Hi All

I believe that many of our business applications are relying on sending emails, some also on retrieving emails from within the DataFlex Application. Often this is on a Microsoft network using Outlook on the client and Exchange on the server.

Traditionally our options have been one of:
  1. Using MAPI, as per DataFlex example
  2. Using a ActiveX/COM STMP object
  3. Using a command line emailer like BLAT


Each has their own advantages and limitations.

I’ve build a prototype of a solution that has (I believe) all the advantages and none of the limitations:
  • The email you send will show up in your sent items in outlook
  • You can sent emails from one machine (WebApp) using the ‘real’ user’s email account and have it in their sent items in their outlook
  • It does not matter if your Exchange email server is in house (Small Business Server, or full Exchange server), or you are using hosted exchange or Office 365.
  • You do not have to ‘activate’ smtp access on your Exchange mail server.


Now how does that work, you might ask…
Basically I have a DataFlex class and a DLL that communicates direct to your mail server (Exchange local, hosted or 365) using the Microsoft recommended communications protocol.

The status of this project is that I’ve completed the Proof of concept. I’m now looking for feedback and expressions of interest for this email solution. If everybody agrees that this is an essential email solution for DataFlex projects moving forward, it will encourage me to complete the project. If nobody responds, I might only use it in my own projects, and do not have to worry about documentation

I’m looking forward to your comments.

Kind regards
Marco