Sending emails with graphics or PDFs or something from server on a schedule

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1

I used to be able to use the standard email option to send HTML formatted emails from Filemaker Server on a schedule. I could manually craft the HTML and send... but a number of things changed in security. I got it to send plain text emails, or emails with attachments with some jumping through hoops, but not HTML.

I'm wondering the best way for me to email a chart like this to each staff member every Wednesday showing their progress with the various people they work with, and how much work it's going to be and how safe it's going to be to do. I know I can take screenshots with MBS on a client, not sure if a server can do it. I could make it a CSV, but it wouldn't be color coded, and that's a pain for users. Best by far for end users would be a literal image within an email.

CleanShot 2025-01-08 at 16.49.56
CleanShot 2025-01-08 at 16.49.561046×553 41 KB

2

I would create a PDF. That way, you can be sure that the display on the recipient’s side is exactly as you want it to be.

Jan

3

If you wanted to keep with an HTML message, you could send via a mail service. SendGrid offers 100 emails/day for free

1 Like
4

I send HTML emails from FMS using the Dacons MailIt plugin. You can do the same thing with other plugins such as MBS, and I think you could do it with free ones such as BaseElements?

1 Like
5

If you have MBS Plugin, there is a sample file for using images in html.

See also

MBS FileMaker Advent calendar - Door 12 - Sending Mails

and

MBS Plugin Advent calendar: 21 - SendMail

6

Are there any sample files for this? I'm not a programmer, more of a hacker and I can't understand what I'm supposed to do, or if this works with modern Gmail or if I need a different email service or what. I see lots of directions here and samples of code, but I honestly use about 1% of MBS capabilities because I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do without an example file I can back out of. Like I don't even know where to start?

Is this article still true? Gmail has changed its security in the past few years and I had to rewrite lots of code to get emails to send:
https://www.mbsplugins.de/archive/2021-04-18/GMail_for_emails_with_MBS_Plug/monkeybreadsoftware_blog_filemaker

I feel like there's a sample file somewhere on this page I can download, but no matter what I click on I can't seem to download it:

https://www.mbsplugins.de/archive/2023-12-21/MBS_Plugin_Advent_calendar_21_/monkeybreadsoftware_blog_filemaker

And it requires an SSL, but I don't know where I actually get that, so even if I had the demo file I'm not sure I could use it without some basic help.

7

You would download the MBS Plugin from our download page.
Then in the Examples/CURL/Email folder are a few example files.

But you have multiple things to combine:

  • build some html for your email. Maybe start with some template.
  • Use our Sendmail functions to build email.
  • Use curl functions to send it
  • Maybe check the Gmail example for oAutg to get the tokens. Or use some other service with just username and password.
8

I can't find any Gmail examples in the examples folder under CURL... could they be somewhere else?

CleanShot 2025-01-11 at 18.57.02
CleanShot 2025-01-11 at 18.57.02498×687 65.4 KB

9

Sorry, I mixed up Office 365 and Gmail. The oAuth example is for Office 365.
For Gmail we just used the normal examples and put in the username plus app specific passwords.

10

Ok yeah, that's what I was trying to figure out. Gmail shut down SMTP emails a couple of years ago. I used to send HTML and non-HTML emails using the built in Filemaker send mail option, and was trying to ask if MBS had a workaround for that. All good... I got regular emails running through Outlook working again since Filemaker updated in the past version or two, and in theory I can get HTML emails too through that. I'll just use that.

Thanks anyway,

11

We could look into doing the api way in the future.