Instructions for FletMail V1.1

What is FletMail?

FletMail is an e-mail client designed for sending e-mails using the same mail-merging principles that word processors use. FletMail sends individual mails from a template by consulting a database of receipients. The template can contain any number of fields that will be exchanged according to the contents of the database. This makes it easy to send many mails with a similar content. This is especially useful for sending mails with a certain individual feel to people that you know.

FletMail is not meant to be used for the purpose of sending unsolicited e-mails (spam). Better and faster clients probably exists for this purpose since they wouldn't need to have mail-merging capabilities. Spamming is furthermore considered to be extremely bad netiquette and is also illegal in certain countries. I therefore strongly advice that FletMail will not be used for the purpose of spamming.


Setting up the program

Before the program can be used certain Internet settings must be submitted. To do this select "Edit->Preferences" from the menu bar of FletMail. Then select the tab control saying "Internet Settings".

"SMTP Server" - Type in the name for your outgoing mail server.
"SMTP Port" - The default setting is 25 and is probably the one that you use, unless your ISP has given you other directions.
"Name" - Type in your name here - this is the name used in the emails.
"EMail" - Your email address.

Selecting the tab "Data Format" will let you select a custom delimitor for the database. If you plan to use the built-in database editor of FletMail this setting doesn't matter. The example database provided with FletMail uses semi-colon ';' as delimitor. For further information see the section about file formats.


An example on the use of FletMail

To be able to play around with FletMail it will be necessary to open a database. Before we can open the database properly we need to tell the program how the database is organized:
From the menu bar select "File->Open->Fields" Choose the file "DBFieldsEx.txt".
In the left side of the main window the fields of the database will now show.

We will now open the database itself by selecting: "File->Open->DB Entries" from the menu and select the file "DBaseEx.txt".
Three persons will now appear in the list below "Available".

Finally, we will need to use a template mail: "File->Open->Mail", select the file "MailEx.txt". This letter is probably not exactly a piece of art but it will suffice to demonstrate how the program works. :-)

By selecting one or more of the persons in the "Available" list and then pressing the "->" button the chosen person(s) will be moved into the "Receipient" list. By pressing the "->>" button everyone will be selected. Those in the "Receipient" list are the ones that the program will send mails to.
If you want to remove someone from this list simply use the "<-" and "<<-" buttons.


By selecting someone in the "Receipient" list and then pressing the green button at the right-hand side of the window the text-box will show a preview of the mail that will be sent to the chosen receipient. Notice that words enclosed in brackets '[]' will be exchanged. As long as the preview button is down it is not possible to change the contents of the mail.

When writing the actual template mail the fields shown in the left-hand list can be used.
In the "From:" and "To:" text-fields the following should be entered:

From: "Your Name" <youremail@yourserver.com> - This should be you own name and email address.
To: "[name]" <[email]> - This text should be kept as shown here. The contents of the fields will be inserted when the mails are sent.

Even though it is possible to write the mail using FletMail, I do recommend to use a word-processor for writing anything but very short messages since the editing capabilities of FletMail are rather limited. Your mails should be saved in pure text format (.txt). When opening a mail written with a word-processor it is a good idea to subsequently save it using FletMail because the contents of the "From:", "To:" and "Subject:" boxes will then be saved along with the mail.
FletMail saves mail-files in the same format as certain other mail clients so it will be possible to exchange mail files from one program to another.

When you are satisfied with the contents of the mail and the proper receipients have been chosen press the "Send" button to send the mails. The program will then attempt to connect to the internet and send the mails.

By selecting "Edit->Edit Database" from the menu you can access the database. Remember that the database consists of two files so it will be necessary to save both the fields and the actual database when changes are made. The program will not save the contents of the database by itself so remember to save it before exiting the program.


About File Formats

FletMail uses three types of files:
Field Definition Files
Database files
Mail Files

All three types are normal .txt files that can be opened with 'notepad' or any other text editor.

The Field Definition file is simply a list of the fields used. Each field is delimited by a <cr> (carriage return) character. The fields must be in the same order as those in the database file. The number of fields should match the number of fields in the Database File. One of the fields must be 'email', and preferrably one should be 'name'.
See the "DBFieldsEx.txt" file for an example of a Field Definition file.

The Database file includes the actual data. The file is a list of receipients, each receipient is delimited by a <cr> character. The data for a specific recipient is delimited by a single character. This character can be chosen from the prferences dialog in the program. The default character is ';'. The data should match the order of the fields in the field definition file. 
See the "DBaseEx.txt" file for an example of a database file.

The Mail file is a standard text file. This file can include a standard mail header with the entries 'from:' 'to:' and 'subject:', further entries will be ignored when the file is loaded. When saving a mail file the entries 'time:', 'content-type:' and 'x-mailer:' will be added. This is the same format that other mail clients use for saving mails, and therefore mails saved from other clients can be loaded by FletMail.
See the "MailEx.txt" file for an example of a mail file.