How do I grab a file from an Amazon S3 bucket to attach to an email?

[Jay Talbott]

I am using email_smtp_open to send emails. No problem there.

I want to attach a file which is sitting in an Amazon S3 bucket to the email.

I do not want to download the file to the local computer, I want to grab and send it directly from Amazon S3. Is this possible?

What goes in pm.attachments

Thanks,
Jay

[Steve Workings]

I needed to do something similar Jay, and concluded an attachment may not be the best thing to do. Instead, put a link in your email so the user can download the file by clicking here and then providing that as a public link to the file.

[cptutrecht]

I'm not familiar with reading from Amazon S3, but can't you:

1. get the file from amazon with file.to_blob function
2. then store it in a pointer variable using : File.Stream_from_blob function ?

[Jay Talbott]

Steve,
I thought of that, but would rather not store the documents on the server longer than necessary to attach them to the email. It may be a last resort, though.
("She was looking for a vacation, and he was her last resort")


Ger,
That got me started and may work, but with your suggestion, I researched further and found A5Storage_GetItem_As_File(), which will allow me to download an S3 item to the local computer. Now I have to figure out how to store the file locally, independent of the operating system.
I would appreciate any help in this area.

Thanks,
Jay

[Steve Workings]

I haven't worked with Amazon storage, but Google storage allows you to set several values for document storage folders, including the length the document resides in the folder and is then automatically deleted. Set this to something like 24 hours maybe? We do that, and specify in one case that the document referenced in this email will be available for 30 days and then deleted.

Storage is cheap, it's secure.

Another important advantage of this is that email services are clients may have some problem with attachments. Maybe not in today's iteration of what you're doing, but maybe later on. This helps manage that possibility.

[mikeallenbrown]

Now I have to figure out how to store the file locally, independent of the operating system.

I would appreciate any help in this area.

I use AWS S3 exclusively for my document storage needs. I also roll my own mass emailer, using email_send_noprofile(), with attachments. I too use a5storage_getitem_as_file(). If the email I'm about to send has an attachment I first download the S3 file to a temp folder, send the email, and then delete the S3 file out of the temp folder. I use a nightly SQL maintenance routine to cleanup any leftovers.

What did you mean by "independent of the operating system"? ... just a temp folder or something else?

[Jay Talbott]

Mike,
If the user is using Windows, it's easy to dictate where the file goes. If they are using an iOS, it may be easy, I haven't investigated much. By "independent of the operating system" I mean that the path where I save the folder (the temp folder to which you refer), must work regardless of whether the user is on a Mac or PC.

Thanks,
Jay

[mikeallenbrown]

Oh I see, I think. The app server only lives in a Windows environment. The a5storage_getitem_as_file() delivers the file to the server. Not the local user's device. It's the app server that then sends the email. All within a Windows environment.

I must have misunderstood something, sorry.

[Jay Talbott]

Mike,
Since this is on the Alpha Cloud, I cannot store files there. I don't see a way to do anything other than provide the email recipient a link to a file on the Amazon S3 server, which is less than ideal.
Alpha needs to provide a way to attach a file directly to the email sent from the Alpha Cloud server.

Thanks for your comments.
Jay

[mikeallenbrown]

Ahhh, yes, I see now. That is one of the reasons I decided against Alpha Cloud. Lack of control and access to the server. I agree, Alpha should provide a way. Until then it's a deal breaker for me.