smtp email 2.0

[stefangs]

Further to my previous question on the topic posted here, I am disappointed to say that after just upgrading to FM18 the issue is exactly the same.

I have also downloaded the great utility SMTP_SendMail_Interrogation from SavvyData and it confirms that no combination of settings worked.

But just so I don't post here for merely complaining, I'd like to know if anyone has successfully sent messages using the smtp script step and would share their tricks. It used to work for me in FM 10, but stopped working out of the blue.

Thanks,

[Wim Decorte]

Same as in the other thread: SMTP is getting long in the tooth and using it is becoming increasingly more difficult as providers are trying to lock it down.

Look at this blog post: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-active-directory-identity/new-tools-to-block-legacy-authentication-in-your-organization/ba-p/1225302#

Where they show this chart that was first shown at the most recent RSA security conference.

 

My advice: stop wasting time trying to get SMTP to work, if 1&1 doesn't have modern email APIs, switch email providers to someone that does and make your life a whole lot simpler and more secure.  If you cannot switch your whole email provider then at least use a specialty provider for the sending part: Amazon SES, SendGrid,... any of those.

 

 

 

[stefangs]

Thanks Wim. I understand the reservation and that graphic you posted is unnerving. But are you saying that we shouldn't use FM to send mail?

The safe options noted above aren't available in the Send Mail script step, only smtp and Email client (which is a not-so great fallback, I suppose).

[Wim Decorte]

38 minutes ago, stefangs said:

But are you saying that we shouldn't use FM to send mail?

I'm saying that you should pause and think about it; and if there is an available alternative through APIs, then the time spent building it is going to be pay off.

Especially if you're having this much trouble making the SMTP connection work.

[stefangs]

The stuff in the article you posted is way over my head. I'm not going to learn this much just to send a couple of dozen emails per year or so. The reason I'm so stubborn with the FM mail is because it's the only script language I know.

But I'm happy to switch my web hosting service which also serves my email needs. What questions should I ask?

[Wim Decorte]

The demo file that comes with https://www.soliantconsulting.com/blog/microsoft-graph-api-filemaker-one/ can help you through the learning curve.  There is a similar one for Gmail that is done by Seedcode.

If you haven't done API integrations yet then use this opportunity to get into it, this is a perfect driver for that learning.  And it just looks daunting, it's actually very straightforward, you just need to work through it once.  And it will open a bunch of doors for you.  API integrations are here to stay and are just going to become more prevalent.

You don't need to change your web hosting if you are happy with it, just switch over your email provider.

[stefangs]

Ok, I will take a long hard look at it 😁

 

Thanks Wim, looks like I'm not going to watch TV tonight!

[maverik_uk]

Let's be honest, this is a step back for FileMaker. Looking at the demo files, there is a fair amount of code, tables and fields just to send a few emails. FileMaker built its customer base on being easy-to-use and this is anything but. As soon as it becomes a techy product, some developers will be lost, and some will adopt other richer platforms they'd ignored because of such a learning curve. Never mind.

[Wim Decorte]

25 minutes ago, maverik_uk said:

As soon as it becomes a techy product, some developers will be lost,

It's not FM that becomes 'techy' in this case, it's the requirements of modern auth.  The days of simply providing a username and pw are sliding into the past very quickly and it is not going to get simpler.

FM - as a platform - provides the building blocks to do this, and demos like this one make it a 'solved problem' because anyone can take it and use it.  The deployment of these techniques will undoubtedly become easier over time but the basic complexity of it won't go away, in fact it will get worse.

It's not FM that make this harder, it's the service providers. The learning curve doesn't change from one platform to the other because it is how the service providers dictate that this should be done.  If you can't use basic auth for SMTP then that applies equally to something simple like FM or something complex as a .NET app.

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Wim Decorte

[maverik_uk]

I agree Wim, but in the old days FileMaker found a way of making this easy so you focussed on the business requirement, not how to code it. It wouldn't be that difficult to take the Soliant code and attach it behind the Send Mail command. There are other platforms where to perform the same action requires half the code. What I loved about FileMaker was that I could achieve in 1 hour than most .Net developers could achieve in a day, and with each upgrade this seems to be less so. That said, it means that the FileMaker developer is going to be more in demand than ever

Edited May 19, 2020 by maverik_uk