Snitz Forums 2000 - MOD: Template Driven HTML Email

Snitz Forums 2000

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Snitz Forums 2000 MOD-Group

MOD Add-On Forum (W/Code)

MOD: Template Driven HTML Email

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

joatham
Junior Member

United Kingdom
169 Posts

Posted - 27 February 2002 : 12:45:15

The Beta of ccHTMLMail is finally ready for testing! (See
http://forum.snitz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21566 for
more details).
Please let me know if you download it, and tell me know what you think.
Also, any bug reports would be appreciated.

======================================================================
Description
======================================================================

This Snitz modification allows you to create and use templated HTML
emails for email notifications generated by Snitz. Forum members can
choose from Plain Text mail or HTML mail in their profile settings.

======================================================================
Snitz Version(s) tested on
======================================================================
Snitz Forums 2000 Version 3.3.03

======================================================================
Web Server Software tested on
======================================================================
Microsoft IIS5 on Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft IIS5 (PWS) on Windows 2000 Workstation
Microsoft IIS5 (PWS) on Windows XP Professional

======================================================================
Databases Tested On
======================================================================
Microsoft SQL 2000
Microsoft Access 2000
MySQL V3.23.41 (NT)

======================================================================
Email components supported.
======================================================================
CDONTS
Persits ASPEMail (NOT TESTED!)
JMail (NOT TESTED!)

Others to follow when I know how to code them, or someone helps me!
(I'm already working on CDOSYS)
======================================================================
Author: John Oatham
Download URL: http://www.cosmic-cat.co.uk/snitzmods/

======================================================================
Difficulty level for installation:
4-5 (Should be easy for any competent asp developer, takes about 3/4
of an hour following the installation.txt instructions).

======================================================================
Requirements
======================================================================
Snitz v3.3.03
CDONTS, CDOSYS Persits ASPEmail, or Jmail mail component. (Others to
follow).

======================================================================
Installation Instructions
======================================================================
Please see the separate file installation.txt (supplied with the
zipfile) for full installation instructions or refer to the online
installation guide.

For the latest version of this software, please see
http://www.cosmic-cat.co.uk/snitzmods/

GauravBhabu
Advanced Member

4288 Posts

Posted - 27 February 2002 : 20:02:27

Looking at the structure of this Mod and understanding it, I have found that the functions included in the file

inc_ccHTMLMail.asp are called from the file inc_ccHTMLMailProcess.asp
which is included in inc_mail .asp.

You have included the inc_ccHTMLMail.asp in register.asp, pop_mail.asp, pop_pword.asp, pop_mail.asp etc.

IMO, you can include those functions in inc_ccHTMLMailProcess.asp. Did I miss something or there is a particular reason for keeping the functions in a separate file.

All Template files look the same???

www.forumSquare.com - GauravBhabu - It is difficult to IMPROVE on Perfection, There is no harm in Keep Trying.

Nathan
Help Moderator

USA
7664 Posts

Posted - 27 February 2002 : 23:59:42

Just lettin ya know, checkin this out is number 2 on my 'to do' list.

I noticed the site you made to publish the mod, nice job, want some help putting a database behind that?

Nathan Bales - Romans 15:13
---------------------------------
Snitz Exchange | Mod Resource

joatham
Junior Member

United Kingdom
169 Posts

Posted - 28 February 2002 : 08:02:38

Hi,

quote:

Looking at the structure of this Mod and understanding it, I have found that the functions included in the file

inc_ccHTMLMail.asp are called from the file inc_ccHTMLMailProcess.asp
which is included in inc_mail .asp.

You have included the inc_ccHTMLMail.asp in register.asp, pop_mail.asp, pop_pword.asp, pop_mail.asp etc.

IMO, you can include those functions in inc_ccHTMLMailProcess.asp. Did I miss something or there is a particular reason for keeping the functions in a separate file.

When I originally did the code, all the functions were in the inc_ccHTMLMail.asp page, and the calls to them were in the form of another wrapper function within the same file.

However, this didn't work on all the web server/database combinations I tested it on (it fell over on PWS on WinXP) and the only way I could get it to work properly with inc_subscription.asp etc was by putting the function calls into a separate inline code block to add to inc_mail.asp, calling the functions from the other file. It worked fine for some pages, but not others.

I probably will put the functions and code block together before I release the next version, but didn't have time (or inclination

) to do that for the beta release. (I want to get it all into the same file called from inc_mail.asp, as it would save having to #include it in all of the other files too)

quote:

All Template files look the same???

Yep, they are the same, they were originally different in that each one had a different icon, but then I added the <strIconURL> tag just before I released it, so they are the same. However, if anyone testing the mod can create some more whizzy and exciting template files, then I will add them to the release

John

joatham
Junior Member

United Kingdom
169 Posts

Posted - 28 February 2002 : 08:20:46

Hi Nathan

quote:

Just lettin ya know, checkin this out is number 2 on my 'to do' list.

