3 June 2010

Example-Database

Sandbox to test how it works.

Don't forget to install the appropriate 4D Internet commands!

Example-Result

 

Explanation

Send a 4D Write-area as HTML-eMail

ozWR_eMailMngr expects up to 4 Parameters

• $1 = do what (Text)
• $2 = wr_area (Longint)
• $3 = P_Object (Pointer, optional)
• $4 = P_PathsArray (Pointer Array text, optional)

Example

For a single eMail just one line:

$error_L:=ozWR_eMailMngr ("eMail_Send";wr_Area;->a_ParametersContent_T;->a_AttachPaths_T)
a_AttachPaths_T is optional

a_ParametersContent_T is equal to the array Content and a_AttachPaths_T to the array Attachments

Mailmerge:

`Prepare the mailsend parameters first
$error_L:=ozWR_eMailMngr ("Parameters_Set";wr_Area;->a_ParametersContent_T)

`Now for every record in selection
For($i;1;Records in selection([Table]))
  `prepare Mailto
  $error_L:=ozWR_eMailMngr ("Parameters_Mailto";wr_Area;->[Table]Mailto)
  `no attachments
  $error_L:=ozWR_eMailMngr ("eMail_Send";wr_Area)
  `with attachments change the previous line into
  $error_L:=ozWR_eMailMngr ("eMail_Send";wr_Area;->a_AttachPaths_T)
 `depending on error=0, fill the log or archive or whatever is appropriate
  NEXT RECORD([Table]))
End for

Attachments in Temporary folder will automatically be deleted after sending. Other attachments are untouched.

Im not sure, if I like that: optional parameters in between parameters. But it saves a lot of coding for a single mail and for mailmerge too.

Handling errors

If ($error_L#0)
  `this is silent, delivers error-text for the submitted error
  $err_L:=ozError_Tool ("GetError";->$errorText;$error_L)
  `Alert for Designer and Administrator only by default
  ozAlert_Tool ("Error";Current method name;$errorText;$error_L)
End if

Taking care of

If you know about HTML, it should be easier to estimate which formatting options of 4D Write will work in HTML. To name a few that don't work or don't look nice:

• no double returns (ozWR_eMailMngr tries to remove those)
• no header, no footer (they are not converted)
• no pictures on the page
• instead of pictures insert HTML-expression of type <img src="valid URL" width="" align="" hspace="" >
• no tabs
• ergo no tables done with tabs
• omit columns
• use common fonts, otherwise it might look more different than expected (WebFonts is a HTML5-feature)

Some things really look better in HTML than in 4D Write, like

• backgroundcolors: page, paragraph, words
• links of course

Technicalities

• only 32 KB of HTML-text supported
• no Base64 included pictures because of the 32 KB-barrier

Its only HMTL 3.2, nothing about CSS and other fancy stuff common these days of HTML5. But it works and Outlook is oldfashioned anyway :-) We can live with that.

You want to have the source-code? No problem! Send a descend amount of $ or € to my PayPal-account: info@mettre.de. Finding out how much?