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Sending Email using Gmail and other newer protocols

  • March 13, 2014
  • 15 replies
  • 1 view
D

We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

Thanks.

    15 replies

    Thomas Morrison
    • Thomas Morrison
    • Participating Frequently
    • March 14, 2014

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    I think that a better way, or at least a different way, is to use VBScript, and invoke it via a CALL "SYSTEM".

    A key benefit is:  FREE.

    A Google search reveals several such scripts, which are quite similar:

    http://cybernetnews.com/vbscript-send-emails-using-gmail/
    http://notes.ponderworthy.com/send-email-via-gmail-smtp-by-vbscript

    I have recently done one of these scripts for use with my RM/COBOL application.  I used XML Extensions (also available on newer AcuCOBOL releases) to create a parameter file so that the command line was simpler.  (We wanted to do multiple optional attachments, large TO and BCC lists, etc.)  Getting parameters from the XML document in the VBScript is simpler than trying to process a large variety of command line parameters.  Should you need this level of complexity and want to use the command line, I will suggest using named parameters. 

    Tom Morrison
    Hill Country Software

    Tom Morrison, Consultant, South Carolina, USA
    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Thank you so much Tom for your reply.  I implemented your suggestion about calling a VBScript and I was able to successfully send emails from GMail and other email protocols.  I've never used VBScript before so there was a learning curve.

    I haven't yet figured out how to hide the DOS screen though.  Adding "No I-O" as part of the CALL "SYSTEM" command did not work.  Any suggestions?

    Thanks again.

    Marlene

    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Thank you so much Tom for your reply.  I implemented your suggestion about calling a VBScript and I was able to successfully send emails from GMail and other email protocols.  I've never used VBScript before so there was a learning curve.

    I haven't yet figured out how to hide the DOS screen though.  Adding "No I-O" as part of the CALL "SYSTEM" command did not work.  Any suggestions?

    Thanks again.

    Marlene

    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Thank you so much Tom for your reply.  I implemented your suggestion about calling a VBScript and I was able to successfully send emails from GMail and other email protocols.  I've never used VBScript before so there was a learning curve.

    I haven't yet figured out how to hide the DOS screen though.  Adding "No I-O" as part of the CALL "SYSTEM" command did not work.  Any suggestions?

    Thanks again.

    Marlene

    Thomas Morrison
    • Thomas Morrison
    • Participating Frequently
    • March 19, 2014

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Yes, learning VBScript takes some time.  Fortunately, the web is full of examples for just about every possible thing you can imagine, so I 'learn' using search.

    I am far from an expert on AcuCOBOL, having been associated with RM/COBOL my entire career, but it appears that C$SYSTEM (rather than SYSTEM) gives you access to the flags that can be used on Windows to cause a command to be run in a hidden window.  In particular, the flag CSYS-HIDDEN (value 32) seems correct.

    My application is hosted by Business Information Server - that is, it is a browser based web application.  So the user never sees the window flash because the window is on the web server.  Just for the record, for any RM/COBOL user reading this, the SYSTEM window type is configurable by using the rmconfig registry configuration tool, or by CALLing C$GUICFG.

    Tom Morrison, Consultant, South Carolina, USA
    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Thanks again, Tom.  Using C$SYSTEM for the call with the CSYS-HIDDEN flag set worked!

    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Tom, this suggestion works perfectly for me with smaller emails.  However the product I'm working with requires large-body emails to be sent out.  Since there is a limit to 1024 bytes in a command line, is there a way to use the vbscript differently to handle this?

    Thanks,

    Edgar

    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    I had this exact problem.  I put the email body in a file and read the file in the VBScript.

    Here is some of the code:

    Const ForReading = 1

    Dim emailObj, emailConfig

    Dim fso, f , BodyText

    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

    Set emailObj      = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

    emailObj.To       = WScript.Arguments.Item(2)

    emailObj.Subject  = WScript.Arguments.Item(3)

    BodyText = fso.OpenTextFile(WScript.Arguments.Item(4),ForReading).ReadAll

    emailObj.TextBody = BodyText

    emailObj.From     = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)

    Hope this helps.

    Regards,

    Marlene

    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    I had this exact problem.  I put the email body in a file and read the file in the VBScript.

