The goal of the LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro integration is to make the user experience a seamless experience when working with the LISTSERV Web Interface and with LISTSERV Maestro. This seamless integration will give the user’s the perception that these two separate applications are actually working as one.
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Membership Area as Subscriber’s Corner – This depends on the first aspect; the link between the WA and the LUI must be created for this aspect to work. If a link does exist, then this aspect deals with replacing the Subscriber’s Corner with one or more Membership Areas. This would give the user the ability to switch from the Membership Area to the WA Archive Pages, or vice versa, with a single sign-on. For more information, see Section 22.3 Linking the Membership Area and the Subscriber’s Corner.
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For user’s that regularly work with both the LISTSERV Web Interface and the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface, then defining a link between the two interfaces will give easier access to each and create a more fluid working environment.
Before a direct access from LISTSERV Maestro to a LISTSERV Web Interface is possible, you first need to define an interface link to the LISTSERV host of the LISTSERV Web Interface. Once this link is defined, then the following features are available for all accounts and groups that use the linked LISTSERV instance:
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When an interface link to a LISTSERV instance is defined, then any Maestro Data Administrator, with the necessary user right granted, will have the option to also link any of their Maestro datasets to the LISTSERV Web Interface. If this link is created, then the datasets' member areas will contain direct access links, via a menu, to the LISTSERV archive pages and vice versa, which can be used by the dataset members.
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To establish a link to the LISTERV host of the LISTSERV Web Interface, click on the Global Components icon, then
Maestro User Interface, and finally
LISTSERV Web Interface Access. The LISTSERV Web Interface Access screen opens. Click
LISTERV Web Interface Links. The LISTSERV Web Interface Links screen opens.
The table lists all interface links that are currently defined. To edit an existing link, click on the
Edit link associated with that link. To create a new link, click the
[Create New Link] button.
When defining a new interface link, select the LISTSERV host that you want to define a link for from the drop-down menu. This drop-down menu contains all of the LISTSERV hosts that are in use by any of the current user accounts or groups. Each host appears only once. Also, each host can only be linked once; therefore, the list contains only those hosts that have no link defined as of yet.
When editing an existing interface link, the LISTSERV host that this link points to is already defined and can no longer be changed (if the host is incorrect, simply delete this link and create a new one with the correct host).
For the selected host, you also need to provide the postmaster address and password and the TCPGUI-port on which the host can be reached. When you select a host from the drop-down menu, these values will be filled out automatically, taken from the LISTSERV connection settings of the first account or group that is found using this host. If necessary, you can change these values.
http://HOST:PORT/scripts/wa.exe
where you replace HOST with the corresponding host name and
PORT with the HTTP-port used on that server (if
PORT is the default HTTP-port "80", then you can leave out the
:PORT part so that your URL looks like this:
http://HOST/scripts/wa.exe).
Note: Usually, the value for HOST is the same host name as the LISTSERV host defined at the top of the screen, but this is not necessarily true. For example, if the server has several host names or if the HTTP access is routed via a proxy, then the host name at the top of the screen must be the name by which the server can be reached on the TCPGUI-port, while the host name for the access URL must be the name by which the server can be reached via HTTP. In addition, sometimes the LISTSERV Web Interface is installed to use a different URL than the one described above; in this case, provide this URL instead.
To submit the settings, click the [OK] button; to exit without submitting, click the
[Cancel] button.
To delete an existing interface link, click the [Delete Link] button (this button is not available when creating a new interface link).
Each LISTSERV instance can only be linked to one single LISTSERV Maestro instance, i.e. if you happen to have several LISTSERV Maestro instances that all use the same LISTSERV instance, and you define an interface link to this LISTERV in the Administration Hub of the first LISTSERV Maestro, and then you try to also define an interface link to the same LISTSERV in the Administration Hub of the second LISTSERV Maestro, then you will get an error message. This error message tells you that the given LISTSERV instance has already been linked by another LISTSERV Maestro instance, and includes an option for overriding this previous link with the new link. However, this override can cause some problems. If you should choose to override an existing interface link to a different LISTSERV Maestro instance, then this will have the following negative effect:
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The first LISTSERV Maestro instance, however, will be unaware of this change, i.e. in this instance, the interface link definition will still remain in place in the Administration Hub and the LUI will still show the “LISTSERV” access menu. Also, it will still allow users to switch from LUI to the web interface of LISTSERV. However, if a user does this and switches from LUI (of the first LISTSERV Maestro) to WA, and then the user tries to go back to LUI with the menu provided in WA, then this menu will send the user to the second LISTSERV Maestro instance, not the first instance that the user came from.
