Email Notification App

[Rob Meade]

Hi all,

Ok - at work (NHS) we currently send out emails to everyone in the Trust
(approx 2500 people) whenever there's something to say, perhaps a D&V update
to let people know which wards are closed or remain closed etc...we've
finally managed to get the people in power to see sense and rather than spam
everyone we are going to operate a subscription based application for
various subjects.

Each subject will have an administrator who will log in to the app and
submit the subject and body text, set the importance etc and then the app
will initially save this to SQL Server and then email everyone in the
database who has subscribed to this notification.

I've looked at this from several angles - I want the best performance, and
also the best functionality.

Initially my plan was to have the app run off to a stored procedure to send
the emails using xp_sendmail - but having tried that today all of the email
arrive 'from' SQLAdmin - I've looked at ways to change this but cant seem
to - I'd prefer to be able to configure the 'from' and 'reply-to' fields if
possible.

Therefore I looked back at ASP for this, using CDO, of course this means
iterating through potentially a huge recordset and sending an email to each
(worst case 2500)..

I've put a test of this together this afternoon and have it sending a 500
character notification to my email address - the following are the results :

emails sent time
5 <1 second
10 1 seconds
25 2 seconds
50 2 seconds
100 6 seconds
500 29 seconds
1000 58 seconds

I have managed (thanks to ASPFAQ) to have an animated gif on the screen
showing that something is happening with text telling the user not to click
back/stop/refresh etc etc for fear of resending.

Ordinarily I would hate for a web app to have one page effectively waiting
for 1 minute before doing something, but without using the stored procedure
method to do this I do not see how I will be able to.

So, if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions to a better solution than the
above, or any other comments I would like to hear from you :o)

We do have the ability to install 3rd part components, however we currently
lack the resources funding wise to pay for them, so unless they are free and
very secure they are not likely to be used.

Thanks in advance for reading and any help/suggestions you might have.

Regards

Rob

[Ray at]

Are these recipients internal and/or do you run Exchange? You can setup a
multi-recipient distribution list in Exchange and just send out the one
e-mail. Or, although I imagine you already thought of this and ruled it out
for some reason, you can send one e-mail to a bogus address and BCC all your
2500 recipients. (Or just address it to all of them.) Is there a reason
that all of the e-mails need to be separate?

Ray at work

"Rob Meade" <ro**********@N OSPAMubht.swest .nhs.uk> wrote in message
news:eV******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP12.phx.gbl...

Hi all,

Ok - at work (NHS) we currently send out emails to everyone in the Trust
(approx 2500 people) whenever there's something to say, perhaps a D&V update to let people know which wards are closed or remain closed etc...we've
finally managed to get the people in power to see sense and rather than spam everyone we are going to operate a subscription based application for
various subjects.

Each subject will have an administrator who will log in to the app and
submit the subject and body text, set the importance etc and then the app
will initially save this to SQL Server and then email everyone in the
database who has subscribed to this notification.

I've looked at this from several angles - I want the best performance, and
also the best functionality.

Initially my plan was to have the app run off to a stored procedure to send the emails using xp_sendmail - but having tried that today all of the email arrive 'from' SQLAdmin - I've looked at ways to change this but cant seem
to - I'd prefer to be able to configure the 'from' and 'reply-to' fields if possible.

Therefore I looked back at ASP for this, using CDO, of course this means
iterating through potentially a huge recordset and sending an email to each (worst case 2500)..

I've put a test of this together this afternoon and have it sending a 500
character notification to my email address - the following are the results :
emails sent time
5 <1 second
10 1 seconds
25 2 seconds
50 2 seconds
100 6 seconds
500 29 seconds
1000 58 seconds

I have managed (thanks to ASPFAQ) to have an animated gif on the screen
showing that something is happening with text telling the user not to click back/stop/refresh etc etc for fear of resending.

Ordinarily I would hate for a web app to have one page effectively waiting
for 1 minute before doing something, but without using the stored procedure method to do this I do not see how I will be able to.

So, if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions to a better solution than the above, or any other comments I would like to hear from you :o)

We do have the ability to install 3rd part components, however we currently lack the resources funding wise to pay for them, so unless they are free and very secure they are not likely to be used.

Thanks in advance for reading and any help/suggestions you might have.

Regards

Rob

[Foo Man Chew]

Why not save this information to SQL Server, and let SQL Server send the
e-mail? Then the user doesn't have to wait for it.

