paulh@sequent.UUCP (Paul Hahn) (03/17/90)
Does anyone know of ways to gateway PROFS into a UNIX SMTP
environment?
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Paul Hahn
Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
{uunet|tektronix}!sequent!paulh paulh@sequent.UUCP (Paul Hahn) (03/17/90)
Does anyone know of ways to gateway PROFS into a UNIX SMTP
environment?
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Paul Hahn
Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
{uunet|tektronix}!sequent!paulhHATHAWA@GECRDVM1.BITNET (Barry Hathaway) (03/19/90)
On Fri, 16 Mar 90 17:31:36 GMT you said: >Does anyone know of ways to gateway PROFS into a UNIX SMTP >environment? > How about trashing PROFS and getting a "real" mail system???? You can replace the PF2 (Open Mail) with something like a call to MAIL/MAILBOOK. Basically, no matter what you do to PROFS the solution is not real pretty since PROFS is so brain-damaged to begin with. If you really want to do this there is a number of ways to do this. Here is 3 or 4 of them. All center around getting IBM's TCP/IP product (FAL) which provides SMTP capabilities. After that you can: 1.) use the standard facilities of FAL. This involves embedding special commands WITHIN the text of you PROFS notes and then sending the notes to the SMTP machine. This is clumsy and received notes are not always replyable. As Bill Rubin said this is not recommended, but it does get the mail delivered. 2.) install PROFS Extended Mail on top of PROFS. While this is cheap ($4000) it is also clumsy to use, slow, and has a number of bugs of which IBM won't acknowledge or fix. Also support is poor and PROFS Extended Mail group does talk with the PROFS group. To get this to work you also really have to install MAILER and configure PROFS Extended Mail to handle RFC822 format mail. When in use you then can't just type domain-style addresses where you would think you should be able to type them - like on the Send to lines; instead, you have to type VERIFY there and enter the real addresses on an Address Resolution Screen that comes up after you press the send key. I suppose one can get use to this, but why? In addition, there are a number of minor bugs like: a.) the 1st line of each message is stripped off. Normally this is a part of the Received-By line so it doesn't matter, but it is annoying. Perhaps this is related to the mods that you have to put in OFSRDR just to get PROFS Ex. Mail to even read RFC822 mail! By the way, the install guide says you might have to do this, but never tells you how! b.) when you file a note in one of your notelogs the sender is always recorded as your tranport agent - MAILER or SMTP. I have a mod that almost fixes this - so the sender now looks like "Barry Ha--away". To fix this completely you need a small mod to PROFS - e.g. parse the from field as one 18-character field, instead of 2 8-character fields, but alas, PROFS is OCO - and since the two groups don't talk they won't do this. Another example of broken by design. c.) Acknowledgements don't work. d.) Poor nickname support. 3.) install PUMP from University of Victoria on top of PROFS. This package basically consists of PROFS exits (EPRERELN, EPRENOTE, OPENMAIL, etc.) that handle conversions PROFS<-->RFC822. Domain-style address cannot be entered when sending PROFS notes, but instead must be entered in you NAMES file which are then resolved using the exits. I have never used this, but I hear a number of good things about PUMP. 4.) Write your own version of PROFS mods. I hope this helps. If you have any further questions, please contact me directly at the address below. Barry Hathaway General Electric Corporate Research and Development ______ / | BITNET: HATHAWA@GECRDVM1 | | INTERNET: HATHAWA@GECRDVM1.CRD.GE.COM _________/ | AT&TNET: (518) 387-5638 > * | GENET: 8*833-5638 / SCHENECTADY | FAXNET: (518) 387-7597 |______________ | SNAILNET: Building K1 Room 4C3A `_ | Schenectady, New York 12301 USA `__| ICBMNET: 42 50 04 N, 73 54 14 W, Alt 246
JSPARROW@UVVM.BITNET (Joe Sparrow) (03/20/90)
The PROFS UVic Mail Package (PUMP) that Barry Hathaway <HATHAWA@GECRDVM1>
refers to is available via our LISTSERV. For more information (8 Pages):
TELL LISTSERV AT UVVM GET PUMP20 LISTING
and GET PUMP21 CHANGES
In short, the package consists of a series of PROFS Exits that enable the
PROFS User to open RFC822 formatted Mail, reply to it, and send mail in RFC822
format. In the case of domain-based addresses, the addresses are "registered"
in the user's CMS NAMES file. The RFC822 formatted mail is "wrapped" in a
BSMTP envelope, therefore either the VM MAILER or SMTP can be used as the
Message Transfer Agent. Local PROFS Notes are retained in PROFS format as are
Notes destined for other sites that you designate.
The documentation referred to above outlines how to obtain the package. There
is also a PUMP Discussion List <PUMP-L@UVVM> available.
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Communications Systems Group, Computing Services,
University of Victoria (604) 721-7675srussert@bcsaic.UUCP (Steve Russert) (03/22/90)
There is a company called Softswitch which sells hardware/software to gateway between PROFS/DISOSS and SMTP as well as X.400 mail. It isn't very cheap, but adds a lot of functionality. The only phone number I have for them is (714)476-3685. SWR .