ARM Club 3/TheARMClub_PDCD3.iso/programs/comms_networking/quickmail/!QUICKMail/!Help

Text File | 1998-08-28 | 25.3 KB | 864 lines

Program   : QUICKMail
Author    : © MoZes (Stuart Winter)/POLplex, 1997, 1998
Purpose   : To send short emails via a task window using ANT release II
Version   : 2.22

Build Date: 28/08/98

Status    : Sockware



PLEASE read this documentation CAREFULLY, as you may miss out vital
parts of the configuration, or not understand how to work the
program.


**************************************************************************
**************************************************************************
STANDARD DISCLAIMER :


I, Stuart Winter, nor Alisdair McDiarmid (author of !QMC and SMTPSend)
do *-NOT-* accept -any- responsibilty for  any data loss or whatever
may go wrong, so don't blame us - although, nothing should go wrong.


     If you do not agree with this, please delete this program now.
**************************************************************************
**************************************************************************


-----------

Contents.
``````````

1.   Introduction and a very brief history of QuickMail.
2.   How to configure QuickMail
3.   QuickMail's address book facility
4.   The Save Box facility (for recording all mails created with QuickMail)
5.   Starting up QuickMail so you can compose a mail.
6.   Inputting information (Mail Input fields and the use of aliases)
7.   Composing the mail
8.   Sending the mail to either local suite or SMTP server directly.
9.   External URL To:  Launcher Input
10.  Closing down QuickMail
11.  Notes about versions greater than v2.00
12.  Bugs?
13.  The concept of Sockware ?
14.  My appologies.
15.  Contacting me for suggestions/bug reports
16.  Aknowledgements

===============================================================================


1.  Introduction:
    =============

This program was basically written by myself to quickly send emails
whilst doing something else, (ie IRC, Web browsing etc) and had not
much memory left to load ANT's Marcel.

So I knocked up this little program which will run in 42k in a
taskwindow.


If you want to see what I did in various updates then there is a
'History' file.  You can also see why your old versions just didn't
work properly at all <grin>

I actually have plenty of memory now in my StrongARM RPC, but I like
QuickMail, so I still use it anyway :-)
It also copes with Mailto:'s properly, where as Marcel doesn't.


===============================================================================






2.  Configuring
    ===========

Configuring QuickMail is carried out by using a Wimp Interface,
provided by !QMC which is supplied in the same directory as
!QuickMail itself.



The options available are pretty straight forward.
You have a


From address
************

This should go in the form of

[e-mail]

For instance, mine is  [e-mail]

Yours maybe,  [e-mail]
or similar.



User name
*********

Mine is 'Stuart Winter'



Reply-To
********

The 'Reply-to' address does not need to be filled in.  You can look
at the documentation which comes with ANT, to see what this means.

However, briefly, all it means is that the user who you send it to,
will have their mail sent *back* to you, to the address which you
specify in this field.

For instance;

My 'From'  address is [e-mail]

But, for some reason, I want them to reply to
[e-mail]

I would simply put [e-mail] into the Reply-To field,
and when the user replies to my mail, it would get sent back to
[e-mail] instead of [e-mail]


Local host
**********

By default, this is left blank.  It simply changes the origin where
the mail has supposed to have originated from.
For instance, I set this to  zaden.ccl4.org   but if I left it blank,
it would become polpex.demon.co.uk.  This is because I have a demon
account, and my host name is Polplex.
    ==  If you do not understand this, just leave it blank.  ==




Grab 'mailto:'  URLs
********************

This is described later on in this file.



Signature file
**************

This is simply a file containing text which will be added to every
mail which you create using QuickMail.
Currently, QuickMail comes supplied with such a signature.
If you wish to change it (which you will, believe me), then simply
click on the relevant icon.  It will then load it into your text
editor, where you can edit it then save it.
It is also possible to change the path of where the file is loaded
from, so that you can just use the signature file which ANT's Marcel
uses (called '/signature').
However, if you are not certain of the path, please leave it as the
default path (the path which it originally comes set as) - as this is
perfectly acceptable.

Please note: If there is no path specified in the config file (ie the field
is blank), then QuickMail will automatically look inside
<QuickMail$Dir>.User.SigFile
If you do not want a sig file, then deleting it (or renaming it, to eg
"SigFile2") is the only way to stop it.

Please refer to the ANT manual under the Marcel section,
to find out more about Signature files.


X-Headers
*********

This is another text file which will be appended to every mail which
you create.
You can click on the relevant icon to load the currently selected
path's headers file.
Again, like the signature, you can re-define this path, so that it
can point to a user area within the ANT suite, if you would prefer to
keep just one copy of the file.

Of course, also, you may leave the path as the default one, which
points to the user area inside quickmail itself - which is the best
option if you do not understand the above :-)

Please refer to the ANT manual under the Marcel section, to find out
more about headers.


The 'Advanced...' sub menu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Under the 'Advanced' menu, there are two extra fields;

Sent box path
*************

This is described later.


Mail path
*********

This is only to provide compatability for QuickMail between other
suites.  Currently, this compatability is very minimal.
Also, though, it enables you to change the path of where the final
mail gets sent to (where it is stored in ANT - should they change
it.. although, if they do, I will release a new version of QM which
will incorporate this change).

======Please leave this field as the default setting for ANT users======


SMTP Server
***********

This is described later under section 8.

===============================================================================








3.  The Address book
    ================

Like most mail composers, QuickMail has an address book facility.
This enables you to have all of the most commonly used addresses in a
file.  You can then associate a 'nick name' for them, which
corresponds with their address.
Please see ANT's manual for a description of the Marcel address book,
as this will be the address book which QuickMail uses.


In order to use the address book with QuickMail, you need to first
create it.
This is done by simply locating the one which Marcel has made for,
and converting it.

The address books are located in your Marcel 'user' directories.
For instance, if I took my user area,
"UserDir.Stuart.!MarcelDir.Aliases"

The 'aliases' file is the one which needs to be converted.

What you should do is;

a) Load the !QMC application
b) Click Menu over it, and select 'Convert...'
c) This will open a window telling you to drag your Marcel Address
   book to the icon to convert it.
d) Drag the file to the icon.  This will then produce a small window,
   telling you which address it is currently converting.
   When this has finished, it will return you to !QMC.


Your Marcel address book will have now have been created
for use with QuickMail.

Note:  You will always have to carry out the above procedure to make
~~~~   a new address book file for use with QuickMail (for instance, if you
       add any more with Marcel - you will need to copy it again, then run
       the program)


