Outgoing Emails - Attachments

technopak

Hi,

I'm trying to implement email functionality in my app but have come up with a problem. My scenario is as follows -

I have a ClientEmail BO which has Subject, Message and Attachment1 attributes. Attachment1 is of type Document.

I have defined an OutgoingEmail notification which also has Subject, Message and Attachment1 attributes. Attachment1 is of type Document here also.

My problem is in posting the ClientEmail data into the OutgoingEmail notification - I can't !

After much trial and error I have discovered that I can set the default value of Subject and Message of the OutgoingEmail notification to ClientEmail.Subject and ClientEmail.Message respectively and the email sends with these values included. As the default value of Attachment1 of the OutgoingEmail notification is not configurable, I can't use this method to place the ClientEmail attachment into the email.

Can someone suggest how I can set the OutgoingEmail.Attachment1=ClientEmail.Attachment1 ? I've tried using a simple rule in my process, without success.

I'm probably missing something simple, but would be glad of some help with this.

Peter

technopak

Does anyone use attachments in outgoing email from Aware ?

Peter

aware_support

We use attachments all the time. Simple attachments of the attribute should work.

technopak

Hi,

Thanks support for the reply.

Does this mean that only attachments of type document (UDDs or Presentations) already in the system can be used ? Those are the only default values which can be configured in the notification - and there doesn't seem to be any way to post attribute values into the notification from another in-context BO.

My users need to attach files just as they would in any other email application - jpg, pdf etc.

Can that be done ?

Help !

Peter

aware_support

Assigning two documents works like so:

a) If the type of the attribute to be assigned is Plain Text, the value of this attribute is considered to be either the name of a user-defined or pre-comnfigured template (user defined has priority - i.e. if there is a user defined and system document with the same name, user defined is taken). When such template is assigned Aware IM performs automatic "mail-merge"

b) If the type of the attrubute to be assigned is "Document", the existing document is copied to the target attribute. No "mail-merge" is performed.

The Attachment attribute in the notification conforms to the above rules

technopak

Hi,

I don't understand.

My question really is - how do I allow users to attach files such as spreadsheets, word documents, images or pdfs to outgoing emails ?

As I mentioned earlier, I don't seem to be able to post the file to be attached into the outgoing notification. Surely that is possible, but how ?

A step-by-step instruction would be great.

Thanks.

Peter

RocketRod

I use it all the time, quite straightforward. One Example is we have Company literature which my users email to customers.

Just have a query.
Put a process on the query, "Email to customer" say.
The process has as input the literature BO. A user selects a row of the query, then clicks on the button for the process.

Step 1 of the process is EmailBO.Document=LiteratureBO.Document
Step 2 Send EmailBO to customer

Thats it!

Cheers Rod

rocketman

Perhaps I can help clarify - I hit the same brick wall 10 months ago and gave up in the end.

I have a BO called Bulkmail, containing attributes owner subject message attach1 attach2 and attach3. The three attach's are of the type Document

Using this BO, my members can compose and save emails ready for sending and also upload documents to each of the attributes attach1, 2, and 3, again ready for sending.

I then have an outgoing email notification called bulktext which has the usual attributes plus attachment1, attachment2 attachment3 which are of the document type.

What I haven't been able to figure out is how to assign Bulkmail.attach1 to the outgoing email notification Bulktext.attachment1

hope this make sense

RocketRod

Just

Bulktext.attachment1= Bulkmail.attach1
Bulktext.attachment2= Bulkmail.attach2
Bulktext.attachment3= Bulkmail.attach3

Did you do this? Did it not work for you? The attachments on both BO's are of course of the document type? As I say I have had no issues. Always worked for me.

Cheers Rod

rocketman

Hi Rod,

No it's not working for me. I'm trying to send in bulk, so my process is:

PICK ONE OR MORE FROM Memberfind
CREATE BulkText FOR EACH Members WITH BulkText.Attachment1=BulkMail.Attachment1,BulkText.Attachment2=BulkMail.Attachment2,BulkText.Attachment3=BulkMail.Attachment3
SEND BulkText TO Members

RocketRod

Mmm...Can't see anything wrong with it as long as Bulkmail is in context. I assume you have done that? Are the instances of Bulktext being created but without the attachments?

Cheers Rod

rocketman

correct,

Mail is getting through to everyone - minus the attachments

I'm a few versions behind - being a gliding club I have to wait for my budgets to be reset at the start of the financial year before I can pay the annual fee. How long has it been working for you?

technopak

Hi,

Thanks for the posts.

I have exactly Rocketman's issue - trying to send an email with attachments to multiple recipients.

I'm using version 1301 and it just isn't possible to post the attachment value from the BO in context into the notification.attachment1.

And worse again, I've checked the library sample application - and it doesn't work either.

Further help badly needed on this one.

Peter

technopak

A footnote - I don't use the FOR EACH construct mentioned above.

Perhaps I should ?

A detailed guide to making this work would be really useful 🙂

Peter

aware_support

My guess is that people who use builds 1301 and 1326 should update to the latest version (or at least try it in the latest build before updating)

technopak

Ok, that's something we can try.

Upgrading to a much newer version brings it's own hazards to anyone with clients' installations who then also need to be upgraded.

I am a bit disappointed that the message seems to be that it just didn't work in older versions - versions as recent as less than a year ago.

If anyone managed to get email attachment functionality working in anything except the current version, I really would like to know how.

Peter

technopak

UPDATE -

It works fine in the latest version and I'll write step by step description of how I implemented it later.

So now I just need to purchase a developer licence for the latest version. I'm a bit annoyed that I must pay to get a functionality to work which was supposed to be part of my original purchase.

I would have been updating at some stage, but my hand is now being forced - and that's not good.

On a positive note, the new version seems to operate significantly faster than previous version.

Well done Aware, but I'm still not happy about being forced to upgrade.

Peter

technopak

Here's how I did it -

Create a Client BO which is an intelligent object with the email channel enabled.
Create a BO called ClientEmail.

ClientEmail has standard email attributes Subject, Message, and Attachment1(of type Document). The Main form has attribute fields for those attributes.

Create an outgoing email notification called OutgoingEmail.
Set the default values of OutgoingEmail.Subject=ClientEmail.Subject and OutgoingEmail.Message=ClientEmail.Message.
Create a query called AllClients which lists all Clients. The query can be configured to suit any purpose.
Create a process called SendBulkEmail with the following rules -

ENTER ClientEmail USING Main
CREATE OutgoingEmail WITH OutgoingEmail.Attachment1=ClientEmail.Attachment1
PICK ONE OR MORE FROM AllClients
SEND OutgoingEmail TO Clients
Display Message 'Email Sent to Selected Clients'

Finally run the SendBulkEmail from a menu button.

And that is in the very latest build of version 4.95 🙂

Peter

tford

Hi Peter,

I know you can attach PDFs in older builds because I used have done so. Sorry I am coming in late on this thread.

technopak

Hi Tom,

That's interesting - but how exactly ?

I have previously attached UDDs which are pdf files, could that be what you mean ?

Could it just be that my old build was dodgy ?

Peter