>Ed, while I know that the OLE automation is the best documented method to send emails from inside VFP. it is not the only, or best solution to this sort of challange.
>Outlook automation has from what I have read in outlook XP a bug, which prevents automatic emails,. sort of a press this key to continue feature for each email. That 'bug' or feature might have been fixed, or patched, but it was there.
>
>To send out mass emails, why would you suggest a email client being remoted controled by a VFP application. There are plenty of good email mass mailing programs out there, which import textfiles eaisly, and are much better suited for sending out large numbers of emails. OLE is great for a desktop enviorment, where one or two things are done to a word doc, or and excel spreadsheet, but relying on that technology for a 'server' enviorment is IMO just sort of silly.

I didn't say write a mass mailer using Outlook; the question said "how can I send email with graphical content in HTML format created from a VFP database?", and that's a solution. I have good reasons why I use Outlook automation in my application, which is a large publisher and fulfillment processing system, which requires precisely targeted output to selected individuals, with an established user preference for what is returned, and where the content is extracted and constructed from a set of databases. The use of Outlook is a matter of convenience for me; it handles the issue of managing the security of the email (whether or not things are signed or encrypted) and media routing (do I have a fax for the target or an email for the target?) It integrates the issue of AV testing (nothing like pissing off a client by infecting his machine with a macro virus in an Excel spreadsheet you sent him) and scheduling broadcast contact when Internet based mail is not in use. So for me, it's the right solution. But I'm not sending out thousands of pieces of boilerplate.

>
>Other ways to achive this would be to open the smtp port and send email directly from VFP to the SMTP server. or use Blat.DLL to handle it. Rick Strahl's WWIPStuff, also has a good email /smtp sending utility, here
>http://www.west-wind.com/webconnection/docs/_s9001zxho.htm
>
>These are just some alt thoughts to OLE.
>
>Bob Lee
>
>>>From my VFP7 application, I want to be able to send an email to a list of people. I want this email to include merge fields and graphics (HTML?). Any ideas how to accomplish this?
>>
>>I normally do this using Outlook automation; the body of an Outlook email may contain HTML, but you'll have to provide a way to either resolve the graphics externally (probably by URL) or embed the graphic. Mail merge inclusion is relatively easy, since the body of the message can be created programmatically, so you simply fill in the blanks as you write it.
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>>You might consider creating a Word doc and attaching it to the email as well; IAC, I'd suggest that you pick up a copy of Tamar Granor's and Della Martin's book on using Office Automation in VFP (I forget the exact name, but it's available from Hentzenwerke Publishing, www.hentzenwerke.com, and from stores like Amazon. A big benefit of buying it direct from the publisher is that they make the entire book available in a e-book format (really a big .CHM file) so once your order is confirmed, you can download the entire content and not wait on the physical book to arrive.
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>>(Hint to Hentzenwerke - when do the salesmen's commissions kick in? < g >)