Developer's Guide - Email Configuration

In This Topic

The email section configures how the agent will communicate with an email server to send email. This configuration is used by the Packager when it needs to send sessions via email.

Configuration Type	Path
App.Config File (xml)	gibraltar.email
Environment Variable Prefix	Loupe__Email

Option	Description	Default Value	Required
server	The full DNS name of the server to use for exchanging email	""	false
user	Optional. The user to authenticate to the server with. If provided a password is required	""	false
password	Optional. The password to authenticate to the server with. Only used if a user is provided.	""	false
port	Optional. The TCP/IP port to connect to the server on. If not specified the default (25) will be used. Set to zero to use the default	0	false
useSsl	When true any connection to the email server will be encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)	false	false
maxMessageSize	Optional. The maximum size an email message can be when submitted to this server. If not specified then 10MB will be assumed.	10	false

Example

Email Configuration	Copy Code
<configuration> <configSections> <sectionGroup name="gibraltar"> <section name="email" type="Gibraltar.Agent.EmailElement, Gibraltar.Agent" /> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <gibraltar> <email server="smtp.mydomain.com" /> </gibraltar> </configuration>

Email Configuration

Copy Code

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="gibraltar">
    <section name="email" type="Gibraltar.Agent.EmailElement, Gibraltar.Agent" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>
  <gibraltar>
   <email server="smtp.mydomain.com" />
  </gibraltar>
</configuration>

Environment Configuration	Copy Code
Loupe__Email__Server=smtp.mydomain.com

Message Size

Most email servers will limit the total size of a message and the total size of an attachment that can be received. To work with this, Loupe supports splitting packages on session boundaries to fit within the maximum message size allowed. If an individual session is larger than the max message size it will not be sent. You can disable this by setting the maximum message size to zero, but this is not recommended. Instead, find out the maximum size configured for your email server and use that value.

Security Considerations

In most cases you will end up needing to provide a user and password to authenticate to the mail server. You should then be concerned about:

Secure Connections: If you do not use SSL to connect to the mail server then your user and password information will be sent over the network in the clear and be accessible to any packet sniffer between you and the server.
Protecting Credentials: You should determine to what degree you should protect the credentials as they are distributed with your application. If you store them in the configuration file they can be read by anyone that can run your application. If you compile them into your software then they are available to anyone that can use common tools like Reflector to check your code. Even if they are stored encrypted, you'll have to provide the means to decrypt them with the application so they can be made available at runtime.

In the end, the issue comes down to the level of effort you want to make someone have to go through to discover these credentials.

Recommendations

The main recommendation we have is to set up a server account that can only be used to relay mail to the destination mailbox. This type of configuration is supported by many systems and doesn't rely on credentials to protect information. In essence, the account functions like a drop box where email can be sent to it but can't be retrieved.

If this is not feasible and you are going to ship your application into an unprotected environment you should use credentials provided in code from within the application.

As an alternative look at the Loupe Server which has been designed with this secure drop box approach. It's available both on a subscription basis (Software as a Service) and as a licensed component of Loupe.

Where To Next?

For ideas on what to check if you're having problems sending via Email, see Support - Package Email Troubleshooting.
For information on the Loupe Server which is designed to work smoothly in just about any environment see Loupe Server - Introduction.

Developer's Guide

Developer's Guide - Agent Configuration

Developer's Guide - Agent Configuration through Code

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