SimpleMail
User Manual

Version 1.4

Welcome

Welcome to SimpleMail 1.4 from Adiscon GmbH.

This ActiveX control empowers your applications as well as your ASP pages to send simple Internet mail messages. Simple mail strictly conforms to the original SMTP standard. It does not support enhanced features like attachments, MIME or multiple character sets. However, it offers high performance, ease of use and a very competitive low price. SimpleMail was created for our own internal use and is used intensive inside our own ASP applications. It was developed based on real world need and we hope, you'll find it useful as well.

This documentation covers the version 1.4. Any comments are appreciated at "Info@Adiscon.com".

Product updates as well as important announcements can be found at "http://www.Adiscon.com/SimpleMail" (if that URL ever changes, please try http://www.Adiscon.com).

Installation

SimpleMail is high performing tool using only minimal system resources. It also doesn’t require an extended installation process.

System Requirements

SimpleMail is developed under Windows NT 4.0. Although not extensively tested under NT 3.5 or Windows 95, we do not see any reason why it shouldn’t perform well in this environment.

There is one needed prerequisite in your system software: you need to have an Windows Sockets 1.1 (and above) compatible IP stack installed. This will be the IP stack included with NT in most cases. However, feel free to use any other stack as long as it corresponds to the socket specification.

The freely downloadble version is available for Intel X86 platforms only. Versions for the DEC Alpha platfrom are available to registered users free of charge.

The Installation Process

Actual installation is very straightforward

1. unzip the install set (ISimpMail.zip) to any directory you like. Make sure this directory is on a drive local to the system the controls shall be running on.
2. run "install.bat"; this registers the SimpleMail ActiveX control into your system registry

After finishing this simple steps, SimpleMail is set up and ready to run.

Please be sure to unzip the install set using aWin32 version of PKUNZIP (available at http://www.pkware.com or http://www.winzip.com). The install set contains files with long names. If you use a non-Win32 version, this names will be lost and install.bat will fail. Also be sure not to move the .dll to any other directory. This will cause the ActiveX control to fail. If you need to change directories, uninstall SimpleMail first and re-install it from the new directory.

Uninstallation

This is also very straightforward. Just 2 steps:

• run "uninstall.bat" from the directory where SimpleMail.exe is installed
• delete the files

SimpleMail does not write to the registry. So there is no need to clean up things there.

Usage

SimpleMail needs no further customization - it can be used right after installation. SimpleMail is a standard ActiveX control. It can be called from any ActiveX compatible container application, most notable the IIS' ASP processor as well as Visual Basic (VB).

Use it as follows:

1. Instanciate the control (e. g. with CreateObject)
2. fill in the correct property values
3. call the send method
4. you can re-specify properties and call the sent method as often as you want without re-instanciating the control.
5. be sure to destry the control as soon as you are done (not required by SimpleMail but generally good programming practice).

Properties

Methods

Send

This is the only method for all versions up to 1.3. All properties must be set before calling the send-method. Once the method is invoked, it sends the mail message according to the given parameters. There is no feedback about the outcome of the operation.

SendEx()

Same as Send(), except that it returns either 0 (OK) or -1 (error occured). If an error occured, the read-only property LastStatus contains the SMTP error code.

The SendEx() method is only available with version 1.4 and above.

ASP Sample

This is a simple basic page with hardcoded parameters.

<%@ LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" %>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; 
charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>ASP Sample Mailer</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>We are sending mail according to your hardcoded parameters.
<p>
<%
set o = Server.CreateObject("ADISCON.SimpleMail.1") ' create mailer!

o.MailServer = "127.0.0.1"
o.Sender = "Test@Test.com"
o.Recipient = "SomeOne@SomeCompany.Com"
o.Subject = "My first SimpleMail mail"
o.MessageText = "Line 1" + Chr(13) + Chr(10) + "Line 2"
' of course, this could also be somethig like this:
' o.MessageText = Request("strMessage")

call o.Send

set o = Nothing
%>
</body>
</html>

VB Sample

The following sample is a snippet of VB code. It does all its work with constants. Of course. you can substitute variables for any of this constants.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim o As Object

MousePointer = 11

Set o = CreateObject("ADISCON.SimpleMail.1")
o.MailServer = "127.0.0.1"  ' Address of SMTP-Server
o.Sender = "Test@Test.com"
o.Recipient = "SomeOne@SomeCompany.Com"
o.Subject = "My first SimpleMail mail"
o.MessageText = "Line 1" + vbCrLf + "Line 2"
Call o.send

Set o = Nothing    ' de-instanciate control

MousePointer = 0
End Sub

Version History

This short history shall provide you with some background information about the versions available as well as their pros and cons.

1.0

This is the initial release.

1.1 to 1.3

This were private builds not available to the public.

