inserting email signature in script 'Send Mail'

[parasko]

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to Filemaker (and I'm not technical) so I hope this query makes sense.

The database I am using has a script set up to send an email to students (it is a database for student administration). The script works fine except I want an email signature to appear at the bottom of the email. There are multiple users on this database so this email signature would change depending on who the user is.

The email program used is Microsoft Exchange Outlook though I'm sure the principle would be the same regardless of which email program. I am also using Filemaker Pro 8 and Windows XP.

Any suggestions on how I can achieve this?

Thanks in advance.

[Inky Phil]

Hi Parasko and welcome to the forum

The send mail script step does nothing more thanpass the message on to your default mail programme where it is then dealt with using the mail programmes settings.

If therefore your users were to set up their own signatures within Outlook, these would appear on the bottom of the emails per user.

If you want to do it from within FMP you are going to have to grab the user name at log-in and include that along with appropriate text and include it in the message part of the email somehow

HTH

Phil

[Ted S]

Parasco,

I'm also running Outlook standard with Exchange and like you have noticed, it doesn't add the default signature from Outlook.

You can get around this by sending a "mailto" command using "Send Event" rather than using the built-in thing that Filemaker offers.

Just use Send Event with a syntax like:

"mailto:" & tablename::emailaddress

[parasko]

Hi Ted,

Thanks for this! But I still need the SendMail script so that the student email addresses appear on the email. Based on your suggestion, I end up with 2 emails..the first is with my original problem (no signature), the second contains the email signature with no student emails..

You are on the right track though! Any way to end up with only one email?

[Ted S]

parasco,

Technically, you don't even need a script. You can bind (attach) Send Event directly to a button. Use a calculation rather than FILE or TEXT. Have your calculation append the character string "mailto:" to the beginning of the recipent's email address using a syntax something like this:

"mailto:" & table::email

where table::email is the name of the table and field that contains the recipient's address.

You should not need to use the Send Mail command at all. It simply mimics what is happening with the Send Event command.

[parasko]

Cheers Ted. This does work..may I ask one more question..

If you have 2 recipient email addresses and not just one, what operator function do you use so both email addresses appear in the email..(I did say I was a novice at Filemaker!)

[Genx]

It's actually windows not filemaker ... but lets say you want the both to be to

"mailto:" & "[email protected],[email protected]"

or with fields:

"mailto:" & table1::field1 & "," & table1::field2

For your reference from http://www.ianr.unl.edu/internet/mailto.html

Address message to multiple recipients , (comma separating e-mail addresses)

Add entry in the "Subject" field ?subject=Subject Field Text

Add entry in the "Copy To" or "CC" field ?&[email protected]

Add entry in the "Blind Copy To" or "BCC" field ?&[email protected]

Add entry in the "Body" field ?&body=Your message here

Within the body use "%0A" for a new line,

use "%0A%0A" for a new line preceded by a blank line (paragraph),

see example below.

Search Mailto syntax on google for more info

Edited November 28, 2006 by Guest
both are meant to be to in the xmple provided

[Ted S]

Genx,

It has been my experience that some of the things that you mention do not work in an Outlook/Exchange environment. For instance, if I use a comma as you note to separate multiple email addresses, Outlook sees this as an invalid address and won't send the message. I have to use a semicolon instead of a comma. Also I can't populate multiple lines in the body and as I remember there are problems with CC and BCC too.

Now the problem *could* be the configuration of MY Outlook/Exchange environment and maybe parasco will be fine. I just wanted to make it known that Microsoft *may* not conform to industry standards in this area. Microsoft making their own rules, imagine that...

[Genx]

Hmmmm,

Yeh, for that reason i avoid using mailto at all to much unpredictability with email clients -- just use Dacons MailIt instead. However, thunderbird is my default client (though i do use outlook for exchange) and seems to accept it fine -- i just checked outlook and yeh, it seems kind of crap there - what can i say.

Btw the info i posted was from the first site that cropped up in a google search.

