(Preface: IPSwitch is the company that makes IMail. IMail is an A+ product when it comes to IMAP, SMTP, and webmail. But their database connectivity stinks.)

The sample DLL does not work with the VFP ODBC driver. It was made for Access, and tested with IPSwitch for Access and MSSQL. It was not tested with any other driver. IPSwitch does not provide any support for the DLL.

The IMail DLL does not handle the VFP deleted() flag, regardless of how it is set in the system DSN. It also does not insert properly. The VFP ODBC DLL also has broken under stress for me, and email is something that users never tolerate breaking. :)
The DLL works in Access, but it is so low-performance that it makes my teeth hurt. The Jet ODBC driver also breaks before the VFP one does.

Right now I am looking at putting MSSQL on the same box as the IMail server and going through the whole (very poor) IPSwitch<->MSSQL setup in order to get users in the database.

Because the IMail user database connection is very open-ended, I was hoping the ODBC dll could be swapped for something I could create in VFP. Then I could use a real DBC and take advantage of VFP's speed and stability without having to load a whole RDBMS. Also, if it was in VFP I could encrypt certain table columns, as the sample driver only does clear-text storage.


This is brand new territory for me - how would I put together a procedural DLL that called a VFP DLL (or exe)? Being able to use VFP for the accounts would be of very, very great benefit to IPSwitch IMail customers, since "everyone" complains about how bad their database is.

Thanks.



>Hi Steve,
>
>>I am looking into providing an alternate way to manage IMail (a decent email server package) user accounts. IMail's external database handling is very primitive, and there are no COM calls. It only supports data handling through an external DLL, and that DLL is not a COM DLL.
>
>IMail uses a procedural DLL. You need C++ or Delphi to create one. However, I found a reference on the web stating that it comes with a sample DLL that uses ODBC. Since we have an ODBC VFP driver, can't you use that DLL?
>
>Christof