[vip]

Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you that use WebcamPhotobooth in Conjunction with Hotfolders have discovered a way of processing the images and email but
instead of sending out the emails there and then it sends the email to a "holding area", so that you can send all the emails at your leisure.

The reason I ask is because some venues do not have wifi and are in weak signal areas for mobile telephones.

It almost needs a mini email spooler/server.

Thanks in advance.

[Chris Breeze]

If you select the "Log email addresses to file" option in Hotfolder Prints it will save a CSV file containing the time, date, email address, image pathname and whether the email was sent or failed. You could write a script to read this file and resend the emails that failed.

The next release will make this easier by writing a file called email_log_failed.log containing the command line used when trying to send the emails that failed. This will allow you to resend the failed emails after the event by renaming the file to email_log_failed.bat and then running the batch file.

[vip]

Hi Chris,

thanks for the response.

that sounds like a good idea for failing emails, not for a delayed/timed email system.

Is it possible to have an option that instead of emailing it just creates a Batch file to run the email_image.exe with the correct parameters at a later date?

My thoughts are - do the videobooth event - get home - run batch job and deliver emails - job done - customer checks email account next day, great looking photographs in inbox.

Possible?

[nanahuatzin]

Hi Chris,

My thoughts are - do the videobooth event - get home - run batch job and deliver emails - job done - customer checks email account next day, great looking photographs in inbox.

Possible?

Mail marketing programs can input a CVS file to create a database, with it you can personalize the mails and add custom attachment. Then you can program how to send them. These programs also let you programs at what times the mails would be sent and the rate and report rejections.

The also have utilities validate the mails. You just need on that let´s customize the attachements.

By the way,I prefer to upload the photos to an FTP site, and just send the link. Some corporate accounts have very low tolerance to big attachments.

[Chris Breeze]

Hi Chris,

thanks for the response.

that sounds like a good idea for failing emails, not for a delayed/timed email system.

Is it possible to have an option that instead of emailing it just creates a Batch file to run the email_image.exe with the correct parameters at a later date?

My thoughts are - do the videobooth event - get home - run batch job and deliver emails - job done - customer checks email account next day, great looking photographs in inbox.

Possible?

You don't really need an offline setting. If there is no internet connection or an unreliable one it will attempt to send the emails, fail and add the email command to the failure log.

[vip]

is this a feature of the new release?

[Chris Breeze]

Yes, this will be in the next release. In the current release you could still write a script to extract the failed emails from the log file.

[vip]

Yes, this will be in the next release. In the current release you could still write a script to extract the failed emails from the log file.

Thanks Chris,

I'll wait for this to be released before considering making a purchase.

I am currently using a virtual image printer with email capabilities so I do not have to set "hotfolders" everytime - have you ever considered going down this route?

[Chris Breeze]

What software are you using to email via the printer driver? It sounds like an interesting alternative to using email_image.exe.

[vip]

What software are you using to email via the printer driver? It sounds like an interesting alternative to using email_image.exe.

Hi Chris - I am using zan image printer

http://www.zan1011.com/

I am also experimenting with blat commandline emailer as well, as it has greater functionality than email_image.exe and can also be called from within zan

http://www.blat.net/

The hardest part is getting the email address from the webcamphotobooth xml (would be so simple to just write out a simple text file - hint hint) :)

I am not up on writing AHK scripts so I am using robotask to get the email address as it has a very nice gui and supports regular expressions.

[Chris Breeze]

Thanks, I'll take a look at both apps.

The photobooth_log.ahk script on this page shows how to extract the email address from the XML file:
http://www.breezesys.com/articles/photobooth6.htm

It may be a little harder to parse than a simple text file, but the XML file holds other useful information about the photos and can be extended to more information in the future.