Batch EmailReport 6.11

Introduction

Batch EmailReport  for Clarion 5.5~6.3 ABC. Template sending emails with Clarion native Document Send Template and allowing your customers to send multiple Clarion reports in the user-friendliest way - right in the body of email message. Compatible with ABC Clarion Report, CPCS, IceTips, RPM, DAS, and Tintools report templates.

The picture on the right side gives some idea how template works. Please do not touch the arrow!!! Download 'Try before buy' shareware version of template for testing. You can have a quick look at emails generated  by template as well.

  
Batch EmailReport template works in conjunction with C55-C61 Document Send ABC Template.
This template used to have a number of problem in C55. It appears that Soft Velocity has
significantly improved it lately. So in C6 it works without any glitches.
Like it's older brother - EmailReport template - Batch EmailReport has very much the
same functionality. So you can send report in body, send email as RTF attachment, save
report as HTML, DOC, or RTF to disc with MS Word or save it in silently. The main difference - 
you can do all this in the batch mode. So with one click of button you can send either 
the same or individual reports to as many recipients as you like. Besides in this template you 
can define up and down navigation arrows with any GIF image including animated ones
so you can make your emails as vivid as you like :-). Optionally you can put a note
in the email body as well.
Batch EmailReport is compatible with Clarion, CPCS, IceTips, RPM, DAS, and Tintools.
Besides it has an embed template doing all emailing/saving job, so as a matter of fact 
Batch EmailReport can be used with much wider range of basic report templates.
To ensure that your customers will be able to print/preview emailed report with
any email program and/or Operating System, report can be duplicated
as attachment of RTF type. This file can be opened/printed even
with Windows WordPad program, so no 3d party program is required.
Download generated by template RTF file for testing.
 
Advantages of using template:
  • Reports may be sent in batch mode so it should relieve your customers of
    annoying repetitive work of sending hundreds of similar emails
    to their customers or whoever they want.
  • When Received, report is immediately available for reading or printing so users
    should not do research to figure out what say .PDF means...
  • Optionally report can be duplicated in attached RTF or report can be
    sent as RTF attachment only. This format is supported by MS Word.
    If it's not installed, Windows (95-XP) automatically opens it with WordPad.
  • Before embedded into email body report you can put short note explaining
    whatever should be explained
  • Optionally you can play a sound file when email is being opened.
  • Report can be saved to disc in RTF format. In this mode you will
    see just created RTF in default Windows RTF editor and will be able
    to save it anywhere and with any name you like. Optionally you can do
    it in silent mode.
  • Template gives you direct access to MS Word, so you can save reports
    not only as RTF, but also as DOC, HTML etc. Besides you can even email
    and fax your reports right from the Word using you address book.
  • As to technical side, EmailReport as all our templates is a white box template
    (no extra DLLs to ship)
  • It does not need or do any changes to either Clarion native
    or 3d party templates. It's taboo for us!

  • Compatible with all major 3d party report templates: CPCS, IceTips, RPM, DAS
    previewer, Tintools previewer

  • There is no need now to manually select basic report template

  • Network friendly - can be run by many network users simultaneously

New features in version 6.1

  • Landscape report support

  • Direct support for Icetips previewer

  • No need to manually select basic report template

  • Option to define email priorities (High, Low, Normal)

  • new internal help

  • At last, but not least you can define navigation arrows with any GIFs,
    even animated:
Installation
Run the installation wizard. It will guide you through a few simple steps.  
IMPORTANT: If you are using Clarion 5.5, after selecting C55 directory wizard
will offer you to install it into C:\C55\Clarion6 directory respectively. 
So do not forget to get rid of last \Clarion6. But even if you do - it is not a problem.
Just uninstall template and run installation once again.
Then register template. Here is instruction: Open Clarion (no application must be open). 
Go to menu Setup -> Template Registry ->Register. Select new template
batchrpt.tpl and then hit Open button
View animated reminder on how to do that - Registering Template
(built with our JAVA Animated Help Builder).

