SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
As Epistula can act as mailserver for multiple Epistula has a two-tier system administration regime. There is a single master account for the whole Epistula installation, which suffices in the common case where for installation is dedicated to a single organization. Where the Epistula installation serves multiple organizations, the master devolves power to secondary administrator accounts, on the basis of domain names. Each secondary administrator account will have complete control over a set of one or more domains and can add addresses under them. Secondary administrators may also add domains providing these are new to the installation.
The master account cedes some but not all powers over domains placed under secondary accounts. The master can suspend addresses, domains and the operation of secondary accounts but other then this they can only observe - and they cannot do that without the knowledge of the secondary account holder. This arrangement means legal responsibilty for the domains is vested with the organizations that own them and affords the organizations some protection from breachs of confidentiality by the mail service vendor.
Administrators (both master and secondary) login at the normal login page but are not users in any normal sense. They have an admin address and a mailbox but these are strictly for messaging local addresses. Once authenticated, the administrator will see the Admin home page. This comprises a menu as follows:-
| Edit Domains: | This links to the Domain List Page which comprises the of list domains, a field and a button for adding more, and a button to return to the admin home page. The domains listed each link to the Domain Editor Page, which shows a table of addresses granted under the domain, but only to users. Group/department addresses are not included. The table has four columns, ADDRESS, USER, IN and OUT. The ADDRESS and USER columns will always have a value. IN and OUT are checkboxes. If IN is not set incoming messages to the address are rejected. If OUT is not set the user cannot send messages using the address. The table has a blank row and a button for adding more addresses. The USER column values link to the Account Editor Page for the user (see below). |
| Edit Accounts: | This invokes the Account List Page which is a table of LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, ACCOUNT_NAME. Entries in this table each link to the Account Editor Page, which also has the ubiquitous blank line and button for adding more accounts. The Account Editor Page is a table of three columns, ADDRESS, IN and OUT (and having the same purpose as above). Again there is the blank row and button for adding more addresses. There is also a checkbox to allow users to log in using any of their email addresses as username. It should be noted however, that Epistula account names (usernames), are strings and not email addresses. Of course, a string can bear a remarkable resemblance to an email address should administrators choose to make it so, but this is ill advised as it can cause confusion. It is better to issue users with usernames that are not an email address and then tick the box. |
| Edit Groups: | This invokes the Groups list page which is a list of groups that link to the Group Editor Page. This is a three colum table, USER, IN and OUT, plus of course, the blank row and button. |
| Edit Depts: | Exactly as for groups. |
| User Options: | This permits a number of system wide defaults. |
| User Stats: | Per user stats e.g. No of emails sent/received. |