Script to run Mandrill

[Meekso]

What I want to accomplish is to have a script run once a day, and depending on certain values in a dbf, use Mandrill to send out emails based on those values.

I believe from the little research I have done I would need to have a task that is started once a day using windows task scheduler and also curl installed on my server.

So if anyone has a good resource on how to accomplish this that would be great. Like how to setup the script to read the dbf and send out the email through Mandrill, or even if there is an easier way.

Thanks in advance.

[Clipper87]

Re: Script to run Mandrill

yes that's the way to do it; create a blank A5W page (no html markup on it whatsoever then begin with <%a5 and put all the xbasic you want
end the page with %>
run curl to fetch the page on some schedule via task scheduler
done

[Meekso]

Re: Script to run Mandrill

Do you think the following code will suffice in achieving what I want to do?

Or do I need something else?

<%a5 
	dim tbl_records as P
	dim todaysDate as D 
	dim emailAlert as P

	todaysDate = date()
	tbl_records = table.open("mytable")
	tbl_records.fetch_first()
	while .not. tbl_records.fetch_eof() 
		if tbl_records.tr_alert_date = todaysDate then
			emailAlert.message = tbl_records.tr_alert_message
			emailAlert.to = tbl_records.tr_alert_recp
			emailAlert.subject = "REMINDER"
			email_send2(emailAlert)
		end if
		tbl_records.fetch_next()
	end while
	tbl_records.close()
%>

[Clipper87]

Re: Script to run Mandrill

now you're not using Mandrill... there may be issues using email_send2 like slowing down your app while talking to the smtp server etc, you may not have smtp port open by your provider. All this can be overcome with Mandril. I'd go that way, read the release notes & you'll be ok with the snippets provided there to finally build your own thing. Mandrill really is intended for transactional email & superfast.

[Meekso]

Re: Script to run Mandrill

now you're not using Mandrill... there may be issues using email_send2 like slowing down your app while talking to the smtp server etc, you may not have smtp port open by your provider. All this can be overcome with Mandril. I'd go that way, read the release notes & you'll be ok with the snippets provided there to finally build your own thing. Mandrill really is intended for transactional email & superfast.

Sounds good.. will get to reading that. Do you happen to know any good guides or threads here that can walk me through calling the script from the server side. I have never done this before and some guidance will certainly ease my mind.

[Clipper87]

Re: Script to run Mandrill

as explained in post #2 executing that page via curl scheduled with task scheduler

[Meekso]

Re: Script to run Mandrill

Thanks for all the help. I got it to work. Just had it send out some test emails, and it worked flawlessly.