Initially my plan was to have the app run off to a stored procedure to send the emails using xp_sendmail - but having tried that today all of the email arrive 'from' SQLAdmin - I've looked at ways to change this but cant seem
to - I'd prefer to be able to configure the 'from' and 'reply-to' fields if possible.

You need xp_smtp_sendmai l, see http://www.aspfaq.com/2403

[Rob Meade]

"Ray at <%=sLocation% >" wrote ...

Are these recipients internal and/or do you run Exchange?
Bit of an odd one to answer Ray, initially the project is 'internal' - so it
would be people on our domain etc, however - we also have whats known as
AvonWeb which lives on the NHS network, so other users would need to be able
to use it, subscriptions will allow for email extensions of .nhs or
..nhs.uk - they will not be able to send emails outside of this (hotmail etc)
You can setup a multi-recipient distribution list in Exchange and just send out the one e-mail.
Aye, but the people on the list could change frequently, and it would need
to be manipulated via ASP - not sure if you can do that - its not something
I've tried before?
Or, although I imagine you already thought of this and ruled it out
for some reason, you can send one e-mail to a bogus address and BCC all your 2500 recipients.
Aye, I looked at the BCC, but I remember a colleague mentioned that it
wasn't impossible to see the other emails address from an email sent using
the BCC, although I've never checked this myself (wouldn't know if I'd
received a BCC or not :o) )..
(Or just address it to all of them.) Is there a reason that all of the

e-mails need to be separate?

As the user has subscribed, as with most applications I've written I like to
personalise the emails that they receive (an example of this is one of our
applications which sends the user an email when their accounts is unlocked -
its a little too friendly - we get loads of people replying to it because
they think a 'nice' person as sent it! :oD)...so the emails would start,

Dear Ray,

etc

Also, I'd rather not list the 2500 emails addresses in the To field - we
have a few numptiese here, and one of them are sure to hit ReplyToAll - hehe
:)

Cheers for the reply Ray,

Regards

Rob

[Rob Meade]

"Foo Man Chew" wrote ...

Why not save this information to SQL Server, and let SQL Server send the
e-mail? Then the user doesn't have to wait for it.
This is what I would prefer to do believe me, but I need to be able to make
it look like its comes from the application not SQLAdmin, and also change
the reply-to address so that if anyone does reply to it it gets sent to our
team to deal with it rather than to a server where it'll get ignored..
You need xp_smtp_sendmai l, see http://www.aspfaq.com/2403

Always an irony when I post asking for help, then find something that looks
promising then see a reply about the same thing - hehe - many thanks :)

I stumbled across this earlier today, and also the article on ASP FAQ so
I'll be giving that a try in the morning...

Cheers for the reply...

Regards

Rob

[Ray at]

A third party solution may be best. But if you want to do it all in VBS,
use a .vbs file and set it up to run with the task scheduler.

Ray at work

"Rob Meade" <ro**********@N OSPAMubht.swest .nhs.uk> wrote in message
news:e%******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP11.phx.gbl. ..

"Ray at <%=sLocation% >" wrote ...

Are these recipients internal and/or do you run Exchange?
Bit of an odd one to answer Ray, initially the project is 'internal' - so

it would be people on our domain etc, however - we also have whats known as
AvonWeb which lives on the NHS network, so other users would need to be able to use it, subscriptions will allow for email extensions of .nhs or
.nhs.uk - they will not be able to send emails outside of this (hotmail etc)

You can setup a multi-recipient distribution list in Exchange and just send out the one

e-mail.

Aye, but the people on the list could change frequently, and it would need
to be manipulated via ASP - not sure if you can do that - its not

something I've tried before?

Or, although I imagine you already thought of this and ruled it out
for some reason, you can send one e-mail to a bogus address and BCC all your

2500 recipients.

Aye, I looked at the BCC, but I remember a colleague mentioned that it
wasn't impossible to see the other emails address from an email sent using
the BCC, although I've never checked this myself (wouldn't know if I'd
received a BCC or not :o) )..

(Or just address it to all of them.) Is there a reason that all of the

e-mails need to be separate?

