Idiot guide on how to Use 360Works Email 2

[PrinceCharles]

Hi there

Have been using Filemaker for about 3-4 months now and have been using it to generate emails which go through to my MS Outlook 2010 client.  Of course these are just plain text - so am examining the best way of sending out HTML based emails.

I've downloaded the 360 Works Demo version but having not really used extensions/plug ins before - I really don't understand what I'm doing!

I've installed it according to the instructions - but that's as far as I can go. 

I'm not sure how to call these functions, or anything else I need to set-up.

Any walk-throughs/help would be greatly appreciated.

Even though I have a 64 bit system, I couldn't get the Filemaker 14 (64 bit version) to work - So I'm using the 32 bit version, which works fine 

Mark

FM Pro 14, Windows 8.1, 2 users 

 

Edited August 2, 2015 by PrinceCharles

[Ocean West]

Hi Mark, welcome to the forums and to the FileMaker Platform

I think both the plugin and FMP must be running the 32-bit or 64-bit version the 64-bit version should run the 32-bit plugins.

since you haven't run plugins before I am sure the plugins are installed in the suggested path?

C:\users\user_name\AppData\Local\FileMaker\FileMakerPro\<version>\Extensions
you can confirm that the plugins are loaded by checking Preferences Plug-ins.

To use the plugin  - in any calculation dialog box - typically in a set variable or set field script step you would use the "External Functions" to the plugin passing in any variables or record data needed in the function.

have you looked at the sample filemaker files that came with the download?

 

 

[PrinceCharles]

Hi

Thanks for your reply.  I'm just trying out a couple of things....

Thanks for your suggestion, I'll take a look at those sample files.

I'll repost, in a day or two once I hit Eureka or my brain gives up

Regards

Mark

[ryan360Works]

Hi Mark, 

Getting up and running with plugins can be daunting but with a little practice it will become second nature. My suggestion for you is to take a look at our user guide for the email plugin. In it you will see descriptions of the functions and some example usages to get you started. Also, as suggested, the example files are a good place to get a feel for things and to see how the scripts are set up.

If you get hung up you can post here or send an email to [email protected] and one of us should be able to point you in the right direction. 

[AndyM865]

I'm with Prince Charles.  I've never used a plug in nor scripts and I can't find simple step-by-step directions.  I can send an email from Filemaker, but have no idea where to access 360 works.  What I would LOVE to see is steps starting with "Open filemaker" and then tell me what to click.

I have slightly above average technical skills and I still can't figure this out.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Josh Ormond]

Did you look at their demo file? That's as step-by-step as you can get. The scripts lay it out for you.

[ryan360Works]

AndyM865,

Not sure if you saw my post before but if you are new to plugins in general check out our Plugins 101 page. That should give you a lot of the information that you need to get started. Once you have a good understand of plugins in general and how the functions are used in a script you'll be ready to write an email script. The basic flow for sending an email is as follows: Connect to an outbound server (EmailConnectSMTP), Create the Email in memory(EmailCreate),Set the Body(EmailSetBody), optionally add attachments(EmailAttachFile or EmailAttachFileInline),  send the email (EmailSend) and finally disconnect(EmailDisconnect). Reading in emails can vary depending on your work flow but the basic steps are : Connect to inbound server(EmailConnectIMAP,EmailConnectPOP), read emails into memory(EmailReadMessages), iterate to next message (EmailGetNextMessage), parse info you need (EmailGetMessageValue) iterate to next message (EmailGetNextMessage), parse, repeat iteration and parsing until no more messages, Disconnect(EmailDisconnect). I also encourage you to check out our user guide and the example files to guide you and familiarize you with the process.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

 

[AndyM865]

On 11/16/2015, 3:34:03, ryan360Works said:

AndyM865,

Not sure if you saw my post before but if you are new to plugins in general check out our Plugins 101 page. That should give you a lot of the information that you need to get started. Once you have a good understand of plugins in general and how the functions are used in a script you'll be ready to write an email script. The basic flow for sending an email is as follows: Connect to an outbound server (EmailConnectSMTP), Create the Email in memory(EmailCreate),Set the Body(EmailSetBody), optionally add attachments(EmailAttachFile or EmailAttachFileInline),  send the email (EmailSend) and finally disconnect(EmailDisconnect). Reading in emails can vary depending on your work flow but the basic steps are : Connect to inbound server(EmailConnectIMAP,EmailConnectPOP), read emails into memory(EmailReadMessages), iterate to next message (EmailGetNextMessage), parse info you need (EmailGetMessageValue) iterate to next message (EmailGetNextMessage), parse, repeat iteration and parsing until no more messages, Disconnect(EmailDisconnect). I also encourage you to check out our user guide and the example files to guide you and familiarize you with the process.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

 

Thank you. Before I delve too deeply, and I apologize if this is in the info you sent me, can I send personalized emails?  So, right now I can send an email through filemaker using a calculation with text and field names that says, "Dear Tim, the payment due on Dec. 1 is $79.50", then I go to the next record and the email says, "Dear Mary, the payment due on Dec. 14 is $60.00", etc.  

[Caleb360Works]

AndyM865,

You would use string concatenation like you would in other areas of filemaker.

Set Variable [ $body ; Value: "Dear " & Record::Name & ", the payment due on " & Record::Date & " is " Record::BalanceDue ]

Then you would use that variable inside of the EmailSetBody function. Or you could concatenate the string in the EmailSetBody function.

 

We also have a function called EmailBodySubstitute that works for this usage as well. See our documentation here: http://static.360works.com/plugins/EMAILPLUG/documentation.html#EmailBodySubstitute

Set Variable [ $result ; Value: EmailSetBody( "Dear [NAME], the payment due on [DUEDATE] is [BALANCEDUE]" ) ]
Set Variable [ $result ; Value:
EmailBodySubstitute( "[NAME]" ; Record::Name )
and
EmailBodySubstitute( "[DUEDATE]" ; Record::Date )
and
EmailBodySubstitute( "[BALANCEDUE]" ; Record:BalanceDue )
]