Exploring the Web Interface for AAN Mailing Lists
Table of Contents
Click on a link to view that section. Click on an image to view the full-size screenshot.
- Introduction
- Why is This a Good Thing?
- Getting Started
- Viewing the Forums (Mailing Lists)
- Creating a New Message
- Viewing Posts By Author
- Searching
- Conferencing
- Customizing Your Preferences
- Viewing a List of All AAN Mailing Lists
- Learning About a List
- Viewing a List as an RSS Feed
- Getting More Help
Introduction
The AAN hosts many email mailing lists. Until now, members had no way to customize how they receive the information on these lists. In addition, there was no way to browse or search an archive of past messages. Now all these functions and more are available through a Web interface to the AAN mailing lists.
Why is This a Good Thing?
You can now access all your mailing lists from any Web browser on any computer. With one login name and one password, archives of all lists you participate in can be browsed, filtered, sorted and searched from a single screen. It will save staff and members time and enhance communication.
Of course, you can still receive all messages by email just as you did before, if you wish. The Web interface complements the email interface and adds increased functionality.
By logging into http://lists.aan.com:81/read/login/ you may:
- Learn about mailing lists available on the server
- Log in, and view which mailing lists you are subscribed to
- Unsubscribe from mailing lists
- Read archived messages
- Search the message archives
- Hold conferences (chat sessions) with other members
- Manage your membership settings, including establishing one password for all lists
- Find out more about a mailing lists
One particularly important new feature is the ability to read all mailing list messages via an RSS reader.
Getting Started
The Web interface is available to all list participants. Point your Web browser to: http://lists.aan.com:81/read/login/
The initial screen prompts you for the email address you use to receive messages from the list or lists in which you participate. After you click OK you will see password screen. Enter your password and click OK. Each list has a unique password, which can be sent to you by the staff member responsible for maintaining that list. If a you are a member of multiple lists, you will initially have separate passwords for each of them.
The Login screen: (click to expand)
The Password screen:
Viewing the Forums (Mailing Lists)
Mailing lists are called Forums by this software. Once you are logged in, click on the My Forums button and choose a mailing list. You will now see the discussion threads in that list.
The screen listing all your forums will look like this if you are a member of several AAN mailing lists. You can sort the forums by clicking on the little up and down arrows in the column headers. Clicking Unsubscribe will unsubscribe you from the list. If you unsubscribe you will need to contact AAN staff to be resubscribed to the list. You cannot subscribe to any list using this interface.
You can browse through the messages and add your comments to the discussions.
Click on a list name to see all recent discussion threads. You can sort the threads by clicking on the little up and down arrows in the column headers.
Click on the number of replies to see a list of all messages in the thread. Click on a discussion thread to read all messages in that thread. Note that you may need to scroll vertically to see all messages. In the screen showing all discussion threads, click on the number of replies to see a list of all messages in the thread. Click on an individual message and the entire thread will be displayed. You can reply to a message by clicking the Reply button on the bottom right corner of each message. Replies to a message will be added to the discussion thread of that message.
Creating a New Message
Clicking the Create New Message button starts a new discussion thread. Note that you can include attachments by clicking the Attach File button at the bottom of the message body window.
Viewing Posts By Author
The author name attached to each message is actually a link. Click on the author name to see the author's email address, how many messages he or she has posted to the list and how long he or she has been a member of the list. Click on the Send Email button to send an email just to that person.
Clicking the All Authors button shows you all contributors to the list and how many messages each has sent. You can sort the authors by clicking on the little up and down arrows in the column headers.
Clicking on an author's name will display all of their contributions. Clicking the View button on the About This Author screen will also display all that author's contributions. You can sort the contributions by clicking on the little up and down arrows in the column headers.
Searching
Clicking on the Search button allows you to perform a basic or advanced search of the archives of the mailing list you are viewing.
Here is the basic Search screen. Type the words you'd like to search for into the text entry box. You may separate words with a space or comma.
We searched for "EHR" and here are the results. You can sort the search results by clicking on the little up and down arrows in the column headers.
The advanced search screen provides additional options.
- Search for words in:
- entire message
- body of message
- header only
- Show messages with any or all of the listed words
- Exclude certain words in:
- entire message
- body of message
- header only
Conferencing
Clicking on the Conference button allows you to see who is logged in to the Web interface for the list you are viewing. You can send messages to anyone else who is logged in.
Customizing Your Preferences
To change your preferences, click on the My Account button. Under the Essentials tab, you can change your email address, how your name is displayed and choose how you receive messages from the list. Options include:
- Normal: receive messages as they are contributed
- Digest: one daily email with all the messages for that day
- Mime digest: one daily email with that day's messages in MIME format
- Index: one daily email with only the subject lines for that day
- No email: receive no email from this mailing list (you can still access it from the Web)
The receiving preferences are chosen from a drop-down menu, shown here in expanded view.
The Advanced tab allows you to change your password for that list or for any list that shares the same email address. You can also choose whether or not you receive an email copy of your postings to the list. You can choose whether the preference changes you make apply to the current list or all lists that use the same email address and password.
Preferences on how you see your postings.
You can choose whether your preferences apply to the list you are viewing or to all your lists that share the same email address and password.
When you have finished customizing your settings, don't forget to click the Save Changes button! If you have not saved the changes yet, you can cancel them by clicking the Cancel button.
Viewing a List of All AAN Mailing Lists
You can see all mailing lists ("forums") hosted by the AAN by clicking on the All Forums button. Remember, AAN staff maintains all lists and controls who is subscribed to them. The Web interface only allows you to access the lists to which staff has previously granted you access. You cannot subscribe to a mailing list of which you are not a member by clicking the Subscribe link. If you try, you will receive a message that says "Sorry, but 'name_of_forum' is a closed group. Only the administrator can add you." You can sort the list by clicking on the little up and down arrows in the column headers. You are currently subscribed to any list that does not have a Subscribe link next to it.
Back to top.
The About button shows you some statistics on the mailing list and other information. Most importantly, it gives you access to the RSS feed address for the list. Clicking on the link after RSS Feed will open your designated RSS reader and subscribe you to the list's RSS feed. Only members of a list can subscribe to that list's RSS feed. The software will return messages from the past 14 days, up to one hundred messages. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a Web format for content distribution on the Internet. It's an excellent way for Internet users to get updated news content and online articles - the stuff you want - without having to search for it. To view RSS feeds, you use an RSS reader (also called an aggregator), which continually monitors RSS feeds across the Web to regularly update the content you tell it you want. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS link or icon in a Web browser. Some standard Web browsers, such as the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari have this feature built-in. There are also Web-based and desktop-based readers that offer more functions, including some excellent free programs (see http://www.newsgator.com/). You can even access RSS feeds on mobile devices such as cell phones. Basically, when a new message in a feed you subscribe to is posted on the Internet, your RSS reader finds out and delivers the new message to you. All new messages are waiting for you when you open the RSS reader. Visit the RSS Learning Center for more information about this exciting technology. This is the standard RSS feed icon: The appearance and threading of a list's RSS feed largely depends on the RSS aggregator program used. Here is how the Medical Economics and Management Committee (MEM) mailing list is displayed in a news aggregator program. Unread messages are displayed in a bold font. Other RSS feeds to which the user is subscribed are listed in the navigation bar on the left. Clicking on a message title will display the text of that message: Click the Help button to bring up a new Web browser window that provides more information about the Discussion Forum Interface. Neil A. Busis, M.D.Learning About a List
Viewing a List as an RSS Feed
Getting More Help
January 12, 2008