Sending Email from within Simpol

[Jean Vallee]

I am using Shellexecute to call the user’s default email program and insert the usual.. to subject etc. The msg I want to send is too long for the shellexecute parameter so I just want to copy the text to the clipboard and paste into the email. The problem is:I have no idea what email program shellexecute will call. Once I know I can use appactivate and paste. I know the default email client program name is store in the registry under HKLMSOFTWAREClientsMail in the (Default) key. Anyone have any code snippets for win32_registry to read the value of a key in the registry? Jean Vallee

[Michael]

On 26/06/2013 19:41, JV wrote:
> I am using Shellexecute to call the user's default email program and
> insert the usual.. to subject etc.
> The msg I want to send is too long for the shellexecute parameter so I
> just want to copy the text to the clipboard and paste into the email.
> The problem is:I have no idea what email program shellexecute will call.
> Once I know I can use appactivate and paste.
> I know the default email client program name is store in the registry
> under HKLMSOFTWAREClientsMail in the (Default) key.
> Anyone have any code snippets for win32_registry to read the value of a
> key in the registry?
>
> Jean Vallee
>

There is a registry library in the distribution. You basically have to open it, then read a value, then close it if I remember
correctly.

Ciao, Neil

[Jean Vallee]

On 6/26/2013 2:41 PM, JV wrote:
> I am using Shellexecute to call the user's default email program and
> insert the usual.. to subject etc.
> The msg I want to send is too long for the shellexecute parameter so I
> just want to copy the text to the clipboard and paste into the email.
> The problem is:I have no idea what email program shellexecute will call.
> Once I know I can use appactivate and paste.
> I know the default email client program name is store in the registry
> under HKLMSOFTWAREClientsMail in the (Default) key.
> Anyone have any code snippets for win32_registry to read the value of a
> key in the registry?
>
> Jean Vallee
I gave up trying to find out…
What I ended up doing was calling shellexecute with open and
constructing a string as the second parameter:

"mailto:" + cr!CntrDFon+ "?subject=" +"Address:%20" +
me!jobaddr.control.text + "%20Permit%20#:%20" + me!inspptno.control.text
+ " Insp%20#:%20"+me!inspnum.control.text

Any spaces must be sent as urlencode characters (%20 = space)

The shellexecute make the mail program the active app and put the cursor
into the body, so I copied the text I wanted from the record to the
clipboard and pasted.
Then it's up to the user to make any changes they want and send.

[JD Kromkowski]

I've been able to do this using mailto and Shellexecute too.

But I'd really like to use sendmail() See Chapter 68. sendmail

sendmail ( string sFrom, string sEmailaddr, string sSubject, string
sMessage, string sMailhost, string sHostname, string sTimezone, string
sReplyto, string authtype, string username, string password, boolean
usehtml, array attachments )

My problem is a really don't understand the parameters.

what exactly goes in sMailhost and sHostname, authtype, username, etc.

On 06/29/13 9:02 PM, JV wrote:
> On 6/26/2013 2:41 PM, JV wrote:
>> I am using Shellexecute to call the user's default email program and
>> insert the usual.. to subject etc.
>> The msg I want to send is too long for the shellexecute parameter so I
>> just want to copy the text to the clipboard and paste into the email.
>> The problem is:I have no idea what email program shellexecute will call.
>> Once I know I can use appactivate and paste.
>> I know the default email client program name is store in the registry
>> under HKLMSOFTWAREClientsMail in the (Default) key.
>> Anyone have any code snippets for win32_registry to read the value of a
>> key in the registry?
>>
>> Jean Vallee
> I gave up trying to find out…
> What I ended up doing was calling shellexecute with open and
> constructing a string as the second parameter:
>
> "mailto:" + cr!CntrDFon+ "?subject=" +"Address:%20" +
> me!jobaddr.control.text + "%20Permit%20#:%20" + me!inspptno.control.text
> + " Insp%20#:%20"+me!inspnum.control.text
>
> Any spaces must be sent as urlencode characters (%20 = space)
>
> The shellexecute make the mail program the active app and put the cursor
> into the body, so I copied the text I wanted from the record to the
> clipboard and pasted.
> Then it's up to the user to make any changes they want and send.

