Customizing GUI, replacement messages, email templates, SSO, and Security Fabric
This section contains the following topics:
- Customizing replacement messages
- Customizing email templates
- Customizing the GUI appearance
- Configuring Single Sign-On
- Enabling Security Fabric
Customizing replacement messages
Go to System > Customization > Custom Message to view and reword replacement messages.
When the FortiMail unit detects a virus in an email attachment, it replaces the attachment with a message that provides information about the virus and source of the email.
All the disclaimers, replacement messages, and IBE login page are customizable. When you create email template on the System > Customization > Custom Email Template tab, you can use many of the replacement messages.
Viewing the replacement messages list
To view the replacement message list, go to System > Customization > Custom Message.
The message list organizes replacement messages into a number of types (for example, System, Reject, and so on). Use the expand arrow beside each type to display the replacement messages for that category. Double-click each replacement message to customize that message for your requirements.
You can reword existing messages or create new ones.
Modifying replacement messages
You can modify the text and HTML code within a replacement message to suit your requirements.
You can change the content of the replacement message by editing the text and HTML codes and by working with replacement message variables. For descriptions of the default replacement message variables, see Customizing GUI, replacement messages, email templates, SSO, and Security Fabric.
All message groups can be edited to change text, or add text and variables.
To customize text replacement messages
- Go to System > Customization > Custom Message.
- To edit a message, double-click it or select it and click Edit.
- In the Content area, enter the replacement message.
- There is a limit of 8191 characters for each replacement message.
- If custom variables exist, you can add them to the text. To do so:
Some messages include a Subject and From area. You can edit their content too and add variables.
- Insert Variables. A pop-up window appears.
- Place your mouse cursor in the text message at the insertion point for the variable.
- Click the name of the variable to add. It appears at the insertion point.
- Click the Close (X) icon to close the window.
If no custom variables exist, the Insert Variables link does not appear. Some message types include predefined variables. You can create variables. See Creating variables.
Creating variables
In addition to the predefined variables, you can create new ones to customize replacement messages and email templates. Typically, these variables represent messages that you will use frequently. You can modify the variables that you create, but you cannot edit or delete the predefined variables.
To create a new variable
- To create new variables to be used in custom messages, go to System > Customization > Custom Message. To create new variables to be used in email templates, go to System > Customization > Custom Email Template.
- Select a replacement message or email template where you want to add a new variable, and click Edit Variable.
- Click New.
- Configure the following:
The Edit Variable page appears.
A dialog appears.
- In Name, enter the variable name to use in the replacement message. Its format is:
%%<variable_name>%%
. For example, if you enter the wordvirus
, this variable will appear as%%virus%%
in the replacement message if you select to insert it. This is usually a simple and short form for a variable. - In Display Name, enter words to describe the variable. For example, use
virus name
for the variablevirus
. The display name appears in the variable list when you select Insert Variables while customizing a message or creating a variable. - In Content, enter the variable’s content. Click Insert Variables to include any other existing variables, if needed. For example, you may enter
The file %%FILE%% has been detected containing virus %%VIRUS%%, and has been removed. File type is %%FILE_TYPE%%.
where%%FILE%%
is the file name,%%VIRUS%%
provides the virus name, and%%FILE_TYPE%%
is the file type of the infected file.
To add a color code, use HTML tags, such as <tr bgcolor="#3366ff">
. You can select a color code, such as "#3366ff"
in the HTML tag, from the color palette after selecting Insert Color Code.
