RE: How to sub with a cgi script?

Hi Kevin,

Kevin wrote:
> I'm trying to subscribe a user to an ezmlm list from a web form 
> processed by a cgi script.

Charles wrote:
>> That bypasses the closed-loop confirmation, and opens your list up to
abuse

Yep... so I use a middle-ground approach.  Though I no longer can support
subscription moderation, my subscribers aren't open to having their
subscription status changed by others (subscription abuse).

1) Person fills out web form
2a) Submit causes a small data file to be written on my web server.  This
file contains the necessary data to reconstitue the subscription management
request.
2b) Submit also causes an e-mail to be sent to the potential (un)subscriber
asking for confirmation.  The e-mail contains a URL that refers to the data
file written in step 2a.  The user clicks on the URL to confirm their
request.
3) Upon accessing the URL, ezmlm-sub is called.  This constitutes a
satisfactory form of confirmation for my use.

I sweep the small data files on a nightly basis (via cron) and delete "old"
ones - I currently use 15 days for max age.  Note: average data file size is
256 bytes or so (more specifically, size is less than the 1k frag size in my
file system).  Given the level of activity on my system, I seem to be
running with an average of about 300 data files hanging around.  This is a
completely acceptable number for me.

One other side note... My web server and e-mail server are on the same host.

I know that this mechanism is an end-run around the ezmlm conf mechanism and
that subscription moderation is now broken should I decide to turn it on.
I'm OK with that... for now... since I don't use subscription moderation at
this time.

If this sounds appealing to you, let me know and I'll share the code with
you.

For background info: I put the above mechanism in place because too many
subscribers were having trouble with the long confirmation e-mail addresses
generated by ezmlm.  I know, I know... The conf addresses are legal and
conform to the specs and it's really the e-mail clients that are at fault.
That said, I caved in to the reality of the situation and did myself a favor
-- my support load for "I can't manage my subscription" has dropped to zero!

-- David Bell