What is best way to email a report?

rbuser

After looking at the tech-tips, I am still confused as to the best way to
create emailed reports. I am trying to emulate the email process that users
are used to from Word.

We have contracts that need to be mailed to clients. There could also be
quotations.

The quotes and contracts are being stored in RTF format in a binary field so
we can track date of creation, date of changes by which user, etc. So when
we print out the quote or contract, it is being printed within a
ReportBuilder report.

What are other ReportBuilder users doing? Is the best way to create a
Quote.rtf file or a Quote.pdf file and then attach this file in a second
step? What would be the most efficient scheme for handling this? I guess I
would need to do some clean up by deleting the creating files after
transmission or would I?

Also, we were thinking of using the TurboPower OfficePartner components
because they would allow us to use Outlook / Express for the email program.
That way the user would be able to see the Sent history within his email
area.

Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions.
Bill Brittain

rbuser

Bill,
I don't know if this helps - it's the way we do it:
In the Quotations file we store analysis data etc.
We use an algorithm based on some of this data to calculate a folder
name.
We use an algorithm based other parts of the data to calculate a file
name
We use TExtraDevices to output the RTF file in the calculated folder
We then use Winshoes to create an email,
The text is along the lines of "Please see the attached quotation from
Sample Company Inc"
and the RTF file is sent as an attachment
On closing the app, the we ensure that the private dir is emptied.

The above method has the advanatge that the documents can be accesed
both from
within the app, and externally.

If you prefer to store the RTF internally, you can do the following:
Export it to a predefined local folder
Attach it and send it
empty the folder on application close.

We did purchase OfficePartner, but found that it added very little to what
you already
get using the Borland Sample Automation Server Components.

Roj

rbuser

RB + Extradev to convert to PDF, then Indy to send it by e-mail

You can use zlib to compress it if you need.

---
Serge Chelli
www.aceinformatique.com

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