e-mail / thunderbird

[jeffemery]

Greetings -

I found several references to sending e-mails, with PDF attachements, using Thunderbird as an e-mail client.

Thunderbird seems to want to put the PDF attachment inside a moz_mapi folder instead of simply attaching the the PDF file.

I am using A5V9, email_client_external() function.

Did anyone ever resolve this problem?

Thanks so much.

Jeff

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Good luck. I was hoping someone would provide new light (and a solution) on this issue but apparently not, so I will rant a bit.

I think A5 points fingers at mozilla on this but I have to believe that since many if not all "external" email clients seem to deal with this issue that it is an A5 issue that no one at Alpha sees as being important enough to work on. Cripes, the old double underscrore bug (been there forever it seems) is still in the code produced by the action scripting for email_client_external(). Maybe there is some way to make this work but I have never had success and have just given up. I use Thunderbird but can't with any pdf attachments and it really upsets me given that this has been on the table for years and nothing is done about it. And yes, it was reported as bug years ago. I think they just denied it was their problem, which to me is not a satisfactory response since it is we A5 customers suffering from it. If it is a mozilla issue, then someone from Alpha should get with mozilla people to fix it. Just my opinion, not to mention frustration from someone who is rarely frustrated with Alpha (they normally fix things in record time).

[G Gabriel]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Certainly a wishlist item (not a bug).

Why is it so important to send the email via Thunderbird?
Is it to keep a copy of what was sent in the "sent" box of Thunderbird?
Can't think of any other reason that is unless alpha does the same (creating folders and sending them as attachment) with other external clients (haven't tested).

And if that's true, the bigger question remains: why any external client when sending?

[jeffemery]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Thank you for your reply. We are a corporation and Thunderbird is our corporate standard e-mail client.

Further, the application we are working on involves sending out customer quotes (the PDF); so we do need to hang on to the e-mails we send out.

We also want Alpha to modify the body of the e-mail based upon the type of quote being sent out.

So, I'm open for any suggestions if there is another way to accompish what I need to do, given the parameters I need to work with.

[G Gabriel]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Further, the application we are working on involves sending out customer quotes (the PDF); so we do need to hang on to the e-mails we send out.

You could use alpha's email and send a copy to yourself that you receive with Thunderbird.
When you use alpha to send through Thunderbird, as you have found, alpha creates a folder and saves it in your Temp files. I don't know but it is easy to find out what happens when you send subsequent attachements? do they go to the same folder? Or does alpha overwrite the folder? If the folder is not overwritten, it could serve as a good source of records of what and when was sent.

We also want Alpha to modify the body of the e-mail based upon the type of quote being sent out.

That's a simple matter. Create a template and save it and use it to send out your emails.

[jeffemery]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Thank you for your thoughts, George. We're continuing to look into this, and I will let you know how we make out.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Thank you for your thoughts, George. We're continuing to look into this, and I will let you know how we make out.

Ah, I always wondered about this. It's not "G" or "Gabe", his first name is George!

As for using the built-in A5 email client instead of Thunderbird for sending PDF attachments, you can, but based on my limited experience it's a lot of work to attempt to replicate all that Thunderbird users can do before hitting the send button (e.g., in addition to a template, add a personal note to the canned message and maybe an special in-line image or smiley without it messing up something in the template). Then there was the issue of where the replies were going to come back to either intentionally or accidently and if they came into A5 would that mean they would not also come into Thunderbird, and so on. Plus users do not like having to deal with the two different email interfaces (they are not going to give up Thunderbird or any other email client and use the A5 client exclusively). The real problem for me was convincing clients to try living with a two interface situation, and in one case to even consider it without whining about "what the heck is the matter with Alpha Five if it can't do this using something as widely used as Thunderbird." But I am not as smart or persuasive as George, so maybe it's just me.

Raymond Lyons

[G Gabriel]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Ah, I always wondered about this. It's not "G" or "Gabe", his first name is George!

Yeh.. George Bernard Shaw Gabriel..
Having been the subject of identy theft TWICE.. I am gun shy.. So G, Gabe, George .. it does not matter.

in addition to a template, add a personal note to the canned message and maybe an special in-line image or smiley without it messing up something in the template

I thought you got that working.

