[Mailman-Users] Creating New List via Web Interface

[J C Lawrence]

On Wed, 22 Sep 1999 11:44:27 -0400 (EDT) 
The List Server Administrator at UNH <listadm at paradox.unh.edu> wrote:

>    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. :-)

I was thinking of something a little different:

  When you create a list thru the web interface I describe above, I
actually does the normal "create a list" process, creating all the
relevent directories, config.db etc.  The wanna-be list owner can
then use the normal MailMan web interface to configure his list in
the normal fashion, just like it was a fully instantiated list.  As
such he really is creating a list, not just filling out a
description of what he wants.

The differences from a "real" list would be that no mail aliases
would be created and config.db would contain a flag indicating that
this is a proposed list rather than an instantiated list.  The
benefit of this approach is that very little would have to change in 
the rest of MailMan.  All the normal admin and configuration
interfaces would work just as per normal without a single line of
source having to be touched, modulo the following exceptions:

  listinfo and admin would have to be touched to either not list
proposed lists, or to list them seperately from the real lists.

Not a big change for such a large feature.

-- 
J C Lawrence      Life: http://www.kanga.nu/   Home: claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                Work (Linux/IA64): claw at varesearch.com
 ... Beware of cromagnons wearing chewing gum and palm pilots ...