Default replacement message variables
Variable |
Description |
Found under |
%%FILE%% |
The name of the file that is infected with a virus. |
System > Customization > Custom Message > Replacement > Virus message |
%%VIRUS%% |
The name of the virus that has infected the file. |
|
%%FILE_TYPE%% |
The file type of the infected file. This variable is only applicable to files with extensions. |
|
%%FILE%% |
The name of the file that was removed from the email. |
System > Customization > Custom Message > Replacement > Suspicious message |
%%EMAIL_ID%% |
The ID that FortiMail assigns to the quarantined email. Note that this email ID is different from the standard message ID in the email header. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Report > Quarantine summary |
%%MESSAGE_ID%% |
The standard message ID in the header of the quarantined email. |
|
%%ORIG_ENVELOPE_FROM%% |
The original envelope sender address (MAIL FROM) of the quarantined email. |
|
%%QMSG_EMAIL_DELETE%% |
Under email actions in the quarantine summary, the Delete link that, if being clicked, sends an email request to delete the quarantined message. |
|
%%QMSG_FROM%% |
The email address of the sender of the quarantined email |
|
%%QMSG_WEB_DELETE%% |
Under web actions in the quarantine summary, the Delete link that, if being clicked, sends a HTTP or HTTPS request to delete the quarantined message. |
|
%%QUARANTINE_FROM%% |
The start time of the quarantine summary. |
|
%%QUARANTINE_TO%% |
The end time of the quarantine summary. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Report > Quarantine summary |
%%SPAM_DELETE_ALL_EMAIL%% |
Under email actions in the quarantine summary, the Click Here link that, if being clicked, sends an email to delete all quarantined messages. |
|
%%SPAM_DELETE_ALL_URL%% |
Under spam web actions in the quarantine summary, the Click Here link that, if being clicked, sends a HTTP or HTTPS request to delete all quarantined messages. |
|
%%SPAM_DELETE_SUBJECT%% |
The subject of the email that is sent to delete a quarantined message when you click Delete under email actions in the quarantine summary. |
|
%%SPAM_RELEASE_EMAIL%% |
The email address, such as |
|
%%QMSG_DATE%% |
The date and time when a message was quarantined. |
|
%%QMSG_EMAIL_RELEASE%% |
Under email actions in the quarantine summary, the Release link that, if being clicked, sends an email to have a quarantined message sent to you. |
|
%%QMSG_SUBJECT%% |
The subject of a quarantined message. |
|
%%QMSG_WEB_RELEASE%% |
Under web actions in the quarantine summary, the Release link that, if being clicked, releases the message to your inbox. |
|
%%QUARANTINE_MESSAGES_ |
The number of quarantined messages in this summary. |
|
%%SPAMREPORT_SENDER%% |
The email address, such as |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Report > Quarantine summary |
%%SPAM_DELETE_ALL_ |
The subject of the email that is sent to delete all quarantined messages when you select Click Here under email actions in the quarantine summary. |
|
%%SPAM_DELETE_EMAIL%% |
The email address, such as |
|
%%SPAM_PREFERENCE%% |
The Click Here link under Other in the quarantine summary that, if being clicked, opens your entire quarantine inbox for you to manage your preferences. |
|
%%SPAM_RELEASE_ |
The subject of the email that is sent to release a quarantined message when you click Release under email actions in the quarantine summary. |
|
%%SERVICE_NAME%% |
Copyright information of the secure message. |
System > Customization > Custom Message > Secure message > Secure message footer |
%%SERVICE_NAME%% |
The From, To, and Subject lines of the secure message. |
System > Customization > Custom Message > Secure message > Secure message header |
%%ADMIN_SENDER%% |
The sender’s address of this notification email. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > Account reset notification |
%%LAST_NAME%% |
The last name of the notification receiver. |
|
%%MONTH%% |
The month when the link in the notification to reset the account will expire. |
|
%%TIME%% |
The time when the link in the notification to reset the account will expire. |
|
%%DAY%% |
The day when the link in the notification to reset the account will expire. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > Account reset notification |
%%LINK_URL%% |
The link in the notification that you can click to complete the account reset. |
|
%%SERVICE_NAME%% |
Signature of the notification. |
|
%%YEAR%% |
The year when the link in the notification to reset the account will expire. |
|
%%ADMIN_SENDER%% |
The sender’s address of this notification email. |
|
%%LAST_NAME%% |
The last name of the notification recipient. |
|
%%RECIPIENT%% |
The email address of the notification recipient. |
|
%%YEAR%% |
The year when the notification was sent. |
|
%%DAY%% |
The day when the notification was sent. |
