On Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:22:34 -0400, John Manly <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>1) What is the difference and intended usage of the BOTTOM_BANNER vs.
>the DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER templates? 

This applies only to Ver 16.0 and later.  DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER (and
DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML) is the contents that will be used for the
automatically generated BOTTOM_BANNER when you create a new list.

>I would have thought that DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER was a site-wide default, 
>with BOTTOM_BANNER being list specific, but when I look in a given list's 
>MAILTPL file, I see both.

You should not see both in listname.MAILTPL, you should see only BOTTOM_BANNER
and BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML.  You may see both in SITE.MAILTPL and DEFAULT.MAILTPL.

>2) How does the <list>.MAILTPL file get populated when a new list is
>created?  

In 16.0, as part of the List Creation Process.

>Where are the true site-wide defaults kept from which these
>are copied?  (SITE.MAILTPL?  default.MAILTPL?  

DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER (and DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML) which are in
default.MAILTPL unless you have modified them at the Site Administrator Level
in which case they will be in SITE.MAILTPL.

Via the WWW interface you set site-wide defaults via

 Site Administrator > Customization > Mail Templates > (specific template)

you set list-level defaults (per each list) via

 List Managment > Customization > Mail Templates > (specific template)

Note: With the advent of automatic list-level bottom banner creation along
with list creation, this effectively eliminates site-wide bottom banners
(except for $site$.mailtpl) unless you disable the automatic creation.  i.e.
you used to be able to set a BOTTOM_BANNER in site.MAILTPL and that would work
for every list on the server (unless that list had a list-level BOTTOM_BANNER)
but now since every (new) lists has its own list-level BOTTOM_BANNER, making
site-wide changes requires editing every listname.MAILTPL

If you desire to disable the automatic banner creation you can do this in
Site.WWWTPL via 

The default bottom banners are currently always copied to a new list, 
but it is possible to disable this with a few template edits.

In BODY-HDREDIT, remove the following line:

<!-- &+COPYBOTTOMBANNER; &+COPYBOTTOMBANNERHTML; -->

You must remove this line altogether. Commenting it out is not 
enough. As soon as WA encounters these commands, it copies 
DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER and DEFAULT_BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML to listname.mailtpl
BOTTOM_BANNER and BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML as part of the list creation process.

Also, in HDREDIT-MAIN, you need to change the following:

...
+BB &+COPYBOTTOMBANNER;&+COPYBOTTOMBANNERHTML;
+SE MSG &+T-NEWLIST_SUCCESSBANNER;
+ELSE
+SE MSG &+T-NEWLIST_SUCCESS;
+EB
...

So that it just reads:

+SE MSG &+T-NEWLIST_SUCCESS;

Again, you must completely remove the words &+COPYBOTTOMBANNER;
&+COPYBOTTOMBANNERHTML; or else WA will see them and execute the banner
copying process, thus automatically creating a listname.MAILTPL file.

>How do these work in terms of which overrides which?

 listname.MAILTPL
 idiom.MAILTPL  (Language=  if present)
 site.MAILTPL
 default.MAILTPL

>3) What triggers the creation of the <list>.MAILTPL file at all?  

Creation of any list-level template.  As noted above this is normally done by
the List Creation process.

>Is one always created unconditionally at list creation time, 

In 16.0, yes, unless you modify your server as noted above to prevent the
automatic bottom banner creation/listname.MAILPTL creation.

>or only if some
>kind of template modifications have taken place?  (On my system I have
>some lists that have a MAILTPL file and some that don't, and some of the
>ones that do are ones I know have not had their templates specifically
>modified.)

Those are probably older lists, created before upgrading to 16.0. There would
have been no automatic bottom banner creation in earlier versions.  But a List
Owner could have set some template or other which would create the
listname.MAILTPL file.

>4) Does the "#" character have any special significance in a MAILTPL
>file?  As a comment delimeter, for example?  

No, just a printable character.

>I have a MAILTPL file that looks like this: 
> 
>
>	>>> BOTTOM_BANNER Default bottom banner
>	.CS ISO-8859-1
>	To unsubscribe from the list: &LISTNAME-signoff-request@&MYHOST
><mailto:&LISTNAME-signoff-request@&MYHOST> 
>	 
>	.hh on
>	
>########################################################################
>	 
>	##To unsubscribe from the &LISTNAME list, click the following
>link:
>	##.BB &LITEFE = 0
>	## &*TICKET_URL(&LISTNAME_ENCODED,SIGNOFF);
>	##.ELSE
>	##&WA_URL;?SUBED1=&LISTNAME_ENCODED&A=1
>	##.EB
>	.hh off

 .hh on/.hh off do not go in mail (or www) templates.  They are for List
Configuration/List Headers only.

You can comment out lines in templates with '.* ' (must begin the line, no
indent!) but it is probably better to simply remove them completely.

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