[GH-ISSUE #522] Optional Description for Aliases #500

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opened 2026-02-27 11:12:05 +03:00 by kerem · 4 comments

kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:05 +03:00

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Originally created by @patsoffice on GitHub (Feb 11, 2014).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/modoboa/modoboa/issues/522

A common thing that I do is use opaque aliases (part of the md5sum of the date when I created the alias for example) so that I can have a single, throw-away address per company. It would be nice to have that be settable and something I can query in Modoboa. I am already storing it locally in my DB and have written scripts to query it. But it would be better for users to be able to do all of this via the UI.

+1 for aliases that have an expiration date. Email addresses for rebates or dealing with a buyer/seller online. When the expiration date comes around, you simply drop the alias.

Thanks, Pat

Originally created by @patsoffice on GitHub (Feb 11, 2014). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/modoboa/modoboa/issues/522 A common thing that I do is use opaque aliases (part of the md5sum of the date when I created the alias for example) so that I can have a single, throw-away address per company. It would be nice to have that be settable and something I can query in Modoboa. I am already storing it locally in my DB and have written scripts to query it. But it would be better for users to be able to do all of this via the UI. +1 for aliases that have an expiration date. Email addresses for rebates or dealing with a buyer/seller online. When the expiration date comes around, you simply drop the alias. Thanks, Pat

kerem

2026-02-27 11:12:05 +03:00

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kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:06 +03:00

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@tonioo commented on GitHub (Feb 12, 2014):

Looks like a nice feature to have.

I'm a bit curious : is it possible to know in which context you use such a feature?

@tonioo commented on GitHub (Feb 12, 2014): Looks like a nice feature to have. I'm a bit curious : is it possible to know in which context you use such a feature?

kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:06 +03:00

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@patsoffice commented on GitHub (Feb 12, 2014):

Sure, my motivation for opaque aliases was for a completely disposable
email address. I've been doing this since 2000 (maybe earlier) and I wanted
to have an email address for each company I dealt with. I would then know
which company sold my contact info without my knowledge/permission. If I
chose to no longer do business with that company, I could simply delete the
alias and be done with them. The other thing at the time that was a pain
was USENET posting with an email address. To combat this, I made posts with
a time-expired address that would be valid for 30 days (or however long I
chose) and a cron job would check the table and mark them deactivated after
the expiration date. USENET is pretty much dead, but the expiration could
be useful for things like emails for rebates that are time-limited.

To generate my opaque aliases, I've settled the first 20 characters of the
md5 hex of the datetime when I generated the alias (the full 36 characters
resulted in aliases that were too long for some systems).

hashlib.md5(datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%F %T')).hexdigest()[:20]

which, now that I am revisiting this, is predictable. Something better
would be:

m = hashlib.md5()

for x in random.sample(xrange(10000000), 60):
m.update(str(x))
m.hexdigest()[:20]

Anyhow, I don't know Django at all otherwise I would have made these
changes myself as I suspect they are pretty simple. :-)

Thanks a lot for Modoboa. I am really liking it.

On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 6:58 AM, Antoine Nguyen notifications@github.comwrote:

Looks like a nice feature to have.

I'm a bit curious : is it possible to know in which context you use such a
feature?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/tonioo/modoboa/issues/522#issuecomment-34876202
.

@patsoffice commented on GitHub (Feb 12, 2014): Sure, my motivation for opaque aliases was for a completely disposable email address. I've been doing this since 2000 (maybe earlier) and I wanted to have an email address for each company I dealt with. I would then know which company sold my contact info without my knowledge/permission. If I chose to no longer do business with that company, I could simply delete the alias and be done with them. The other thing at the time that was a pain was USENET posting with an email address. To combat this, I made posts with a time-expired address that would be valid for 30 days (or however long I chose) and a cron job would check the table and mark them deactivated after the expiration date. USENET is pretty much dead, but the expiration could be useful for things like emails for rebates that are time-limited. To generate my opaque aliases, I've settled the first 20 characters of the md5 hex of the datetime when I generated the alias (the full 36 characters resulted in aliases that were too long for some systems). hashlib.md5(datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%F %T')).hexdigest()[:20] which, now that I am revisiting this, is predictable. Something better would be: m = hashlib.md5() for x in random.sample(xrange(10000000), 60): m.update(str(x)) m.hexdigest()[:20] Anyhow, I don't know Django at all otherwise I would have made these changes myself as I suspect they are pretty simple. :-) Thanks a lot for Modoboa. I am really liking it. On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 6:58 AM, Antoine Nguyen notifications@github.comwrote: > Looks like a nice feature to have. > > I'm a bit curious : is it possible to know in which context you use such a > feature? > > ## > > Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/tonioo/modoboa/issues/522#issuecomment-34876202 > .

kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:06 +03:00

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@tonioo commented on GitHub (Feb 13, 2014):

Ok, I understand. It is definitely a good idea and a nice feature to have!

@tonioo commented on GitHub (Feb 13, 2014): Ok, I understand. It is definitely a good idea and a nice feature to have!

kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:06 +03:00

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@tonioo commented on GitHub (May 3, 2015):

This issue was moved to modoboa/modoboa-admin#3

@tonioo commented on GitHub (May 3, 2015): This issue was moved to modoboa/modoboa-admin#3