Mail domains & mailboxes

Mail Control is where administrators set up the suite's mail: the domains it sends from, shared mailboxes such as a unit's office address, who can open each mailbox, and whether mail may leave the organisation.

Open Administration › Mail Control. Permissions: view_mail_control to open it; add_mail_account, edit_mail_account, delete_mail_account for mailboxes and domains; assign_mail_account to give people access; manage_mail_policy for the external mail policy; view_mail_analytics for the Analytics tab.

Mail Control. On the test system there are no mailboxes yet.
  1. Create account. A new mailbox.
  2. Accounts. Every mailbox, with its domain, status, external-mail setting and number of people assigned. Search and filter by status or domain. A second list shows recent messages across mailboxes.
  3. Domain. Mail domains and their SMTP settings.
  4. Policy. The external mail policy.

The counts at the top show total mails, unread mails and active accounts. Analytics (with view_mail_analytics) shows activity per mailbox.

1. Add a mail domain

  1. Open the Domain tab and select New domain.
  2. Domain: for example uath.gov.ng. Turn on Active to allow mailboxes on it to send.
  3. SMTP settings, only needed if this domain sends mail outside the organisation: SMTP host, SMTP port (usually 587), SMTP username, SMTP password, From name (optional) and Use SSL/TLS (secure).
  4. Select Create domain (Save changes when editing).

When editing a domain, leave the password blank to keep the one stored. Deleting a domain leaves its mailboxes with their addresses but without the SMTP settings.

2. Create a mailbox

The new mail account form.
  1. Account name. What people see, for example “ICT Unit”.
  2. Email address. The part before the @, and the domain from the list. The full address is shown underneath. If no domain is active you are asked to add one first.
  3. Description (optional).

Select Create account to save it.

3. Give people access to a mailbox

  1. Open the mailbox from the Accounts tab.
  2. Under Assigned users, choose a person in Select system user and select Assign user.
  3. To take access away, select Remove beside their name.

Assigned people see the mailbox in their Mail. The mailbox page also shows Account settings (name, description, address and External mail override, saved with Save changes), totals, and Recent emails. Opening a message there is a preview and does not mark it read. Delete account removes the mailbox and cannot be undone.

From Mail Control an administrator can read messages in any mailbox. Do so only when there is a proper reason. Changes to mailboxes, domains, assignments and the policy are recorded in the audit log.

4. The external mail policy

The Policy tab.
  1. Allow sending to external addresses. On: anyone who can compose mail may send to any address on the internet, unless their mailbox blocks it, and inbound mail from outside is accepted. Off: sending outside the organisation is blocked and external mail goes to spam. Mail between internal mailboxes is always delivered directly.
  2. Apply to system email. Password resets, invites and invoice emails normally bypass the policy. Turning this on blocks them too, which stops password reset for anyone whose sign-in address is outside the organisation.
  3. Mailbox overrides. Mailboxes that ignore the global setting. Set these on each mailbox with External mail: Inherit, Allow or Block.

The two policy switches take effect the moment you flip them. There is no Save button and no confirmation.

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