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Please take note that this work is still ongoing. The documentation should grow in a near future. ;-)


Internals

In this chapter, we will provide extensive information on what Sympa looks like “under the hood”. We hope this documentation will be particularly helpful to developers.

This chapter describes these modules (or a part of them):

This section presents all the files used in the Sympa engine. The files described are those contained in the sources, consequently:

  1. you will not find the files generated at compilation time,
  2. the files are not located in the same directory as you will find them in the compiled application.

Failing a better alternative, we present them as they appear in the src directory from the source distribution.

''./'' : Sympas sources root directory

These scripts are run at installation time. They perform the operations necessary to the correct install and runtime of Sympa.

  • check_perl_modules.pl : This script checks installed and required Perl modules. It also does the required installations.
  • important_changes.pl : This script prints important changes in Sympa since last install. It is based on the NEWS ***** entries.
  • set_symlinks.pl : This script sets symbolic links at installation time.
  • subst.pl : This script replaces --VAR-- occurences at installation time.

''./doc/''

''./po/''

''./soap/''

''./src/''

''./src/etc/script/''

''./wwsympa/''

''./wwsympa/Marc/''

Database

Work in progress. All the tables are described already though.

This chapter describes the Sympa database.

The Sympa database contains 5 tables which are :

  • admin_table, this table stores a cache version of the moderators and owners of lists,
  • user_table, this tables registers the users as individual people,
  • subscriber_table, this table registers subscribers; it stores couples “(user, list)”, thus producing one entry by subscription for each user.
  • logs_table: this tables stores the Sympa logs,
  • netidmap_table, this table stores informations relative to authentification.

We provide here, for each table, a data dictionary and a fields' description.

admin_table

This table is just a cache of the informations found in sympa.conf, robot.conf and lists' config files. It is used to speed up the access to informations regarding administrators. The sources of these informations are the configuration files and not this table.

data catalogue

FieldType EncodingNull Default
primary key imagelist_admin varchar(50) latin1_swedish_ci No
primary key imagerobot_admin varchar(80) latin1_swedish_ci No
primary key imagerole_admin enum('listmaster', 'owner', 'editor') latin1_swedish_ci No
primary key imageuser_admin varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci No
comment_admin varchar(150) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
date_admin datetime No
include_sources_admin varchar(50) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
included_admin int(1) Yes NULL
info_admin varchar(150) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
profile_admin enum('privileged', 'normal') latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
reception_admin varchar(20) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
subscribed_admin int(1) Yes NULL
update_admin datetime Yes NULL

Fields' description

  • FIXME list_admin:
  • FIXME robot_admin:
  • FIXME role_admin:
  • FIXME user_admin:
  • FIXME comment_admin:
  • FIXME date_admin:
  • FIXME include_sources_admin:
  • FIXME included_admin:
  • FIXME info_admin:
  • FIXME profile_admin:
  • FIXME reception_admin:
  • FIXME subscribed_admin:
  • FIXME update_admin:

subscriber_table

data catalogue

FieldType EncodingNull Default
primary key imagerobot_subscriber varchar(80) latin1_swedish_ci No
primary key imagelist_subscriber varchar(50) latin1_swedish_ci No
primary key imageuser_subscriber varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci No
bounce_address_subscriber varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
bounce_score_subscriber smallint(6) Yes NULL
bounce_subscriber varchar(35) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
comment_subscriber varchar(150) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
custom_attribute_subscriber varchar(500) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
date_subscriber datetime No
include_sources_subscriber varchar(50) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
included_subscriber int(1) Yes NULL
reception_subscriber varchar(20) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
subscribed_subscriber int(1) Yes NULL
topics_subscriber varchar(200) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
update_subscriber datetime Yes NULL
visibility_subscriber varchar(20) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL

