Thank you to everyone who responded to this, I received several different ways to do this, and the solution we chose was provided by Ron Allen Hornbaker, President/CTO, Humankind Systems, Inc., over on CF-Community... (you guys should really sign up for the list...it's lots of fun over there.....)
Here was his answer to the problem along with sample code that I am in the process of testing and implementing. This is something worth marking for a future look if you are dealing with clients who send out email newsletters or any kind of marketing email.
---------------------------------------- Erika,
Them durned FloNetwork folks is usin' high-falutin' marketing-speak for a very common type of email formatting: the multipart-alternative message. We use it all the time, and so does Amazon, EggHead, and any other big-time html email newsletter you've ever seen. We learned it by just examining the headers of newsletters from Amazon, and it's really quite simple. The receiving mail client will display the HTML version if it can, and the plain-text version if it cannot. Remember: email is one of the oldest 'net technologies around, and it's all just plain text (even attachments). You can examine the full headers and text of messages quite easily with most email clients.
Here's some CF code that will do it... it expects form imput like you see in the cfparam's, and will create a multipart/alternative message if you've provided an HTML body for the message in the form...
================================================================ <cfparam name="Form.from" default=""> <cfparam name="Form.fromalias" default=""> <cfparam name="Form.subject" default=""> <cfparam name="Form.plaintextbody" default=""> <cfparam name="Form.htmlbody" default="">
<cfquery name="Data" datasource="#DS#" username="#DSUsername#" password="#DSPassword#"> ..... your query here to get the recips firstname, email, etc. ... </cfquery>
<cfif Len(form.htmlbody)> <CFSET MIMEBOUNDARY = "----MIME-BOUNDARY----"> <!--- NO carriage returns in the next two variables ---> <CFSET contenttype = "multipart/alternative; boundary="""&MIMEBOUNDARY&""""> <CFSET myHeaders = "X-Mailer: ContestClicker Mailer, MIME-Version: 1.0"> <!--- MUST have carriage returns in the next two variables ---> <CFSET myPlainMsgTop = "--#MIMEboundary# Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
"> <CFSET myHTMLMsgTop = "--#MIMEboundary# Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
"> <cfelse> <CFSET MIMEBOUNDARY = ""> <CFSET contenttype = "text/plain"> <CFSET myHeaders = "X-Mailer: ContestClicker Mailer"> <CFSET myPlainMsgTop = ""> <CFSET myHTMLMsgTop = ""> </cfif>
<cfloop query="Data"> <!--- Personalize the messages with data from the query ---> <cfset mySubject = Replace(form.subject,"%firstname%",firstname,"All")> <cfset mySubject = Replace(mySubject,"%lastname%",lastname,"All")> <cfset myPlainText = Replace(form.plaintextbody,"%firstname%",firstname,"All")> <cfset myPlainText = Replace(myPlainText,"%lastname%",lastname,"All")> <cfset myHTMLText = Replace(form.htmlbody,"%firstname%",firstname,"All")> <cfset myHTMLText = Replace(myHTMLText,"%lastname%",lastname,"All")> <cfset myHTMLText = Replace(myHTMLText,"%email%",emailaddr,"All")>
<!--- Send the messages ---> <CFMAIL To="#emailaddr#" From='"#Form.FromAlias#" <#form.from#>' Server="206.57.37.74" Subject="#mySubject# Content-type: #contenttype# #myHeaders#">#myPlainMsgTop##myPlainText#
#myHTMLMsgTop##myHTMLText# </cfmail> </cfloop>
<html> <head> <title>Messsages Sent</title> </head> <body> <center> <br><br> <h2>Done!</h2> </body> </html>
==================================================================
The carriage returns, especially after the first and second lines of the message Subject, are very important... that's how you set custom headers (like Content-Type: multipart/alternative, etc.) with the <CFMAIL> tag. The MIME-BOUNDARY can be set to just about any string that's unique.
=========================== One last thing you should consider. It's pretty common practice to put a special comment at the top of the HTML message content, so that the few throwbacks using PINE or other stone-age email client (j/k, no hatemail from *nix purists please) that doesn't understand multipart MIME won't see just a boatload of html tags in the message. So, what you'd do is make the HTML content something like this:
<!-- If you're reading this, your email software doesn't understand html formatting. Please visit our website at
http://www.ourwebsite.com/newsletter041101.html
to learn about all the stuff we were trying to tell you. -->
<html> <body> Regular html body here </body> </html> ---------------------------------------- Thanks again for all the input, you guys are awesome, as usual!
Erika
"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
-----Original Message----- From: Erika L Walker [mailto:elwalker@ruwebby.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 1:57 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: OT - But Is an Important Topic - Sniffing Email
I figured that subject might grab someone's attention..... (I've posted this to every list for maximum exposure, so please forgive me if you've seen it before...and I do apologize to all you List monitors....I wouldn't post OT, but I really need the feedback.)
I have a really serious question....and this is a feature that every customer of mine wants for their email campaigns. And I would love to be able to offer it to them!
Figuring out which type of email a user's email program can receive without having them specify a type in the first place. The general consensus I have gotten is that this is not doable.
Until recently.....this is an excerpt from http://www.flonetwork.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------- "HTML graphics-rich email messages get more response than plain text. FloNetwork has the technical sophistication to deliver on that premise.
With our Dynamic Personalization application, for example, each email can be personalized with any number of offer and message variables. Graphic content can also be added with ease. The more sophisticated the email, the greater the chance that the end user may not have the proper systems to read it. FloNetwork's HTML sensing technology senses whether a recipient's system can read HTML messages. If not, the system automatically defaults to a plain text message that can be read.
Our Flo Rich Media application builds the player right into the email. This means that anyone can read the message, regardless of the software or hardware they are using. The result is dramatically more compelling communications that can generate as much as three times the response rate of plain text email." -----------------------------------------------------------------------
What are they talking about? How do they do this? Has anybody heard of this? I can sign up for the demo from them, but they aren't likely to release and trade secrets to me are they?.....so I am looking for anyone out there that has any idea about how this is done. Because, I need to do it. I don't care if I have to learn a new programming language.....this has been one of the top 5 requests from our client base.
Thanks in advance for your input.
Erika
"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
CF-Talk
Erika L Walker