Configuring bounce processing

The <BounceProcessing> section of the configuration file OutboundEmail.xml contains one or more <Mailbox> elements that allow you to specify multiple e-mail inboxes to retrieve bounce messages from (the Bounce Processor service loops through each of them). Each <Mailbox> element contains a <Forwarding> element in which you specify how incoming messages sent as a response to sent mailings, such as bounce messages and other responses, are handled.

Before you begin

The E-mail error status of a Contact indicates whether problems have been encountered sending e-mails to the Contact. The status is only updated when you have tracked links in your Mailing. You can track links by setting the Track Links parameter in the Outbound E-mail Post-Processing Template Building Block, or by using the GetLinkTrackingURL() method in your Dreamweaver Templates.

About this task

When e-mails, for whatever reason, do not reach their intended recipients the e-mail is bounced back to you (or the address you nominate as the bounce e-mail address). You need to process bounced e-mails because if you continually send e-mails to invalid e-mail addresses you can run the risk of having your server black listed and not being able to send any more e-mails from there.

Procedure

  1. Open OutboundEmail.xml located by default in the config subdirectory of your Content Manager root location in a plain-text editor or XML editor.
  2. Locate the <BounceProcessing> section:
    <BounceProcessing>
        <PollingInterval>300</PollingInterval>
        <Mailbox name="MailBounce">
          <Protocol>POP3</Protocol>
          <Server>localhost</Server>
          <Port>110</Port>
          <User>MailBounce</User>
          <Password>password</Password>
          <ImapFolder></ImapFolder>
          <Forwarding>
            <SenderName>Forwarder</SenderName>
            <SenderAddress>forwarder@localhost</SenderAddress>
            <BouncedEmails>
              <Subject></Subject>
              <EmailAddress>bounced@localhost</EmailAddress>
              <Message></Message>
            </BouncedEmails>
            <RepliesFromContacts>
              <Subject></Subject>
              <EmailAddress>replies@localhost</EmailAddress>
              <Message></Message>
            </RepliesFromContacts>
          </Forwarding>
      </BounceProcessing>
  3. Define a <PollingInterval>:
    ElementDescription
    <PollingInterval>The time in seconds the Outbound E-mail Bounce Processor service waits, after a polling action has completed, before polling the available inboxes for bounced messages again. The default is 300 (5 minutes).
  4. Define a <Mailbox> element as follows:

    The <BounceProcessing> section can have one or more <Mailbox> elements defined. Each mailbox is identified by a unique name attribute.

    ElementDescription
    <Protocol>The protocol used to receive e-mails: POP3 or IMAP.
    <Server>The DNS name of the POP3 or IMAP mail server, for example pop3.sdltridion.com.
    <Port>The port of the POP3 (typically 110) or IMAP mail server (typically 143).
    <User>The name of the mailbox account where bounced messages are expected to be sent.
    <Password>The password of the <User> mailbox. For more information, see Encrypting sensitive strings for Audience Manager
    <Imap>For an IMAP Server, the name of the incoming mail folder, which is by default inbox.
  5. Define <Forwarding> for a <Mailbox> element as follows:
    ElementDescription
    <SenderName>The sender name as displayed in the From: field.
    <SenderAddress>The displayed e-mail address of the sender of the forwarded e-mail.
    In the <BouncedEmails> section, specify how to handle bounced e-mails:
    Element in <BouncedEmails>Description
    <EmailAddress>Bounced messages are sent to this e-mail address.
    <Subject>The subject of a bounced e-mail. Filling in a subject here removes the subject of the original, bounced e-mail message: if you want to retain that subject, leave this field empty.
    <Message>The message body of a forwarded e-mail. The body of the original e-mail is appended under this message body.
    In the <RepliesFromContacts> section, specify how to handle e-mails sent by a Contact:
    Element in <RepliesFromContacts>Description
    <EmailAddress>Forwarded messages that are not recognized as bounced messages are presumed to be e-mails send by the contact and are sent to this e-mail address.
    <Subject>The subject of a forwarded e-mail. Fill in a subject here to remove the subject of the original e-mail message, otherwise leave empty to retain the original subject.
    <Message>The message body of a forwarded e-mail. The body of the original e-mail is appended under this message body.
  6. Save and close OutboundEmail.xml.