       And you do *not* NEED an address book file if you do not want
       one.

  **   If you use another mailer other than Marcel, Mar2Qm will
       convert a CSV file format as well as a Marcel one.
       The format needs to be
       <alias>, <address>
       ie.  mozes, [e-mail]

       This is useful if you use Johnathon Duddington's !Pluto, as
       you have the option to "Export" the address book.

       To convert a CSV file (as above), you may drag this file to
       the window produced by !QMC.

       If you have any problems converting a CSV file, then please
       email it me, and I'll have a look as to why it doesn't work.

===============================================================================









4.  The Save box
    =============

QuickMail has the ability to record all of your mails in a 'log'
file, much like Marcel does.


To define the Save box file, you need to enter the path name into the
appropriate section of !QMC (click on 'Suite..').

Currently, it is setup so that it stores them inside
"<QuickMail$Dir>.User.SentBox.SentMail".

If you are not totally sure where you may want them stored, but *do*
want the facility of a save box, then I suggest that you leave this
setting as it is.


If you don't want a saved mail box, then simply leave the field in
!QMC blank.


===============================================================================







5.  Running
    =======

Double click on the "!QuickMail" application, and it should start a
task window in which the program will then run inside.

The config and xheaders will then be loaded.



===============================================================================








6.  Inputting information (Mail Input fields and the use of aliases)
    =====================

You will be asked to input the users to which the mail is going to be
sent to.

The program will provide a 'To:' prompt at which you enter the
person's email address to which you want to send it.
eg.
To: [e-mail]

If you wish to add more people to this field, then seperate them by
commas.. eg..

To: [e-mail],[e-mail]

etc. etc

The next field is the 'Cc:' ('Carbon Copy') field.. This is where you also
have the opportunity to send it to other people.  Again, with this
field you can use commas to put more than one address in it.

