Mail Server page

You use the Mail Server page of the ColdFusion MX Administrator to specify a mail server to send automated e-mail messages. ColdFusion MX supports the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for sending e-mail messages and the Post Office Protocol (POP) for retrieving e-mail messages from your mail server. To use e-mail messaging in your ColdFusion applications, you must have access to an SMTP server and a POP account.

The ColdFusion MX Enterprise Edition supports mail server failover as well as additional mail delivery options.

The ColdFusion implementation of SMTP mail uses a spooled architecture. This means that when a cfmail tag is processed in an application page, the messages generated might not be sent immediately. If ColdFusion is extremely busy or has a large queue, delivery could occur after some delay.

Note: For more information about the cfmail tag, see Sending SMTP e-mail with the cfmail tag in Sending and Receiving E-Mail in ColdFusion MX Developer’s Guide.

Mail Server Settings area

The following table describes basic mail server settings:

Option

Description

Mail Server

Enter a valid mail server for sending dynamic SMTP mail messages in the text box. You can enter an Internet address, such as mail.company.com, or the IP address of the mail server, such as 127.0.0.1.

Verify Mail Server Connection

Select this option to verify that ColdFusion MX can connect to your specified mail server after you submit this form.

Whether or not you use this option, you should verify that your mail server connection works by sending a test message.

Server Port

Enter the number of the port on which the mail server is running. Contact your server administrator if you are unsure of the appropriate port number.

Backup Mail Servers (Enterprise Edition only)

Enter zero or more backup servers for sending SMTP mail messages. You can enter an Internet address, such as mail.company.com, or the IP address of the mail server, such as 127.0.0.1. Separate multiple servers with a comma.

If the mail server requires authentication, prepend the mail server with the username and password, as follows: username:password@mailserveraddress

To use a port number other than the default (25), specify mailserveraddress:portnumber

Maintain Connection to Mail Server

(Enterprise Edition only)

Select this option to keep mail server connections open after sending a mail message. Enabling this option can enhance performance when delivering multiple messages.

Connection Timeout (seconds)

Enter the number of seconds that ColdFusion MX should wait for a response from the mail server before timing out.

Mail Spool Settings area

The following table describes mail server spool settings:

Option

Description

Spool Interval (seconds)

Enter the interval, in seconds, at which you want the mail server to process spooled mail.

Mail Delivery Threads

(Enterprise Edition only)

Enter the maximum number of simultaneous threads used to deliver spooled mail.

Spool mail messages for delivery

(Memory spooling available for Enterprise Edition only)

Select this option to route outgoing mail messages to the mail spooler. If you disable this option, ColdFusion MX delivers outgoing mail messages immediately. In ColdFusion MX Enterprise Edition, you can spool messages to disk (slower, but messages persist across shutdowns) or to memory (faster, but messages do not persist).

You can override this setting in the cfmail tag.

Maximum number of messages spooled to memory

(Enterprise Edition only)

Enter the maximum number of messages ColdFusion MX will spool to memory before switching to disk spooling.

Mail Logging Settings area

Select preferences for handling mail logs, as described in the following table:

Option

Description

Error Log Severity

From the drop-down list box, select the type of SMTP-related error message to write to a log file. The options are the following:

  • Debug (contains Information, Warning, and Error)
  • Information (contains Warning and Error)
  • Warning (contains Error)
  • Error

Log all e-mail messages sent by ColdFusion MX

Select this option to save to a log file the To, From, and Subject fields of all e-mail messages.

ColdFusion MX writes sent mail and mail error logs to the following directories:

The following table describes the e-mail log files:

Log

Description

mailsent.log

Records sent e-mail messages.

mail.log

Records general e-mail errors.

Mail Character Set Settings area

Select preferences for the default mail character set, as described in the following table:

Option

Description

Default CFMAIL CharSet

From the drop-down list box, select the default character set used by the cfmail tag. The default value is UTF-8. If the majority of your e-mail clients use a specific character set, you can use this setting to switch to that locale-specific character set. For example, Japanese mail is typically sent using the ISO-2022-JP character set.