Rules for filtering and sorting messages

· Based on the structure of the templates

· Rules are created through the use of a rule template

o Similar to the message construction template

o Easier than the “conventional” method for declaring rules (query language)

· Local rules

o Applied when a messages are retrieved from the mail server to a users local workstation

o Typical local rules would include deleting, moving, or resending a message

o Deleting a message, marks it as deleted, but does not immediately expunge it. This allows subsequent rules to act on the message

o Charactoristics may be set to messages by the rules and later tested

o Certain actions may be set for different sort of messages

· Central rules

o Used to select which messages addressed to “anyone” the user wants to see

o The user can only select to “show” a message (i.e. have it sent to him if he was not already a recepient) or change its charactoristic

· Rules act in the order in which they appear

· A user can see the rules that were applied to a specific message to understand how his/her rules interact