Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

[exeye]

I'm stuck on this and hope someone can suggest a solution...

I'm using Letter.Send() to email a PDF using my default MAPI email client (which happens to be "The Bat!").

Everything works great except that when the Send Email Message window is created by the email client, focus stays on the Alpha form window that created it rather than switching to the new message's window. The Send Email Message window's icon in the task bar blinks, showing that it wants focus, but focus does not switch.

I first tried sys_focus_put() after the call to Letter.Send() but of course Letter.Send() doesn't return until the email message has been sent and the window is gone.

There are undocumented arguments to Letter.Send(). Could one of those help here?

Is there possibly a way to manually do what Letter.Send() does, giving me a place to put a sys_focus_put() call? The only way I can find to do this is with email_client_external() which fails the same way.

I also don't know if the problem is with Alpha or the email client itself.

I've spent a day fighting with this and I can't be sure it's not just a dumb mistake on my part. I also think I remember this working properly in the distant past. Any help would be much appreciated...

-jimc

[Ted Giles]

Re: Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

What happens if you set Windows Live Mail as the default client?
Or Outlook etc.
Also, what happens when you use the Alpha client?
I'm not familiar with the bat, so is it web based?

Edit.
Just read the Features list. I doubt this will work due to the configuration and security algorithms.

[GGandhi]

Re: Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

take a look at email_smtp_open() in alphapedia and the example that follows.
see if you can use that example as a stepping stone to go further, along with email_smtp_send, email_smtp_close()
with xbasic code you may be able to send directly to the server without going thru the bat window.
just a thought, I do not have "the bat" or intention of getting.

here is a script sending email from alpha without going to gmail.

dim ps as p
dim pm as p
pm.to = "my_email"
pm.from = "my_email"
pm.subject = "test email"
pm.message = "this is a test message"
pm.attachments = "my_documents_absolute_path_from_c:"

dim result as l
result = email_smtp_open(ps,"smtp.gmail.com",465,"my_user_name","my_password","SSL")
if result
	email_smtp_send(pm,ps)
	msgbox("Success","email was sent")
	else
	msgbox("Failure","email was not sent")
	end if
email_smtp_close(ps)

you should be able to do the same.

[Ted Giles]

Re: Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

Nice Govindan,
I too would avoid something like Bat!, I am very suspicious about stuff like that.

[GGandhi]

Re: Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

thanks ted,
it is really rewarding to get compliments from you.
feels good.

[Ted Giles]

Re: Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

I went through most of the hoops with the email stuff when I built my auto registration process for AS deployment and license keys, so easy, it isn't. Well not until you succeed that is then you ask yourself if you still have the brains you were born with!

[exeye]

Re: Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

Thanks for all the help.

FYI, The Bat! \, while not well-known, is a well-respected email client and has been around for a long time. I've used it for many years and it has not failed me once. It has a lot of options and can be confusing to new users (though I've had good luck switching my clients to it after the demise of Outlook Express). It's forte is mailing lists and scripted responses. I understand (and practice) avoiding the unknown, but it's worth a look if you have the need.

I kept at it last night and came to the conclusion that my problem was with Windows itself. The "Send Email Message" window was getting focus, but Windows was not making it the top-most window as it should. I did a bunch of Googling and found a few people with similar problems, using a wide variety of programs. There were two solutions that seemed to work for people, one being a change to the registry and the other simply powering down the computer for a few minutes.

The registry key is in HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop and is called ForegroundLockTimeout. It needs to be added if missing (DWORD), or set to zero if nonzero. Mine was already set to zero so that wasn't the problem.

So I went for the voodoo solution of powering off the machine for a minute then rebooting (I'd already tried just rebooting and it didn't help). But powering off "fixed" the problem. Maybe there is some uninitialized variable being used somewhere and powering off changes what it is set to -- I have no idea. The solution is very unsatisfying but the problem is gone, for the time being at least.

Now the user can click on "Send Email" and The Bat!'s "Send Email Message" screen comes up with everything filled out and a PDF invoice attached, and the user can look it over then click "Send" and it's done. A copy (including the PDF) ends up in the "Sent Mail" folder. It's all very slick, and was so easy to do that it only took a couple of lines of Action Script.

I've given a bunch of detail about this in case somebody else runs into the same problem in the future.

Thanks again for the suggestions. Yes, installing another email client would have been my next step if the voodoo didn't work, but thankfully it has not been necessary (yet).

-jimc

[Ted Giles]

Re: Switching focus to email client when calling Letter.Send()

Thanks for posting the solution.
It will be interesting to see how long it lasts with good old MS Updates!