Auto-responders are very useful when you wish to automatically send an e-mail back to the recipient once the server has received it. For example, you could (use the Attachment Repository) store a sales brochure which can be sent to a customer update sending an e-mail to an address (e.g. brochure@example.com).

Another use would be to send an e-mail back to the recipient saying you have received the e-mail (maybe for a support or sales query) and that a member of staff will look at the e-mail as soon as possible. Useful if you want the sender to know you have received the e-mail.

You can have more than one auto-responder on an account, and which response gets sent can be based on one of three conditions:

• always respond there are no conditions - always reply to the e-mail when it comes into the account;
• when specified words are found in message subject when a word or phrase if found within the e-mail's subject, then send the response; or
• when specified words are found in the message body when a word or phrase if found within the e-mail's body (or content), then send the response.

First, we'll take you through the process of setting up an auto-responder without a file attached. Then, should you wish, we'll guide you through adding a file to the repository and then attaching it to the responder of your choice.

Setup

• First, log onto the Plesk Control Panel (all details can be found in the 'Account Details' e-mail, dispatched to you when your account is activated).
• If you have logged on at the Client Level (this is the default level), please click on the name of the domain you wish to add the e-mail address to. This will load the domain's settings page.
• Now click on the Mail icon followed by the name of the e-mail account on which you wish to setup the auto-responder.
• Click on Autoresponders.
• If you have not done so already, click Enable (if the auto-response system is enabled you will see the Disable icon instead).
• Click Add New Responder.
• Under Autoresponder name enter the name you wish to give this setting. It isn't used by anything other than Plesk to give it a name.
• If you want the e-mail to be forwarded onto a specific address when this autoresponder is also triggered, enter the e-mail address into the Upon automatic response... field.
• Under Conditions, select how you would like Plesk to decide when to trigger the auto-responder (see above for details), and if required, also enter the value to trigger the response.
• For Subject, you can enter the subject of the return e-mail. Be default the subject will be the same subject as the e-mail that triggered this auto-responder, but with 'Re: ' pre-pended to it. You can change it to whatever you want here, and if you use '<request_subject>' anywhere in the value, that will be replaced with the subject of the triggering e-mail.
• Return address can be used to specify the address that e-mail should be replied to (rather than the name of the account).
• If you are creating a HTML-based e-mail (i.e. the contents will have HTML tags), then you will need to select HTML from the Mail sending format option. Otherwise, just leave it as Plain text. For Encoding, it is recommended you leave it marked as UTF-8 unless you know what you are doing.
• Using the Reply with Text, you can enter the message you want to return back to the sender. This will form the body of the e-mail.
• Finally, using Limits you can control how often the e-mail is sent out and how it tracks this.
• Click OK.

As with all updates to the mail system, this change is instant and will take effect with all new e-mails that come into the account. If you want to attach files to the outgoing e-mails, the follow the next section.

Attaching Files

• As with the instructions above, log onto Plesk and goto the e-mail account with the auto-responder to which you would like the attach one or more files.
• Click Attachement Files.
• On the following page you will be asked to select a file to upload. Click Browse and look for the file.
• Once you have selected the file you wish to upload, click Send File. Note that you cannot upload a file larger than 10Mb.
• Click Browse and Send File for each file you want to add to the repository.
• Once done, click Up Level (top-right of the page) and then click on the name of the Auto-responder you want to attach the file to.
• Click Add New Attachment.
• To the far-right of each file you want to attach to the e-mail, select the tick-box and then click OK.]
• You should be taken back to the Auto-responder's properties page with the file listed at the bottom of the page, below Add New Attachment.
• Click OK. The file is now attached to the auto-responder.