On Thu, 21 Sep 2000, Dave Cragg wrote:
> At 1:13 PM +0100 9/21/00, Kevin Miller wrote:
> >On 21/9/00 8:59 am, Dave Cragg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >> A search for my smtp server address in the Windows Registry only
> >> produced a result in the settings for Outlook. So I guess each mail
> >> client keeps its own settings. I think you'll have to ask your users
> >> to enter the address themselves.
> >>
> >> But I'm still hoping someone else knows a way.
> >
> >Hm - if you know the location for the settings for Outlook, then you should
> >just use those. 90% of people will be using Outlook as it is preinstalled,
> >so reading in those settings and then bringing up a screen for the user to
> >check the settings are correct the first time the program installs should do
> >the trick. Those that aren't using Outlook can enter them then.
> >
>
> The 90% figure is probably for Outlook Express. Outlook is a
> different program. I wonder who at MS thought up the naming.
>
> But actually, your point illustrates the problem of relying on such
> settings. For example, on my NT setup, Outlook Express is installed,
> but I've never used it or configured it. Other people may have
> configured it once, and then changed to a different e-mail program.
> If they subsequently change their e-mail service provider, the
> Outlook Express settings will be pointing to an old and probably
> unuseable server.
We've already seen this problem with proxy settings for WWW
browsers....
> I guess it's first necessary to check the current default e-mail
> client (there is a setting for this in the registry, I think), and
> then check the smtp setttings for that client. But of course, you'd
> need to know the registry entries for a range of popular e-mail
> programs, and there is no guarantee that these would stay the same
> through version upgrades.
This problem seems intractable to me, at least until the OSs all have
a single standard way to store this type of information. This is why
we explicitly don't support a "mail" or "open url with browser"
command, and why we strongly discourage people from trying to build
things like this into their stacks. It's a technical support
nightmare.
> Asking the user to enter the smtp address is probably the safest solution.
At least until we develop a way to do the DNS MX record lookups
directly from within MetaCard, either with scripts or with a built-in
function. Then you'll be able to send messages directly without
having to rely on an SMTP relay server.
Regards,
Scott
> Cheers
> Dave Cragg
> --
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> _____________________________________________
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Scott Raney [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.metacard.com
MetaCard: You know, there's an easier way to do that...
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