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FileMaker Inc. introduced FileMaker 8 with many outstanding new feautures. Sending emails by the user directly from FileMaker is one of them. A Send Mail script step was first available in FileMaker 2.1 for Windows, but accessing the functionality required scripting. In FileMaker 8, sending one or multiple email(s) using data in the solution is offered from the menu, no scripting required (provided the developer does not remove this option using menu customization). We will restrict ourselves to the Send Mail menu item/script step: the Save/Send as PDF and Save/Send as Excel options have been discussed in detail in the #29 issue of the For FileMaker Newsletter.

Introducing the Send Mail command

The Send Mail menu item/script step comes with a wide range of options. The user can send personalised emails to recipients in an amazing variety of ways. For all the available options and email client considerations consult the Help of your FileMaker 8 application. Please be warned that once these emails are sent, there is usually no way to revoke them.

The Send Mail script step is not web-compatible. (There is no Send Mail option in the Status Area of Instant Web Publishing either.)

The Send Mail command relies on your email application to send the email(s). The following applications are tested and proven to work with this function, according to FileMaker Inc.:

• Mail or Microsoft Entourage for OSX or;
• a PC, properly configured for emails and a MAPI compliant email client like Microsoft Exchange / Outlook Express for Windows (Eudora users please refer to note #3 under “Special Considerations” below).

The outcome of the Send Mail command depends on your email client since the client is actually sending the email(s).

Sending emails is a powerful option raising some concerns too. In an age where a flood of spam emails fills up and clogs our mailboxes, we have to emphasize restraint and self-control. With these powers now available for users comes responsibility too.

Using the Send Mail command

The new Send Mail menu item (normally available in the File menu) offers too many options for a feature summary like this. We will restrict ourselves to a basic introduction and an example to start with.

In order to avoid confusion, we will refer to the Send Mail window parts (To:, CC:, BCC:, Subject: and Message:) as “part”. The term “field” below always refers to a FileMaker field. We will assume that the recipients’ email addresses are stored in the database. (MS Outlook for Windows users can also use their Address Book to obtain addressee email addresses.)

The example we have is that of a newsletter already saved as a PDF file on the sender’s computer, to be sent to a selected list of email addresses stored in a Contact database solution.

Open your Contact database and search for those contacts you want to send the newsletter to.

Next, set up the email message to be sent. In the “Create:” part, select “Multiple emails (one for each record in found set)”. In the “To:” part, specify the addresses by pointing to the field containing the email addresses of your readers, and select “For each message, collect addresses across found set” (see sample in Figure 1). Please do not skip the “Subject: ” part. Set up a contact-specific message field and you can even send a personalized message for each recipient.

(A note: although you can send a single email using blind carbon-copy (BCC) to your readers too, some SPAM filters will identify it as spam and flag it accordingly.)

It is time to attach the Newsletter itself to the email. Check “Attach file” and locate your Newsletter PDF file in the dialog box that pops up.

Now stop and check again, if you have all the parts set up correctly. If so, hit the OK button, sit back and wait for reader feedback to pour in regarding all the interesting issues you wrote about in your Newsletter (at least this is our experience).

This process can even be scripted.

Special considerations

1. Although not a FileMaker issue in the strict sense, we have to call the attention that all the rules and regulations concerning sending emails apply regardless of what application we use to initiate the email. A solution used to send newsletters or other regular, repeated mailings to contacts should be prepared to offer an opt-out for contacts asking not to be targeted (even if they do not ask for their data removed).
2. The dialogue parts in the Send Mail window behave as calculations. Reserved characters and words like [,],.,(,), ,&, ,>, ,<,+,-,:,;,*, and, or, not, substitute, etc. should not be directly used. Check the Help of your FileMaker 8 application on how to properly include them if necessary.
3. Eudora 5 users have to start Eudora before initiating the emailing feature in FileMaker.

The Send Mail script step does not allow multiple emails to be sent using Eudora under Mac OS X (has not been tested with Windows), because the email separator used by FileMaker is a semi colon (;) and not a comma (,). Although the first email is usually sent, the remaining ones are not.

The Bottom Line

The Send Mail command, although long available for advanced users, contains enough new options to be considered one of the significant improvements in FileMaker 8. Its user interface, however, seems to require additional training and preparation, because:

• of the availability of the Specify Calculation … option, which is unfamiliar to general users;
• testing is difficult. Erroneous usage of the functionality might have serious consequences reaching beyond the limits of the solution (for example, sending a bunch of emails to unsuspecting recipients by accident);
• results depend on both the settings of the user’s email client and the user’s email service provider.

We recommend discouraging untrained users from experimenting with this command from the menu. It is highly recommended for a developer to script the specific scenarios and provide users with a scripted access to sending emails the specific way(s) they need.
László Vajda

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