SQL Server

Email BCC Recipients

See more Email Object Examples

Explains the meaning of BCC recipients, how it is different than CC recipients, and how Chilkat handles BCC. SQL Server

-- Important: See this note about string length limitations for strings returned by sp_OAMethod calls.
--
CREATE PROCEDURE ChilkatSample
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @hr int
    -- Important: Do not use nvarchar(max).  See the warning about using nvarchar(max).
    DECLARE @sTmp0 nvarchar(4000)
    -- In the context of email communication, the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field is used to send a copy of an email
    -- to recipients without revealing their addresses to other recipients. When it comes to the MIME
    -- header of an email, the BCC email addresses should not be included.
    -- 
    -- The MIME header is a part of an email message that contains metadata and other information about the email,
    -- such as the sender, recipient(s), subject, and other details. However, the BCC field is meant to be a confidential field,
    -- and its purpose is to hide the recipients� email addresses from each other.
    -- 
    -- Including BCC email addresses in the MIME header would defeat the purpose of using BCC since it would expose
    -- the hidden recipients� addresses to the other recipients. This violates the intended privacy and confidentiality of the BCC feature.
    -- 
    -- To maintain the confidentiality of BCC recipients, the BCC field should only be used in the envelope of
    -- the email during the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) transaction. The SMTP server handles the actual
    -- delivery of the email to the respective recipients while keeping the BCC information hidden from other recipients.
    -- 
    -- It is important to ensure that BCC email addresses are not included in the MIME header of an email to
    -- preserve the privacy and confidentiality of the recipients.

    -- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    -- To discuss how Chilkat handles BCC, let's first create an email with some BCC recipients.
    DECLARE @email int
    EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.Email', @email OUT
    IF @hr <> 0
    BEGIN
        PRINT 'Failed to create ActiveX component'
        RETURN
    END

    DECLARE @success int
    EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'AddTo', @success OUT, 'Joe', 'joe@example.com'
    EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'AddTo', @success OUT, 'Mary', 'mary@example.com'
    EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'AddCC', @success OUT, 'Steve', 'steve@example.com'
    EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'AddBcc', @success OUT, 'Jerry', 'jerry@example.com'
    EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'AddBcc', @success OUT, 'Tom', 'tom@example.com'

    EXEC sp_OASetProperty @email, 'Subject', 'test'
    EXEC sp_OASetProperty @email, 'Body', 'test'

    -- Let's examine the MIME
    EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'GetMime', @sTmp0 OUT
    PRINT @sTmp0

    PRINT '----------------'

    -- We have the following.
    -- Notice the BCC addresses are not present.  They are not included in the MIME header.

    -- MIME-Version: 1.0
    -- Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2023 13:57:22 -0500
    -- Message-ID: <34606FFCB4A440B20E549A223F2F7BF0EB10EE2C@SLICE>
    -- Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
    -- Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    -- X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
    -- To: Joe <joe@example.com>, Mary <mary@example.com>
    -- Cc: Steve <steve@example.com>
    -- Subject: test
    -- 
    -- test

    -- However the BCC address are still stored in the Chilkat email object.
    -- For example, you can examine the BCC recipients in the email object like this:
    DECLARE @numBcc int
    EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @email, 'NumBcc', @numBcc OUT

    PRINT 'Num BCC recipients = ' + @numBcc

    DECLARE @i int
    SELECT @i = 0
    WHILE @i < @numBcc
      BEGIN

        PRINT @i
        EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'GetBcc', @sTmp0 OUT, @i
        PRINT @sTmp0
        EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'GetBccName', @sTmp0 OUT, @i
        PRINT @sTmp0
        EXEC sp_OAMethod @email, 'GetBccAddr', @sTmp0 OUT, @i
        PRINT @sTmp0

        PRINT '-----'
        SELECT @i = @i + 1
      END

    -- Output:

    -- Num BCC recipients = 2
    -- 0
    -- Jerry <jerry@example.com>
    -- Jerry
    -- jerry@example.com
    -- -----
    -- 1
    -- Tom <tom@example.com>
    -- Tom
    -- tom@example.com
    -- -----

    -- Thus, when the email is sent, it will also be sent to the BCC recipients,
    -- but the email received by each of the recipients (i.e. the raw MIME of the email) 
    -- should not and will not include the BCC email addresses.  There should be no way
    -- for the recipients to know that the email was sent to the BCC addresses -- because if 
    -- there is a way to know, then it is not truly BCC.

    EXEC @hr = sp_OADestroy @email


END
GO