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CF8 Hidden Gem: CFMAIL auto-generated message-id uses specified mail server name

Posted At : December 7, 2007 3:23 PM | Posted By : Charlie Arehart
Related Categories: cf8, cfml
Here's a neat hidden gem for CF8 that will delight some: CFMAIL now uses the mail server name you specify in CFMAIL SERVER attribute or the CF Admin mail setup page, in creating the message-id header that's generated when your mail is sent.

Some have lamented that in CFMX 6 and 7, it instead used the name of your server where CF is installed, which might be something like "server1" or "bingo", as in:

Message-ID: <23070863.1197039960343.JavaMail.SYSTEM@Server1>

This might cause a recipient mail server to flag the mail as spam, if the mail server was a different domain name (like "yourcompany.com"). The bummer was that many found no way to fix this. Sure, in CF5 you could set it in a CFMAILPARAM to set a mail header, but CF 6 and above ignores that.

So the good news is that CF8 now does use that CF Admin or CFMAIL SERVER value to create the message-id. If I use CFMAIL SERVER="mail.carehart.org"..., for instance, I might get something like:

Message-ID: <9802908.1197055248203.JavaMail.SYSTEM@mail.carehart.org>

What about CF 6 or 7?

But what if you're on 6 or 7? Well, there's a solution for you, too, by way of a tweak in the CF startup script (jvm.config) or (less preferably) in code. Since the change for CF 6 or 7 deserves some explanation to do it justice, I'll take that up in a part 2 message next. I'll also lay out the whole problem with the auto-generated message-id and why it's a concern for some.

For now, I just wanted to get this word out to those who understand the problem already that CF8 solves it. Woo hoo.

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Good info to have Charlie. I really wanted to see how to fix this on CF7 since that is what I use and do get comments from users about not getting emails, so googled it to find the answer! ;-)
# Posted By Mary Jo Sminkey | 12/13/07 10:59 PM
This is a BIGGIE for me! I had been struggling with this since the upgrade to CF8. I even emailed Ben Forta - he didn't know anything about it!
# Posted By Bob Hendren | 4/8/08 5:34 PM
Hope it was helpful, Bob. Mary Jo, sorry I missed your note back in December. Sorry, even more, for failing to offer the part 2 (to cover the CF7 stuff) when I said I'd post it "next". But I have now posted that.

http://carehart.org/...
# Posted By Charlie Arehart | 4/8/08 10:41 PM
It was definitely helpful and I can't believe Adobe hasn't trumpeted this one from the rooftops! I had been using the workaround for CF7 that you just blogged about, but when switching to CF8, I had been noticing that it ALWAYS showed an IP address, regardless of other settings.

This seems to be HUGE problem to me, because I had always used the IP address of the mail server that I wanted CF to use through the CF Admin. I had only actually set the SERVER property in CFMAIL a few times, and even then used the IP address.

For someone using servers behind a firewall (which I hope is most people!), you ended up with something like 192.168.1.3 as the portion after the '@', and that seemed to be very quickly picked up as a SPAM-related IP address!

It really is a more significant setting than most people probably realize and I think Adobe should say something about it!
# Posted By Bob Hendren | 4/9/08 8:02 AM
Thanks Charlie, changing the JVM.config was the solution I found but I appreciate the additional information. Glad they readdressed this in CF8 though.
# Posted By Mary Jo Sminkey | 4/9/08 12:32 PM
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