[Michael]

On 15/07/2013 15:57, kromkowski wrote:
> I've been able to do this using mailto and Shellexecute too.
>
> But I'd really like to use sendmail() See Chapter 68. sendmail
>
> sendmail ( string sFrom, string sEmailaddr, string sSubject, string
> sMessage, string sMailhost, string sHostname, string sTimezone, string
> sReplyto, string authtype, string username, string password, boolean
> usehtml, array attachments )
>
> My problem is a really don't understand the parameters.
>
> what exactly goes in sMailhost and sHostname, authtype, username, etc.

sMailhost = the smtp server that you are sending to
sHostname = the machine sending it (this is best if it can be resolved, to avoid being immediately classed as SPAM). See DYNDNS to
get a hostname for a machine at a dynamic IP address.
sTimezone and sReplyTo are optional
authtype is either 1 for AUTH_PLAIN or 2 for AUTH_LOGIN. The first sends the password in plain text, the second encrypts it slightly.
username and password are the login credentials for that user to send email through the smtp provider named in sMailhost. If you
do not need any credentials, then you don't need these items.
usehtml activates the sMIME mode for HTML content. However, it does not make a text version of the HTML email currently, and
sending purely HTML emails will get an increased SPAM score, so your mileage may vary with it.
attachments is just an array of file names that should be sent. Obviously size can become an issue here.

Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

On 16/07/2013 17:52, Neil Robinson wrote:
> On 15/07/2013 15:57, kromkowski wrote:
>> I've been able to do this using mailto and Shellexecute too.
>>
>> But I'd really like to use sendmail() See Chapter 68. sendmail
>>
>> sendmail ( string sFrom, string sEmailaddr, string sSubject, string
>> sMessage, string sMailhost, string sHostname, string sTimezone, string
>> sReplyto, string authtype, string username, string password, boolean
>> usehtml, array attachments )
>>
>> My problem is a really don't understand the parameters.
>>
>> what exactly goes in sMailhost and sHostname, authtype, username, etc.
>
> sMailhost = the smtp server that you are sending to
> sHostname = the machine sending it (this is best if it can be resolved, to avoid being immediately classed as SPAM). See DYNDNS to
> get a hostname for a machine at a dynamic IP address.

A friend of mine pointed out, this actually needs to be the name that your external IP address resolves to, which is typically
something like: "a-b-c-d.dyn.example.net". The bigger problem when doing this sort of thing is you need to make sure that you are
not falling foul of the anti-spam filters, so a lot of preliminary testing is required, preferably sent to an account where you
can control what happens to the spam, and where if possible you can see the spam headers that get added to the email to adjust
your content.

Ciao, Neil

[JD Kromkowski]

On 07/17/13 7:08 AM, Neil Robinson wrote:
> On 16/07/2013 17:52, Neil Robinson wrote:
>> On 15/07/2013 15:57, kromkowski wrote:
>>> I've been able to do this using mailto and Shellexecute too.
>>>
>>> But I'd really like to use sendmail() See Chapter 68. sendmail
>>>
>>> sendmail ( string sFrom, string sEmailaddr, string sSubject, string
>>> sMessage, string sMailhost, string sHostname, string sTimezone, string
>>> sReplyto, string authtype, string username, string password, boolean
>>> usehtml, array attachments )
>>>
>>> My problem is a really don't understand the parameters.
>>>
>>> what exactly goes in sMailhost and sHostname, authtype, username, etc.
>>
>> sMailhost = the smtp server that you are sending to
>> sHostname = the machine sending it (this is best if it can be resolved, to avoid being immediately classed as SPAM). See DYNDNS to
>> get a hostname for a machine at a dynamic IP address.
>
> A friend of mine pointed out, this actually needs to be the name that your external IP address resolves to, which is typically
> something like: "a-b-c-d.dyn.example.net". The bigger problem when doing this sort of thing is you need to make sure that you are
> not falling foul of the anti-spam filters, so a lot of preliminary testing is required, preferably sent to an account where you
> can control what happens to the spam, and where if possible you can see the spam headers that get added to the email to adjust
> your content.
>
> Ciao, Neil

I'm not sure I totally understood this in the first place.

sMailhost – I understood (or so I imagined it to be "smtp.gmail.com")

sHostname – This has been problematic for me to understand – can't I
just get this from "what is my ip address" or do I need something else?
IPv4 or IPv6

But the sendmail function doesn't seem to require SMTP port or SMTP
TLS/SSL as parameters? E.g.

