Apache Mailet API

What is it?

The Mailet API is an API designed to facilitate the development and deployment of a configurable email processing applications.

How does it work?

An application providing a mailet container, such as Apache Jakarta James (James), provides a container into which users can deploy Matchers (JamesMailetMatchers) and Mailets (JamesMailetMailets).

Matchers are configurable filters which filter mail from a processor pipeline into Mailets based upon fixed or dynamic criteria.

Mailets are classes which define an action to be performed. This can cover actions as diverse as local delivery, client side mail filtering, switch mail to a different processor pipeline, aliasing, archival, list serving, or gateways into external messaging systems (SMS for example). The James project includes a number of portable mailets (eg Forward, Redirect) and matchers (eg HostIs, InSpammerBlacklist, RecipientIs, SenderIs, SubjectStartsWith )for common tasks. See James for more details.

Users can typically configure the behaviour of an application by defining processor pipelines and the matcher/mailet pairs in the processors.

Developers can implement their own bespoke functionality by writing new portable matchers and mailets.

API documentation

Javadocs are here http://jakarta.apache.org/james/mailet/index.html

Mailet discussions are hosted on the jakarta james mailing lists see http://jakarta.apache.org/site/mail.html

The current release of the Mailet API is version 2. Mailet API version 3 (JamesMailetV3) will be part of James v3 (JamesV3).