Zero Level Analysis (ZLA)

The ZLA Classifier (Zero Level Analysis) is a very fast managed Spam classifier. The ZLA Classification classifies an email according to Spam, Ham or NDR (Non-Delivery Report).

Initialization

To use the ZLA classification functions, the ZLA Classification Package must first be initialized. To do this, create an instance of the dca::ZlaClassification module using dca::ZlaClassification::create().

Once the ZLA Classification module has been initialized, a dca::ZlaClassifier object must be created. Use dca::ZlaClassification::createClassifier() to create a ZLA Classifier.

The ZlaClassifier class classifies dca::Email objects. To create an Email object from a raw email data string, use dca::Email::create(). Note that the email data must be compatible to RFC 2822.

Classification

To classify an Email object, use dca::ZlaClassifier::classify(). This function analyzes the Email object and returns the results of a classification in a dca::ZlaClassificationResult object.

Classifier Management

The ZLA Classifier is an out-of-the-box solution for fast Spam filtering. The Classifier is managed by IBM, and receives regular content updates to maintain a high detection rate. To keep the classifier up-to-date, we recommend an update and schedule interval of 5 minutes at the most.

Example code

The following code demonstrates the classification of an email.

// assume we have a valid DcaInstance (myDca) and License (myLicense)
 
// initialize the ZLA Classification module
dca::ZlaClassification myZlaClassification = 
        dca::ZlaClassification::create( myDca, myLicense );
 
// create a ZLA Classifier
dca::ZlaClassifier myZlaClassifier = myZlaClassification.createClassifier();
 
// create an email object
// assume we have the contents of a valid RFC 2822 conform email in 
// std::string myEmailContent
dca::Email myEmail = dca::Email::create( myDca, myEmailContent );
 
// declare the classification results
dca::ZlaClassificationResult myZlaClassificationResult;
 
// run the classification
dca::FunctionResult myResult = 
        myZlaClassifier.classify( myEmail, myZlaClassificationResult );
 
// if myResult returns false an error occurred
if( !myResult ) {
        std::cout << "Received error from ZLA Classification (Error code: " <<
                myResult.getReturnCode() << ", Description: " <<
                myResult.getDescription() << ")." << std::endl;
        return;
}
 
std::cout << "Result=" << myZlaClassificationResult.result() << 
        ", Module=" << myZlaClassificationResult.module();
 
if( myZlaClassificationResult.result() == ZLA_SPAM ) {
        std::cout << " SPAM";
}
else if( myZlaClassificationResult.result() == ZLA_HAM ) {
        std::cout << " HAM";
}
else if( myZlaClassificationResult.result() == ZLA_NDR ) {
        std::cout << " NDR";
}
else if( myZlaClassificationResult.result() == ZLA_UNKNOWN ) {
        std::cout << " UNKNOWN";
}