Protocol Plug-in Programming Guide: About This Guide
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About This Guide

The Protocol Plug-in Programming Guide explains how to use the Protocol Level Plug-in application programming interface (API) to write SMTP plug-ins that extend Netscape Messaging Server 4.1.

This guide assumes that you are using the Protocol Level Plug-in API 4.1, which is available on the Solaris, HP-UX 11.00, DEC Unix, SGI IRIX, and AIX.

This chapter has the following sections:


What You Should Already Know
The Protocol Plug-in Programming Guide and the Protocol Level Plug-in API are intended for developers with this background:

Warning. Make sure that you meet these requirements before you write a protocol level SMTP plug-in. Otherwise, you run the risk of writing a plug-in that causes the server to crash or damages performance. §


Where to Find the Protocol Plug-in Header File
The Protocol Level Plug-in API is defined in the protplug.h header file. You can see this file in HTML format or download a zipped version of this file.

You can also find protplug.h in the Messaging Server directory serverroot\plugins\include; the version in this directory may be more up-to-date than the one you can download through this guide.


Where to Find Messaging Server Information
For Netscape developer information, see the Netscape DevEdge site.

Netscape provides a number of sources for information about Messaging Server:

For information about Netscape server APIs, see these Netscape documents:

For details about the messaging elements referenced in this guide, see RFC (Request for Comments) 821: "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol."


Where to Find Information in This Guide
If you want to find a particular task, look for it in Table 1 and find the chapter or section that describes it.

Table 1 Finding information in this guide
If you want to do this:
See this chapter:
Get basic information about the Protocol Level Plug-in API.
Chapter 1, "Introducing the Protocol Level Plug-in API"
Find out how protocol level plug-ins work.
Chapter 1, "Introducing the Protocol Level Plug-in API"
Find out about using this API to write protocol level plug-ins for Messaging Server 4.1.
Chapter 2, "Using the Protocol Level Plug-in API"
Find reference information about functions, macros, and data structures.
Chapter 3, "Protocol Level Plug-in API Reference"
Find out about the plug-ins supplied with Messaging Server.
Chapter 4, "Sample Protocol Level Plug-ins"
Run sample plug-ins with code provided for you in this guide.
Chapter 4, "Sample Protocol Level Plug-ins"
Take advantage of plug-in programming tips that will help you avoid problems with protocol level plug-ins.
Chapter 5, "Trouble Shooting"


Document Conventions
Path name conventions. The Netscape Messaging Server runs on Windows and Unix platforms. The information in this guide applies to all versions. Windows format, in which backslashes separate directory names, is used to represent file and directory paths. In Unix format, slashes take the place of backslashes.

URLs. This book uses Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) with this format: 

http://server.domain/path/file.html
Where the parts of the URL have these values:
server
Name of the server on which your application is running, for example, www
domain
Internet domain name, for example, netscape.com
path
Directory structure on the server
filename.html
Name of a file

Fonts. All program code listings, URLs, and other program names appear in Courier, a monospace font. Placeholders in code or URL formats, which you replace with your own value, are in italicized Courier font.

Note Formats. This guide emphasizes information with several types of note formats:

Note. Information of interest to the developer but not essential to understanding the surrounding topic. §

Warning. Information that can affect the development decisions you make or the development environment you choose. Don't miss these notes. §


Sample Code
The sample code in this guide was tested running Netscape Messaging Server 4.1 on Unix platforms.

 

© Copyright 1999 Netscape Communications Corp., a subsidiary of America Online, Inc. All rights reserved.