Implementing Policy › Email Administration › Multiple Mailboxes › How Multiple Mailboxes Use Rules

How Multiple Mailboxes Use Rules

The Mail Eater (pdm_maileater_nxd) component on the primary server uses mailbox connections and rules to read and process messages from one or more accounts on one or more mail servers. The Mail Eater processes mailboxes serially (only one mailbox is processed at a time), and processes rules in sequence number order.

Multiple mailboxes use rules as follows:

1. Upon primary server startup, the Mail Eater reads the following tables:

   usp_mailbox

   Represents a connection to a mail server.

   usp_mailbox_rules

   Represents the rules that apply to the connection (usp_mailbox).

   Contact_Method

   Represents the Contact Methods used for automatic replies.

   Document_Repository

   Represents the Document Repositories for storing attachments.

   The Mail Eater automatically detects changes to the objects in any of these tables, including the addition of additional objects. If a change is made to usp_mailbox or usp_mailbox_rule, the polling interval for the affected mailbox is rescheduled to one second after the change is applied.

2. At the interval defined by each mailbox, the Mail Eater retrieves each email in the inbox for the associated account, and processes the email as follows:
   1. Checks the email address for policy violations. When the Mail Eater finds a violation, processing stops, and the standard log is affected according to the mailbox definition.
   2. Compares the email to each rule (mailbox_rule) that belongs to that mailbox.
   3. If a matching rule is found, submits the message to the Text API for posting, and replies to the user as appropriate based on the specified action for the rule.

      For reply emails, the filter string identifies the object and uses the Text API for processing. After processing is complete, the response goes either to the Reply to or the From address.

   4. After the Mail Eater finds a matching rule, no other rules are checked, and the Mail Eater processes the next email in the inbox.
   5. If no matching rule is found, the message is discarded.
3. After the Mail Eater processes all emails for an inbox, the processed and discarded messages are purged from the mail server, and the next processing interval is scheduled.