    Here is some of the code:

    Const ForReading = 1

    Dim emailObj, emailConfig

    Dim fso, f , BodyText

    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

    Set emailObj      = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

    emailObj.To       = WScript.Arguments.Item(2)

    emailObj.Subject  = WScript.Arguments.Item(3)

    BodyText = fso.OpenTextFile(WScript.Arguments.Item(4),ForReading).ReadAll

    emailObj.TextBody = BodyText

    emailObj.From     = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)

    Hope this helps.

    Regards,

    Marlene

    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    I had this exact problem.  I put the email body in a file and read the file in the VBScript.

    Here is some of the code:

    Const ForReading = 1

    Dim emailObj, emailConfig

    Dim fso, f , BodyText

    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

    Set emailObj      = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

    emailObj.To       = WScript.Arguments.Item(2)

    emailObj.Subject  = WScript.Arguments.Item(3)

    BodyText = fso.OpenTextFile(WScript.Arguments.Item(4),ForReading).ReadAll

    emailObj.TextBody = BodyText

    emailObj.From     = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)

    Hope this helps.

    Regards,

    Marlene

    Thomas Morrison
    • Thomas Morrison
    • Participating Frequently
    • March 19, 2014

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Hi Edgar,

    Yes, in fact, as I mentioned above, my current script has a single parameter, which specifies the path of a configuration file.  All the other information is pulled from that configuration file.

    Probably the least difficult approach is to specify the pathname of a file containing the message body and have the script read in the body.  You can find an example here (though he uses a constant for the pathname):
       http://www.paulsadowski.com/wsh/cdo.htm#LoadFromFile

    Here is some code from an earlier version of my script (before I was using a configuration file):

    Const forReading = 1
    Dim objArgs, fso, theFile, strMessage, strBcc


    Set objArgs = Wscript.Arguments
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

    strMessageFilename = objArgs(0)
    strTo = objArgs(1)
    strSubject = objArgs(2)
    If objArgs.Count > 3 Then
     strBcc = objArgs(3)
    Else
     strBcc = ""
    End If

    Set theFile = fso.OpenTextFile(strMessageFilename, forReading)
    If theFile.AtEndOfStream Then
     strMessage = ""
    Else
     strMessage = theFile.ReadAll
    End If


    As you can see, my arguments to this script were  <message-body-file> <To> <Subject> [<BCC>]. 

    Hope this helps...

    Tom Morrison
    Hill Country Software

    Tom Morrison, Consultant, South Carolina, USA
    Thomas Morrison
    • Thomas Morrison
    • Participating Frequently
    • March 19, 2014

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Wow, great minds think alike!   Or at least we were using the same examples...   Big Smile

    Tom Morrison, Consultant, South Carolina, USA
    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Marlene and Tom, thank you both for your prompt responses!  I have successfully implemented this and sent it off to QA. I really appreciate it.

    D

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    Hello.  I have a follow-up issue on this.  When I did the work and tested this, I was using the settings for gmail and everything processed smoothly.  However, additional testing was done by others using our Exchange Server.  I have the proper credentials (user, password, ip, port) but I keep getting the error "CDO.Message.1: The transport failed to connect to the server."  Any ideas on how to get around this?

    Thomas Morrison
    • Thomas Morrison
    • Participating Frequently
    • March 25, 2014

    We want to send emails from an Acucobol version 6.2 program using various email protocols

    We have successfully been able to send emails using the ActiveX control autogen for Outlook.  We have also used the sample program WINBMAIL which uses C$SOCKET to send emails from Yahoo and  MIcrosoft email applications (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, MSN).  However we have not been able to successfully send emails using this version of WINBMAIL with Gmail even after installing STUNNEL.

    Our clients use many different email protocols for sending emails and Outlook is not a built-in feature in Windows7.  We do not want to force our customers to install it or have Outlook as their default email client.

    Is there a newer version of WINBMAIL that supports the newer email protocols?  Is there a sample program using an ActiveX autogen for Thunderbird?

    Old posts on this forum indicate that there is a product from Marshallsoft that can be purchased to send emails.  We don't want to go this route unless there is no other alternative.

    Thanks.

    While you have proper credentials, there are still settings on Exchange Server that could prevent the use of CDO.  Solving this will have to involve your server administrator.  Fortunately, you can run the VBScript without involving COBOL, so it should be easy to get the administrator's cooperation.

    Tom Morrison, Consultant, South Carolina, USA

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