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MS Access Forum / General 1 / June 2006HTML Emails from Access
Apologies if this has been covered before - I couldn't find it. I currently use ASPEmail to create and send HTML emails from an Access database. The text is personalised and includes embedded graphics, eg logos and even the recipients photo. Note that everything is embedded, no attachments are sent. ASPEmail works a treat but is very long winded to create. The email designs come to me as finished HTML but I have to extract the source and convert it to a string - not that simple a process - and write quite a bit of code around it to actually get the thing to work. What would be nicer would be to do something like I already do for word documents, that is, set up a template with bookmarks and use automation to bring up the document, put in the data fields and print it. Is there something like this I could use with Outlook? Or does anyone know if there is a better way to do this? I'm happy to pay for a 3rd party solution. Thanks Dave > Apologies if this has been covered before - I couldn't find it. > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Thanks > Dave Consider the code below. If it were to be used extensively it would be wise to rewrite it using parameters for such things as the html file path. Probably, an error handler should be included which makes certain the low-level DOS File is closed, even if some other problem terminates the execution of the code. (In the olden days, unclosed low-level DOS files could haunt one's computer for a very long time, causing all sorts of havoc. I don't know if this is still true.) I expect that you already know that in HTML E-Mail one may have to use absolute hrefs, srcs etc in img and other tags etc. Alts are a good idea too. If the HTML file has distinct placeholders, such a "PlaceHolderOne", one can do simple Replaces to make each send unique. I have done this previously when posting code. Public Sub VerySimpleSendHTMLMailWithCDOSample() Dim iCfg As Object Dim iMsg As Object Dim FileNumber As Integer Dim Buffer As String FileNumber = FreeFile() Open "C:\Documents and Settings\Lyle Fairfield\My Documents\FFDBABackup\index.html" For Binary As #FileNumber Buffer = String(LOF(FileNumber), vbNullChar) Get #FileNumber, , Buffer Close #FileNumber Set iCfg = CreateObject("CDO.Configuration") Set iMsg = CreateObject("CDO.Message") With iCfg.Fields .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2 .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = 25 .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = "smtp.aim.com" .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate") = 1 .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername") = "eugenevdebs" .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword") = "Sol1dar1ty4Ever" .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendemailaddress") = "Eugene V Debs <eugenevdebs@aim.com>" .Update End With With iMsg .Configuration = iCfg .HTMLBody = Buffer .Subject = "Here's Some HTML" .To = "lfairfield@cogeco.ca" .Send End With Set iMsg = Nothing Set iCfg = Nothing End Sub **** News clients will introduce extraneous line-feeds in this code. **** Do I recommend this? I do not! I recommend uploading the HTML file (personalized or not) to a server and sending a link to that page in the e-mail. I have code for that too. Thanks Lyle But one of my problems is the subject line. Using either your suggested code, or the system I'm currently using, I need to convert the raw HTML into a text string, and that's the bit that takes the time because my client likes designing some pretty long emails loads of tables, font changes etc etc. I have it all sussed, putting in graphics and variables and so on, and it works beautifully. I'm just trying to find a short cut really. Dave > > Apologies if this has been covered before - I couldn't find it. > > [quoted text clipped - 85 lines] > (personalized or not) to a server and sending a link to that page in > the e-mail. I have code for that too. > Thanks Lyle > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > graphics and variables and so on, and it works beautifully. I'm just > trying to find a short cut really. Put the base "template" HTML in a memo > Thanks Lyle > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > graphics and variables and so on, and it works beautifully. I'm just > trying to find a short cut really. Put the base "template" HTML in a memo field of a table and insert markers into it. I use things like {Some_Data_Field_Name}. When constructing the EMail just use several iterations of the Replace() function to insert your real data and then stuff the result into the Email.  SignatureRick Brandt, Microsoft Access MVP Email (as appropriate) to... RBrandt at Hunter dot com There is no substantive difference between an HTML string and any other string. We call the one an HTML string because it contains HTML tags; when this string is sent to a browser, the browser interprets these tags and shows the results of wonderful tricks the instructions for which are determined by the tag. We can save the string as a file, or in a sufficiently large field. We can retrieve the string and we can send that to an e-mail program. The only difference between having the e-mail message rendered as HTML and having it rendered in plain text is the instruction we give to the e-mail program. Almost all coding languages have a replace function which can be used to modify any string, including an HTML string. > I need to convert the raw HTML > into a text string, and that's the bit > that takes the time because my > client likes designing some pretty > long emails loads of tables, font > changes etc etc. Help me understand: I have always been under the impression that "raw HTML" _IS_ a text string. Do you mean you need to find just the _content_ and extract it from the formatting markup as a plain text string? Larry Linson Microsoft Access MVP I'll try to explain - HTML is indeed a text string, but if you look at a web page, then view source, then copy and paste the source into an Access module and assign it to a string variable, then the mail program fails. It fails because you need to take care of all the places where quote marks are used in normal html eg html may look like this: <table width="33"> assign that to a text variable s gives s = "<table width="33">" but to make it work you need s = "<table width=""33"">" Similarly: s = "<font color=#" & "123456>" OK, that's not too hard but with a lot of complex html it becomes a real pain to have to go through it all and make the changes. I'm trying to find an alternative method as what I'm given is a perfect finished page of html. Dave > > I need to convert the raw HTML > > into a text string, and that's the bit [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Larry Linson > Microsoft Access MVP > I'll try to explain - HTML is indeed a text string, but if you look at > a web page, then view source, then copy and paste the source into an [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > but to make it work you need > s = "<table width=""33"">" [snip] You do not need to do this. I assign long HTML markup to string variables all the time and I don't have to do anything about the quotes in the HTML. If you are *building* the string in your code then you do have this issue, but if you pull the HTML from a file or database record then it is not an issue. Same is true of long complex SQL strings. If I pull them from a database field then I don't have to worry about all of the usual quote delimiting that would be required were I constructing the string inside the code routine. SignatureRick Brandt, Microsoft Access MVP Email (as appropriate) to... RBrandt at Hunter dot com Aha !! I've just realised something - the html source I receive from the designer has quote marks around every parameter eg <table width="33">. I now discover that these quote marks are not needed. Apparently they are good practice, but not essential. So if I get rid of all quote marks withing the html then my problems are solved. Even better, the designer is going to strip them all out for me - big sigh of relief. Dave > > I'll try to explain - HTML is indeed a text string, but if you look at > > a web page, then view source, then copy and paste the source into an [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > Email (as appropriate) to... > RBrandt at Hunter dot com > Aha !! > I've just realised something - the html source I receive from the [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > marks withing the html then my problems are solved. Even better, the > designer is going to strip them all out for me - big sigh of relief. How are they sent? If they are sent as files then certainly stripping off quotation marks is unnecessary. In some cases quotation marks are essential. You can read the contents of a text file and assign it to a string variable without worrying about quotation marks. Copying the string from a View Source utility is inefficient. They are sent as html files, straight out of Dreamweaver I believe. I open them in a browser to see what they look like. Then I view the source and copy and paste it to a module and start work on it. Anyway, not to worry. I've got it all working fine now - so thanks to everyone Dave > > Aha !! > > I've just realised something - the html source I receive from the [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > variable without worrying about quotation marks. Copying the string > from a View Source utility is inefficient. > Or does anyone know if there is a better way to do this? I'm happy to > pay for a 3rd party solution. Take a look at this tool: FMS Total Access Emailer http://www.fmsinc.com/Products/Emailer/index.asp I haven't personally used this tool, but I have taken a look at some other of their products and they have some pretty useful tools. Greg |
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