Message Annotations

A Message Annotation defines a piece of text that Secure Email Gateway can add to the start or end of the body of an email message, if a content rule's What To Look For? conditions are met. You can use a Message Annotation, for example, to define a corporate disclaimer for outgoing messages.

To use a defined message annotation, select the Annotate the Message action in a content rule's What to Do? panel.

The Message Annotation can include text in both plain and HTML formats, for adding to the plain and HTML bodies of the message.

Message Annotations and Lexical Expressions

You can apply a message annotation as an action in a content rule which uses lexical expressions, such as Redact Text or Detect Lexical Expression. For example, you might want to add a Disclaimer to the body of a message which contains a specific set of words or phrases. If the body of the message contains the detected expression, the disclaimer will be included.

  If a message subject contains a detected lexical expression which is not present in the body of the message, the Gateway will not be able to add the annotation to the body.

 

Create a message annotation

  1. Navigate to Policy > Policy References > Message Annotations. The Manage Message Annotations page is displayed.

  2. In the Message Annotations panel, click New. An editing page for the new message annotation is displayed.

  3. In the Overview panel, click Click here to change these settings. Edit the Name and Notes of the message annotation as required, and click Save.

  4. In the Annotation Content panel, click Click here to change these settings.

      You can use tokens in Message Annotations. Secure Email Gateway replaces these with message properties, or responses made by the Policy Engine.
    Token Description
    %ADMIN%

    The administrator account email address used by the Policy Engine.
    %DATE%

    The date the original message was sent.
    %DETECTED%

    Items detected by the What To Look For? clauses in invoked content rules.
    %MODIFIED%

    Content rules that triggered, and hence modified the message.
    %POLICY%

    A list of the content rules invoked on the message.
    %RCPTS%

    A list of the recipients. (This is a concatenated list of all the "Recipient" responses.)
    %RECOGNISED%

    A list of the Gateway format managers that recognized formats in the message (such as SMTP, text, HTML).
    %RELEASEDBY%

    The name of the person who released the message.
    %REMOVEDNAMES%

    A list of the names of any removed attachments.
    %RESPONSES%

    The values of all the response tokens.
    %SENDER%

    The email address of the sender of the original message.
    %SERVER%

    The Gateway server email address.
    %SUBJECT%

    The subject of the original message.
    %UNIQUEID%

    The Mail ID: a unique ID the Gateway assigns to a message.

    • Plain Format: Enter the text that will be displayed in the plain-text body of the message.

    • HTML Format: Enter the HTML text that will be displayed in the HTML body of the message. The toolbar provides editing options, including the button to toggle the text and HTML view.

  5. Click Save.

  6. In the Annotation Image panel, click Click here to change these settings.

      You are only able to add images to HTML-based emails. No image is generated in SMTP/text or RTF-based messages.

    To add an image to the message annotation:

    • Image upload location: Click Choose file. Browse and select a required image, then click Open. JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP image files are supported. The file should not exceed 40 KB in size.

    • Image position: Specify the position of the image (Top left, Top middle, Top Right, Bottom left, Bottom middle and Bottom right), using the drop-down menu. This controls the relative position that the image should occupy with respect to the annotation text.

  7. Click Save. A preview of the message annotation is displayed in the Annotation Image panel.

  8. Apply the configuration.

Edit a message annotation

  1. Navigate to Policy > Policy References > Message Annotations. The Manage Message Annotations page is displayed, listing the existing message annotations.

  2. Select the message annotation you wish to modify and click Edit. An editing page for the message annotation is displayed.

      If you need to edit the legal disclaimer supplied by Secure Email Gateway, select Legal Disclaimer Annotation in the list.

  3. Modify the Overview, Annotation Content and Annotation Image panels as required. Click Save on each panel to save your changes.

  4. Apply the configuration.

Delete a message annotation

  1. Navigate to Policy > Policy References > Message Annotations. The Manage Message Annotations page is displayed, listing the existing message annotations.

  2. Select the message annotation you wish to delete and click Delete.

     

    You cannot delete a policy reference, including Message Annotations, that is currently used in policy route(s) or content rule(s):

    • A gray check mark () next to the name of the selected item indicates that it is not used by any policy routes or content rules.

    • A green check mark () next to the name of the selected item indicates that it is used by at least one policy route or content rule.

    To view which policy route(s) or content rule(s) are using the selected item, click Edit instead of Delete. The Usage panel at the top of the editing page shows which policy routes or content rules are currently using the selected item. Modify these policy routes or content rules accordingly to remove references to the selected item.

  3. Click Delete in the Confirm Delete dialog to confirm the removal.

  4. Apply the configuration.

 

If you change any configuration or policy settings, you must Apply Configuration for the new settings to take effect. You can do this either from the Changes Made panel, or System > Configuration > Apply Configuration. See Apply new configuration for more information.

If you use Peer Gateways (i.e. when multiple Gateways are peered), any configuration changes from a local Gateway can then be applied to all the peers at the same time. See Peer Gateways for more information.

See also...