Mail From Address

January 29, 2009 in Blackboard Vista by Ezra F | 3 comments

It appears CE/Vista has several locations for defining the email addresses it uses for SMTP.

  1. $WEBCTDOMAIN/config/config.xml:
    mail.from=
    From address for messages sent.
  2. $WEBCTDOMAIN/customconfig/startup.properties:
    WEBCT_ADMIN_EMAIL=
    Some internal errors have a mailto: prompt to contact the server administrator.
  3. $WEBCTDOMAIN/serverconfs/log4j.properties:
    log4j.appender.EMail.To=
    Report fatal errors.
  4. $WEBCTDOMAIN/serverconfs/log4jstartup.properties:
    log4j.appender.EMail.To=
    Report fatal errors.
  5. $WEBCTDOMAIN/webctInstalledServer.properties:
    WEBCT_ADMIN_EMAIL=
    Installer picks up this value for populating #2 and possibly #3 and #4.
  6. $WEBCTDOMAIN/webctInstalledServer.properties:
    MAIL_ORIGIN=
    Installer picks up this value for populating #1.

What really disturbs me is the Vista 8 installer created log4j properties files with the  SMTP server set up for miles.webct.com and sending from vista.monitor@webct.com? I cannot seem to find anything in the Vista 8 documentation or wiki or Google index about the “Vista Trap Notification” subject line, from address, or SMTP address which the log4j appender appears to be designed to send.

This Vista Trap Notification appears designed to send an email to the address any time a fatal error is encountered. That’s fine. Just use the smtp host and From address requested in the installer.

Don’t get me started about giving end users a mailto: prompt to report errors.


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  1. Ezra F’s avatar

    Ezra F on January 29, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    This is good… Blackboard’s DNS for miles.webct.com says “please_set_email.absolutely.nowhere.” I take that to mean, don’t use this host.

    Yet the install guide doesn’t say anything about changing it.

  2. Janel’s avatar

    Janel on January 29, 2009 at 5:24 pm

    this is actually timely… I’ve been trying to figure out where an smtp setting might be hiding, and I found at least one… that I need to change from an old value to the new one for campus… have you edited any of these config files by hand? if so, do some or all of them require a restart of the services to be re-read? I’ll do more digging and check in with Bb support before moving forward, but was curious about your experiences.

    Thanks,
    Janel

  3. Ezra F’s avatar

    Ezra F on January 29, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    That is a really good question… We exclusively manage these config files by editing them on certain nodes while the application is shut down.

    We edit config.xml on the admin node. At startup, the nodes copy this version locally. (Changes made in the Weblogic console result in the admin node version getting changed and nodes receiving a copy of the new file.)

    The properties configs (startup, log4j, and log4jstartup) we copy a master to the nodes to ensure consistency.