Group Forwarding

[msf004]

I have many customers who have asked how to forward an email to a group of accounts. I.e.: if an email is sent to sales@xyzcompany.com - how to forward that email to: jane@xyzcompany.com, john@xyzcompany.com, bill@xyzcompany.com, etc.

I have not yet been successful in finding a way to do this. Does anyone have suggestions? Am I overlooking something that is simple?

Thanks,
-Marc

[mmorse]

Many ways to do this - GUI, SOAP/CLI, filters, distribution lists, recipient bcc_maps, etc.

The user (sales) can set one value in their preferences > mail tab (assuming "Allow the user to specify a forwarding address" is checked in user/COS features tab).

Admins can set that value, along with hidden ones as well:
Admin console gui > account > forwarding tab > simply put one value in the 'forwarding addresses hidden from the user' and the option to 'add address' will appear so you can add another blank.
su - zimbra
zmprov ma user@domain.com zimbraMailPrefForwardingAddress userforward@domain.com
zmprov ma user@domain.com zimbraMailForwardingAddress hiddenforward1@domain.com
zmprov ma user@domain.com +zimbraMailForwardingAddress hiddenforward2@domain.com
zmprov ma user@domain.com +zimbraMailForwardingAddress hiddenforward3@domain.com

[msf004]

Thank you for the response.

I must admin that I never even tried to put a value in the Admin console gui > account > forwarding tab. I only saw one input box and always assumed that it would only take one email address. Yes, it is bad to assume. Ultimately, I never gave it a chance to give me additional input boxes.

That is a very simple solution.

One more question as I know that I will be asked. Is there a solution which would allow the non-admin user to control the forwarding?

I.e.: I tried creating a Contact Group containing the destination addresses, then create a Mail Filter stating if the email was TO <useraccount> then perform the action of Forwarding to the newly created contact group.

This always results in a bouced email.

Thank you,
-Marc

[anthony.rasat]

I must admit that I never even tried to put a value in the Admin console gui > account > forwarding tab.

That's makes two of us. Kinda wondering what that feature would do for some times now. Thanks for the info, Mike

Back to the last question. Sounds like you need a moderated mailing list which can have a non-admin to act as a moderator but Zimbra don't come with mailing list feature (AFAIK up to 4.5.6 Open Source Edition I haven't tested 5.x yet!) -- however Zimbra has distribution list feature which work similar to automatic forward address although to set it up still require administrator privilege.

Now there are community hacks for adding mailman mailing list manager to Zimbra (Read: Do it at your own risk! Do not try it at a production machine!). One of them seems confirmed working can be found here:

[SOLVED] Zimbra+Mailman Howto

Note that I suggest against this though (but part of me is saying "Life is short, live it dangerously!" ).