Aleph Email Implementation

December 4, 2003

The following document will help those campuses wishing to implement the emailing of notices and other printed materials produced in Aleph. This document will help answer questions and prepare you for the task of email implementation. Please keep in mind that there are limitations to using this functionality. Please review this document carefully. Email Jamie Bush at gjbush@umd.edu if you have any questions.

Preparation and considerations

Email Addresses: The first step in implementing email from Aleph is the inclusion of email addresses in the patron records. This information can be input manually or it can be loaded with PLIF, the Aleph patron loader. When emailing notices to patrons Aleph will produce a printed version of the notice or letter for patrons that do not have email addresses in their records. Therefore it is not necessary to have email addresses in all patron records.

The email address attached to the active address will be used for emailing. It is recommended that the same email address be used in all patron address records. This one email address should be included in all patron address records. This is particularly important for those campuses that use "Address flipping".

What can be emailed from Aleph? The process of emailing in Aleph is accomplished using the print functionality. In theory, all notices, receipts and letters produced for patrons that can be printed in Aleph can also be emailed. My testing is finding that this is not always the case. Some online letters are not emailing as expected. I outline some of these below.

There are two categories of printed materials, those produced online in the client, and those produced as a result of a report or batch job.

Online - Printed materials produced online are normally sent to the default printer of the PC performing the online function. It is also possible to print/email these materials using a print daemon (see Print Daemon). Following is a list of online print outs that a library could email. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list and that not all of these printouts have been fully tested with email.

• Hold available letter (problems)
• Hold deleted letter (tested)
• Return Receipt (tested)
• Loan Receipt (tested)
• Cash Receipt (tested)
• Cash Summary (tested)
• Lost Material Bill (tested)
• Borrower Circulation Summary (xml problems)
• Borrower Card (xml problems)

Batch or overnight jobs produce notices or letters in a single file that can be accessed through Task Manager. The jobs can then be printed out using the print functionality in Task Manager or by using a print daemon. Following are some examples of overnight jobs which can be emailed.

• Overdue notices (in production at HS)
• Recall notices (in production at HS)
• Lost material bill (in production at HS)
• Fine notices (in production at HS)
• Courtesy/Term reminders

Where will notices be emailed from? The emailing of notices and letters in Aleph is accomplished using the print functionality. This means that the actually emailing of notices and letters takes place on a PC running the Aleph client.

Local Campus Setup - There are a number of setup procedures and files that need to configured on your local PC in order to accomplish the emailing functionality:

• Mail server - Your local mailserver needs to be defined in the following file C: \AL500\alephcom\tab\alephcom.ini. Here is an example of the College Park mail server sertup: MailServer=smtp.umail.umd.edu
  
  
• From Address - The From email address must be set in the following file: C: \AL500\alephcom\tab\alephcom.ini: FromAddress=jamieb@kitabu.umd.edu mailto:FromAddress=jamieb@kitabu.umd.edu
  
  
• Mailer Name - The name from which the email is sent is set in the following file: C: \AL500\alephcom\tab\alephcom.ini: MailerName=Library Circulation
  
  
• Admin emailbox - An administration emailbox or email address is necessary for emails that are returned or bounced back for some reason. The admin emailbox is also useful for copying all outbound email.
  
  
• Print ids - Print ids are used to print and email your notices. If you wish to control the subject line of your emails you will need to setup print ids. For example, if you wish to have a separate subject line for your overdue notices and your recall notices, such as "Overdue Notice" and "Recall Notice", then you would need to set up a print id for each type of notice. If you wanted only one subject line, such as "Library Notice", you would only need a single print id for all notices. Set up of print ids is done in Task Manager. Print ids are also used in the job_list/overnight jobs that produce the notices.
  
  
• Email Subject lines – Subject lines are setup in the following file: C:\al500\jobmgr\tab\eng\print.dat
  
  

  col 1               col 2
  (print id)          (subject line)
  xxoverdue        Library Overdue Notice
  xxfine              Library Fine Notice
  xxrecall            Library Recall Notice
  

• Print daemon – The print daemon is a process that is run from Task Manager that performs the actual printing and emailing of notices/letters. A print daemon is setup to recognize print ids. When the print daemon is started it will automatically print/email all files with the appropriate print id. "hsoverdue" is an example of a print id. It is possible to have one print daemon setup to recognize multiple print ids. Print daemons can be started regularly or can run continuously.
  
  Set up of print ids is done in Task Manager. First print ids are defined and then the print daemon is set up to recognize those print ids. Activating the print daemon is also done in Task Manager. A print daemon is set up on individual PC. If you require multiple print daemons you will need additional PC's to run them.
  
  
• Testing – It is important that the testing of email notices from Aleph begin well ahead of your schedule to begin using them. There are many set up issues that need to be worked out. ITD will work closely with you through this stage.
  
  
• Notice Templates – Template modification/customization is a big part of setting up email notices. Email notices are sent as a html attachment to an email. It also possible to send the notice embedded into the original email in addition to the attachment. It is not possible at this time to send only an email that includes the notices, with no attachment. This setup requires two templates, one for the attached notice and one for the email itself.
  
  

STP – Before the emailing of any overnight jobs can begin in MAI or the live environment there is setup that ITD will need to perform on the job list (overnight jobs). The approved templates will also need to be moved into the live environment. Please plan for this setup work in your implementation schedule.

Ongoing Maintenance

• Returned emails – emails sent by Aleph will be returned or bounced backed to the return email address for various reasons. Plans for dealing with these returned emails will need to be considered.
• Disputed notices/emails – As you know, patrons will dispute whether they received an email notice. This is the reason for setting up an administration email account so that you receive a copy of every email that is sent out. You will need to plan for the maintenance and access of these emails.

Information Technology Division College Park, MD 20742-7011
Please send comments and suggestions to ITD's Webmaster.
Content questions should be directed to Jamie Bush.