Email via a client that is not mail.app

[droosan]

I put this post in Scripting before I found this section. I wouldn't be surprised if this is covered somewhere in this newly found category, but I cannot find it:

I would like to:

1) save the current record as a .pdf via the print dialog

2) attach the pdf to an email

3) send the email to an address in the current record.

(Hmm, If I had a big email database, I could do spam. But actually I want to send my students an individualized grade report.)

I think I can do all this, except that I don't use Mail.app for email. I use a school email address and the client is a program called FirstClass.

Can I set up filemaker to email out other than via Mail.app?

Thanks

Drew

[Steve T.]

Hi, Drew! If you manage to get it all going, please post a HOW TO for others. As for the last Q (Mail vs. other apps), FileMaker uses the whatever e-mail client that is set as the default. In X 10.3, Apple put the defaults inside the PREFERENCES option for each their products, Mail (for e-mail) and Safari (for web). Just launch Mail, select PREFERENCES, and choose a new e-mail client under the GENERAL TAB (provided you have other e-mail clients such as Eudora et al. installed).

Sounds like a great little project other educators may want to give a go!

--ST

[droosan]

Thanks, I have now set FirstClass as my default email reader. This turned out not to be so easy because Mail does not let you get to preferences until you have set up an account in Mail.

Now, Safari and Omniweb, both recognize FirstClass as my email reader and properly set up the outgoing email when I click on a mailto: in a webpage. However, Filemaker does not. When Mail.app is set as my email reader, Filemaker correctly gets the message into Mail's outbox. But when FirstClass is set, the sendmail step of the script does nothing, apparently.

Any ideas?

[merkaba22]

I too am facing this very situation and would love to know how to resolve .....:

[Steve T.]

I don't have it now, but I had tried to respond to droosan's post but the FMFORUMS site was refusing me at the time. What I had found was a list of mail clients that FM officially works with. The info is somewhere at the FM site and FirstClass was not among the approved mail clients to use.

Sorry. I had the exact URL to the info a few weeks back when I was trying to answer but it's gone now... shouldn't be hard to find at FM site, though.

--ST

[T-Square]

According to the Filemaker TechInfo page in:

http://filemaker.com/ti/108580.html

Please Note:

For this [i.e. send email] to work you must have one of the following supported email clients and the proper setup.

Mac OS: Claris Emailer, Qualcomm Eudora Light, Eudora Pro, Microsoft Outlook Express 5, Mac OS X Mail, or Microsoft Entourage.

Windows: You will need a [Mail] section in the Win.ini file and you can use any MAPI compliant email program that is configured correctly and set as the default mail program for the system.

[endquote]

[TerenceM]

I've also seen variation in behavior between e-mail clients depending on if I've defined a "To:" address in the e-mail script step. That is, for testing purposes I would leave it blank (and leave "show dialog" checked), expecting a draft e-mail to appear without an address specified, but with some clients you won't get anything at all.

-Terence