Fields' description

  • robot_subscriber: the virtual host this subscription's list is hosted by.
  • list_subscriber: the list to which the subscription is done,
  • user_subscriber: the e-mail address of subscription
  • FIXME bounce_address_subscriber:
  • FIXME bounce_score_subscriber:
  • FIXME bounce_subscriber:
  • comment_subscriber: Comments about the subscription
  • custom_attribute_subscriber: the XML fragment containing the user custom attributes for this subscriber
  • date_subscriber: date the subscription was created
  • FIXME include_sources_subscriber:
  • included_subscriber: 1 if user is included
  • reception_subscriber: the reception mode this user chose for this list
  • subscribed_subscriber: 1 if user is subscribed
  • topics_subscriber: the list of topics this subscriber is subscribed to
  • FIXME update_subscriber:
  • visibility_subscriber: the visibility preference of this subscriber.

user_table

data catalogue

FieldType EncodingNull Default
primary key imageemail_user varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci No
attributes_user text latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
cookie_delay_user int(11) Yes NULL
gecos_user varchar(150) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
lang_user varchar(10) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
password_user varchar(40) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL

Fields' description

  • email_user: User's e-mail address
  • FIXME attributes_user:
  • FIXME cookie_delay_user:
  • FIXME gecos_user:
  • lang_user: User's favourite language
  • FIXME password_user: User's password.

logs_table

data catalogue

FieldType EncodingNull Default
primary key imageid_logs bigint(20) No
action_logs varchar(50) latin1_swedish_ci No
client_logs varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
daemon_logs varchar(10) latin1_swedish_ci No
date_logs int(11) No
error_type_logs varchar(150) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
list_logs varchar(50) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
msg_id_logs varchar(255) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
parameters_logs varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
robot_logs varchar(80) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
status_logs varchar(10) latin1_swedish_ci No
target_email_logs varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL
user_email_logs varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL

Fields' description

  • id_logs: unique log's identifier.
  • action_logs: name of the Sympa subroutine which initiated the log
  • client_logs: IP address of the client machine from which the message was sent.
  • daemon_logs: name of the Sympa daemon which ran the action
  • date_logs: date when the action was executed
  • error_type_logs: name of the error string – if any – issued by the subroutine
  • list_logs: name of the mailing-list in which context the action was executed
  • msg_id_logs: identifier of the message which triggered the action.
  • parameters_logs: List of commas-separated parameters. The amount and type of parameters can differ from an action to another.
  • robot_logs: name of the robot in which context the action was executed
  • status_logs: exit status of the action. If it was an error, it is likely that the error_type_logs field will contain a description of this error.
  • target_email_logs: e-mail address (if any) targeted by the message
  • user_email_logs: e-mail address of the message sender

netidmap_table

data catalogue

FieldType EncodingNull Default
primary key imagenetid_netidmap varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci No
primary key imagerobot_netidmap varchar(80) latin1_swedish_ci No
primary key imageserviceid_netidmap varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci No
email_netidmap varchar(100) latin1_swedish_ci Yes NULL

Fields' description

  • FIXME netid_netidmap:
  • FIXME robot_netidmap:
  • FIXME serviceid_netidmap:
  • FIXME email_netidmap:

session_table

data catalogue

FieldType Null Default
primary key imageid_session varchar(30) No
start_date_session int(11) No
date_session int(11) No
data_session text Yes
email_session varchar(100) Yes NULL
hit_session int(11) Yes NULL
remote_addr_session varchar(60) Yes NULL
robot_session varchar(80) Yes NULL

Fields' description

  • id_session: the identifier of the database record;
  • start_date_session: the date when the session was created;
  • date_session: date epoch of the last use of this session. It is used in order to expire old sessions ;
  • data_session: parameters attached to this session that don't have a dedicated column in the database;
  • email_session: the email associated to this session;
  • hit_session: the number of hit performed during this session. Used to detect crawlers;
  • remote_addr_session: The IP address of the computer from which the session was created;
  • robot_session: The virtual host in which the session was created.
  • internals/index.1213711206.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2008/06/17 16:00
  • by serge.aumont@cru.fr