Selective Vacation Response - lost functionality due to Beta changes

[fastuser2015]

Previously I used the custom sieve feature in the Beta interface to return an autoreply for selected email addresses.

The ability to add custom sieve script has now been removed as part of the big improvements to the Rules interface.

However... in the Vacation Response screen, in the list of email addresses for which you want replies, it's not possible to deselect my default identity, i.e. the username I log in with.

I do not want replies sent for this address.

I assume (hope) it would be a relatively simple change to implement...

[neilj]

Custom sieve script has not been removed; it's just changed. The link is in the bottom right of the Rules screen.

[fastuser2015]

Neil, thanks for the tip. I swore I saw a post from Rob saying it was going - and on that basis I didn't even look for it, good to know it's still there.

Re: the ability remove the default identity from the standard Vacation Response - is that something that would be easily done..? Would be really nice to have. If that was in place, and now that the new Rules interface is almost ready, I'd have no need to go near custom sieve anyway.

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by fastuser2015

... Re: the ability remove the default identity from the standard Vacation Response - is that something that would be easily done..? Would be really nice to have. If that was in place, and now that the new Rules interface is almost ready, I'd have no need to go near custom sieve anyway.

You can add this feature (no vacation replies to messages sent to login email address) in the new beta rules system as long as you are willing to not use the default forwarding rules for that one address. To do this follow the following directions:

• Log into htttp://beta.fastmail.com.
• Enter the Settings>Vacation screen and enable a vacation reply for your desired aliases.
• Enter the Settings>Rules screen.
• If you have existing custom rules they will be automatically inserted into the new system. My description below assumes you do not have existing rules which conflict with my new custom rules.
• Click Edit custom sieve code at the bottom of the rules.
• Scroll down and you will see the grey section containing both ### 5. Forward and ### 6. Vacation Response. We will need to disable that grey block containing both sections 5 and 6 for your login address.
• In the custom code area immediately before section 5, add code similar to the following for your login address:

  if not address :is ["To","Cc","Resent-To","X-Delivered-To"] "loginAdr@fastmail.com" {

• In the custom code area immediately after section 6, add the following code to the start of that area:

   }

• Save your changes at the top. If you don't exit the Edit Sieve Script area then you have an error in your custom Sieve and must fix it before it can be saved.

Now if messages arrive for your login email address they will not be forwarded using the normal forwarding rules and they will not generate a vacation response. Messages arriving for other addresses which are enabled on the Vacation setup screen will receive a vacation response.

Bill

[fastuser2015]

Hi Bill

Thanks for this, it sounds great - just want to check, will this also disable the Reject rules for the default identity?

If it's only the forwarding rules that get bypassed, this will be just the ticket.

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by fastuser2015

Thanks for this, it sounds great - just want to check, will this also disable the Reject rules for the default identity?

My suggested code only affects sections 5 snd 6 (forwarding and vacation).

Bill

[fastuser2015]

Great. Thanks Bill, sounds very useful in that case.

Do you know whether it would be difficult for FM to implement this cleanly in the web interface? Perhaps there is some quirk that means it would affect the rest of the rules?

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by fastuser2015

...Do you know whether it would be difficult for FM to implement this cleanly in the web interface? Perhaps there is some quirk that means it would affect the rest of the rules?

I assume that Fastmail set it up this way because the original intent of the vacation Sieve rule is to send vacation replies to messages which were originally sent to the main account address or to a list of additional addresses. See RFC 5230:

4.5. Address Parameter and Limiting Replies to Personal Messages

"Vacation" MUST NOT respond to a message unless the recipient user's email address is in a "To", "Cc", "Bcc", "Resent-To", "Resent-Cc", or "Resent-Bcc" line of the original message. An email address is considered to belong to the recipient if it is one of:
1. an email address known by the implementation to be associated with the recipient,
2. the final envelope recipient address if it's available to the implementation, or
3. an address specified by the script writer via the ":addresses" argument described in the next paragraph.

Users can supply additional mail addresses that are theirs with the ":addresses" argument, which takes a string-list listing additional addresses that a user might have. These addresses are considered to belong to the recipient user in addition to the addresses known to the implementation.

As I showed you, it's very easy to modify this behavior and remove the main Fastmail address. Note that my solution as posted prevents that one exact address from producing a vacation response, and a subdomain or plus+address (such as test@loginAdr.fastmail.com or loginAdr+test@fastmail.com) will generate a vacation reply.

Bill

[fastuser2015]

Good to have the background on it. Thanks again for the sieve suggestion, it's going to be very useful to me.