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Therefore, if you should choose to override an existing interface link (from a different LISTSERV Maestro instance), then you should not forget to also log in into the Administration Hub of this other LISTSERV Maestro instance and delete the interface link to the same LISTSERV instance.
The previous section describes how you can create a link between a LISTSERV Web Interface and the Maestro User Interface so that both contain menus that allow users to switch between the two interfaces. However, when using these menus, users will still be required to log in at the other interface manually, which can be quite cumbersome.
To avoid this, the single sign-on feature can be configured. This feature allows you to define that, if a user logs in to LUI with a certain LISTSERV Maestro account, and then this user switches over to the WA, then the user will automatically be logged in at the WA with a certain LISTSERV account (and vice versa). For this, the following preconditions must be fulfilled:
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LISTSERV Maestro account mapped to LISTSERV account – If a user logs in at LISTSERV Maestro with the mapped LISTSERV Maestro account, then the user will be able to switch over to the LISTSERV Web Interface without having to log in again. In the LISTSERV Web Interface, the user will automatically be logged in with the LISTSERV account (email address) that the LISTSERV Maestro account was mapped to. In the other direction, if a user logs in at the LISTSERV Web Interface with the mapped LISTSERV account (email address), then the user will be able to switch over to LISTSERV Maestro without having to log in again. In LISTSERV Maestro, the user will automatically be logged in with the LISTSERV Maestro account from the mapping. (Although, the user may have to re-login at a later time if the automatically created login-ticket expires. This can be avoided by allowing the interface to store the login information in a cookie so that this re-login may happen automatically.)
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LISTSERV Maestro identity mapped to LISTSERV account– If a user logs in at LISTSERV Maestro with one of the accounts in the identity, then the user will be able to switch over to the LISTSERV Web Interface without having to log in again. In the LISTSERV Web Interface, the user will automatically be logged in with the LISTSERV account (email address) that the identity was mapped to. In the other direction, if a user logs in at the LISTSERV Web Interface with the mapped LISTSERV account (email address), then the user will be able to switch over to LISTSERV Maestro without having to log in again. The user only needs to select one of the LISTSERV Maestro accounts in the identity from the mapping to be automatically logged in with this account.
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To establish a mapping between LISTSERV Maestro and the LISTSERV Web Interface, click on the
Global Components icon, then
Maestro User Interface, and finally
LISTSERV Web Interface Access. The LISTSERV Web Interface Access screen opens. Click
LISTERV Web Interface Account Mappings. The LISTSERV Web Interface Mappings screen opens.
The table lists all existing mappings. Each mapping consists of either a LISTSERV Maestro account or a LISTSERV Maestro identity, combined with a LISTSERV account (in the form of an email address). For each mapping, the relevant LISTSERV hosts are also listed (for account mappings, there is exactly one such LISTSERV host; for identity mappings, there may be several), and each LISTSERV host is marked either as linked or not.
Only mappings with linked LISTSERV hosts will actually be used, all other mappings are ignored. For identity mappings with several LISTSERV hosts, some of the hosts may be linked and some may not. In this case, only those accounts from the identity that uses one of the linked hosts will be able to use the LISTSERV Web Interface access features of Maestro. Therefore, it is recommended that you always create links for all hosts used by the accounts in a mapped identity.
Note: Account mappings are ignored for those accounts where the corresponding LISTSERV host (i.e. the LISTSERV host from the LISTSERV connection settings that apply for the account) is not linked in the form of a LISTSERV Web Interface Link. The status of whether or not a LISTSERV host is linked is displayed in the table. Any account mapping where the
Host Is Linked table column is displayed as
No will be ignored.
To edit an existing mapping, click on the Edit link. To create a new mapping, click the
[Create New Mapping] button.
If you are editing a mapping, then the Edit LISTSERV Web Interface Account Mapping screen opens. If you are creating a new link, then the Define New LISTSERV Web Interface Account Mapping screen opens.
When defining a new account mapping, select the LISTSERV Maestro account or identity that you want to define a mapping for from the drop-down menu. This drop-down menu contains all LISTSERV Maestro accounts that are not part of an identity and that have not yet been mapped, as well as any identities that have not yet been mapped. The drop-down menu does not contain accounts that are already part of an identity, even if the identity has been mapped or not. In other words, accounts that are part of an identity can not be mapped separately, unless you map the whole identity.
When editing an existing account mapping, the LISTSERV Maestro account or identity that is part of the mapping is already defined and can no longer be changed (if the account/identity is incorrect, simply delete this mapping and create a new one with the correct account/identity).
