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A5 Internal emailer problem #2

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    A5 Internal emailer problem #2

    Just another problem I have observed with the in-built A5 mailer.
    If I use the Xbasic "email_client()" method to send email messages using fields from my customer table (for example with data field tags ""custno"" ""companyname"" etc.), my email message goes out customized with the customer details. Pretty clever, huh!
    Now if I try the same trick using the "email_send()" method, my email message goes out but not customized at all - all the data field tags are NOT translated by A5 into customer data. Not so clever.
    What I really want is to be able to send out customized email messages from one "send email" button click on my form using data in my customer table, e.g. if current balance more than 60 days outstanding.
    If I use "email_client()" to send out my reminder messages I can only send one message at a time. If I use "email_send()" I can send out all messages in one click, but they are not customized correctly.
    Bother! to put it mildly. I can't find a way around this problem (wait for version 6?). Does anyone have a solution?

    #2
    RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

    Hi Brett, Are you trying to hard code the merge fields in Xbasic ? Seems like the hard way to go.

    Just create an email template and embed your merge fields there to pull your data. Then when you build your email action for the button have it call the template.

    Marc
    www.a5solutions.com
    Marc King
    A5solutions

    Comment


      #3
      RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

      Thanks, Marc. That sounds like a really good idea! Yes, I was coding it in Xbasic because I have an existing script and all I needed to do to enable email support was to add 1 line of code! (I really love A5 when it makes things this easy!)
      I will try out your suggestion. There's a bit more work for me to do it this way, but if it works I don't mind at all!

      Comment


        #4
        RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

        The merge capability is built into the email client, but not email_send(). This is by design as email_send() is intended to handle the behind-the-scenes work of sending email across the Internet. V6 works the same in this regard.

        If you want to merge and send multiple emails from a single button, you have two options

        - Write an xbasic script that does the merge for you and sends each of these merged messages

        - Consider purchasing our NetMailer product. This is exactly what it was created to do. There is also a Pro version which will handle email list maintenance as well.

        -Lenny

        Lenny Forziati
        Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
        Alpha Software Corporation

        Comment


          #5
          RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

          Thanks, Lenny. That's interesting. I didn't know about NetMailer but even so, I think I would have still written my own application as it is a customer registration system with an integrated emailer. And the only problem I have is that to send customized email messages (with merge of a email template with information from my customer table) I have to use "email_client()" which only allows one message to be sent at a time. So I will use your suggestion and develop my own Xbasic script.
          Which poses an interesting question. NetMailer is an A5 application that does email merge but I can see no A5 Xbasic method that specifically does this. Is there an undocumented A5 method that does the merge or what? Thanks.

          Comment


            #6
            RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

            The merge functionality is part of the Netmailer product itself, it is not included as part of Alpha Five.

            -Lenny

            Lenny Forziati
            Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
            Alpha Software Corporation

            Comment


              #7
              RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

              But it is also used by the email_client() method and that is included in A5. Do you know how I can use it too in A5?

              Comment


                #8
                RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

                You can't Brett, it is not a stand-alone function.

                Lenny Forziati
                Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
                Alpha Software Corporation

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: A5 Internal emailer problem #2

                  I'll stick it on a list of things to do - a generalized UDF to do a mail merge. I am sure many A5 users would find it usefull.

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