Detailed list of features

Sympa is a mailing list management software, and as such it provides a couple of standard features which most mailing list software programs provide. In addition to this basic set of features, you may customize the software given the specifications you have for your mailing service. Below is a detailed list of features that Sympa provides. It has been organized to help you find out if Sympa meets your needs.

You can refer to the manual for more details on each feature.

feature details related documentation
subscribe/unsubscribe
review list members a list configuration parameter defines who can review list members
available mailing lists the WHICH command lists available mailing lists, but lists may be configured as hidden
send message list can be configured to request a challenge email
contact list owners the list-request address automatically refers to list owners
digest user can select the digest reception mode
digest modes Sympa provides different kind of digests (MIME, textplain, notice, summary)
conceal list members can hide from the members review page
get archive user can request list archive (index and messages)
feature details related documentation
a single web interface a single web interface provides user and admin interfaces
flexible user authentication user can authenticate with Sympa's own mechanism or via an enterprise mechanism
internationalization the web interface is translated into 20 different languages translations
RSS feed RSS feeds show the latest lists and the latest messages for each list
XHTML compliance the web interface is compliant with the W3C
accessibility sympa GUI is WAI compliant
shared documents Sympa provides a web documents sharing function with access control definition documentation
web archive mailing list archives can be browsed/searched through the web
members review list members / owners can review the list members
member pictures list members can upload their pictures on to the list
message topics users can subscribe to message topics defined for a list documentation
mail composer subscribers can post messages from the web interface
HTML mail composer turning an external HTML page into a clean multipart MIME message
feature details related documentation
MIME compliance web archiving uses MhOnArc tool that can easily handle complex MIME messages
thread and chronological organization messages are sorted and linked in both modes
spam protection email addresses are protected via different mechanisms
crawler protection web archive can be protected from crawlers
search engine user can search web archives; it includes an advanced search mode
private archive access control is enforced for non-public list archives
message reply user can reply to messages through the web interface
message removal a message can be removed by the list owner or by its authenticated author
resend message user can ask to receive the message again
export archive list owners can download a ZIP of the list archive
quota listmaster can determine list archive quotas
RSS feed latest messages are published via RSS
customizeable archive archive organization can be customized via the MhOnArc resource file
feature details related documentation
RFC 2369 support sympa sets SMTP header fields defined in RFC 2369
X-No-Archive header field Sympa checks the X-No-Archive header field
anonymize header fields Sympa can anonymize SMTP header fields documentation
MIME digest sympa provides both plaintext and MIME digests
multipart/alternative support multipart/alternative messages are handled for mail commands and text/html reception modes
S/MIME support sympa handles S/MIME signed and encrypted messages documentation
bounces format Sympa handles RFC1891 bouncing messages + other common formats
headers and footers list owner can define MIME or plaintext headers and footers
urlize message attachments can be detached on the server, with URL sent to list members
feature details related documentation
bounce analysis bounces are analyzed ; most bounce formats are recognized
automatic bounce management sympa has a sophisticated algorithm to trigger bouncing user notification/removal documentation
advanced VERP sympa does VERP for part of the list members during each mail processing documentation
distribution optimization messages are first distributed to non-bouncing users to optimize the delivery time
web view of bouncers list owners can view the currently bouncing users with advanced information available
feature details related documentation
moderate messages list moderators can moderate messages via the mail or web interfaces
moderate subscriptions list owners can moderate subscription requests
edit mail service messages owners can edit service messages (templates )
edit list config owners can edit list configuration, according to their profile
view logs list owners can view logs related to their mailing list
feature details related documentation
search user listmaster can search all the mailing lists of which a user is a member/admin
list moderation listmaster can validate/reject pending mailing lists via the web
list removal listmaster can close a list via the web
list active user sessions view all active user sessions with IP adresses
change identity listmaster can take someone else's identity for test purposes
customize templates listmaster can customize mail/web templates from the web
feature details related documentation
bulk mailer mail distribution is very fast thanks to a built-in bulk mailer parameters
database user information is stored in a RDBMS to gain a faster response time documentation
dedicated processes sympa comes with 6 specialized processes (web, mail, archives, bounces, task manager, soap)
fast web interface sympa uses the fastCGI technology to have a persistant web server documentation
big lists up to 700.000 subscribers
many lists up to 20.000 mailing lists
full virtual hosting a single sympa server can provide true virtual hosting (handles the same list names within different vhosts) documentation
list families list creation can be automated documentation
feature details related documentation
dynamic mailing lists list members can be extracted from an external database (SQL, LDAP) documentation
user authentication authentication can use an LDAP database or Single Sign-On servers (CAS, Shibboleth,…) documentation
SOAP interface most Sympa features are accessible through a SOAP interface documentation
supported RDBMS Sympa can use different RDBMS (mysql, posgresql, sqlight, oracle or sybase) documentation
supported MTA Sympa can be coupled with most MTAs (sendmail, postfix, qmail, exim)
feature details related documentation
loop prevention sympa detects messages that could create loops documentation
user session management web sessions are handled in the database in a secure way
S/MIME both S/MIME signature and encryption are handled documentation
DKIM Use of incoming DKIM signature and optionaly signature of outgoing mail documentation
authorization access control is enforced via Sympa's authorization scenarios documentation
spam protection anti-spam header fields can trigger custom actions documentation
virus protection Sympa can be plugged with multiple anti-virus software (McAfee/uvscan, Fsecure/fsav, Sophos, AVP, Trend Micro/VirusWall and Clam Antivirus) documentation
quotas listmaster can define quotas for message size, web archives, shared documents
XSS CSRF protection Web interface is protected agains XSS by filtering all HTML
feature details related documentation
mail personnalization custom variables to adapt content to each list member documentation
CSS the Sympa CSS can easily be customized
web templates each web page is defined via a TT2 template that can be customized
mail services templates mail command output is defined via TT2 templates that can be customized
authorization scenarios authorization scenarios can be customized to apply to site-specific access control rules
SOAP interface sites can configure their own software to call on Sympa services via SOAP documentation
custom user attributes list owner can defined custom user attributes, provisioning is done at the moment of subscription
custom list parameters list owner can define custom list parameters, which are later used on the web interface
list privileges site admin can define what list configurations can be edited by list owner
  • overview/features.txt
  • Last modified: 2011/04/29 10:49
  • by olivier.salaun@cru.fr