|
%%MONTH%% |
The month when the notification was sent. |
|
%%SERVICE_NAME%% |
Signature of the notification. |
|
%%DAY%% |
The day when the link in the notification to reset the password will expire. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > Password reset notification |
%%LAST_NAME%% |
The last name of the notification recipient. |
|
%%MONTH%% |
The month when the link in the notification to reset the password will expire. |
|
%%TIME%% |
The time when the link in the notification to reset the password will expire. |
|
%%URL_HELP%% |
The Help link in the notification about secure email. |
|
%%FIRST_NAME%% |
The first name of the notification recipient. |
|
%%LINK_URL%% |
The link in the notification that you can click to complete the password reset. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > Password reset notification |
%%SERVICE_NAME%% |
Signature of the notification. |
|
%%URL_ABOUT%% |
The About link in the notification about secure email. |
|
%%YEAR%% |
The year when the link in the notification to reset the password will expire. |
|
%%ADMIN_SENDER%% |
The sender’s address of this notification email. |
|
%%LAST_NAME%% |
The last name of the notification recipient. |
|
%%RECIPIENT%% |
The email address of the notification recipient. |
|
%%YEAR%% |
The year when the notification was sent. |
|
%%DAY%% |
The day when the notification was sent. |
|
%%MONTH%% |
The month when the notification was sent. |
|
%%SERVICE_NAME%% |
Signature of the notification. |
|
%%ADMIN_SENDER%% |
The sender’s address of this notification email. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > Secure message notification - Pull |
%%SEMAIL_SUBJECT%% |
The subject of the notification. |
|
%%URL_HELP%% |
The Help link in the notification about secure email. |
|
%%LINK_URL%% |
The link in the notification that you can click to open the secure message. |
|
%%URL_ABOUT%% |
The About link in the notification about secure email. |
|
%%ADMIN_SENDER%% |
The sender’s address of this notification email. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > Secure message notification - Push |
%%URL_ABOUT%% |
The About link in the notification about secure email. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > Secure message notification - Push |
%%SEMAIL_SUBJECT%% |
The subject of the notification. |
|
%%URL_HELP%% |
The Help link in the notification about secure email. |
|
%%ADMIN_SENDER%% |
The sender’s address of this notification email. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Secure message > User registration notification |
%%LAST_NAME%% |
The last name of the notification recipient. |
|
%%RECIPIENT%% |
The email address of the notification recipient. |
|
%%YEAR%% |
The year when the notification was sent. |
|
%%DAY%% |
The day when the notification was sent. |
|
%%MONTH%% |
The month when the notification was sent. |
|
%%SERVICE_NAME%% |
Signature of the notification. |
|
%%ATTENDEE_ACTION%% |
The action (accept, tentative, or reject) taken by the event attendee. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Notification > Calendar event notification |
%%CALENDAR_SENDER%% |
The email address from where the notification is sent. |
|
%%CALENDAR_URL_NO%% |
The event is rejected. |
|
%%EVENT_FREQUENCY%% |
The frequency of the event. |
|
%%EVENT_ORGANIZER%% |
the email address of the event organizer. |
|
%%EVENT_TYPE%% |
The type of the event. |
|
%%TIME_END%% |
The ending time of the event. |
|
%%CALENDAR_ATTENDEE%% |
The name of the person invited to this event. |
|
%%CALENDAR_URL_MAYBE%% |
The event is set to tentative by the attendee. |
|
%%CALENDAR_URL_YES%% |
The event is accepted by the attendee. |
|
%%EVENT_LOCATION%% |
The location where the event is to be held. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Notification > Calendar event notification |
%%EVENT_TITLE%% |
The nature of the event. For example, meeting or party. |
|
%%TIME_BEGIN%% |
The starting time of the event. |
|
%%LOCAL_HOST_NAME%% |
Host name of the FortiMail unit which sends out the notification. |
System > Customization > Custom Email Template > Notification |
%%LOCAL_DOMAIN_NAME%% |
Domain name of the Fortimail unit which sends out the notification. |
Customizing email templates
The FortiMail unit may send out notification email in the following cases:
- To send out quarantine reports (see Configuring email quarantines and quarantine reports)
- To send out IBE-related email (see FortiMail IBE configuration workflow)
- To repackage virus-infected email with new email body (see Configuring antivirus action profiles)
- To send out notification email to any mail recipient for any FortiMail actions (see Configuring notification profiles)
FortiMail allows you to customize the email templates for all the above mentioned email/report types.