[Genx]

using semi-colon in mailto for thuderbird has weird effects but will work for outlook

See this link for more mailto stuff: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:csoHjf1rbLsJ:www.angelfire.com/dc/html-webmaster/mailto.htm+Mailto+syntax&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=2

Edited November 28, 2006 by Guest

[Ted S]

Genx,

Just like you, I use a plug-in (SMTPit) for most mail jobs but when the user want's ultimate control over a simple mailing I use "mailto."

I have found that the simple "mailto" syntax using only recipient address and subject works fine with Outlook/Exchange.

Here is what I do for a single recipient with a subject:

Substitute ( "mailto:" & Table::EmailAddr & "?subject=This is the subject"; " "; "%20" )

What happens with the Substitute function is that it replaces each blank space with a %20 which is required to make the subject line fill in properly.

[Genx]

Yes, but the issue there is that FM looses control, you don't know whether the email has been sent or not.

I let my users customize their signatures attachments etc. providing HTML Template, HTML, Rich Text Wit Sig / Attachments, and Plain Text with Plin Text Sig / Attachments.

[Brudderman]

Dacons MailIt

How do you like MailIt--and why, if you have particular preferences. I'm looking at an email plugin and don't know whether to go with MailIt or SMTPit. I do know that the MailIt can also receive mail, and I do see that as an advantage.

Would appreciate any thoughts or recommendations.

James

[Genx]

Ok,

Well, why do i like it?

It does everything i need...

Sends HTML, Rich Text, Plain Text, Multi-Part (HTML with plain text as substitute if HTML can't be rendered on client computer) messages. Allows InLine image placement (good for signatures). Ummm... The rest i suppose is pretty standard (I only use the send half at this point, but the recieving portion also has great features...)

Their support has been good when i've needed it.

But to be honest I never really used SMTPit so we'll have to wait for someone else to reply regarding that one. But my experience with Dacon's has been good.

You could always just demo both files and see which one suits you better.

[parasko]

Genx and Ted,

I have no idea what you guys are talking about...but thanks! Yes it works!

This has been a great help so I really appreciate it!

[Brudderman]

You could always just demo both files and see which one suits you better.

Yes, I intend to do this, and I expect that they will both meet my simple needs. I'm just trying to get a handle on the "intangibles" such as support and overall satisfaction with feature set.

THanks for commenting. I may make a separate post in the plug-in area instead of continuing off topic here. ;)

[parasko]

To make things more complicated, do you know how I could also add the following:

1. insert a subject in the email

eg. as this is a student database, I wish to add the student's course (which is a field)as the Subject of the email. eg. Master of Medicine

2. insert the message 'Dear Given Name,' as the first part of the email message, where Given Name is a field.

This was simple to do as SendMail but as SendEvent 'Subject' and 'Message' are not recognised.

I hope this makes sense.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Genx]

Let( unsafe =

"mailto:" &

//Email Addresses

Table1::EmailField1 & If( not IsEmpty( Table1::EmailField2 ; ";" & Table1::EmailField2 ) ) &

//Subject

"?subject=" & Table1::CourseID &

//Body

"&body=Dear " & Table1::GivenNameField & "¶¶" & Table1::Body ;

Substitute(

unsafe ; [ " " ; "%20" ] ; [ "¶" ; "%0A" ]

)//End Substitute Statement

)//End Let Statement

Just replace my field names with your real ones.

As i said before this may be of use:

For your reference from http://www.ianr.unl.edu/internet/mailto.html

Address message to multiple recipients , (comma separating e-mail addresses)

Add entry in the "Subject" field ?subject=Subject Field Text

Add entry in the "Copy To" or "CC" field ?&[email protected]

Add entry in the "Blind Copy To" or "BCC" field ?&[email protected]

Add entry in the "Body" field ?&body=Your message here

Within the body use "%0A" for a new line,

use "%0A%0A" for a new line preceded by a blank line (paragraph),

see example below.