Then there was the issue of where the replies were going to come back to either intentionally or accidently and if they came into A5 would that mean they would not also come into Thunderbird, and so on.

If you send the email from Tim Buck Tu or Planet Zamarus, it makes no difference. You control the receipt of the email as you simply download it from the server to whichever application you choose.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Yeh.. George Bernard Shaw Gabriel..
Having been the subject of identy theft TWICE.. I am gun shy.. So G, Gabe, George .. it does not matter.

Ah, River, that explains it, though I seriously doubt identity theft is going to happen as a result of boards like this. And yes, mine was stolen once too, so I know how big a pain it can be. Stolen snail mail is still probably the biggest source of identity theft, along with not shredding things with important data on them. Oh, and then there is on-line banking!! I for one would never do that, and my computer has NO bank data or SS numbers on it. I do use credit cards on-line but at least we have some protection for that and it is not tied to my bank account.

I thought you got that working.

I did to my satisfaction. Now if I could just do away with those damned whiny users.

If you send the email from Tim Buck Tu or Planet Zamarus, it makes no difference. You control the receipt of the email as you simply download it from the server to whichever application you choose.

Yes but, typically it's those silly users who have the choice and unless you can tighten things up really tight on the A5 retrieve side, they can either intentionally or accidently get replies (and not just a reply to an A5 sent message) into the A5 inbox when that is not where they really want them. In some situations (set up choices out of my control) if you download messages into one email client they either won't download into the other inbox or in some cases are even deleted from the email server. And typically for my clients they do not want the replies to come into the A5 email client at all, especially messages that are not replies to an A5 sent message--but it happens and then someone is yelling and hollering because now they can't simply download them again into their Thunderbird, Outlook, Mulberry, etc. inbox.

Raymond Lyons

[G Gabriel]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

but it happens and then someone is yelling and hollering because now they can't simply download them again into their Thunderbird, Outlook, Mulberry, etc. inbox.
Raymond Lyons

You always have an option to leave messages on the server even after they were downloaded by a ghost employee that way you can retrieve them later and delete them as you wish. Just an idea.

I am not saying it wouldn't be nice if alpha just attach the pdf file. I can't quite figure out the purpose of making a copy in a folder and attaching the folder. Maybe there is a reason.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

You always have an option to leave messages on the server even after they were downloaded by a ghost employee that way you can retrieve them later and delete them as you wish. Just an idea.

Yes, that is the way I have my stuff setup, but I have no effective control of how users set up their stuff. I do know one client has it set so that messages are immediately deleted from the server once downloaded.

I am not saying it wouldn't be nice if alpha just attach the pdf file. I can't quite figure out the purpose of making a copy in a folder and attaching the folder. Maybe there is a reason.

Well, the file(s) is/are in that folder, it's just not pulling them out of the folder. I have tried pulling them out by full path and name with A5 code using the "external" A5 email functions but I could never get it to work and have long since given up.

[G Gabriel]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

Not sure what do you mean by not being able to pull the files out?

[jeffemery]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

hmmmm.... G, Gabe, George. I think I had an Access Violation of the brain on that one. It has become an issue since we 'upgraded' to Version 9. Sorry 'bout that. We are still looking for answers to the initial problem of attaching a PDF to a Thunderbird client e-mail when using the email_client_external() function.

If you create the PDF first, display it, then e-mail the PDF using the e-mail icon, it works fine. But then the body of the e-mail cannot be populated via Alpha.

If we were to choose to use the Alpha e-mail client, I think we would then have to review all of our existing code and change it to use a function other than email_external_client(). True?

[G Gabriel]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

If we were to choose to use the Alpha e-mail client, I think we would then have to review all of our existing code and change it to use a function other than email_external_client(). True?

Yes.
I am saying use alpha to send out your attachments and use Thunderbird to retrieve your incoming mail. If you need a copy of what you sent, just send yourself a copy and retrieve it with Thunderbird.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: e-mail / thunderbird

...If we were to choose to use the Alpha e-mail client, I think we would then have to review all of our existing code and change it to use a function other than email_external_client(). True?

And it is not just email_external_client() that won't work. It is any of the other email sending function [e.g., report.send()] that have flags for using an external email client.

You presumably have read all the other issues I see with this, so I won't repeat myself. I wish you luck.

Raymond Lyons