL-IN-1 sub-process to translate the nickname to the actual address. In a site
with 300 users that means 600 processes !!! the overhead is unberable.

2. DDS - won't help since the number of users in an office may be high and
We will need many "routing addresses" to point to the "mail manager".

3. NETWORK.DAT  - that is a new idea. create entries in that file just 
like SN creates entries in PROFILE.DAT. Is it O.K ? Won't I "kill" something
somewhere ? We do not use NETWORK.DAT at all in that site. If we start using
it, what problems may accour ? Any other suggestions ?


Thank's, Yariv
   
    
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213.1EARS?AIMTEC::WICKS_AVote Bill'n'Opus for a weirder USAWed Mar 11 1992 16:5712
    Yariv,
    
    Apart from not agreeing with your reasons for not using DDS  ...
    DDS can scale quite happily to about 20,000 users and probably
    has less quirks in it than NETWORK.DAT ... I wonder whether you've
    considered a document routing package such as ALL-IN-1/EARS.
    
    I've placed a conference pointer on this note.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
213.2Order of search for a usernameGIDDAY::SETHIMan from DownunderWed Mar 11 1992 23:3914
    Hi Yariv,
    
>3. NETWORK.DAT  - that is a new idea. create entries in that file just 
>like SN creates entries in PROFILE.DAT. Is it O.K ? Won't I "kill" something
>somewhere ? We do not use NETWORK.DAT at all in that site. If we start using
>it, what problems may accour ? Any other suggestions ?
    
    One thing to take into consideration is the order of search.  When you
    enter a username in the TO: or the CC: fields, NICKNAMES, PROFILE then
    NETWORK .dat's are searched.  When the first match is found it's placed
    in the TO: or CC: fields, so if you have SMITH in PROFILE and in
    NETWORK .dat's the entry in PROFILE is selected.
    
    Sunil
213.3more details on the issueTAV02::SHAPIRAThu Mar 12 1992 10:1834
>    
>    Apart from not agreeing with your reasons for not using DDS  ...
>    DDS can scale quite happily to about 20,000 users and probably
>    has less quirks in it than NETWORK.DAT ... I wonder whether you've
>    considered a document routing package such as ALL-IN-1/EARS.

Hi Andrew,

I've got the feeling that I didn't explain myself clearly.

Let's look in 2 offices. Office #1 is called "ms" and office #2 is called
"ps". Office # 1 has "ms_mail_manager" and 10 other members,
called "ms #1..#10". Office # 2 has "ps_mail_manger" and 15 other members
called "ps #1..#15".

Suppose that I'm member no' 1 in "ms" and that I want to send an official
mail to member #10 in "ms". I will use in the "TO" field the "official name"
for member #10 in "ms". In fact, what will happend is that the mail will be 
routed to "ms_mail_manager". He will read it and take care of it. "ms_mail_
manager" will rout the mail to "ms #10" using,in the "TO", field "ms personal
name".
If i want to send a "private" memo to "ms #10" I will use the same personal
name.

As you can see, my "key" is the "name" and not the address. In fact I may won't
to route an unknown number of "names" to the same address (dependes on the
number of members in the office). That's why System Nicknames helped, as well
as using NETWORK.DAT, and that is why I can't see how DDS solves this
problem. I'm not sure that EARS is the solution. I do not have it in the 
languege I need it, and most of it's functionality I don't need. 


Hope that I made myself clear and listening for your comments,
Yariv
213.4NETWORK Master File is good toolEEMELI::SALMINENHannu Salminen, PTG -FinlandWed Apr 22 1992 13:3522
	I think using NETWORK.DAT is quite practical for your scheme.

	DDS is very good solution for storing addresses especially in
	large networks and only means with connections to e.g. X400.
	But DDS is quite heavy load, and too complicated to maintain
	for this kind of "internal" scheme for several customers.

	I have used NETWORK Master file also for other purposes than 
	propagating ALL-IN-1 addresses to other ALL-IN-1 nodes in 
	network, and I have found NETWORK Master File easy to maintain
	(easier than DDS) and useful to store certain "special"
	addresses.

	There are some features in NETWORK Master File Mechanism,
	but they are well documented in Notes and/or TIMA/STARS and
	quite easy to fix. Also writing scripts and/or procedures
	to manipulate NETWORK Master file is straightforward.

	NETWORK Master File mechanism should be utilized more widely,
	I admit that it is not an asset or product, but it can
	be solution for several cases.
							Hannu