MAPI e-mail problem.

[CALocklin]

I think something has gone wrong with my computer - not A5. Today I discovered that any attempt to use email_client_external() in A5v7, v8, or v9 will fail with the following message:

MAPI error - ()

Of course, this is when attempting to open my default e-mail program - not A5's internal e-mail.

I know this was working recently. The only thing I can think of that has "changed" is that I temporarily set Mozilla Firefox as my default browser - then set it back to IE a day later.

Any ideas?

BTW - the same happens with email_client_auto()

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

No ideas. Just confirming that I get the same thing in v9 and I have not changed anything on my XP computer except whatever MS does when it auto updates windows. But I always use Firefox as my default browser and it updates from time to time.

Raymond Lyons

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Maybe it is A5?? Someone else contacted me with the same info.

Yet I know this was working in v7 just a few months ago and now it doesn't. Since there haven't been any new updates to v7 I have to assume something changed in Windows!?

Is there any other way to open the user's default e-mail program - preferably with at least the e-mail address included?

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

This seems to work:

sys_resolve_url( "mailto:[email protected]?subject=Fred&body=This is some body text." )

Later:

Here's the actual line of code I used. Without the urlencode(), the body text won't work with multiple lines. Obviously you'll have to change a few things for your own situations but perhaps since it's a bit more complete it will help others.

sys_resolve_url( "mailto:" + email_addr + "?subject=" + "Vehicle status - " + trim( tpp.Vehicle_status ) + "&body=" + urlencode( stext ) )

[G Gabriel]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

I know this was working recently. The only thing I can think of that has "changed" is that I temporarily set Mozilla Firefox as my default browser - then set it back to IE a day later.
Any ideas?

email_client_external() uses the DEFAULT email client you choose. When you made IE your default browser, Firefox (and it's email) is no longer the default and evidently alpha can't find any other default email client on your system and hence the error message.

From your Windows Control Panel you could check to find out which email client is set as the default, if any. Set it there and retry email_client_external().

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Actually, changing the browser had no effect on the default e-mail program. That was one of the things I checked when I did it. Both IE and Firefox are set to use Thunderbird. That is also what shows up when setting it from the control panel.

Are you saying you tested it on your system and it works?

I'm thinking something changed with the Windows MAPI routine that affected A5 since everyone else who has reported (2 people!) say it's not working on their system now either.

However, despite the problems with email_client_external() and email_client_auto(), the sys_resolve_url() seems to work perfectly. (Although I haven't tested it with CC, BCC, or Attachments yet.)

[G Gabriel]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Do you have Office 2000 installed on our system?

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

XP

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Well, sys_resolve_url() doesn't quite do the job. It handles everything well enough except attachments. I can't find any way to get attachments to work.

I tried adding:
&attach=<filename>
&attach="<filename>"
and the same with &attachment, &attachments, and &addattachments

I searched the internet and can't find any indication of a way to make this work.

Can anybody confirm that email_client_external() or email_client_auto() IS working on your system?

I'd like to know for sure if this is the result of a Windows update, something in A5, or something different about certain systems that can be fixed. In other words, is there some way I can fix this or do I have to tell my customers that I can no longer add attachments to their default e-mail programs. (Yes, I know I can still send attachments using A5's internal e-mail but most of my customers want to keep using their default program.)

[Jim Coltz]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Can anybody confirm that email_client_external() or email_client_auto() IS working on your system?

It is working here using V8 and V9. However, it is loading MS Outlook Express as the default when in reality Thunderbird is my default mail program.
Windows XP Pro, updated with the latest patches.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Well, sys_resolve_url() doesn't quite do the job. It handles everything well enough except attachments. I can't find any way to get attachments to work.

I tried adding:
&attach=<filename>
&attach="<filename>"
and the same with &attachment, &attachments, and &addattachments

I searched the internet and can't find any indication of a way to make this work.

Can anybody confirm that email_client_external() or email_client_auto() IS working on your system?

I'd like to know for sure if this is the result of a Windows update, something in A5, or something different about certain systems that can be fixed. In other words, is there some way I can fix this or do I have to tell my customers that I can no longer add attachments to their default e-mail programs. (Yes, I know I can still send attachments using A5's internal e-mail but most of my customers want to keep using their default program.)

Well, no, but I can confirm that it has never worked for me when using Thunderbird with attachemnts, going back at least to v7. You might want to search this board for "MAPI" (and look at http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...highlight=MAPI especially where Arron said he fixed something, though it never worked for me).

Alpha has been informed of this problem numerous times, and the last I heard was that Alpha (probably Arron) was saying it was a Thunderbird problem that they could do nothing about. Somehow I don't believe that given that seems to work with attachments with every other program on the planet, and when Thunderbird has bugs they usually fix them eventually. I believe this is another instance of "whatever it is, it is not worth the time and trouble to deal with it, especially since only a few user have complained" (but behind the complainers are how many others are there?). Like your customers, mine strongly prefer using their default email program, but I have had to use a mix of the default and A5, at my expense and to my customer's chagrin.

