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Solution: use a qmail install as the queue manager, and a custom mail server it relays to as a job handler. There's already a spec for transferring SOAP over S

by mst 4y ago

Solution: use a qmail install as the queue manager, and a custom mail server it relays to as a job handler. There's already a spec for transferring SOAP over SMTP so the request/response part is already built for you. (couldn't resist, sorry)

vidarh 4y ago
Been there, done that. In production. That is, without the custom mail server you describe. You can feed every incoming message to a custom command with ".qmail", or forward with ".forward", so we used that for "push" delivery of messages and plain old POP3 for pull. E-mail really does have everything you need to build complex routing topologies. We ran a mail provider, and so had a heavily customised Qmail setup, and when we needed a queue we figured we might as well use that. Meant we could trivially do things like debugging by cc:'ing messages to a mailbox someone connected a mail client to, for example.
- mst 4y ago
  My ISP days were not unsimilar, and had we a TARDIS it might be fun to go back to when both setups were still there and compare notes. However, I'd hope the SOAP part made it clear I was exaggerating a little for effect :) ... also because the idea of the custom server meaning you could have the main system's qmail handle spaced retries based on SMTP status codes amused me.
  - vidarh 4y ago
    I mean SOAP fit right in with the zeitgeist of that era... I seem to remember we were sending XML (shudder), as we had quite a lot of other stuff using XML, but nothing as verbose as SOAP. Our main CGI (yes...) written in C++ (I can hear you squirm from here) was also loosely inspired by CORBA (stop that screaming) in terms of "sort-of" exposing objects via router that automatically mapped URLs to objects, and which used XML for persistence and an XML based rendering pipeline (not that different from React components, actually, except all C++ and server side). Hit all the 90's buzz words.
    - mst 4y ago
      Yeah, I had quite a bit of XML flying around, plus the inevitable "all our vendors want to communicate via CSV over FTP", and some customer facing perl CGIs plus a daemon or two I'd written that usually spoke XML over TCP sockets. Plus lots of NFS for the shared filestore that the qmail SMTP nodes and the courier/qmail-pop3d mail receipt nodes mounted. Plus ... yeah, you can see why I thought we'd not find each others' setups -too- surprising. So, no, not going to squirm, because I mean, yes, I know, but it all (mostly) worked and the customers weren't unusually unhappier with us than they are with any provider ;)

by mst 4y ago

vidarh 4y ago

Been there, done that. In production. That is, without the custom mail server you describe. You can feed every incoming message to a custom command with ".qmail", or forward with ".forward", so we used that for "push" delivery of messages and plain old POP3 for pull. E-mail really does have everything you need to build complex routing topologies. We ran a mail provider, and so had a heavily customised Qmail setup, and when we needed a queue we figured we might as well use that. Meant we could trivially do things like debugging by cc:'ing messages to a mailbox someone connected a mail client to, for example.

mst 4y ago
My ISP days were not unsimilar, and had we a TARDIS it might be fun to go back to when both setups were still there and compare notes. However, I'd hope the SOAP part made it clear I was exaggerating a little for effect :) ... also because the idea of the custom server meaning you could have the main system's qmail handle spaced retries based on SMTP status codes amused me.
- vidarh 4y ago
  I mean SOAP fit right in with the zeitgeist of that era... I seem to remember we were sending XML (shudder), as we had quite a lot of other stuff using XML, but nothing as verbose as SOAP. Our main CGI (yes...) written in C++ (I can hear you squirm from here) was also loosely inspired by CORBA (stop that screaming) in terms of "sort-of" exposing objects via router that automatically mapped URLs to objects, and which used XML for persistence and an XML based rendering pipeline (not that different from React components, actually, except all C++ and server side). Hit all the 90's buzz words.
  - mst 4y ago
    Yeah, I had quite a bit of XML flying around, plus the inevitable "all our vendors want to communicate via CSV over FTP", and some customer facing perl CGIs plus a daemon or two I'd written that usually spoke XML over TCP sockets. Plus lots of NFS for the shared filestore that the qmail SMTP nodes and the courier/qmail-pop3d mail receipt nodes mounted. Plus ... yeah, you can see why I thought we'd not find each others' setups -too- surprising. So, no, not going to squirm, because I mean, yes, I know, but it all (mostly) worked and the customers weren't unusually unhappier with us than they are with any provider ;)