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Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

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    Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

    I am old school (been using Alpha 5 since V.1 DOS now on 10.5) and not ready to upgrade but wondering if anybody know hows I can send multiple forms/records (its an invoice) to the same customer only 1 per email in a pdf form. I just had a second customer request this and was just doing it manually but this new customer is large so would be pushing email button 70 times which I will do if no other options exists.

    #2
    Re: Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

    I'm sure it's doable, but my experience is limited to having control of the email server.
    Based on your user name, it appears we are both in the trucking industry.
    This is absolutely something I have done, and for the most part , I am still doing it.
    Gregg
    https://paiza.io is a great site to test and share sql code

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

      Andrew, one approach to this would be to save the invoice pdf to a specific folder, using a unique filename. Then use a standard email message that says something like "here's your invoice. thanks for your business". A script can then be written to automate the creation / saving of the pdf, and "attaching" that pdf to the outbound standard email.

      I'm not sure sending 70 emails in a batch, one at a time using this approach makes sense. And, it might violate your customer's ISP rules for email blasts. But for low volume traffic, I've found this approach useful.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

        Thanks all, yes in the trucking industry and unfortunately not well versed in X Basic but knowing it can be done helps a lot. I was hoping I would not have to send backup (BOL, POD) with the invoice which was the purpose of this question, but thats not the case as of this morning. So my other question (attaching outside documents to a specific record and sending in a email) which was probably poorly phrased is what I have to figure out. I am already up to the point of the special folder etc. and have tried to figure it out myself. I haven't had anything I couldn't do yet so it may just take me time. I know there's a way to attach outside documents to a record in Alpha5 as I am doing that now, it's the pulling it altogether that poses the problem and that this particular version of my program was done in Alpha 5 V5 in 1997 (or whichever was the first windows version) may be holding me back but no way to tell and have to plans to start from scratch. If it comes down to a script I may be out of luck but I will be putting some real thought into this over the weekend.

        Thanks again for your replies.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

          Andrew,
          I have experience in this, although my memory might be a little cluttered right now.
          Knowing that there is a lot of information that needs to go back and forth, I would like
          to suggest a phone call (my number is 6083452697) and possible screen sharing.

          I am 90% positive I can help you with this solution.
          We are about 15 minutes away from the weekly Alpha Software Webinar, so if possible,
          a phone call after 1pm would be great.
          Gregg
          https://paiza.io is a great site to test and share sql code

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

            Andrew, it's not necessary to "attach" an outside document to a specific record. What's necessary is that the script that is building the email and preparing to send it out knows where the outside document is stored and what it's name is... so it can be attached to the outbound email... not so that it can be attached to a database record. An example might help.

            Suppose you have a customer and want to send her an invoice. You generate the invoice. Give it a number. Store it in a folder as a pdf. When you supply the parameters for the outbound email you enter the recipients name, email address, any text for the message, and then you enter the path and name of the desired attachment. Then you send it. The invoice never has to be connected to a record in your database unless you want to store it somewhere. The point is, it's not necessary to connect the attachment to a database record in order to send it out as an attachment using email. Hope this helps. -- tom

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

              Hi Andrew,
              Your first post is a bit confusing. Others seem to have interpreted it, but it's a bit obtuse to me.
              You have:

              multiple forms/records
              an invoice (that is one)
              one customer
              one PDF file per email
              70 emails to same customer.

              This is confusing to me but I translate this to >> having 70 separate invoices composed of multiple records each invoice prepared as a file in PDF format and each invoice sent individually in an email to one customer such that the one customer receives 70 emails each containing one invoice in PDF format.

              Is that close?
              Mike W
              __________________________
              "I rebel in at least small things to express to the world that I have not completely surrendered"

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Email indiviual records via single email with one button press

                Hi Andrew,
                The code I'm sharing here is confirmed to work with 10.5 (I still have it doing things every day).
                Anything with <> should be a character variable or a string.
                If you want, you can append the BOL and POD files to the invoice file, making just the one attachment file for the customer to open.

                Gregg
                Code:
                dim attachmentList as c
                attachmentList = <<%txt%
                c:\downloads\bol.pdf
                c:\downloads\pod.pdf
                c:\downloads\invoice.pdf
                %txt%
                
                ' The code below should call the function and send the 3 attachments
                
                itWorked = autoemailatt("Invoice","It was a pleasure doing business with you",attachmentList,"[email protected]","[email protected]")
                Code:
                FUNCTION autoemailatt AS L (sub AS C, msg AS C,attfile as c ,whofrom as  c,whoto as c)
                '	debug(1)
                dim pm as P
                dim ps as P
                dim server as c
                
                server=<your email ip or url>
                
                ps.timeout = 8000
                if (email_smtp_open(ps, server, 25, <userName>, <password>)) then
                
                    pm.to = whoto
                
                    pm.from = whofrom
                
                    pm.subject = sub
                
                    pm.message = msg
                
                '	pm.cc = <some email address>
                '    pm.html_message = msg
                    pm.attachments = attfile
                
                    email_smtp_send(pm, ps)
                    
                    autoemailatt=.t.
                    
                    else
                    autoemailatt = .f.
                
                end if
                
                email_smtp_close(ps)
                END FUNCTION
                Gregg
                https://paiza.io is a great site to test and share sql code

                Comment

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