If you find a solution to this, please let use know.

Raymond Lyons

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Thanks Jim and Ray.

Jim - at least I now know that it seems to work with Outlook.

This thing is now starting to sound familiar. It's very possible that attachments never worked with Thunderbird for me either. I thought it had but after additional research and some time for my memory to dig back in history, I'm thinking you are correct.

This particular app has some users that send attachments and some that don't. It also has some that use the default email and some that use A5's email. And, of course, some customers use Thunderbird, some use Outlook, and some only use things like Yahoo mail. (And it sure is fun trying to explain to them why they can't use Yahoo mail directly from my application!) Add to that the fact that this script hasn't been edited since 2004 and you can see why remembering what does what can be difficult.

I still think the email_client_external() command worked with Thunderbird as long as there were no attachments. And, I'm pretty sure that, at the very least, the command with only a "sendto" argument was at one time able to open Thunderbird and enter the email address. But, I could be wrong.

So, my solution will be either:

Do nothing since it is working for current customers.

- or -

Since I don't know what current customers might change in the future and I don't know what future customers will want to do:

- First, modify 36 places in 11 scripts/functions to add the option of using sys_resolve_url() whenever Thunderbird is the default email and the user is NOT sending "default" attachments. (If they want to attach their own, they can.) This, of course, is no small effort because I will have to convert the various arguments in email_client_external() to a single string to be used in the new command.
Then:
1. Find out if the user is set up to use the default e-mail.
2. Check HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Clients\Mail\(Default) to see if the user is using Thunderbird.
3. Check to see if the user is sending "default" attachments (photos) to any of his/her customers.
4. Warn user if 1, 2, and 3 are all true - tell them they will have to change to the "internal email" method or switch to Outlook.

Man, I sure look forward to spending all that time on this. Especially since I will be able to charge $0.00/hr for it! At least we can say that Alpha made a real attempt to fix this and it seems to be a Mozilla issue.

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Apparently Mozilla has changed something. I found this warning message in a seldom used script:

Some versions of others, like Netscape and Mozilla, do not properly read the e-mail address so the complete e-mail message with address and subject has been saved to the clipboard - this will allow you to simply paste the message into your e-mail then cut-and-paste into the Send-to and Subject as necessary.

If you have something besides Thunderbird for your email (Outlook, Opera, etc.), I'd appreciate it if you would copy and paste the following into your Interactive Window and hit Enter - it should open your email program with an email to me that tells me what email program you are using and has a few HTML formatting commands and links to see if they will work. I'll post the results.

This should be all on one line:

sys_resolve_url( "[EMAIL="[email protected]?Subject=Email"]mailto:[email protected]?Subject=Email[/EMAIL] Test&body=This%20was%20emailed%20from%20" + registry.sys_get( "HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Clients\Mail" ) + "%3Cbr%3EThis%20%3Ci%3Eis%3C%2Fi%3E%20%3Cb%3Esome%3C%2Fb%3E%20multi%3Cbr%3Eline%0D%0Abody%20text%20and%20a%20%3Cbr%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaimsdc%2Enet%2Fastrum%5Fshortcut%5Fdef%2Epng%22%3Elink%3C%2Fa%3E%3Cbr%3Eand%20an%20email%20link%3A%20%3Ca%20href%3D%22mailto%3ACALocklin%40chartermi%2Enet%22%3Eemail%20me%3C%2Fa%3E")

Hmmm, it might be good to leave a note here about what e-mail program you used so others don't need to waste the time.

[MikeC]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Hi Cal,
I get an "Out of memory" error. I use Outlook Express on this PC.

[CALocklin]

Re: MAPI e-mail problem.

Hi Cal,
I get an "Out of memory" error. I use Outlook Express on this PC.

Oh, great! That worked perfectly in Thunderbird. I hate to bug you with this but how about something simple without all the HTML stuff:

sys_resolve_url( "[EMAIL="[email protected]?Subject=Email"]mailto:[email protected]?Subject=Email[/EMAIL] Test&body=" + urlencode( "This was emailed from " + registry.sys_get( "HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Clients\Mail" )))

Or, another thought is that the e-mail type name was not encoded in my original. This will fully encoded the body text:

sys_resolve_url( "[EMAIL="[email protected]?Subject=Email"]mailto:[email protected]?Subject=Email[/EMAIL] Test&body=" + urlencode("This was emailed from " + registry.sys_get( "HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Clients\Mail" ) + "<br>This <i>is</i> <b>some</b> multi<br>line" + crlf() + "body text and a <br><a href=\"<A href="http://www.aimsdc.net/astrum_shortcut_def.png\">link</a><br>and">http://www.aimsdc.net/astrum_shortcut_def.png\">link</a><br>and an email link: <a href\"<A href="mailto:[email protected]\">email">mailto:[email protected]\">email me</a>"))

If neither of these works, I guess I'll have to stick with sys_resolve_url() for Thunderbird and email_client_external() for Outlook. Trying to set up a generic app for e-mail is getting really painful!