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Can Filemaker auto send emails?

PostPosted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:38 am
by stratogavster
Hi all,

I want to start using filemaker and want to know can I create a database that I can also use as a 'auto-reminder' of to-do's by sending emails automatically?

I want to have a contacts database which contains ALL my contacts, suppliers and customers and I want to have a built-in simple calendar field and to-do text field, from which I want filemaker to email me automatically when the date is reached, simply as a reminder to-do what ever is stored in to-do note field?

or is there another way around this?

i'm using Mac OS X 10.4 and XP

Thanks

PostPosted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:58 am
by John Sindelar
Hi there,

There is nothing really built in to FileMaker to do this, but there are several options for adding this kind of thing. The essence here is that you'll write a script which looks for events you need to be reminded of that day (or that hour if you need it more frequently) and then emails you when it finds a relevant event. The trick then is getting FileMaker to run that script every day or every hour. You have a lot of options for how to accomplish this...

- FileMaker Server can schedule a script to run. However once it runs on the server you'd need a plugin on the server to actually send the mail since FileMaker's built in SendMail script step is not supported on the server. You can use this plugin to send the mail: http://www.360works.com/email-plugin/

- myFMbutler has a plugin that will take care of the whole thing for you: http://www.myfmbutler.com/index.lasso?p=371

- And there are a couple plugins that can be set to run a script every X minutes:

http://www.dacons.net/fmplugins/scriptfire/

http://zipptools.com/

Hope that helps,