As the user has subscribed, as with most applications I've written I like

to personalise the emails that they receive (an example of this is one of our
applications which sends the user an email when their accounts is unlocked - its a little too friendly - we get loads of people replying to it because
they think a 'nice' person as sent it! :oD)...so the emails would start,

Dear Ray,

etc

Also, I'd rather not list the 2500 emails addresses in the To field - we
have a few numptiese here, and one of them are sure to hit ReplyToAll - hehe :)

Cheers for the reply Ray,

Regards

Rob

[Paul]

how about

free
http://scripts.ocean12tech.com/asp/mailinglist/
http://www.webwizguide.info/asp/samp...ist_script.asp
http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb...=8399&lngWId=4

lists (not all free)
http://www.scriptz.com/ASP/Mailing_List_Managers/
http://www.hotscripts.com/ASP/Script...List_Managers/
http://devscripts.com/category.php?stId=518

regards
paul
"Rob Meade" <ro**********@N OSPAMubht.swest .nhs.uk> wrote in message
news:eV******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP12.phx.gbl...

Hi all,

Ok - at work (NHS) we currently send out emails to everyone in the Trust
(approx 2500 people) whenever there's something to say, perhaps a D&V update to let people know which wards are closed or remain closed etc...we've
finally managed to get the people in power to see sense and rather than spam everyone we are going to operate a subscription based application for
various subjects.

Each subject will have an administrator who will log in to the app and
submit the subject and body text, set the importance etc and then the app
will initially save this to SQL Server and then email everyone in the
database who has subscribed to this notification.

I've looked at this from several angles - I want the best performance, and
also the best functionality.

Initially my plan was to have the app run off to a stored procedure to send the emails using xp_sendmail - but having tried that today all of the email arrive 'from' SQLAdmin - I've looked at ways to change this but cant seem
to - I'd prefer to be able to configure the 'from' and 'reply-to' fields if possible.

Therefore I looked back at ASP for this, using CDO, of course this means
iterating through potentially a huge recordset and sending an email to each (worst case 2500)..

I've put a test of this together this afternoon and have it sending a 500
character notification to my email address - the following are the results :
emails sent time
5 <1 second
10 1 seconds
25 2 seconds
50 2 seconds
100 6 seconds
500 29 seconds
1000 58 seconds

I have managed (thanks to ASPFAQ) to have an animated gif on the screen
showing that something is happening with text telling the user not to click back/stop/refresh etc etc for fear of resending.

Ordinarily I would hate for a web app to have one page effectively waiting
for 1 minute before doing something, but without using the stored procedure method to do this I do not see how I will be able to.

So, if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions to a better solution than the above, or any other comments I would like to hear from you :o)

We do have the ability to install 3rd part components, however we currently lack the resources funding wise to pay for them, so unless they are free and very secure they are not likely to be used.

Thanks in advance for reading and any help/suggestions you might have.

Regards

Rob

[Steven Burn]

Free SMTP control (available as .dll or .ocx, with sample applications, and
mailing list capability)

www.ostrosoft.com

--
Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)
Rob Meade <ro**********@N OSPAMubht.swest .nhs.uk> wrote in message
news:eV******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP12.phx.gbl...

Hi all,

Ok - at work (NHS) we currently send out emails to everyone in the Trust
(approx 2500 people) whenever there's something to say, perhaps a D&V update to let people know which wards are closed or remain closed etc...we've
finally managed to get the people in power to see sense and rather than spam everyone we are going to operate a subscription based application for
various subjects.

Each subject will have an administrator who will log in to the app and
submit the subject and body text, set the importance etc and then the app
will initially save this to SQL Server and then email everyone in the
database who has subscribed to this notification.

I've looked at this from several angles - I want the best performance, and
also the best functionality.

Initially my plan was to have the app run off to a stored procedure to send the emails using xp_sendmail - but having tried that today all of the email arrive 'from' SQLAdmin - I've looked at ways to change this but cant seem
to - I'd prefer to be able to configure the 'from' and 'reply-to' fields if possible.

Therefore I looked back at ASP for this, using CDO, of course this means
iterating through potentially a huge recordset and sending an email to each (worst case 2500)..

I've put a test of this together this afternoon and have it sending a 500
character notification to my email address - the following are the results :
emails sent time
5 <1 second
10 1 seconds
25 2 seconds
50 2 seconds
100 6 seconds
500 29 seconds
1000 58 seconds

I have managed (thanks to ASPFAQ) to have an animated gif on the screen
showing that something is happening with text telling the user not to click back/stop/refresh etc etc for fear of resending.

Ordinarily I would hate for a web app to have one page effectively waiting
for 1 minute before doing something, but without using the stored procedure method to do this I do not see how I will be able to.

So, if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions to a better solution than the above, or any other comments I would like to hear from you :o)

We do have the ability to install 3rd part components, however we currently lack the resources funding wise to pay for them, so unless they are free and very secure they are not likely to be used.

Thanks in advance for reading and any help/suggestions you might have.

Regards

Rob