The 360Works Email plugin for FileMaker Pro (http://www.360works.com/email-plugin/) makes FileMaker Pro into a fully functional email client, allowing users to integrate email functionality into their database solutions.
It can send and receive HTML or plain text e-mail with SMTP, POP, and IMAP from your FileMaker solution. FileMaker sports built-in mail functionality, but the 360Works Email plug-in offers some advantages.
For example, it works with Instant Web Publishing. You can send multiple attachments/inline attachments in a single message or send multipart formatted emails. The 360Works Email plugin offers fast delivery of multiple messages by re-using a single connection to the server. Plus, you can set custom email headers and retrieve email from POP/IMAP mailboxes.
To send a single message multiple times to different recipients you create a message using EmailCreate, then call EmailRecipients and EmailSend multiple times. If you’re sending large messages with attachments, this helps you avoid the overhead of creating a separate message for each recipient. You can also send a single message to multiple TO, CC, or BCC recipients by passing a comma-separated list of addresses.
By the way, email is sent from whichever machine the plugin is being used on, so you’ll need to open up port 25 for outgoing SMTP access on these machines.
The EmailAttachFile accepts several different types of arguments. You can pass an URL or a path in a container field. A URL can be to a resource on the web, or it can be a file URL pointing to a local file.
All products run in demo mode until you register them with a license key. While running in demo mode, the product will run for two hours every time you launch FileMaker/FileMaker Server/FileMaker Web Publishing Engine. The two-hour time limit will reset every time you relaunch FileMaker. Once a valid license key is entered, the product will run for as long as FileMaker is running. Otherwise, there are no feature differences between the demo and the licensed version.
For US$195, you get a Workgroup License that allows unlimited use by a single company, school or organization as long as the organization will be using the product for up to 10 users. The license isn’t for organizations with more than 10 users, or with scheduled scripts in FileMaker Server, or for Web Publishing with FileMaker Server Advanced. For that you’ll need an …
… Enterprise License Buy Upgrade ($395). This license allows a single deployment with unlimited use within a single organization of any size, regardless of the number of users and the location of the users. It also allows publishing databases using FileMaker Server web publishing, and with scheduled scripts in FileMaker Server. However, it doesn’t allow permit distribution of the product outside of the licensed organization. If you want to do that you’ll need …
… the $1,195 Solution Bundle License Buy Upgrade. This license allows a single developer to distribute the product with a single solution to an unlimited number of organizations, regardless of the number of users of those organizations. This license also covers use with FileMaker Server scheduled scripts and the Web Publishing Engine. This product may only legally be used when bundled with the solution distributed by the developer who owns this license. Products can’t be registered using the plug-in configuration dialog by end users; they must be registered by the developer using the plug-in registration functions. No product support for the developer or sublicensees is included with this license; support must be provided by the developer or by 360Works at our standard hourly rate.
The $1,995 360Works Portfolio License entitles the buyer to enterprise versions of all the current products, including the SuperContainer. The SuperContainer enhances and extends Filemaker’s native file-management functions, letting users upload, view, and download files to and from any FileMaker database. You can add Microsoft Word documents, PDFs, and photos to your FileMaker database, and the size of the database will never increase. Plus, SuperContainer offers faster speeds, smaller file sizes, web browser uploads, and cross-platform file path compatibility.
The Enterprise License allows unlimited use within a single organization regardless of the number of users and locations, and includes deployment on FileMaker Server and through Web Publishing. As an active 360Works Portfolio License holder, you’ll receive an enterprise versions of new products and paid upgrades released up to a year after your Portfolio License purchase. You can renew your license for an annual cost of $995 to keep receiving new and upgraded products after the first year. The products you receive during your Portfolio License subscription are yours to keep, regardless of whether you choose to renew your License.
The 360Works Email plugin requires Mac OS X 10.4 or better, FileMaker 7 or higher and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 1.4.2 or later. Mac users should note that running this plug-in under Rosetta isn’t supported. Upgrade to FileMaker 8.5 to run the plug-in in native Intel mode.
Also note that if you’re running the plug-in with FileMaker Server/FileMaker Web Publishing Engine, you must use the registration function to register the plug-in, as there’s no preferences dialog on FileMaker Server to enter the license key and company name.
— Dennis Sellers
dsellers@applecentral.com