E-Mail Task

An E-Mail Task is used to send an e-mail message containing one or more File Outputs (export files) from the Project. The outputs can come from any report or output group in the project (you can send several reports in one e-mail message).

To add a new E-Mail Task to a Project, click the Add E-Mail Task button () in the main toolbar.

Before you can send e-mail, you need to configure Report Commander with connection information for an SMTP mail server. You can do this from the E-Mail Servers tab on the Project Properties panel.

E-Mail Task Properties Panel

To reach this panel, select the Output name in the Project Navigator and click the Settings () button in the main toolbar.

Message

The Message tab contains the settings for the e-mail message subject and body (message text).

Subject

Enter the subject for your e-mail message.

This field can contain variables and functions that are replaced at runtime. More... Click the {} button to display the text editor, which helps you insert variables and functions into the text. When you hover your mouse pointer over the field for a second, a preview of the "expanded" text will be displayed so you can confirm your variables and functions are working correctly.

Use HTML format for messages

Check this option if you want to send your message with an HTML-formatted message body. Otherwise the message will be plain text.

• If you are entering the message text directly (Use this text is selected): Report Commander does not provide an HTML message editor, so if you use this option you must provide valid HTML markup for the message text, either composed by hand or pasted from an HTML editor. The text you supply should be a complete HTML document.
• If you are loading the message body from a file (Use this file at runtime is selected): The file must be a complete, valid HTML document.
• If you are using an Output for the message body (Use this project output is selected): This setting is ignored. The message will be HTML formatted if the selected output is an HTML output, or plain text if it is a text output.

Use this text

Select this option to enter a fixed (or variable) message. Type in the text that you want to use as the message body.

If you checked the Use HTML format for messages, the text you enter must be valid HTML markup code.

This field can contain variables and functions that are replaced at runtime. More... Click the {} button to display the text editor, which helps you insert variables and functions into the text. When you hover your mouse pointer over the field for a second, a preview of the "expanded" text will be displayed so you can confirm your variables and functions are working correctly.

Use this project output

Select this option to use an export file produced by the project as the body of the message. Only HTML and plain text exports can be used as the message body. Exports in other formats can be included as attachments.

Use this file at runtime

Use this option to load the message body from an external file.

If you checked the Use HTML format for messages, the file must be a valid HTML document.

This field can contain variables and functions that are replaced at runtime. More... Click the {} button to display the text editor, which helps you insert variables and functions into the text. When you hover your mouse pointer over the field for a second, a preview of the "expanded" text will be displayed so you can confirm your variables and functions are working correctly.

Enabled

Determines whether this task is enabled. If you want to temporarily prevent Report Commander from executing this task, uncheck the Enabled box.

ID Code

The ID Code is used to identify this item when filtering is applied on the Project Runner command line.

From/To

The From/To tab contains information about the message sender and recipients.

From

Enter the address and, optionally, name of the sender of the message. If you do not specify a sender, the default sender configured for the mail server will be used.

You can enter just the e-mail address, or the e-mail address and name, using one of these formats:

[email protected]

John Smith <[email protected]>

This field can contain variables and functions that are replaced at runtime. More... Click the {} button to display the text editor, which helps you insert variables and functions into the text. When you hover your mouse pointer over the field for a second, a preview of the "expanded" text will be displayed so you can confirm your variables and functions are working correctly.

To/CC/BCC

Enter the e-mail addresses and, optionally, names of the recipients of this message in the To, CC, and BCC lists. A single message will be sent to all the listed recipients. That is, there will be a single message with all the To recipients in the message's To field and all the CC recipients in the message's CC field. Thus all recipients will be able to see the list of To and CC recipients.

If you have a list of e-mail addresses from another program that you want to add, you can paste in the list rather than adding them one at a time.

If you frequently send messages to a group of people, you should set up a Distribution List so you don't have to enter the recipients for each new E-Mail Task.

To include a Distribution List in the recipient list, enter the name of the list prefixed with "@": @Sales Managers. You can also select from the defined Distribution Lists by right-clicking the recipient list and selecting the list from the Send to distribution list menu.

To remove a recipient, select the row in the list by clicking the row header at the left side of the row, then press the Delete key on the keyboard.

Request read receipt for message

Check this box to have Report Commander request a read receipt for your message. Most users and e-mail clients will ignore this request (and be annoyed by it) but the option is there if you want it.

Attachments

On the Attachments page you can attach report exports and other files to your message.

Include the output files from these exports

This list shows all file outputs (export files) produced by this project. Check the box next to each file you want to include as an attachment to the message.

If you already used an output as the body of the message, you don't need to select it here, too. If you do, it will be the body of the message and will also be included as an attachment.

Also attach these files

Use this option to attach additional files to the message. For example, you might have a PDF file with instructions for interpreting the report.

When you click Add or Edit, the File to Attach window opens to allow you to specify the file name.