Using Template

 
Global Extension Template
Follow few simple steps to enable report emailing/saving.
First of all you have to install Global Extensions for both Document Send and 
Batch EmailReport templates:
Optionally you can define internal RTF document settings - RTF author, RTF company.
Your customers will never see them. Nevertheless you can leave here
your "signature" if you want to.
By default template creates subdirectory \VH\ under your working directory
to keep temporary template files. On some networks it can cause problems.
So the last prompt is the place where you can override this default behaviour.
Template creates global variable associated with this prompt MREG:WorkingDir
So you can specify any other directory like that: MREG:WorkingDir = 'C:\Temp'
In this case template will use C:\Temp on each workstation to build all required files. 
Even if this directory does not exist, template will create it. It will even create 
nested directories for you! So if you prime this
variable to say C:\Temp\A\B\C you will find that directory structure.
And if you do not use this variable template will work as always, that is
it will create working directory \VH\ on the server under your working 
directory and use that.
Normally Keep report pages checkbox should be OFF. When ticked it will
save all temporary WMF report pages in the working directory.
You might need it when using non-standard reports to estimate
those picture sizes. Do not forget to sent it OFF before program release.
Though even if you do, it will not cause any inconveniences to your end-users.
The only difference it makes - their working directory will be a little bit larger.
Procedure Extension Template
Picture below shows all settings you have to define in report extension.
To open a Tab other than first just move the cursor on top of it.
You have to insert Local extensions for both Batch Email report and Document Send 
templates into each reports to be emailed.
General Tab
Report behaviour depends on one global variable only - MREG:Mode
You can use either numbers or equates defined. We put them on the last tab
 so you can copy and paste them in your code:
0 - MREQ:Print
1 - MREQ:InBodyRTF
2 - MREQ:InBody
3 - MREQ:InRTF
4 - MREQ:Save
5 - MREQ:SilentSave
It goes without saying that if  this value equal 0 - report will be printed, 
1 - emailed in body & RTF etc.
So it is a sort of Batch EmailReport Global Request. In other words, if you say:
MREG:Mode = MREQ:EmailInBody; YourReport() - report will be emailed
in email body etc.
You have to select basic report template from the 
Batch EmailReport Local extension combo (see picture below):