Gmail SMTP server address: smtp.gmail.com
Gmail SMTP user name: Your full Gmail address (e.g. exa****@**ail.com)
Gmail SMTP password: Your Gmail password
Gmail SMTP port: 465
Gmail SMTP TLS/SSL required: yes

JDK

[JD Kromkowski]

On 07/16/13 12:52 PM, Neil Robinson wrote:
> sTimezone and sReplyTo are optional

I don't think sTimezone is optional. I finally included the
sendmail.sma so I could debug and without sTimezone it falls down:

else if sTimezone <= ""
retval = "Error: no time zone"
else if not validtimezone(sTimezone)
retval = "Error: invalid time zone: " + sTimezone

But I have no idea what the proper format is for sTimezone

"EST"

Or

"-500"

?

Having looked at some other code I am also think that the serverhost

maybe should be in format "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:port"

where xxx etc is IP
where port is (see other post for example with gmail)

Maybe?

[Michael]

On 17/07/2013 17:47, kromkowski wrote:
> On 07/17/13 7:08 AM, Neil Robinson wrote:
>> On 16/07/2013 17:52, Neil Robinson wrote:
>>> On 15/07/2013 15:57, kromkowski wrote:
>>>> I've been able to do this using mailto and Shellexecute too.
>>>>
>>>> But I'd really like to use sendmail() See Chapter 68. sendmail
>>>>
>>>> sendmail ( string sFrom, string sEmailaddr, string sSubject, string
>>>> sMessage, string sMailhost, string sHostname, string sTimezone, string
>>>> sReplyto, string authtype, string username, string password, boolean
>>>> usehtml, array attachments )
>>>>
>>>> My problem is a really don't understand the parameters.
>>>>
>>>> what exactly goes in sMailhost and sHostname, authtype, username, etc.
>>>
>>> sMailhost = the smtp server that you are sending to
>>> sHostname = the machine sending it (this is best if it can be resolved, to avoid being immediately classed as SPAM). See DYNDNS to
>>> get a hostname for a machine at a dynamic IP address.
>>
>> A friend of mine pointed out, this actually needs to be the name that your external IP address resolves to, which is typically
>> something like: "a-b-c-d.dyn.example.net". The bigger problem when doing this sort of thing is you need to make sure that you are
>> not falling foul of the anti-spam filters, so a lot of preliminary testing is required, preferably sent to an account where you
>> can control what happens to the spam, and where if possible you can see the spam headers that get added to the email to adjust
>> your content.
>>
>> Ciao, Neil
>
> I'm not sure I totally understood this in the first place.
>
> sMailhost – I understood (or so I imagined it to be "smtp.gmail.com")
>
> sHostname – This has been problematic for me to understand – can't I
> just get this from "what is my ip address" or do I need something else?
> IPv4 or IPv6
>
> But the sendmail function doesn't seem to require SMTP port or SMTP
> TLS/SSL as parameters? E.g.
>
> Gmail SMTP server address: smtp.gmail.com
> Gmail SMTP user name: Your full Gmail address (e.g. exa****@**ail.com)
> Gmail SMTP password: Your Gmail password
> Gmail SMTP port: 465
> Gmail SMTP TLS/SSL required: yes

Sending through Gmail is a special problem, because they want the data to be encrypted using SSL, which we don't currently supply.
I have successfully sent mail through Gmail by using the stunnel program to create an SSL tunnel that forwards the SMTP traffic to
Gmail.

To set the port, in the sMailhost you simply add :465, but that won't work here. Instead, you configure stunnel correctly to
forward to Gmail, and then you connect to localhost:25 to send the email.

Ciao, Neil

[JD Kromkowski]

Pretty complicated. If I want to use gmail.

I'm just looking at comcast which (as of this week apparantly) no longer
supports the use of port 25 for sending email.

And they recommend SSL although as of yet do not require it.

