Autoresponder Commands

This article only applies to VPOP3 v4 and earlier

A VPOP3 autoresponder can contain special text strings to create special behaviour, in addition to plain text as part of the response.

There are three types of 'command'

• Sections
• Controls
• Replacements

These let VPOP3 give different responses based on the incoming message subject. You can specify them as:

• [Section: <subject text>]
• [Default]
• [All]

If no section is defined, then [All] is assumed.

[Section: <subject text>] sections will be sent if the subject of the incoming message contains the <subject text> (case insensitive match).

[Default] sections will be sent if no [Section:] sections matched.

[All] sections will always be sent.

So, if the autoresponder is defined as

[Section: catalog]
Here's a catalog for you

[Default]
Send a message with subject 'catalog' to get a catalog

[All]
Thank you for contacting us

then if you send a message to the autoresponder with a subject containing 'catalog', you will get a response saying:

Here's a catalog for you

Thank you for contacting us

Or, if you send a message to the autoresponder with a subject not containing 'catalog' you will get:

Send a message with subject 'catalog' to get a catalog

Thank you for contacting us

These are commands put on a line of their own, surrounded by angle brackets (<>) and they alter the behaviour of the autoresponder in some way.

If you put commands in a Section, then only the commands used by the applied Sections will be used.

• <From: addr> - this lets you specify the address that the autoresponder will appear to have come from
• <ReplyTo: addr> - this lets you specify the 'reply-to' address of the autoresponder
• <Subject: text> - this lets you specify the subject of the automated response (usually it is a prefix followed by the original subject)
• <SubjectPrefix: text> - this lets you specify a prefix to be added to the subject of the automated response (usually this is set in the VPOP3 global autoresponder settings)
• <To: addr> - this lets you specify where the response will go to. You can specify multiple commnds like this, and the message will go to all the recipients.. Note that if you use this command, the message will no longer automatically go to the original message's sender
• <To: FROM> - this tells VPOP3 to send the message to the original message's sender - useful with the above command
• <Keep> - this tells VPOP3 to keep the original incoming message. This overrides the setting in the user's autoresponder settings.
• <NoKeep> - this tells VPOP3 to discard the original incoming message. This overrides the setting in the user's autoresponder settings.
• <CopyTo: addr> - this copies the incoming message to the specified address.
• <AppendMsg> - this appends the incoming message to the response.
• <AppendHdr> - this appends the incoming message's header to the response.
• <Include:filename> - this includes the specified filename in the response text. You can use this more than once to include multiple files.
• <Attach:filename> - this attaches the specified filename into the response. You can use this more than once to attach multiple files.
• <OnlyOnce> - this specifies that the autoresponder should only fire once for each sender. This overrides the setting in the user's autoresponder settings.
• <Valid:date spec> - this specifies that the autoresponder should only work during the specified dates. See below for more details

The <Valid:> command supports date restrictions to indicate when the autoresponder should work. You can specify multiple restrictions in one <Valid> command, separated by commas.

• Date - the date can be specified as dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy/mm/dd depending on the VPOP3 computer's regional settings. If you just specify a single date, the autoresponder will only work on that day. Otherwise you can specify <From Date>“-”<To Date> and it will work between the two dates, eg <Valid:1/2/2010-10/2/2010> to make the autoresponder work between 1st February 2010 and 10th February 2010 (inclusive), assuming the server has European regional settings.
• Time - the time can be specified as hh:mm in 24 hour clock. If you specify just one time, it will only work at that time (unlikely to be useful) or you can specify two times separated by a “-” when it will work between the two times.
• Day of Week - You can also specify a day of the week as the first three letters of the day of the week defined by the Windows regional settings, eg 'Mon', 'Tue' etc in the UK.

Date restrictions are combined by taking the most restricting combination. For instance <Valid: 1/2/2010-10/2/2010,Wed,10:15-10:45> means that the autoresponder will only work between 10:15 and 10:45 on any Wednesdays between 1st Feb 2010 and 10th Feb 2010.

Only one Valid tag can be specified in the combination of Sections being used. If multiple ones are specified, the last one to be interpreted will take effect.

These are pieces of text placed inline with the message text and will be replaced by VPOP3 when the message is constructed. You should not use these Replacement texts inside the above 'Control' lines.

• {Date} - this includes the current date in locale specific standard format
• {LongDate} - this includes the current date in locale specific 'long' format
• {ShortDate} - this includes the current date in locale specific 'short' format
• {Date:<format>} - this includes the current date in the custom format specified (eg [b]{Date:d MMM yy}[/b]) - see below for options
• {Time} - this includes the current time in locale specific standard format
• {TimeNoSecs} - this includes the current time in locale specific standard format, without the seconds value
• {Time:<format>} - this includes the current time in the custom format specified (eg [b]{Time:H:mm}[/b]) - see below for options
• {Originator} - this includes the original sender's email address
• {OrigSubject} - this includes the original subject of the incoming email
• {Subject} - this includes the subject that the autoresponder will use
• {Section} - this includes the name of the autoresponder 'section' currently being processed

• d - Numeric day of the month, no leading zeros
• dd - Numeric Day of the month, leading zeros for single digit days
• ddd - Short day of the week name as specified by the locale
• dddd - Full day of the week name as specified by the locale
• M - Numeric month, no leading zeros
• MM - Numeric month, leading zeros for single digit months
• MMM - Short month name as specified by the locale
• MMMM - Full month name as specified by the locale
• yy - Last two digits of year. A leading zero is added for single digit years
• yyyy - Full year number

• h - Hours from 12 hour clock, no leading zeros
• hh - Hours from 12 hour clock, leading zero for single digit hours
• H - Hours from 24 hour clock, no leading zeros
• HH - Hours from 24 hour clock, leading zero for single digit hours
• m - Minutes, no leading zeros
• mm - Minute, leading zero for single digit minutes
• s - Seconds, no leading zeors
• ss - Seconds, leading zero for single digit seconds
• t - One character marker for AM/PM (eg A/P in English)
• tt - Marker for AM/PM (eg AM/PM in English)