Delivery Rules

About Delivery Rules

Last Updated: 2024-04-23

A Delivery Rule is a set of conditions run on the messages in a mailbox.

When a message meets all conditions in a Delivery Rule, the system runs the command specified in the Delivery Rule. This command performs an action on the items attached to the message.

You can link a Delivery Rule to a sending mailbox or to a receiving mailbox. The system applies the Delivery Rule only to the messages of the mailbox to which the Delivery Rule is linked.

For example: Items entering Mailbox XYZ need to be enveloped. Message items that Mailbox ABC sends to Mailbox XYZ are not enveloped. You need to create a Delivery Rule that runs an enveloping program on items routed from Mailbox ABC to Mailbox XYZ. You decide which Mailbox (ABC or XYZ) should own the Delivery Rule and then add the rule to that mailbox.

At the heart of a Delivery Rule is the command that you run against the messages being sent or received. The command line parameters depend on the Delivery Agent being run.

Delivery Rule conditions

When you create a Delivery Rule, you specify the conditions for running the command in the Delivery Rule. You can set one or more of these conditions:

whether the command is run when sending or receiving a message (required)
name of the sending or recipient mailbox (optional)
e-mail address of the sender or receiver (optional)
content type (optional)
Delivery Agent to be used (required)
command line parameters (required)

Multiple Delivery Rules

If a mailbox has more than one associated Delivery Rule, the system evaluates and applies the Delivery Rules in the order in which they are listed on the Delivery Rules tab of the Mailbox Properties dialog box.

When a mailbox has multiple Delivery Rules, each Delivery Rule evaluates and processes the output of the previous rule. This means that the second Delivery Rule works on the output of the first Delivery Rule, the third Delivery Rule works on the output of the second Delivery Rule, and so on.

Delivery Rule Flow

This diagram illustrates how Delivery Rules work with mailboxes. The numbers on this diagram correspond to the table below.

In the diagram, the Delivery Rule was created on the Sterling Gentran:Server® Application mailbox.

Stage	Description
1	A message is created in the Sterling Gentran:Server Application mailbox. A Delivery Rule has been created and assigned to this mailbox.
2	As the message is routed from the Sterling Gentran:Server Application Out Box to the Trading Partner In Box, the message is evaluated based on the criteria established in the Delivery Rule. If the conditions of the Delivery Rule are defined to be triggered when sending a message to this Trading Partner, the Delivery Rule is invoked and the message is processed.
3	The modified message is transferred to the Trading Partner’s In Box.
4	A message is created in the Trading Partner’s Out Box.
5	As the message is routed from the Trading Partner’s Out Box to the Sterling Gentran:Server Application In Box, the message is evaluated based on the criteria established in the Delivery Rule. If the conditions of the Delivery Rule are defined to be triggered when receiving a message from the Trading Partner, the Delivery Rule is invoked and the message is processed.
6	The modified message is transferred to the Sterling Gentran:Server Application In Box.