Excellent, please don't find too many bugs

I also uploaded it to your Snitz Mod Exchange, hope that's okay..

quote:

I noticed the site you made to publish the mod, nice job, want some help putting a database behind that?

Thanks, I basically used Snitz style to generate some static HTML tables and then populated them with the data from the text docs that I had done before. Hopefully I will tidy it up soon, but I thought it was a good idea to get something that people could refer to before downloading it.

The ISP I'm with doesn't allow data driven sites, and Brinkster free hosting can be unreliable at times, so I'm looking into going to a paid-for solution soon, then I will probably look at hooking it to a database, and providing an example forum with the email mod installed. (I can't do email from the ISP hosted site as they don't allow asp/email components, and free Brinkster doesn't have it either).

(I'm also working on a Snitz-driven templated database-generated static-HTML-page mod for another project, so that may be the next mod I look at doing after this one's out of the door)

John

GauravBhabu
Advanced Member

4288 Posts

Posted - 28 February 2002 : 08:48:07

I have implemented at my site. At the moment only for password reminder. Works Nicely. May be I will customize the template to include more information.

To check out how it works -- If you are registered just go to login page at forumsquare and click on Forgot Your Password Link. Fill in the correct details | click on Email Password and an HTML formatted email will be sent.

To receive HTML or non HTML emails I will provide an option under Member Options in Section My Square.

www.forumSquare.com - GauravBhabu - It is difficult to IMPROVE on Perfection, There is no harm in Keep Trying.

joatham
Junior Member

United Kingdom
169 Posts

Posted - 28 February 2002 : 11:23:07

quote:

I have implemented at my site. At the moment only for password reminder. Works Nicely. May be I will customize the template to include more information.

Great stuff, let me know how you get on.. and if you make some templates, can I include them when I release V1?

Re your earlier posting, I tried merging the inline code and functions in the same file (inc_ccHTMLMail.asp) and then #including that in inc_mail.asp only, but all I got was a "Syntax Error" when inc_mail is included within inc_subscription in default.asp (!)

If I put the functions into inc_functions.asp, and the inline stuff into inc_mail.asp, it works fine though. Also makes it a bit tidier, as all of the #includes come out of the other files too.

The only thing is that I wanted to keep it modular to make it easier to update when I write different versions (it would be easier to copy a new inc_ccHTMLMail.asp file with all of the functions etc ready to roll than edit a code block in inc_functions.asp) so I would rather get it working on its own.

Back to the keyboard I think, I'm going to crack this one somehow

Addition: just had a thought, is it because there are functions in my include file, but inc_mail.asp is #including my file in a loop, therefore as far as IIS is concerned it's seeing the functions more than once, which would constitute a Syntax Error when it parses the page? If that's the case (I suspect it is) It is probably better for me to mod inc_functions.asp with my functions. That's what I'm going to do, stand by for release Beta 1.01 later tonight

Edited by - joatham on 28 February 2002 11:29:15

Nathan
Help Moderator

USA
7664 Posts

Posted - 01 March 2002 : 01:21:56

Bravo

It works beautifly. Here are my criticisms.

*Like the documentation
*Take your strConnString out of the config file before building the zip archive
*URLs in emails. Can they be clickable?
*You might consider adding a toggle in the feature congif to turn off HTML emails.

Great mod

Nathan Bales - Romans 15:13
---------------------------------
Snitz Exchange | Mod Resource

joatham
Junior Member

United Kingdom
169 Posts

Posted - 01 March 2002 : 05:55:28

quote:
Bravo It works beautifly.

Thanks for reviewing it, and the praise

quote:
Here are my criticisms.
*Like the documentation

Thanks, that was probably the worst part of doing it; writing the code was a lot easier than documenting how to install it

quote:

*Take your strConnString out of the config file before building the zip archive

Fortunately for me, it's only a test database, otherwise I would have given away the username and password to my SQL database! I'll be sure to fix that before I do anything else..

quote:
*URLs in emails. Can they be clickable?

Good idea, if the mail is sent Plain Text/Mime, then this seems to happen automatically. ~~I'm sure there is a bit of code already in the Snitz asps to do this, so I will see if I can call it to process the HTML string and link URLS.~~ I have found the code to do this and added it, now all emails and urls in the message will be clickable in the html email.

(Note: the next release will also include some new tags for link handling and splitting the content into separate parts to allow further configuration of the email; the system I run on the intranet here does all of that, with tags for user profile, unsubscribe, etc but I left it out of the first version as it's a bit messy code at present).

quote:

*You might consider adding a toggle in the feature congif to turn off HTML emails.

~~I've added this to the feature list and will code it for V1.~~ Now incorporated in v1.01, which I will be releasing tonight

There's also a couple of code tidying bits that I've done following GauravBhabu's notes, so I will be adding these, fixing the default email bug and then rolling out V1.01

Thanks again for taking the time to test it,

John

Edited by - joatham on 01 March 2002 10:55:28

Edited by - joatham on 08 March 2002 12:26:07

Morpheus73
Average Member