[Mailman-Users] Creating New List via Web Interface

[The List Server Administrator at UNH]

   Christopher Lindsey <lindsey at ncsa.uiuc.edu> posted (in part) a while
   back:

> I would really prefer a model where the user can create a list on
> their own ... I personally find it easier to create a new list on the
> commandline, but I'd rather punt the entire job (except for aliases) to
> the end user. Otherwise I end up sending questions back and forth,
> etc...

   J C Lawrence <claw at varesearch.com> followed-up (in part):

> How about the following approach:
>
>  There is a web interface.
>
>  It allows a list to be created and configured, but does not
> instantiate the aliases or anything else to actually make it "live".

> The nice thing about this approach is that it removes all the
> priviledged account problems, the "oh god someone hacked in and
> is running a warez list without me noticing" problem, and further,
> requires minimal changes to the current code (the admin interface
> would need to be touched to not publish lists "in edit").

    And Darren Boyd <dboyd at its.to> chimed in:

> I was thinking of something along these lines as well.
>  A web page could allow a user to create a list, which doesn't get
> created. When they hit 'submit' mailman generates a script (sh or python
> or whatever) in the .../mailman/newlists/ directory.  A mail is sent to
> the administrator who can then log into the box and run the script.  The
> script then sets up the list and mails the owner.

    This is, in effect, what we do here for setting up ListProc lists.
    See:

           http://listproc.unh.edu/New-lists

    Anyone is welcome to try this out -- I'll just ignore your
    requests. :-)

    Basically what this does is just create a data file with the
    user's input.  Unfortunately I don't currently do as much data
    validation as I would like, i.e. catching un-allowed listnames and
    such, but for the most part these forms seem to work well and in
    almost all cases has eliminated the question and answer cycle I
    use to go through in setting up a new list.  I also like that it
    has allowed us to have almost 100% compliance in requiring every
    list to have a list owner supplied info and welcome file that is
    specific for their list.  (We have over 500+ lists and I would not
    have time to otherwise nag delinquent list owners).

    For setting up the list, I have a Perl program that takes the
    admin through the submitted application information, allowing
    edits and corrections to be applied to the supplied data as
    needed.  Then it writes a Perl script that instantiates the list
    and aliases.  Currently I run the script as root, but only because
    of the alises.  I'm going to look into the comment that somebody
    made that you do not have to be root to re-build the aliases.

    In any case, I find the process of setting up a list pretty quick
    and painless now and will apply the same model when we start using
    MailMan.



                                           Cordially,
                                           The List Server Admin
                                           list.admin at unh.edu
                                           (currently Bill Costa)