It defaults to whatever report template it can see in current report procedure.
It is important to stress that this is just a suggestion. So if you want,
you can reselect any other report template. You might want to do it only in exceptional 
situations. For instance when you want to apply embed template to solve some unusual 
requests of end-users (email and print at the same time etc.). Or you have some uncommon
hybrid say CPCS + RPM. We provide examples for each of those directly supported templates
in Clarion*\Examples\BatchRep directory so you can investigate recommended
template settings there.
IMPORTANT: If you want to try to use this template with any report template
other than directly supported (Clarion, CPCS, IceTips, RPM, DAS, and Tintools),
we would strongly recommended you to download free shareware version
of template to make sure it will work. You have to selects Other from the Basic
report template prompt and use embed template. You should do the same if you
want to use this embed in one of supported report templates. In template
examples you can find how this embed can be used.
As to Document Object name, it is already primed to Document send default
object name, so you usually should not touch it unless you have this ABC object renamed.
Have a look at Local extension template settings (picture on the bottom of this page).
IMPORTANT: If you have MS Word installed you can significantly improve
performance in the Save mode by Opening Windows explorer/Folder Options/File 
Types and settings RTF type to NOT use DDE for opening.
Report Tab
You can specify name of RTF attachment file either from a variable or
by hard-coding it from the prompt as well (using say 'ReportCopy' will create
attachment ReportCopy.rtf). If you use variable just put it's name.
or find it from lookup button. No exclamation marks are required!
You have to keep in mind that RTF using the same shrinking factor as does
image in email body.
You can define image shrinking factor applicable for both body and RTF reports
and specify variable names for RTF file name and path for saving reports.
Starting from version 6 you have full control of report sizing (both in Body and RTF).
By default template supports A4 reports. So the only thing you have to
do to them is to specify if report has Landscape layout.
To define report margins (for RTF) and report width and height template generates 
and uses 4 global variables: MREG:RTFleft, MREG:RTFtop, 
MREG:RTFwidth, and MREG:RTFheight. Those values should be specified in 
1/1000th of an Inch (Clarion default units).
The simplest way to estimate your report sizes is to collect WMFs by setting
global Keep report pages checkbox ON. Then open any of WMFs with Windows
MS Paint and from Image -> Attributes menu find out the sizes in Inches.
Do not forget to multiply it by 1000. It is important to understand that all
that should be done only if you use non-standard report sizing. 
You will know it immediately because improper sizing dramatically decrease report quality.
So if you see something like that - time has come to check report sizes:
Otherwise you can completely ignore Position Group.
The type of prompt used for all 4 size variables
lets you define them either with variable or implicitly as a number.
So you can use predefined variables. You can define and use your own variables for that. 
At last you can just put a margin value right into corresponding prompt. As long as you follow
standard Clarion syntax you won't have any compile errors.
You can define GIF images to use for navigation up and down arrows.
We ship with template a number of arrow GIFs, but you are free to use any other.
IT'S VERY IMPORTANT to remember that those images should be available at runtime.
So you should ship them with your application either in the working directory or in a 
subdirectory of your working directory (where the main EXE is).
Note Tab
Optionally you can define a heading comment on the Body Note tab. Just follow plain
Clarion syntax and build any letter you like. Especially this option might be useful
when you send report as RTF attachment only. So you could explain here what to do
with this attachment.
Everything you add here goes directly into embedded email HTML file.
So you can use HTML tags as well. (Tag usually starts with something
like <font> and ends with </font>. It can be <img> and </img> etc.)
If you like doing things in hard way you can consult HTML
and MIME documentation. For all other people here is a simple tip.
Use your Outlook Express for visual design. Just create new
message with it, insert images, text with any font you like etc. and then
Save it As a EML file. Done! Now you can open this file with any text editor
(say Notepad) and copy and paste HTML tags one by one. Just remember
that each tag should occupy one line in the body queue.
This restriction comes from the way we build message body, not from HTML syntax.
To make life easier we put new-line tag after each line of HTML
So if you try to split a tag on more than one line - this tag will get broken
by the new-line tag inserted by template.
Sound Tab
You can play audio files when email is being opened. You have to specify
a Sound file and how many times you want it to be played from respective tab.
Like the arrow image files those sound files must be available at runtime. So you
have to ship them with your application.
From our experience not all users appreciate this feature. So it's better
to show them such 'talking' emails first :-)
Equates Tab
It's just a place where you can copy predefined equates for pasting them into your code. 
It's not used by template at all. So you can store anything you like here.
Document Send Template
We did our best to apply as little restriction to this template as possible.
So use it as if there is no Batch EmailReport template around.
For instance, you can use it to send attachment files (other than report in 
RTF; Batch EmailReport takes care of that).
You can use both global and static addressing. There is only one restriction -
on the Send Message Settings window (below) you should use these settings pictured.
Maybe you could find other working combinations, but those, we know for sure, work.
IMPORTANT: All C55 versions up to current H have obvious communication bug.
We've already reported it to Soft Velocity. Until this bug is fixed you haven't got other choice, 
but apply another product of ours - C55 Document Send Template Patch to eliminate it.
You receive the product as a free bonus with Batch EmailReport template.
So just follow this link and install it. Out of curiosity you can try to go without
it and see what happens... ;-) In Clarion 6 this bug is fixed, so there is no need
to apply patch!
We installed fully functional examples for each report template into your 
Clarion*(/Examples/BatchRep directory so for various settings you can investigate them.
TIPS (you are welcome to send your tips in this area!)
1. Remember to select the Basic Report Template Used (clarion, CPCS...).
2. Don't forget to check 2 checkboxes in Document Send settings
3. To save the rtf file do not forget to specify path in MREG:RTFpath
    and file name MREG:RTFname (without path and extension)
4. In batch mode provide unique RTF file names not to override 
    just saved reports
5. On network all drivers should be mapped
6. All template prompts follow standard Clarion syntax. So do not try to put
    exclamation mark in front of them! Or leave string without the quotes.
    Or wrap a variable in quotes etc.
7. With report templates not supported directly always choose Other
    from the Basic template combo and apply Embed template
8. If after conversion into C61 you application began to GPFs on start up,
    it has nothing to do with Batch EmailReport template!
    It is usually caused by Global embed inherited from Document Send demo 
     Fuzzy Matcher Init. You have to move it into Program Setup embed [1000-2000]
Move cursor on top of a Tab to open!

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