Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Andy Brown
Andy BrownFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

asked on

Sending emails via MS Access

Hi, I need to be able to send out emails from MS Access that can provide read-reciepts and delivery reports.  We can't use Outlook for this (as not all of our clients use it) and CDO doesn't provide all of the capabilities that we need.

Can anyone recommend a third party add-in?
Avatar of peter57r
peter57r
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

I'm not following the logic here.

Why can you only use Outlook if your clients use Outlook?
Avatar of Andy Brown

ASKER

Hi Pete - hope you are well.

We "Can't" use Outlook - it needs to be stand-alone.
<<and CDO doesn't provide all of the capabilities that we need.>>

  What are you looking to do that CDO can't?

  That aside, most Access Developers either turn to BLAT

http://www.blat.net/

 or vbSendMail

http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=109

  Both of these allow you to talk directly to an SMTP server to send mail.

Jim.
>>Hi, I need to be able to send out emails from MS Access that can provide read-reciepts and >>delivery reports.  We can't use Outlook for this (as not all of our clients use it) and CDO >>doesn't provide all of the capabilities that we need.

Is the point of this that you want to send an email, and verify that it was received and read? For messages sent out of your network?

Can't be done reliably... with all of the things done to combat spam and viruses, getting read receipts from everyone is impossible.

On all of the networks I support for clients we don't allow read receipts to leave the network, they're stripped out for all messages that originate outside the local network. And the only reason we leave the internal on is to trip the voice mail light on telephones.

HTH

Scot
Thanks Scot - I am aware of the points you rasied, but I have been asked to at least add the capability - just in case.

Much appreciated.
Are you adding this capability to an existing database? Or is this a new project?

If new; what about using a service like Constant Contact? I use that with several of my clients for sending monthly meeting notices, newsletters, announcements etc.

It provides tracking of emails (as best it can...) and clicking of links in emails. The reporting is quite good.

HTH

Scot
Thanks Scot - I'll take a look.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Jim Dettman (EE MVE)
Jim Dettman (EE MVE)
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Thanks for your recommendation Jim.

The way to send emails reliably in a deployed application is to use SMTP. That eliminates the reliance on Outlook being installed and open on the machine, MAPI security requirements, etc.

Take a look at our Total Access Emailer add-in program and VBA library. It's designed for professional Microsoft Access application deployments that's much more reliable than other approaches. There's an add-in which is interactive and a programmatic VBA library interface if you want to launch it within your application (your users don't need to know Total Access Emailer is even running).

Regarding read-receipts, that depends on the recipient and is not reliable. Delivery options are available. More importantly, we offer auditing features so a date field in your record can be timestamped when the record's email gets sent. You can also keep a record of the table and/or Bcc every message.

Unlike using something like Constant Contacts, Total Access Emailer lets you integrate your Access data and reports in your emails so that each email is unique. Services like ConstantContact don't run Access and wouldn't be able to filter an Access report, output it as PDF, and attach it your personalized message.

Let me know if you have further questions. A trial version is here: http://www.fmsinc.com/MicrosoftAccess/Email/free-trial.html
Thanks guys - I'm currently testing the FMS software, which seems to work really well.

I am testing a couple of other products, but this is by far the best one we've seen.
<<Thanks guys - I'm currently testing the FMS software, which seems to work really well.

I am testing a couple of other products, but this is by far the best one we've seen. >>

 It's good stuff; the guys at FMS really know what they are doing and have been around for many, many years.

Jim.
Andrew,

Glad you are having a positive experience with Total Access Emailer. I'm the president and founder of FMS, and intimately involved with Total Access Emailer. Feel free to provide me with any feedback either positive or negative. I'm always looking for ways to improve the product. Good luck.

Luke