''Sympa'' is a
Mailing list management (MLM) software. Its name, which is an acronym for ''Système de Multi-Postage Automatique'' (i.e. ''Automatic Mailing System''), also means "nice" (
friendly) in French.
Sympa is
free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
subject to the terms of the
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
(GPL).
Features
Sympa's features include bulk mailing, service messages and web pages defined by templates, subscriber information stored in a
RDBMS
A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...
, and an external antivirus plugin. Its web front-end offers a portal-like interface where the user can control all their list subscriptions and administrative powers in one place (i.e. one site per user, while
Mailman
A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...
(prior to 3.0), for example, creates one site per list).
Data is stored in a relational database such as
MySQL
MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...
,
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL (, ), also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. It was originally named POSTGRES, referring to its origins as a successor to the ...
, or
Oracle
An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination.
Description
The word ...
; some configuration data is still held in text files, but the stated goal of the developers is to eventually hold as much configuration data as possible in the database as well.
Sympa consists of at least five concurrent
daemons communicating through the database or by placing files in spools: a main daemon accepting incoming mail and controlling the other processes, a bounce daemon managing incoming
bounces, an archiver archiving outgoing mail, a task manager doing scheduled maintenance and a bulk mailer doing the actual distributing of list messages to their recipients. The work of the main daemon can be split up into up to three parallel instances; of the bulk mailer, an arbitrary number of instances may be run in parallel. At least in theory, the bulk mailer processes can even be spread across a cluster of hosts. This architecture, combined with the use of a database table for buffering outgoing mail, makes Sympa well-suited for large and very large list environments handling millions of subscribers.
Other features are: (a full list of features is available on the Sympa web site.)
* high performance for huge lists ( > 700.000 subscribers)
*
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...
-compatible
* data provisioning using
LDAP
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP ) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Directory servi ...
,
SQL or other data sources
* various authentication method (SSO, LDAP,
X.509
In cryptography, X.509 is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard defining the format of public key certificates. X.509 certificates are used in many Internet protocols, including TLS/SSL, which is the basis for HTTPS, the secu ...
)
* benefit of
S/MIME S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a standard for public key encryption and signing of MIME data. S/MIME is on an IETF standards track and defined in a number of documents, most importantly . It was originally developed by R ...
and
DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication method designed to detect forged sender addresses in email (email spoofing), a technique often used in phishing and email spam.
DKIM allows the receiver to check that an email claimed ...
* internationalized
* web archive with access control, message removal, etc.
* multi-domain server designed for service providers.
* sophisticated automatic bounce management
* automatic service message and web interface customizable
*
SOAP
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are us ...
interface for integration with other applications
History
Sympa development started in 1995 and was first released in 1997. Its initial goal was to ensure continuity with the TULP list manager, produced partly by the initial author of Sympa, Christophe Wolfhugel. The initial version of Sympa included authentication, flexible command management, high performance in internal data access, and object-oriented code for easy code maintenance.
Since 2011, Sympa development has been handled by
RENATER.
Since 2017, Sympa development has been handled by The Sympa Community.
Adoption
Among the customers adopting Sympa are the
Scottish universities of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
.
See also
*
List of mailing list software
This is a list of notable electronic mailing list software, which facilitate the widespread distribution of email to many Internet users.
Systems listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.
References
{{reflist ...
*
Distribution list
A distribution list is an application of email client programs that allows a user to maintain a list of email address
An email address identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. While early messaging systems used a variety of forma ...
*
Electronic mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.sympa.org/
Free mailing list software
Free email software
Mailing list software for Linux
Free software programmed in Perl
Email marketing software