fmSpark sending email to every other recipient in the list

Support, Tips and Tricks for Proof Group's fmSpark "merge anything" utility for FileMaker Pro.
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:33 pm
Location: Beaverton, OR
PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:31 pm
When emails are sent to a list of recipients, the emails are successfully sent to every other recipient (first, third, fifth, etc). Any idea why fmSpark would do that?

Thanks
SeedCode Staff
SeedCode Staff
Posts: 2764
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:01 am
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:14 am
Hi there--sorry for the delay in replying. We've only seen this once before and while we blamed it on the mail server not "keeping up" we never really found a definitive cause.

Fortunately if you Send again it will skip the sent messages and only do the unsent ones.
John Sindelar
SeedCode
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:33 pm
Location: Beaverton, OR
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:48 am
I did some more testing on this issue and found sending a somewhat large number of emails was VERY dependent on the email server.
I had a found count of 163 emails. When I was using Comcast's SMTP server I could only send out about 11 emails at a time. When fmSpark got to the eleventh one it would just stop and return to the Send screen. I could click on Send All again and fmSpark would send 11 more. I would click Send All again and eleven more would send. The popup progress screen showed Creating Message..., Specifying Recipients..., and Sending Message messages, but they were slow in appearing.
When I switched to Gmail's SMTP server all 163 email messages were sent in one shot and were sent quickly. In the progress window the emails went so fast I couldn't make out any text message except Sending Message...
I also tested a third SMTP server and got the same fast response as Gmail.

My client's SMTP server might be the issue here, since it's a school that maybe a forgone conclusion.

Updates to follow.
SeedCode Staff
SeedCode Staff
Posts: 2764
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:01 am
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 7:37 am
Thanks for that Tom; good stuff.
John Sindelar
SeedCode
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:33 pm
Location: Beaverton, OR
PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:14 am
Here's the reply I received from Mail.it support:

the problem you have faced is a typical limit for the maximum amount of messages that can be sent within a single SMTP session, which is commonly used to prevent SPAM by the Server configuration. As far as SMTP protocol does not allow the Client to obtain this information from the Server prior to sending the messages, this kind of Server configuration can be only recognized based on the test results.

In a 'Simple Mass Mail' example solution, that is shipped with a plug-in, we suggest to re-establish SMTP connection each time when a certain amount of messages is sent (50 messages by default). We can suggest you to use the same kind of behavior, and re-establish connection after each 10 messages.

A detailed plug-in information you may find at the mail.it 3 Manual, which you may find at the download package, available by the links below:

http://www.dacons.net/download/mailit_m ... 17.101.zip
http://www.dacons.net/download/mailit_w ... 17.101.zip

Does fmSpark provide access to Mail.it so I can change this default behavior?

Thanks.
SeedCode Staff
SeedCode Staff
Posts: 2764
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:01 am
PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:48 am
Yes. You can edit the script fmSpark uses to send mail and add a counter to Disconnect From Server and Reconnect to Server every x messages.

The script in which you'll see fmSpark looping through messages is " send all messages ( noDialog )" Add your counter inside that loop.

To disconnect from the server, call the script "disconnect from server" to reconnect, call "connect to server".

Let us know if this solves the problem with your mail server.
John Sindelar
SeedCode
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:33 pm
Location: Beaverton, OR
PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 4:06 pm
When I run the fmSpark script to close the connection I get an error window that reports error -16, which is an error closing the connection. The email gets sent anyway but the user has to click to dismiss this error window.
After looking at the mail.it.log file in the Extensions folder it has this series of messages in it:

Send message result: 0
Closing smtp connection
QUIT command failed with reply 502 Command not implemented
Network exception caught in CloseSMTPConnection: QUIT command failed with reply 502 Command not implemented
Disconnected
Disconnection result: -16

Any idea on what configuration setting on the SMTP server might be causing this error? The support guys at Dacon say the server is setup to be very restrictive, but I'm not sure how to ease up on the restrictions.

Thanks
Tom Horton

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