To customize email templates
- Go to System > Customization > Custom Email Template.
- To edit a template, double-click it or select it and click Edit.
- Enter the replacement message and click OK, or click Reset To Default to revert the replacement message to its default text.
- To format replacement messages in HTML, use HTML tags, such as
<b>some bold text</b>
. - To add a variable:
There is a limit of 250 characters for the Subject field, 60 characters for the From field, and 4000 characters for HTML and Text messages each in the Content field.
- Select Insert Variables next to the area to insert a variable. A pop-up window appears.
- Place your mouse cursor in the text message at the insertion point for the variable.
- Click the name of the variable to add. It appears at the insertion point.
- To add another variable, click the message area first, then click the variable name.
- Click the Close (X) icon to close the window.
- Click Insert Color Code. A pop-up window of color swatchs appears.
- Place your mouse cursor in the text at the insertion point for the color code, or highlight an existing color code to change.
- Click a color in the color swatch. For example, to replace the color code in the HTML tag
<tr bgcolor="#3366ff">
, you can highlight"#3366ff"
,
To add a new color code, include it with HTML tags as applicable, such as <tr bgcolor="#3366ff">
.
Customizing the GUI appearance
The System > Customization > Appearance tab lets you customize the default appearance of the web‑based manager, per-recipient quarantine, and webmail pages with your own product name, product logo, and corporate logo.
You can customize the webmail interface language. If your preferred language is not currently installed, you can add it. You can also adjust the terms in existing language files. This can be useful for localizing terms within a language. For example, you could adjust the English language file to use spellings and terms specific to the locale of the United Kingdom, Australia, or the USA if your email users are most familiar with terminologies popular in those areas.
To customize the GUI appearance
- Go to System > Customization > Appearance.
- Click the arrow to expand Administration Interface and Webmail interface.
- Configure the following to change appearance:
- Default/Built-in: uses the default login page.
- Customize: edits the default page to create your own login page.
- Create: Click to add a new language to the list. See To add a custom language.
- Download: Select a language in the list, then click this button to download the language’s resource file for that language. You can then edit the resource files using an XML editor that supports UTF-8.
- Upload: Select a language in the list, then click this button to update the language’s resource file for this language from your management computer to the FortiMail unit. In addition to uploading new language resource files, you can also use this button to update existing languages.
- Delete: Select a language in the list, then click this button to remove the language. This option is available only for non-default languages.
- Click Apply to save changes or Reset to return to the default settings.
GUI item |
Description |
|
Admin Portal |
||
|
Product name |
Enter the name of the product. This name will precede Administrator Login in the title on the login page of the web UI. |
|
Product icon |
Select Change to upload an icon that will be used as the favicon of the FortiMail web UI. The default icon is the Fortinet company icon. |
|
Custom top logo |
Select Change to upload a graphic that will appear at the top of all pages in the web UI. The image’s dimensions must be 460 pixels wide by 36 pixels tall. For best results, use an image with a transparent background. Non-transparent backgrounds will not blend with the underlying theme graphic, resulting in a visible rectangle around your logo graphic. Note: Uploading a graphic overwrites the current graphic. The FortiMail unit does not retain previous or default graphics. If you want to revert to the current graphic, use your web browser to save a backup copy of the image to your management computer, enabling you to upload it again at a later time. |
|
Default language |
Select the default language for the display of the web-based manager and the login page. You can configure a separate language preference for each administrator account. For details, see Configuring administrator accounts. |
|
Default theme |
Select the default display theme (red, green, blue, and light blue) for the display of the web-based manager and the login page. You can configure a separate theme preference for each administrator account. For details, see Configuring administrator accounts. |
Webmail Portal |
||
|
Webmail login |
Enter a word or phrase that will appear on top of the webmail login page, such as Webmail Login. |
|
Login user name hint |
Enter a hint for the user name, such as Your Email Address. This hint will appear as a mouse-over display on the login name field. |
|
Login page |
Select one of the following options: |
|
Allow user to change theme |
If selected, the webmail users will be able to customize the theme by themselves. |
|
Show online help link |
If selected, the Help button will appear on the webmail interface. The default help contents are provided by Fortinet. If you want to use your own organization’s help contents, you can enable this option and enter the online help URL in the below field. |
|
Custom online help URL |
Enter the URL if you want to use your own online help file, instead of the default one that comes with FortiMail. |
|
Custom webmail top logo |
Click Change to upload a graphic that will appear at the top of all webmail pages. The image’s dimensions must be 314 pixels wide by 36 pixels tall. Note: Uploading a graphic overwrites the current graphic. The FortiMail unit does not retain previous or default graphics. If you want to revert to the current graphic, use your web browser to save a backup copy of the image to your management computer, enabling you to upload it again at a later time. |
|
Default language |
Select the language in which webmail pages will be displayed. By default, the FortiMail unit will use the same language as the web UI. For web UI language settings, see Configuring system options. |
|
Default theme |
Select a theme for the webmail GUI. |
|
Webmail language customization |
Displays the list of languages installed on the FortiMail unit in English and in their own language. |
To add a custom language
Note: The following steps require 7-Zip to decompress and compress archive file formats.
