Hi Jeffrey

The idea behind smtp it is a standard seperate from any particular product,
to use it you are unlikely to need to test what variety is installed.

Sending mail using SMTP is straight forward and there are many products that will do it. The West Wind has a free utilty control to do this from VFP.
There is a product called Blat which is a very simple way to do it from a command line.

There are a few ways to move mail around
Here is an extract from a thread thats been running the past few days.

Hope some of this helps

Mark



>1. SMPT Control
>
>Advantages.
>By using just classes that deal with SMTP the application will be acessible to the widest possible number of users. SMTP classes will not care what email client the user is using because it will be not be using it.
>SMTP will be around forever just about.
>
>Disadvantages
>Corporate users may not be able to connect to the SMTP server through their firewall. I cant find any stuff on receiving SMTP mail that has a VFP slant.
>ie I might have to do it all myself:(
>
>2. MAPI Control
>
>Advantages.
>Many users will have a MAPI complient Email client but there is chance this may change in the forseable future (Office XP according to our network guys)
>The users will not require MS Outlook on their PCs
>
>Disadvantages
>There may be a problem in trying to retrieve an attachment when those attachments are stored in MS Exchange rather than on the PC it self. HELP!
>
>3. Outlook Control
>Advantages
>Using the Outlook control provides access to the Outlook folders so the mail can be deleted after the attachments have been read. This will provide a much tidier solution for the user than MAPI.
>
>Disadvantages
>All the people who use the system must also have MS Outlook on their machine so there are licence issues involved even assuming that they are happy to have Outlook sitting there upsetting their existing mail system:(






>I need something that will help me determine automatically what type of smtp a client has. I have an application but i can not make it a requirement for teh client to purchase ms office in order to use that particular capability. Any ideas by anyone?