Lastly, of the email fields, is the 'BCC' field ('Blind Carbon
Copy').
This enables the mail to be sent to people, and the people in the
*other* lists (cc and to) will not be able to see that the mail has
been sent to these people also.
Again, use commas to seperate if neccessary.

If you are confused about these different fields and their meaning,
you should consult your mailer's manual (eg ANT's manual).

Note:
-----
You do *not* need to enter some data for each of the fields - you can
leave at least 2 of them blank, but one must be filled.


Next, you will be asked for the subject line.  If you can't think of
an interesting/appropriate subject, then simply press the return key
- and the program will make it say "[none]".



Aliases
=======

If you have an address book setup for QuickMail, then you can enter
the user's nickname, and QuickMail will search this file for the
corresponding address.

For instance, you type in..

To: mozes

(ALL nicknames must just be single words, as shown above, or the same
as they are in your address book).

And QuickMail searches the database to look for me, and locates my
address as [e-mail]

Basically, this works in exactly the same way as Marcel's does.

If QuickMail can not find a nickname in the address book, matching
the one you entered, then it will just leave it in the field.
And it will be then validated, as described below.




Email Validation
=================

This works in the same way as Marcel, in that the program will look
at your addresses, and see if they match InterNet criteria.
For instance, do they have an "@" symbol, and a network extension
address.
This works in the same way as Marcel, however, I think mine is better
because it allows you the opportunity to remove any such 'bad'
addresses before posting :-)

Note: Users being addressed to username@localhost will validate
      without error, as localhost (your *own* machine) is a proper address.




===============================================================================









7.  Composing the mail
    ==================


After you have entered all of the above, you can now start to enter
the text for the mail.  This is done in the normal fashion, and you
can do all the normal line edit functions.  Although, please note
that you can not have a line greater than 76 characters long - this
is because generally, this is the standard line lenghts for emails.

To finish input - press the escape key, and then the mail will be put
in ANT's mail queue - and will be transferred the next time you
transfer mail using the "Transfer> Mail" from ANT's Icon on the icon
bar, UNLESS you are using SMTP direct transfer as described under Section 8.



===============================================================================



8. Sending the mail to either local suite or SMTP server directly.
   ===============================================================


QuickMail can be either configured to store mail locally (as in old
versions prior to v2.13), and let ANT (or whatever suite you are using)
send mail, or it can actually send them directly to an SMTP server (a server
which will send your e-mail to wherever its destination is - for instance,
Demon Internet users may use post.demon.co.uk).