- Go to System > Customization > Appearance.
- Expand Webmail Portal, and expand Webmail Language Customization.
- Underneath the list of language customizations, click Create.
- In Language name in English, enter the name for the new language using English and US-ASCII encoding, such as
Welsh
. - In Language name, enter the name for the language using its own characters and UTF-8 encoding.
- Click Create.
- Select the new language’s row.
- Click Download.
- Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer and extract the files using 7-Zip.
- Open the extracted TAR file in an XML editor or plain text editor that supports UTF-8 encoding (Notepad++ for example).
- For each
value
in the resource file, translate the word or phrase that is surrounded by double quotes ("
). It will appear in the location indicated by the key’s name. - Save the TAR file.
- Right-click the TAR file and click 7-Zip > Add to archive.
- Set Archive format to gzip and click OK.
- Return to the FortiMail web UI.
- Select the new language’s row.
- Click Upload and select the compressed GZ file containing the translated resource file, then click Open.
- Click Apply.
The new language appears at the bottom of the webmail languages list.
Your web browser downloads the file as a TGZ file.
For example:
<resource key="report_spam" value="Report Spam"/>
indicates by key="report_spam"
that the text is a label for the button that corrects the Bayesian scanner when it has not recognized an email that is spam. You could replace the contents of value
(that is, Report Spam
) with any text in your language that indicates the button’s function.
To verify your language, log in to FortiMail webmail and review the text that appears on each button, field, and menu item. If the characters appear garbled, verify that your web browser is interpreting the web page using the correct encoding.
Configuring Single Sign-On
Starting from 6.2 release, FortiMail supports SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) for both the admin and webmail portals.
When webmail SSO is enabled, CalDav and WebDav authentication will not be working because they only support simple local password authentication. |
To configure SSO
- Go to System > Customization > Single Sign On.
- Configure the following:
GUI item |
Description |
Enabled |
Enable or disable SSO. |
Apply to |
Apply SSO to Webmail portal and/or Admin portal. If SSO is enabled for the admin portal, the administrator login page will be presented with a SSO option. If SSO is enabled for the webmail portal, SSO login option will be available on the webmail login page. Webmail users can click on the SSO link on the login page using SSO. |
Identify Provider (IDP) Metadata |
You choose to retrieve the metadata from the IDP URL or upload from a file. |
FortiMail Service Provider Metadata |
After you uploaded the IDP metadata, the FortiMail service provider metadata will be automatically generated. You can download the service provider metadata and upload it to the IDP. |
Enabling Security Fabric
Starting from 6.4 release, FortiMail can connect to an upstream FortiGate root and become an integrated cluster member of a Security Fabric.
Go to System > Customization > Security Fabric to enable the unit to become a Security Fabric member. The Security Fabric FortiGate root can then establish a connection to the FortiMail unit using the IP address and port number specified.
This feature can also be configured in the CLI console under config system csf
. For more information, see the FortiMail CLI Reference.