Enable Automatic Email Signatures

In a time when email addresses did not always make sense, email signatures served the purpose of identifying the author to the recipient. As described in RFC1855 (Netiquette), it had to be short and to the point. Evolution has since driven the feature of signatures into new functionality and areas, like marketing and legal recognition. Today many organizations has strict rules for signatures, the content and the format, and some countries demand business mails to have certain text and statements included in the signature.

Kolab has an option to automate this feature, so that organizations can be assured that rules and appliance are followed.

Update your installation, to at least pykolab version 0.8.14.

Add the following lines to the end of the file /etc/kolab/kolab.conf under the [wallace] section:

[wallace]
modules = resources, invitationpolicy, signature

signature_file_html = /etc/kolab/signature.d/%(mail)s.html
signature_file_text = /etc/kolab/signature.d/%(mail)s.txt

signature_rules = [
  {
    "entrydn": "uid=.*,ou=IT,ou=People,dc=example,dc=org",
    "html": "/etc/kolab/signature.d/signature_IT.html",
    "text": "/etc/kolab//signature.d/signature_IT.txt"
  },
  {
    "entrydn": "uid=.*,ou=Finance,ou=People,dc=example,dc=org",
    "html": "/etc/kolab/signature.d/signature_Finance.html",
    "text": "/etc/kolab/signature.d/signature_Finance.txt"
  }
  ]

Create the default signature files in the sub-directory:

/etc/kolab/signature.d/default.html
/etc/kolab/signature.d/default.txt

Create the custom signature files in the sub-directory. e.g.:

/etc/kolab/signature.d/signature_IT.html
/etc/kolab/signature.d/signature_IT.txt
/etc/kolab/signature.d/james.doe@example.org.txt
/etc/kolab/signature.d/.. etc.

Now restart wallace:

systemctl restart wallace

There are now several possibilities. If a custom file is configured for a certain mail (signature_file_txt and signature_file_html), then the rules do not apply. The signature in the custom file will be written to the mail. If the configured file is not available, then the fallback signature from the default signature files are used.

If the files are not configured, then the rules apply, and the first matching rule (from the top) is used.

Examples:

• James Doe is writing a mail in plain text format. This mail will get the signature from the file james.doe@example.org.txt
• John from IT is writing an email in plain text format. This mail will get the signature from the file signature_IT.txt
• Jane from Finance is writing an email in HTML format. This mail will get the signature from the file signature_Finance.html
• Joe from Marketing is writing a mail in HTML format. This mail will get the signature from the file default.html

..and so forth.

Needless to write, that this is an example, and that all identifiers needs to exist and be adjusted.