Email Archiving

This document contains conceptual and procedural information about email archiving. The email archiving feature is under active development and this preliminary functionality is not generally available.

Audience

This document is intended for application users who are investigating email archival. This feature is not generally available. Contact your relationship manager or client services if you are interested in being considered for early adoption of this feature.

What Is Email Archiving

Email archiving is the process of saving a copy of every email sent to the file system. After an email is initiated, either by a user or by another trigger, the system processes the request. At the same time that the email is being sent to the subscriber, a copy of the email is also sent to the email archive. Sending the two copies of the email in the same process ensures that any email sent to a subscriber is captured in the archive.

email_archive_flow.png

When this functionality is enabled for your account, the system saves to a network drive an EML file of every email you send. For example, if you send a product announcement with personalization and dynamic content to a list of 100,000 subscribers, the email archive for that send will include 100,000 EML files, each with the specific personalization and dynamic content values that were sent to the subscriber.

A sophisticated file structure organizes the archived emails. The archive path contains a list of the job-level folders, which in turn contain list-level folders, which in turn contain batch-level folders, which contain the archived email files.

For example, the following sample shows what the file structure might look like. The actual file archive would have many more folders and many more archived EML files:

 email_archive_folder_structure.png

Job Level Archive Folder Structure

The navigation through the folder structure of the email archive begins with a job-level archive folder. Each email job is archived in a separate folder. The name of the archive folder uses the following convention:

<archive>\<yyyy_mm>\Client_<client>\Job_<job/></client></yyyy_mm></archive>

Where:

  • <archive/> is the network directory where the archive is stored. Currently, the email archive is maintained in the application database. Future enhancements will allow you specify a location on your own file system to maintain the archive.
  • <yyyy_mm/> is the four-digit year and two-digit month when the email job was begun.
  • <client/> is the number that uniquely identifies your account.
  • <job/> is the number that uniquely identifies the email send.

For example, if:

  • <archive> is \\FileServer1\EmailArchive1</archive>
  • The job is begun in December 2008
  • <client> is 00000</client>
  • <job> is 12154</job>

Then the path to the email archive is:

\\FileServer1\EmailArchive1\2008_12\Client_00000\Job12154

List Level Archive Folder Structure

Within each job-level folder is a series of list-level folders. The list-level folders are named with the first batch ID and first subscriber ID of the emails in that folder using the following convention:

List_<list>_<first>_<first/></first></list>

For user-initiated sends, the batch ID value is 0 and the subscriber ID value is meaningful. For triggered sends, the batch ID value is meaningful and the subscriber ID is 0.

For example, if:

  • The send is user-initiated
  • <list> is 22222</list>
  • <subscriber> is 444444444</subscriber>

Then the name of the list-level folder is:

List_22222_0_444444444

Batch Level Archive Folder Structure

Within each list-level folder is a series of batch-level folders. The batch-level folders are named with the first batch ID and the first subscriber ID of the emails in that folder using the following convention:

Batch_<first>_<first/></first>

For user-initiated sends, the batch ID value is 0 and the subscriber ID value is meaningful. For triggered sends, the batch ID value is meaningful and the subscriber ID is 0.

For example, if:

  • The send is user-initiated
  • <subscriber> is 444444444</subscriber>

The the name of the batch-level folder is:

Batch_0_444444444

The batch-level archive folder contains the EML files of the archived emails.

EML Archive Files

Within each batch-level folder is a series of EML files, one for each email sent in that batch. The EML files are named using the following convention:

<client>_<job>_<list>_<batch>_<subscriber>.eml</subscriber></batch></list></job></client>

For example, if:

  • <client> is 00000</client>
  • <job> is 11111</job>
  • <list> is 22222</list>
  • <batch> is 3</batch>
  • <subscriber> is 444444444</subscriber>

The the name of the EML file is:

00000_11111_22222_3_444444444.eml

The EML archive file contains the raw source of the email body. The email does not appear in HTML and no graphics are displayed. The following sample shows what an EML file looks like:

X-Sender: jbe@example.com

X-Receiver: <<a class=" link-mailto" rel="external nofollow" href="mailto:acruz_1258500890@example_1258500890.com" title="mailto:acruz_1258500890@example_1258500890.com" target="_blank">acruz_1258500890@example_1258500890.com>

From: "Jon Elwes" <<a class=" link-mailto" rel="external nofollow" href="mailto:jbe@example.com" title="mailto:jbe@example.com" target="_blank">jbe@example.com>

To: <</code>acruz_1258500890@example_1258500890.com>

Subject: Weekly Product Announcement

Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:41:13 -0500

List-Unsubscribe: <leave-fce715727d6702122d502d29-fe2b1...ve.example.com/>

MIME-Version: 1.0

x-virtual-mta: 207.67.98.199

x-job: 21325_16601

Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

    boundary="S65rrsVQ16O3=_?:";

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--S65rrsVQ16O3=_?:

Content-Type: text/plain;

    charset="us-ascii"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

 

Read on for weekly deals!



This email was sent to:acruz_1258500890@example_1258500890.com

Email Sent By: Northern Trail Outfitters

20 North Main Anytown, Indiana, 46204,
http://cl.qa.et.local/profile_center...&jb=ffcf14&ju=

Update Profile



--S65rrsVQ16O3=_?:

Content-Type: text/html;

    charset="us-ascii"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit


Read on for weekly deals!





This email was sent to:  jbe_1258500890@example_1258500890.com

Email Sent By: Northern Trail Outfitters
20 North Main Anytown, Indiana, 46204,




http://cl.qa.et.local/?ju=fed2157577...7262007d711378" >Update Profile
http://cl.qa.et.local/open.aspx?ffcb...b721078-ffcf14" width="1" height="1">

--S65rrsVQ16O3=_?:--

 

Why Use Email Archiving

Use email archiving to keep a copy of every email that you send. You may need to keep such detailed records for compliance to regulations in your industry. Future enhancements will allow you to search emails and access an email history for a particular subscriber.

How to Archive Email

When the email archiving feature is enabled for your account, even email you send is archived automatically. There are no additional steps to take to archive the emails.

How to Access Archived Emails

You must contact customer service to request archive files. Future enhancements will provide direct access to the archived emails.


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