e-mail plugin

[Ricardo]

Hi All,

Any info on the troi e-mail plugin. any tips?

what is it used for as FM Pro already has an email function built in?

any examples of where used?

i need to create/develop a system which requires e-mails been sent and replied to.

any info would be appreciated.

thanks in advance,

ricardo.

[Ricardo]

sorry meant the dacons email plugin!!

[cjaeger]

use plugin if you

- send HTML emails and inline pictures

- do not want to rely on Outlook Express, Apple Mail or any other external mail program (which may ort may not be configured to send mail)

[Ricardo]

what i want to do is send emails to customers and for them to reply to them.

is it possible for the emails to activate scripts when replied?

e.g. the email sent is 'do you want this product? YES or NO'

then somehow if 'YES' - then this activates a script from a related database?

[CobaltSky]

Hello Ricardo,

Christian's answer is correct as far as it goes, but there are a lot of other reasons apart from the html/inline images and independence from email client applications why you might choose to use an email plug-in.

Aside from the features that Christian mentions, there are a host of others which are not available with the native 'Send Mail [ ]' script command, but which plug-ins provide. The list of additional options varies from plug-in to plug-in, but embraces many other email options and features.

Not least among these, some of the plugins provide the ability to receive mail as well as send it, and some provide scheduling ability so that you can call a script at a predetermined time interval, to check the mail server for new mail.

With a plug-in (or combination of plug-ins that is capable of automatically checking and downloading incoming email, it would indeed be possible to fully automate the receipt and processing of replies to your outgoing sales emails. You would simply need to add a sub-script to the script which acquires incoming mail, to parse the messages and determine (according to whatever parameters you have determined) what the response is, and initiate appropriate action (eg your script from a related database).

I've implemented functionalilty of this kind for clients using the SMTPit and POP3it plug-in combo from CNS, but I daresay something comparable might be achieved using various other email plug-ins. Although I don't have any direct experience working with the Dacons email plug-in, based on the documentation on their web site it seems that it would be possible.