(Visual FoxPro) Using Replace Patterns in Email

See more Email Object Examples

Demonstrates how to use the replace patterns (mail-merge) feature in Chilkat MailMan.

Chilkat ActiveX Downloads

ActiveX for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows

LOCAL lnSuccess
LOCAL loEmailTemplate
LOCAL loMailman
LOCAL lcMime
LOCAL lnCount
LOCAL i
LOCAL lcName
LOCAL loJson
LOCAL lcEmailAddr
LOCAL lcFirstName
LOCAL lcProduct

* This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
* See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

* ---------------------------------------------------------------------
* Create an email template for sending.
* For versions of Chilkat < 10.0.0, use CreateObject('Chilkat_9_5_0.Email')
loEmailTemplate = CreateObject('Chilkat.Email')

* We're going to replace "FIRST_NAME" with an actual name.
* We arbitrarily chose "FIRST_NAME".  We can choose anything, such as "CUSTOMER_NAME" or "THE_RECIPIENT_NAME"...
loEmailTemplate.Subject = "Hello FIRST_NAME,"

loEmailTemplate.From = "john@example.com"
loEmailTemplate.AddTo("FIRST_NAME","RECIPIENT_EMAIL")

loEmailTemplate.SetHtmlBody("<html><body><h2>Hello FIRST_NAME,</h2><p>Your order for PRODUCT_NAME has been shipped.</p></body></html>")

* If the email is saved to a file, we can see what it contains:
loEmailTemplate.SaveEml("qa_output/emailTemplate.eml")

* For example:

* MIME-Version: 1.0
* Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2022 07:10:52 -0500
* Message-ID: <715CF231A9F07B0B9FDB073518CD94138D791866@XYZ>
* Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
* Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
* X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
* Subject: Hello FIRST_NAME,
* From: john@example.com
* CKX-Bounce-Address: john@example.com
* To: FIRST_NAME <RECIPIENT_EMAIL>
* 
* <html><body><h2>Hello FIRST_NAME,</h2><p>Your order for PRODUCT_NAME has been shipped.</p></body></html>

* Note: Ignore the CKX-Bounce-Address header.  It is automatically removed by Chilkat prior to sending.
* All "CKX-" headers are automatically removed prior to sending.

* ---------------------------------------------------------------------
* Demonstrate replace patterns by setting and then rendering to MIME.

* For versions of Chilkat < 10.0.0, use CreateObject('Chilkat_9_5_0.MailMan')
loMailman = CreateObject('Chilkat.MailMan')

loEmailTemplate.SetReplacePattern("FIRST_NAME","Elon")
loEmailTemplate.SetReplacePattern("RECIPIENT_EMAIL","elon.musk@example.com")
loEmailTemplate.SetReplacePattern("PRODUCT_NAME","Twitter Corporation")

* Render to MIME to see what we get.
* Note: When the MailMan sends an email, it renders the email to MIME and then sends.
* The rendering process is to do replacements, or possibly sign, encrypt, etc.
* When MailMan.SendEmail is called, internally the email is rendered, and the rendered email is sent.
* The equivalent to MailMan.Send email is to call email.RenderToMime followed by MailMan.SendMime.
lcMime = loMailman.RenderToMime(loEmailTemplate)
? lcMime

* This is the rendered MIME:

* MIME-Version: 1.0
* Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2022 07:25:49 -0500
* Message-ID: <750582BCDC891C67B48CEE2293C08B902C3891E9@XYZ>
* Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
* Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
* X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
* Subject: Hello Elon,
* From: john@example.com
* To: Elon <elon.musk@example.com>
* 
* <html><body><h2>Hello Elon,</h2><p>Your order for Twitter Corporation has been shipped.</p></body></html>

* Note: When rendering, the Date and Message-ID headers are automatically regenerated.

* ---------------------------------------------------------------------
* An application can see what replacement patterns it previously set by calling SetReplacePattern multiple times.
lnCount = loEmailTemplate.NumReplacePatterns
? "Number of replace patterns: " + STR(lnCount)

i = 0
DO WHILE i < lnCount
    * Note: The GetReplaceString method was found to not be working correctly.  It was returning the same value as GetReplacePattern.
    * It is fixed in Chilkat v9.5.0.91
    ? loEmailTemplate.GetReplacePattern(i) + ": " + loEmailTemplate.GetReplaceString(i)
    i = i + 1
ENDDO

* Or lookup a replacement pattern by name:
lcName = "FIRST_NAME"
? lcName + " = " + loEmailTemplate.GetReplaceString2(lcName)

* Sample output:

* Number of replace patterns: 3
* FIRST_NAME: Elon
* RECIPIENT_EMAIL: elon.musk@example.com
* PRODUCT_NAME: Twitter Corporation
* FIRST_NAME = Elon

* ---------------------------------------------------------------------
* Finally... demonstrate sending emails using the replacement patterns.
* 

* Set our mail server settings..
loMailman.SmtpHost = "smtp.mail.us-west-2.awsapps.com"
loMailman.SmtpSsl = 1
loMailman.SmtpPort = 465

loMailman.SmtpUsername = "john@example.com"
loMailman.SmtpPassword = "the_password"

* Imagine we have data in JSON format, and we wish to send the templated email to each recipient...
* 

* {
* 	"mail_merge" : [
* 		{
* 			"to": "mary@example.com",
* 			"name": "Mary",
* 			"product": "Widget 1" 
* 		},
* 		{
* 			"to": "robert@example.com",
* 			"name": "Robert",
* 			"product": "Widget 2"
* 		}	
* 		...
* 	]
* }

* For versions of Chilkat < 10.0.0, use CreateObject('Chilkat_9_5_0.JsonObject')
loJson = CreateObject('Chilkat.JsonObject')
lnSuccess = loJson.LoadFile("qa_data/json/mail_merge.json")
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loJson.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loEmailTemplate
    RELEASE loMailman
    RELEASE loJson
    CANCEL
ENDIF

i = 0
lnCount = loJson.SizeOfArray("mail_merge")
DO WHILE i < lnCount
    loJson.I = i
    lcEmailAddr = loJson.StringOf("mail_merge[i].to")
    lcFirstName = loJson.StringOf("mail_merge[i].name")
    lcProduct = loJson.StringOf("mail_merge[i].product")

    loEmailTemplate.SetReplacePattern("FIRST_NAME",lcFirstName)
    loEmailTemplate.SetReplacePattern("RECIPIENT_EMAIL",lcEmailAddr)
    loEmailTemplate.SetReplacePattern("PRODUCT_NAME",lcProduct)

    lnSuccess = loMailman.SendEmail(loEmailTemplate)
    IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
        ? loMailman.LastErrorText
        RELEASE loEmailTemplate
        RELEASE loMailman
        RELEASE loJson
        CANCEL
    ENDIF

    ? "Send email to " + lcEmailAddr

    i = i + 1
ENDDO

? "Success."

RELEASE loEmailTemplate
RELEASE loMailman
RELEASE loJson