1.4

Released November, 14th 1998.

• new method SendEx()
• new property LastStatus
• now writes a date header
• fixed some bugs:
• fixed a bug causing disconnect to fail
• HELO string now reports correct server
• some minor optimizations

How to obtain Updates

Please visit our web site http://www.Adiscon.com/SimpleMail for information about new and updated products. Registered users will receive notification of new versions via email. The registration is valid for the current major release as well as the next one.

License

SimpleMail is distributed as Shareware. You are free to use the product for evaluation. However, if you feel comfortable with it and plan to use it for an extended period of time, you must register with Adiscon and pay the license fee.

Please support further development by registering the product. There is a license fee per Windows NT system (CPU) SimpleMail is running on. For orders outside of Germany, the fee is $US 9 (plus tax if applicable). German orders are DEM 19,95 incl. 16% VAT. European Community residents with VAT identification number should state this number in order to get an tax exemption. If not stated, full VAT will be charged.

You need a seperate license for each system (CPU) SimpleMail is running on. If you intend to use SimpleMail on 5 systems, you need to aquire 5 licenses. If you plan to use SimpleMail on a large number of systems, you might want to aquire a site license. This license grants you the right to use SimpleMail on an unlimited number of systems as long as these systems are wholy owned by the registering organization (which mostly means are used inside the same company). The site license is available for US$ 149 (plus tax if applicable) or DEM 299,95 (incl. 16% VAT). ISPs with a site license are free to use SimpleMail onfor their customers as long as all licensed machines are on the ISPs premises.

BBS sysops feel free to include the distribution set of this product in your library. Please be sure to include the full set (program & this documentation). Any questions can be directed to Info@Adiscon.com.

SimpleMail is not licensed for send mass unsolicited email (know as spam). Using SimpleMail for this purpose constitutes a license violation. In this case, we reserve the right to charge US$ 1,000,000 (one million) in damages.

Are there any restrictions in the unregistered version?

There are no functional restrictions. The product does indicate its unregistered status inside the X-Mailer mail header field. This is invisible to normal users (you need to explicitely look up the mail headers inside your mail program).

How to register

Registration is as simple as 1-2-3:

1. Print out the following registration form
2. Please fill it in. Remember to include number of licenses requested and payment information as well as your email id.
3. Mail or fax the registration form to Adiscon.

We accept cash (bills please – and: no faxed ones, please ;-) ) and MasterCard. We also accept payment by check if - and only if - the following criteria is met:

If you are paying in US$, your check must be drawn on an US American bank and made payable to "Rainer Gerhards" (very important, do not make payable to Adiscon GmbH!).

If you are paying in DM, your check must be drawn on a German bank and made payable to "Adiscon GmbH". Please note that the check must be drawn on a German bank. Even if you reside inside a member state of the European Community, you can not use "Euro Cheque" (EC) made payable in DM.

We apologize for the restrictions in our check acceptance policy. We were forced to introduce these by banking regulations and fees (one quick example: our banks charge DEM 20,-- for any EC check payable in DEM - this is quite a good share for a DEM 19,95 product!).

We are currently working on secure online payment using the First Virtual payment system.

If you need an additional payment options, please contact us at Info@Adiscon.com or the below given addresses. Please note that – for your security – we generally do not accept email registrations. We strongly encourage you never to transmit your credit card information in clear text over the Internet.

Direct your registrations to:

Adiscon GmbH
Paul-Klee-Str. 7
50374 Erftstadt
Germany

Fax: +49-2235-985032
email: Info@Adiscon.com
Web: http://www.Adiscon.com

Please note: due to German laws, credit card orders will be processed in German Mark (DEM). We convert US$ orders based on the current exchange rate. However, there might be a small difference to the actual price when you get your credit card bill. We are sorry for this inconvenience,

Registration/Order Form

SimpleMail Registration

* Please note: for single licenses ordered, either Intel or Alpha versions are shipped. If you tick the "Alpha platform request" for a single license, no Intel executable will be mailed.

Please be sure to specify your email address, number of licenses requested and payment information (fields in bold typeface).

Please sign below:

______________ ___________________________________________
Date Signature

and forward this form to

Adiscon GmbH
Paul-Klee Strasse 7
50374 Erftstadt
Germany

Fax: +49-2235-985032
Fax option for MasterCard and American Express orders, only.

Liability

Please use the evaluation period to check if SimpleMail is suitable for you and your system environment. We encourage you to try SimpleMail in a test environment. We accept no liability for any damage during the evaluation period.

Liability for registered users is limited to the amount of the registration fee.

Copyrights

This documentation as well as the actual SimpleMail product is copyrighted by Adiscon GmbH, Germany.

Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA.

Copyright © 1997, 98 by Adiscon GmbH, Germany. All rights reserved.
Last Update 11/02/98.