Question on eLink

[alipkok]

Hello,
i have a question with regards to elink .
Which CS item is behind the elink@subdomain.domain email address ?
Elink enabled items like blogs,discussions or communities have an email address like communityname@subdomain.domain
I searched in the elinkalias table and i could not find any item with emailalias elink@virtualdomain.domain.
Is it the "default" email address where the elink module sends generic emails ? Under which circumstances(process) users receive email from elink@subdomain.domain ?
In some discussions in knowledge center i have seen replies by elink user .Are these because a user replied to the discussion via email ?

Thanks

 

[appnair]

It is actually very simple if you understand the mechanism.
To send email from a program livelink you will need a SMTP server simpler all corporate things have a SMTP that is why you can send email.Functionlity like Notifications or wf step that send you email in livelink is just executing oscript code which invokes a login to a SMTP client and sending you that message.
To receive email you have to have a much more complicated infrastructure,here the mail travels through specified protocols ,sites will explain mail sending but I am saying things for a layman for e.g if you send an email to youremailid@gmail.com the internet mechanism through its labyrinth of connected mail and DNS servers will try to locate the @part which is gmail.com,once it is delivered to an IMAP or POP server or many other technologies that have evolved after that it is received by the gmail server,then all it has to do is basically store the message in its database and check if a user exists there.You open up your favorite mail client and lo and behold .Note email and internet transfer existed way before internet and other things as part of unix operating systems or even before that but common man thinks only when big players like Windows,Apple and Google has made it more popular and affordable,however the RFC's and protocols were well established before that.When we come into livelink and its eLink module this is a typical user scenario,because there's more than one way to skin this cat.

[ol 1]
[li]Livelink Administrator Chore-Installs the ELINK oscript module,now maybe installed by default,also installs the eLink Server which is a free to license SendMail Daemon,which OT licenses[/li]
[li]Mail Administrator Chore-Creates a Virtual Hosting by allowing a subdomain.In most livelink/elink operations this is the most disconnect as Mail admins will never know and will get extremely paranoid when thy hear the sendmail daemon.Thir job is to just make sure a MX record exists in their mail system,so if your company domain was myemail@mycompany.com the LL team may want to call their subdomain livelinkobjectname@elink.mycompany.com.Once you get this done in AD and exchange which is usualy a 30 min job.[/li]
[li]If you have this done and working then half the battle is won.Note this product cannot be completely done and going without the LL team and Mail team collaborating for your benefit,the Notifications and other aspects are SMTP driven this does not require your to talk to your mail team,if you are allowed to use a published SMTP server[/li]
[li]Now when somebody sends a email to livelinkobjectname@elink.mycompany.com if you are inside your compnay mail or ouside your company email this part is evaluated elink.mycompany.comand mail will come to your mail server,at which point the mail server looks up its MX records and say hey I have a envelop to elink.mycompany.com and it will forward it to the elink server(java/sendmail service) .If elink is to be used only inside the company then the outside world is blocked form this MX record,Simply put if you send email in such address from your gmail client you will get an error from gmail that says the address is unknown to me,if the MX record was public gmail will try to deliver[/li]
[li]True to many of the automagic that OT delivers and a lot of people never understanding livelink scheduled agents a scheduled agent(5000) wakes up every 5 minute or so logging on to this POP server and finds a mail to be delivered to livelinkobjectname@elink.mycompany.com .So the livelink checks works like this do I have a email alias in dtree for that object ,and does the sender have add item/add version capabilities on the Object [

https://appukili.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/general-help-series-2/

][/li]
[/ol]

elink@elink.mycompany.com is a technical user who like Admin has SA privileges and you cannot delete that account.Discussions allow anonymous posting which means post it as that user because in LL only people allowed on objects can do anything. elinklias stores the objects dataid to whatever friendly name you choose.

in my 19 years of working withe link there has never been a smooth mail/livelink admin interaction.The only time I had elink configured and running was when our LL team and our Mail team was under the same manager

OT may soon retire the eLink functionality as they are not considered inherently secure and you might find the threads where I also gave some input.


Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937
Certified OT Developer,Livelink ECM Champion 2008,Livelink ECM Champion 2010

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=2884

http://www.linkedin.com/in/appunair

http://www.livelink.in

 

[alipkok]

Hello Appnair and thank you very much for your time to answer!

If i understood correctly, eLink is a technical user with sa privileges.The elink appears in discussions post when the users want to remain anonymous on posting , am i correct?
For example in the following topic in OT KC you replied as elink , how did you manage that(posting anonymously) ?

https://knowledge.opentext.com/know...&ShowReplyEntry=62812312#forum_topic_62812312

Do you know other cases where users receive emails from elink addrees or where can i find more details on the elink@elink.domain.com ?
Thanks !

 

[appnair]

Not sure if you are a livelink admin or not but if you are look under settings called
func=admin.eLinkConfigure many of these are available to you and self explanatory
so it is either Allow non-Content Server users to post to discussions or Allow users without "Edit" permission to post to discussions
AFA why would something land in your database as the elink user perhaps you can ask OT,look in code ,put logs and trace the envelope that made the object
a quick check would be to turn off anonymous posting and then if you have irate users who have been asked to send email to some location
or enabled discussion in livelink and are getting denied that might give you clues.I would have tried to look at a item's audit and try to trace
the sequence of events that led to its creation.




Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937
Certified OT Developer,Livelink ECM Champion 2008,Livelink ECM Champion 2010

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=2884

http://www.linkedin.com/in/appunair

http://www.livelink.in

 

[alipkok]

Thanks appnair, im an admin in the dev environment and i already had a look but i could not find any reference of the elink@subdomain.domain email addrees(neither in kuaf nor in elinkalias table).
May i ask how did you reply in the OT KC discussion as eLink user ?

 

[appnair]

I do not know why I show like that
I can make one final comment what OT KB is using is a Forum part of Communities Of Practice(COP) I do not know its code
as I have never worked in it

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937
Certified OT Developer,Livelink ECM Champion 2008,Livelink ECM Champion 2010

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=2884

http://www.linkedin.com/in/appunair

http://www.livelink.in

 

[LAMINI]

I am also a Livelink/Content Server Admin, if you need sample setups of what these configure email pages look like, just let me know?