ost87
asked on
email functionality in FileMaker
Hi
Hopefully get some help here.
I have a database of contacts in FileMaker 7.3 and I would like to introduce email functionality, so that I can email contacts.
More specifically:
1. Be able to send emails from FileMaker (receiving emails is not important)
2. Email that I've sent to contacts should be stored, so that I can see a history of the emails that I've sent to my contacts.
3. Create email templates that can be used when sending emails.
I'm not a FileMaker expert, and have minimal knowledge of scripts.
I would really appreciate a fool-proof step by step guide on how to achieve this functionality.
Hopefully get some help here.
I have a database of contacts in FileMaker 7.3 and I would like to introduce email functionality, so that I can email contacts.
More specifically:
1. Be able to send emails from FileMaker (receiving emails is not important)
2. Email that I've sent to contacts should be stored, so that I can see a history of the emails that I've sent to my contacts.
3. Create email templates that can be used when sending emails.
I'm not a FileMaker expert, and have minimal knowledge of scripts.
I would really appreciate a fool-proof step by step guide on how to achieve this functionality.
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If you find the above concatenation a bit hairy to type, you may be interested by my way:
I use a text field as a template, and put every variable in between brackets (which normally does not exist in a normal text).
Then when required, I use a nested substitute function to replace every variable by its value, then send it.
quick one:
template field:
"I wanted to thank [polite_form], for your visite on [date]."
substitute (email_body ; "[polite_form]" ; polite_field )
substitute (email_body ; "[date]" ; date_field )
once nested:
substitute (subtsitute (email_body ;
"[date]" ; date_field ) ;
"[polite_form]" ; polite_field
)
I found this method a lot easier to read when you have 50 lines of text with 25 variables interleaved
so up to you now!
I use a text field as a template, and put every variable in between brackets (which normally does not exist in a normal text).
Then when required, I use a nested substitute function to replace every variable by its value, then send it.
quick one:
template field:
"I wanted to thank [polite_form], for your visite on [date]."
substitute (email_body ; "[polite_form]" ; polite_field )
substitute (email_body ; "[date]" ; date_field )
once nested:
substitute (subtsitute (email_body ;
"[date]" ; date_field ) ;
"[polite_form]" ; polite_field
)
I found this method a lot easier to read when you have 50 lines of text with 25 variables interleaved
so up to you now!
First I wanna make sure you agree on what FM can do.
Do you wish to send plain text or HTML? FM can only send text emails and attached files.
Do you want to rely on the current session default email application or do you want fm to be independant of any app to send the email? FM only uses the default account of the default email app to send the email.
And yes, FM can store the stuff sent since the email can be fully made up from fields contents, but does not know if the email app has effectively sent the email if anything goes wrong with the email app or used a wrong address, etc...
I personnally uses either:
- internal email FM generation for simple emails + attached PDF previously done with FM for complex stuff
- or use an external plug-in to send HTML emails independently from anything else (has a cost per client used)