SMTP sending:
`````````````
If you wish to post e-mail directly to an SMTP server, you must firstly
configure which mail server you want to use:  This is done from !QMC and
clicking on the 'Advanced' button at the bottom of the main window.
In the default copy, no mail server is entered - this is because not
everybody may be able to use this server to relay e-mail for them (although I
do know of a lot which will, but I am not giving out these because they may
be abused for spam purposes).   Also, users may prefer to always store it
locally and let their Suite send it for them.

When you have composed an e-mail with QuickMail, and you have an SMTP server
set in the config, QuickMail will ask you whether you *do* wish to post to
the SMTP server, or let ANT handle the posting (So you will send the mail by
clicking menu on ANT's Icon and going to "Transfer>Mail".
Press P for QuickMail to post the mail by itself, or A to make ANT post it.
So you always have the choice.  Reasons for not wanting to
post to the SMTP server may be:
a) you are not online - you *MUST* be online to post to one.
b) you know the server specified is down, perhaps for maintenance.

What happens if the SMTP send fails?
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The SMTP sending may fail for any number of reasons
a) It may not be able to 'resolve' the host you entered (either its been
   removed from the Internet, or you typed the name of it in incorrectly)
b) Its not responding for some reason
c) Any other reason

In such an event, QuickMail will look at the results from the SMTP posting
agent, and check whether an error has occured or not.
If one has, then it will offer you two options;
a) Delete the e-mail and quit
   (Please note: a copy will always be retained in the 'SentBox' (FCC) if you
    have one set up)
b) Post the e-mail locally to your Internet suite using the mail path which
   is specified in the Config file (this is discussed earlier, but is already by
   default set up for ANT Internet suite users).

If no error occured, then you are informed that the operation of sending was
successful.


When using SMTP directly, my system sometimes locks up.. why?
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

When the SMTP agent starts,  it is infact a single-tasking program.
Unfortunatley, because of the way it works, I have to start it separatley
from QuickMail - otherwise, because of the nature of the SMTP agent, it would
overwrite QM's workspace - hence killing off QM itself.
So, it sometimes takes time to resolve the mail server name you specify, then
it has to send the e-mail (and some servers can be slow).

Please don't think that because it has locked up, that it has crashed.  Just
'hang around' (sorry, bad pun :-) ) until it frees up the machine again.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PLEASE NOTE:  YOU *MUST* BE ON-LINE (connected to the Internet, or your local
              ethernet/LAN/wherever the SMTP mail server is), TO POST
              DIRECTLY TO AN SMTP SERVER.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Why does it never connect to !FreeSMTP when using SMTP in QM?
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Simply because FreeSMTP is a Wimp application and SMTPSend is single tasking
whilst is operates, so FreeSMTP never gets a chance to deal with it.
It will howver work with Navaho suite's SMTP server as this is a relocatable
module.



But, I *always* use use FreeSMTP, so how can I do it?
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][[][]

Okay.  I like FreeSMTP too, so I decided in version 2.16 to add multi tasking
support to the SMTP sending program.
The option is in the config file, but isn't available by using !QMC, as I
thought for low memory machines, single tasking would be the best.
Load !QuickMail.User.USerConfig into your favourite text editor (!Zap,
!StrongEd,!Edit etc).  Move to the bottom of the file, and you will see
SMTP.MultiTask: No

Replace the "No" with "Yes" (excluding the speech marks).
Now when you try to connect to any server (FreeSMTP included), it will return
information about what the SMTPsender is doing inside QM's window.
For instance,
+ Resolving...
+ Connected OK..
+ Sending mail...

The SMTPSender itself will open up another "silent" (ie it doesn't actually
open a window) task window , and call the task "QuickMailSMTP".
Once the SMTPsender has finished, it quits and QuickMail carries on as normal
- either error reporting, or informing you the mail has been sent.



Locally posting:
````````````````
If you do not wish QuickMail to send it directly to the server, then simply
leave the MailServer box blank - and QuickMail will never even ask you
whether you wish to post to SMTP or not , it will always simply post it
locally as with older versions.


===============================================================================



9.  External URL 'To:  Launcher' Input
    =================================

=- Firstly, if you don't understand any of this section, then simply
ignore it, because its not a vital part of QuickMail - simply a
feature .-=


As of version, v1.07, will now let a web browser pass information
to QuickMail, for the To: field, to save you typing it in youself.
So, for instance, you double click on a web page with a mail address,
this should then be picked up by QuickMail (assuming it has been seen
by the filer), and it will inform you of this fact.  Then you will
only have to enter a subject.
It will not let you enter CC or BCC fields if it has been launched by
an external helper application.

For some reason, iXRC from QuadWorks fails to pass the whole of the
email address, when clicked upon.. it seems to miss off the first two
letters - I shall report this.
However, it has been tested, and works with Fresco.

It will *not* work with Arcweb however, simply because of the way
Arcweb handles things like that.  I don't intend to even try to get
it to work either, since I never use it .  Selfish huh? :-)

Also, any Wimp *messages* broadcasting URLs will *not* be picked up
QuickMail, as it is not a WIMP program - it simply runs in a task
window when you start it, therefore, relys on *commands.



Please NOTE:
=-=-=-=-=-=

QuickMail will STOP Marcel from taking all external mail input (ie.
when you click on a mail address in a web browser).
To stop this,

Load !QMC, and unselect "Grab External mailto: URLs", then save
the settings.




===============================================================================








10.   Closing down QuickMail
     =======================


After you have finished composing your email, you simply click on the
close Icon of the task window which QuickMail is using.

If the task window asks you about Unsaved data when you come to close
it, do NOT close it yet: QuickMail has NOT finished processing, and
may leave files open.