JDK

On 07/18/13 7:15 AM, Neil Robinson wrote:
> On 17/07/2013 17:47, kromkowski wrote:
>> On 07/17/13 7:08 AM, Neil Robinson wrote:
>>> On 16/07/2013 17:52, Neil Robinson wrote:
>>>> On 15/07/2013 15:57, kromkowski wrote:
>>>>> I've been able to do this using mailto and Shellexecute too.
>>>>>
>>>>> But I'd really like to use sendmail() See Chapter 68. sendmail
>>>>>
>>>>> sendmail ( string sFrom, string sEmailaddr, string sSubject, string
>>>>> sMessage, string sMailhost, string sHostname, string sTimezone, string
>>>>> sReplyto, string authtype, string username, string password, boolean
>>>>> usehtml, array attachments )
>>>>>
>>>>> My problem is a really don't understand the parameters.
>>>>>
>>>>> what exactly goes in sMailhost and sHostname, authtype, username, etc.
>>>>
>>>> sMailhost = the smtp server that you are sending to
>>>> sHostname = the machine sending it (this is best if it can be resolved, to avoid being immediately classed as SPAM). See DYNDNS to
>>>> get a hostname for a machine at a dynamic IP address.
>>>
>>> A friend of mine pointed out, this actually needs to be the name that your external IP address resolves to, which is typically
>>> something like: "a-b-c-d.dyn.example.net". The bigger problem when doing this sort of thing is you need to make sure that you are
>>> not falling foul of the anti-spam filters, so a lot of preliminary testing is required, preferably sent to an account where you
>>> can control what happens to the spam, and where if possible you can see the spam headers that get added to the email to adjust
>>> your content.
>>>
>>> Ciao, Neil
>>
>> I'm not sure I totally understood this in the first place.
>>
>> sMailhost – I understood (or so I imagined it to be "smtp.gmail.com")
>>
>> sHostname – This has been problematic for me to understand – can't I
>> just get this from "what is my ip address" or do I need something else?
>> IPv4 or IPv6
>>
>> But the sendmail function doesn't seem to require SMTP port or SMTP
>> TLS/SSL as parameters? E.g.
>>
>> Gmail SMTP server address: smtp.gmail.com
>> Gmail SMTP user name: Your full Gmail address (e.g. exa****@**ail.com)
>> Gmail SMTP password: Your Gmail password
>> Gmail SMTP port: 465
>> Gmail SMTP TLS/SSL required: yes
>
> Sending through Gmail is a special problem, because they want the data to be encrypted using SSL, which we don't currently supply.
> I have successfully sent mail through Gmail by using the stunnel program to create an SSL tunnel that forwards the SMTP traffic to
> Gmail.
>
> To set the port, in the sMailhost you simply add :465, but that won't work here. Instead, you configure stunnel correctly to
> forward to Gmail, and then you connect to localhost:25 to send the email.
>
> Ciao, Neil
>

[Tim Gordon]

I am having difficulty with sendmail().
I see now that this is to a great extent because gmail demands SSL format.
Are there any plans to add this capability to Simpol?

Because I am calling Simpol from Classic Superbase I need to create the OutputFile but I do not understand the syntax for this.

[Michael]

You can download and configure stunnel https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html and then instead of sending to your smtp host directly, you send it to localhost:25 for example. There are pre-built configuration entries for gmail smtp, pop3, and imap.

As for the syntax, do you mean you don’t know how to create the output file in Superbase Classic?

[Tim Gordon]

I put a question mark in front of, and quotation marks around every line.
Each line corresponds to a parameter for sendmail() up to and including “HasAttachments”.
Is this meant to create a text file in the “temp” folder? (It didn’t).

[System]
From=tim@abetterway.com
To=joe@gmail.com
Subject=Test
Message=Hi Joe,{a}{a}This is just a test test test.{a}{a}Regards, Tim
# // The following is your smtp server
MailHost=smtp.gmail.com
HostName=tgabetterway@gmail.com
TimeZone=-0800 (PST)
ReplyTo= tgabet******@**ail.com
AuthType=2
UserName=servicecall
Password=dk220212
UseHtml=0
HasAttachments=0
OutputFile=c:\temp\sbm132d8.txt

[Attachments]
1=c:\SIMPOL\docs\license.txt

[Michael]

The OutputFile= parameter is for you to fill out as desired. You may not even have a c:\temp folder. Just choose where you want the output to go (valid path name on your machine).

Once you have the parameter file built, you pass it to the sendmail program and it will output its results in the Outfile= file.

Ciao, Neil

[Tim Gordon]

I do have a c:\temp folder, but a txt file does not get written in it.

[Author]

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