Mailing lists

The REST API can be queried for the set of known mailing lists. There is a top level collection that can return all the mailing lists. There aren’t any yet though.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists')
http_etag: "..."
start: 0
total_size: 0

Create a mailing list in a domain and it’s accessible via the API.

>>> mlist = create_list('ant@example.com')
>>> transaction.commit()

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists')
entry 0:
    display_name: Ant
    fqdn_listname: ant@example.com
    http_etag: "..."
    list_id: ant.example.com
    list_name: ant
    mail_host: example.com
    member_count: 0
    self_link: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/ant.example.com
    volume: 1
http_etag: "..."
start: 0
total_size: 1

You can also query for lists from a particular domain.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/domains/example.com/lists')
entry 0:
    display_name: Ant
    fqdn_listname: ant@example.com
    http_etag: "..."
    list_id: ant.example.com
    list_name: ant
    mail_host: example.com
    member_count: 0
    self_link: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/ant.example.com
    volume: 1
http_etag: "..."
start: 0
total_size: 1

Paginating over list records

Instead of returning all the list records at once, it’s possible to return them in pages by adding the GET parameters count and page to the request URI. Page 1 is the first page and count defines the size of the page.

>>> mlist = create_list('bird@example.com')
>>> transaction.commit()

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/domains/example.com/lists'
...           '?count=1&page=1')
entry 0:
    display_name: Ant
    fqdn_listname: ant@example.com
    http_etag: "..."
    list_id: ant.example.com
    list_name: ant
    mail_host: example.com
    member_count: 0
    self_link: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/ant.example.com
    volume: 1
http_etag: "..."
start: 0
total_size: 2

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/domains/example.com/lists'
...           '?count=1&page=2')
entry 0:
    display_name: Bird
    fqdn_listname: bird@example.com
    http_etag: "..."
    list_id: bird.example.com
    list_name: bird
    mail_host: example.com
    member_count: 0
    self_link: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/bird.example.com
    volume: 1
http_etag: "..."
start: 1
total_size: 2

Creating lists via the API

New mailing lists can also be created through the API, by posting to the lists URL.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists', {
...           'fqdn_listname': 'bee@example.com',
...           })
content-length: 0
date: ...
location: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/bee.example.com
...

The mailing list exists in the database.

>>> from mailman.interfaces.listmanager import IListManager
>>> from zope.component import getUtility
>>> list_manager = getUtility(IListManager)

>>> bee = list_manager.get('bee@example.com')
>>> bee
<mailing list "bee@example.com" at ...>

The mailing list was created using the default style, which allows list posts.

>>> bee.allow_list_posts
True

It is also available in the REST API via the location given in the response.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/bee.example.com')
display_name: Bee
fqdn_listname: bee@example.com
http_etag: "..."
list_id: bee.example.com
list_name: bee
mail_host: example.com
member_count: 0
self_link: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/bee.example.com
volume: 1

Normally, you access the list via its RFC 2369 list-id as shown above, but for backward compatibility purposes, you can also access it via the list’s posting address, if that has never been changed (since the list-id is immutable, but the posting address is not).

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/bee@example.com')
display_name: Bee
fqdn_listname: bee@example.com
http_etag: "..."
list_id: bee.example.com
list_name: bee
mail_host: example.com
member_count: 0
self_link: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/bee.example.com
volume: 1

Apply a style at list creation time

List styles allow you to more easily create mailing lists of a particular type, e.g. discussion lists. We can see which styles are available, and which is the default style.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/styles')
default: legacy-default
http_etag: "..."
style_names: ['legacy-announce', 'legacy-default']

When creating a list, if we don’t specify a style to apply, the default style is used. However, we can provide a style name in the POST data to choose a different style.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists', {
...           'fqdn_listname': 'cat@example.com',
...           'style_name': 'legacy-announce',
...           })
content-length: 0
date: ...
location: http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/cat.example.com
...

We can tell that the list was created using the legacy-announce style, because announce lists don’t allow posting by the general public.

>>> cat = list_manager.get('cat@example.com')
>>> cat.allow_list_posts
False

Deleting lists via the API

Existing mailing lists can be deleted through the API, by doing an HTTP DELETE on the mailing list URL.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/bee.example.com',
...           method='DELETE')
content-length: 0
date: ...
server: ...
status: 204

The mailing list does not exist.

>>> print(list_manager.get('bee@example.com'))
None

For backward compatibility purposes, you can delete a list via its posting address as well.

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/ant@example.com',
...           method='DELETE')
content-length: 0
date: ...
server: ...
status: 204

The mailing list does not exist.

>>> print(list_manager.get('ant@example.com'))
None

Managing mailing list archivers

The Mailman system has some site-wide enabled archivers, and each mailing list can enable or disable these archivers individually. This gives list owners control over where traffic to their list is archived. You can see which archivers are available, and whether they are enabled for this mailing list.

>>> mlist = create_list('dog@example.com')
>>> transaction.commit()

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/dog@example.com/archivers')
http_etag: "..."
mail-archive: True
mhonarc: True
prototype: True

You can set all the archiver states by putting new state flags on the resource.

>>> dump_json(
...     'http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/dog@example.com/archivers', {
...         'mail-archive': False,
...         'mhonarc': True,
...         'prototype': False,
...         }, method='PUT')
content-length: 0
date: ...
server: ...
status: 204

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/dog@example.com/archivers')
http_etag: "..."
mail-archive: False
mhonarc: True
prototype: False

You can change the state of a subset of the list archivers.

>>> dump_json(
...     'http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/dog@example.com/archivers', {
...         'mhonarc': False,
...         }, method='PATCH')
content-length: 0
date: ...
server: ...
status: 204

>>> dump_json('http://localhost:9001/3.0/lists/dog@example.com/archivers')
http_etag: "..."
mail-archive: False
mhonarc: False
prototype: False