For the selected account or identity, provide the LISTSERV Web Interface account (in the form of an email address) that this LISTSERV Maestro account/identity is to be mapped to. This address must be an address that has been assigned a password at the corresponding LISTSERV host. For a mapping with a LISTSERV Maestro account, this is the LISTSERV host from the LISTSERV connection settings that apply to the selected account. For a mapping with an identity, this may actually be several LISTSERV hosts, if the accounts in the identity have different LISTSERV hosts defined in their LISTSERV connections settings. In this case, the mapped email address must have an assigned password at each of these LISTSERV hosts.
To submit the settings, click the [OK] button; to exit the screen without submitting, click the
[Cancel] button.
To delete an existing mapping, click the [Delete Mapping] button (this button is not available when creating a new mapping).
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If the user logs in to the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface with any of the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface accounts from the identity and then switches over to LISTERV Web Interface (using the “LISTSERV” menu), then the user will be automatically logged in at the LISTERV Web Interface with the LISTERV Web Interface account mapped to the identity. (Although, the user may have to re-login at a later time if the automatically created login-ticket expires. This can be avoided by allowing the interface to store the login information in a cookie so that this re-login may happen automatically.)
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If the user logs in at the LISTSERV Web Interface with the LISTSERV Web Interface account and then switches over to LISTSERV Maestro User Interface (using the “Maestro” menu), then the user will be presented with a selection page that shows all LISTSERV Maestro User Interface accounts in the mapped identity. Once one of the accounts has been selected from this list, then the user will automatically be logged in at the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface with this LISTSERV Maestro User Interface account.
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If a user logs in to the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface with a LISTSERV Maestro User Interface account from the identity that uses a LISTSERV instance for which an interface link has actually been defined, but at this LISTSERV there exists no account that matches the mapped LISTSERV Maestro Web Interface account (i.e. there is no password registered for this email address), then this user will see the special “LISTSERV” access menu. But, if the user clicks on any of its options, then they’ll have to provide the login information at the LISTSERV Web Interface manually (if the user tries to access a protected page).
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If a user logs in to the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface with a LISTSERV Maestro User Interface account from the identity that uses a LISTSERV instance for which an interface link as actually been defined, and at this LISTSERV there actually exists an account that matches the mapped LISTSERV Web Interface account (i.e. there is a password registered for this email address), then this user will see the special “LISTSERV” access menu. And, if the user clicks on any of its options, then they’ll automatically be logged in at the LISTSERV Web Interface with the mapped LISTSERV Web Interface account. (Although, the user may have to re-login at a later time if the automatically created login-ticket expires. This can be avoided by allowing the interface to store the login information in a cookie so that this re-login may happen automatically.)
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In addition to the link between the LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro interfaces (as described above), it is also possible to link a dataset (or several datasets) with the LISTSERV Web Interface (WA) so that the membership areas of the linked datasets act as a replacement for the WA’s normal subscriber’s corner and that subscribers who login to a member area can access the archive pages of WA.
Such a link between a dataset and the WA is defined on dataset level, i.e. by the data administrator who has administrative access to the dataset in question. However, before the data administrator can define such a link for a given dataset, the following preconditions must be met:
Once these preconditions are fulfilled, the data administrator can define a link between a given dataset and the WA at any time using the dataset’s definition wizard (see the Data Administrator’s Manual for these instructions).
Note: Linking a dataset in this fashion has the additional effect that the
Member Password option of the dataset is automatically set to
The member will get a system defined password, and this password can not be changed until the link to the WA is removed.
As described above, it is possible to create a link between a dataset and the WA for several datasets at once. In this case, the WA will contain a menu that lists the Membership Areas of all linked datasets (by name), and the user can select the Membership Area to be directed to by selecting it from the menu. This means that, in the WA, the user will see the names of all linked datasets and will be able to switch to all of them, as long as the user is actually a member of the selected dataset.
Because of this, the LISTSERV Maestro administrator has created separate LISTSERV Maestro groups, one for each fan club. In these groups, the administrator has created various accounts, one of which has the data administrator rights for that group, so that a member of each fan club can administrator the datasets and lists of that club. Therefore, there is a data administrator in each group, one for each fan club.
If all groups are connected to the same LISTSERV instance (via their LISTSERV connection settings in the Administration Hub), and the LISTSERV Maestro administrator grants the
The user may link Recipient Datasets to the LISTSERV Web Interface user right to the data administrators of all groups, then it could happen that each data administrator decides independently to link his dataset to the WA. This would again have the effect that the links to various membership areas (of the various fan clubs) all appear in the same menu in the WA, which is definitely not a good idea.
