Sending HTML Email from FileMaker

Posted by donovan 11/02/2012 at 09:36PM

It comes up time and again: "How can I send a formatted email from FileMaker?" You see, FileMaker natively supports only plain text emails; you're on your own if you want rich text or HTML. But it is possible! Here's a list of options for (nearly) painlessly sending HTML emails from FileMaker.

Apple Mail

In this scenario, FileMaker uses AppleScript to send an HTML email through the Apple Mail client on OS X. Pretty much the only requirement is that the person sending the email has an email account configured in Mail. Of course, this isn't something you can often depend on. It's also exploiting an undocumented behavior, so I would be skeptical of its dependability with future versions of Mail. Still, it's handy for its ease of implementation.

http://buzz.beezwax.net/files/Email_with_Apple_Mail_2012-09-07.zip

ScriptMaster Plug-In

In this scenario, FileMaker uses an external function from the ScriptMaster plug-in to send an email. ScriptMaster provides an example function, but our demo provides an enhanced version that allows for pretty much every combination of features. You might even use it to send a plain text email with multiple attachments. (FileMaker natively support only a single attachment.) This approach gives you maximum features for relative ease of deployment. Oh, and it's free! The catch is that Java is increasingly going out of fashion these days (speaking as an OS X user), so the plug-in may run into issues on some users' machines.

http://buzz.beezwax.net/files/Email_with_ScriptMaster_2012-09-07.zip

Web Service

In this scenario, FileMaker posts parameters to a web service that then sends the email for you. All the client needs to do is post the parameters to a web server, which is good for compatibility across various client configurations. This will also work in FileMaker Go If you're using a GET request (basically just opening a normal URL). The trouble with GET requests is that they have an inherent character limit and are not as commonly supported as POST requests. So let us know if you've figured out how to send POST requests from FileMaker Go! The web service can be in any language capable of providing an API accepting GET or POST requests. We've done it using PHP and Ruby.

You can also post to someone else's web service, such as JangoMail. This approach can yield more advanced features like campaign management and analytics. It also supports GET requests, so you can run the demo on your iPhone or iPad if you wish. (The following demo requires a free JangoMail account to function.)

http://buzz.beezwax.net/files/Email_with_Web_Service_2012-11-02.zip

Other Plug-Ins

If you don't mind spending a few dollars, consider purchasing a plug-in built specifically for email handling. It might be worth the features and time saved. I have very little experience with these plug-ins, but I've added a few to our comparison table based on their marketing materials. (My apologies for the formatting.)

Caveats

Mail clients will have varying support for HTML and CSS features. See Campaign Monitor's handy reference for more detail on what many of the popular clients support.

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/