alanwilliamson

MailCatcher - Apache Mailet Container 0.2a released

MailCatcher - Apache Mailet ContainerI have just made a new release of the open source project MailCatcher over at SpikeForge.  I haven't discussed MailCatcher yet, but I will track the progress of this project here on this blog.  If you aren't familiar with the Mailet API then keep an eye on this blog over the next few weeks as I will put up some examples and highlight what you can do with email down at that level.

MailCatcher is an alternative, light weight, Java implementation of the Apache Mailet API. 

"... sometimes all you need is just a servlet container; not a full J2EE server"

The Mailet API is an interface that lets you write custom handling for incoming email.  In much the same way you write servlets to handle incoming HTTP requests, you can write a Mailet to handle and filter incoming email.  The MailCatcher has been designed to be small and easily available for embedded applications.

The Apache JAMES project is the original and one of the few implementations of the Apache Mailet API.  JAMES covers a lot of ground providing the services and infastructure for enterprise email.  If however, you only have a small nut to crack, then JAMES is probably too much for you.  Deploying a simple JAMES installation and attaching a custom mailet to it, is not a trivial task.

Therefore, in attempt to readdress the balance, MailCatcher grew from a need to simply hang a Java process on Port 25, accept incoming email and then run a given Mailet against that email.  The project is very small and efficient making it very easy to embed into servers or applications.

MailCatcher is more than just a simple Mailet runner - it also embeds a full spooler and delivery agent to allow you to bounce and generate emails.  The spooler will look up the MX records and attempt direct delivery without the need for a intermediate relay host.  The amount of times it will attempt to deliver the email and the time between attempts is all configurable.

MailCatcher is an open source project released under the Open Source License.

Hosted @ SpikeForge http://developer.spikesource.com/projects/mailcatcher/

 

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