In all circumstances, when it has finished - it should tell you so,
and tell you to close the task window.


StrongED users note: With some versions of StrongEd, it will *not*
ask you whether you wish to close the taskwindow and save data.  So,
it is -essential- that you only close the task window when QuickMail
specifically tells you to do so.




===============================================================================






11.  Notes about versions >2.00
     ==========================


Please note -  From old versions, like 1.07 or something, the config file has
************   completely changed.  Do *not* use old config files, you *must*
               make a new one with the supplied, !QMC


       *      Don't worry about the above if this is your first
              version of QuickMail - the above points are not relevant.





===============================================================================








12.  Bugs(?)
     =======

I can't say I've found any myself, well, I did, but I have fixed them
all ages ago.

However, what may happen some time or other, is that you get
"No room" or something like that - in which case, you need to change
the line in the !Run file which runs it, and add about another 10k to
it.


Eg,
Taskwindow <quickmail$dir>.!runimage -wimpslot 42k

change it to 52k  or whatever... till you don't get the
error, basically ;-)

Also, you can occasionally get "File open". This is caused (well,
should be, anyway) by you closing the task window its running in,
before it has chance to close the open file.  To sort this out, just
close the task window again, and run !QuickMail again.  The file
should then have gotten closed by the program when it errored the
first time (well, thats the general idea, anyway :-) ).

If you find any other bugs then write them down, along with the line
number.. so I can try and track it down.
I suppose I *could* make it write an email to me when it breaks, but
I don't think people would generally like that ;-)



What are all these [07] thingies?
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
This isn't a bug - its simply that your TaskWindow operating program
is displaying the 'control codes' which QuickMail is emitting.
For instance, [07] means that it is making a beep noise because of an
error or something similar.  If possible (and it should be) you
should stop your TW program from displaying these codes on screen.
My version of StrongEd shows these codes by default.



===============================================================================





13.  The concept of Sockware ?
     =========================


This is a new concept in software appreciation developed by a strange
friend of mine.
If you use this software often, then you are entitled to send me a
pair of socks.

The socks =must=;
           ^^^^
 a) be clean
 b) have no holes
 c) be a *pair* - not two completely different types of sock.
 d) be the right size.  (My size is just normal type socks - biggish)

If you consider yourself a frequent user of QuickMail, then you
should e-mail me at   [e-mail]   and I will tell you the address
to send your socks to.
If you think I'm not being serious, think again.

[As an aside:  I prefer dark blue socks, but dark red socks will also
suffice.]


Further:
````````
1.  I retain the copyright on !QuickMail, and all other components
    within it.
2.  No profit should be made from selling this utility
3.  All files should be distributed in tact.
4.  If this application is to be uploaded/stored elsewhere apart from
    my own accounts or systems, I must be asked for permission
5.  Any code inside !QUICKMail must not be reverse engineered.



===============================================================================




14.  My appologies
     =============


I'm sorry that this !Help file is so long.  It really needs a
re-write, because I have added so much to QuickMail itself that I had
to just do some editing to it.  So, its not as good as it could be.
I don't have the time to write a brand new one though.
If somebody would like to write a better one, feel free to show me it
<grin>



===============================================================================



15.  Finally  - contacting me for suggestions/bug reports
     ====================================================


If you want to tell me that QuickMail has more bugs than a 2year old
rotten cheesecake (see http://www.verisimilitude.demon.co.uk/cheesecake/),
or you have any suggestions for improvements or additional features then
please drop me a mail;
                       [e-mail]


..and I'll see what I can do.



16.  Acknowledgements
     ----------------


=  Alisdair McDiarmid - Testing version 2.07, and writing a new
   !QMC application because Andrew hadn't got to finish his.
   Also for writing the SMTPSending agent QM uses.

=  PixelEyes for making me a new IconSprite

=  Justin Fletcher for some ideas, minor corrections and testing.

=  People on IRC who I accosted to test the very early versions of it

=  Andrew Berry (this guy seems to get a mention in all my
   progs! :) ) for writing the original !QMConfig, and some ideas for
   additions etc.

=  My mum for cooking my dinner.


A version should always be at;
http://www.jml.net/~mozes/



Cyl,
 MoZes.