Qios pelican 2 1 manual

QIOS Pelican Manual

© QIOS B.V. - Quality Is Our Solution www.qiospelican.com page: 1/59

QIOS Pelican

Manual

Author

QIOS

Date

January 2011

Version

2.1

QIOS Pelican Manual


Table of contents Table of contents ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 4 Guidelines for a decent mailing ............................................................................................................... 5 The five steps involved ............................................................................................................................ 6

Step 1: Create a datasource ................................................................................................................ 6 Step 2: Retrieve and modify the data .................................................................................................. 6 Step 3: Create the e-mail ..................................................................................................................... 6 Step 4: Map the fields and / or transform the data .............................................................................. 6 Step 5: Test and send it ....................................................................................................................... 6

Main QIOS Pelican window ..................................................................................................................... 7 1. Main menu .................................................................................................................................... 7 2. Project toolbar .............................................................................................................................. 8 3. Data toolbar .................................................................................................................................. 8 4. Tab strip ....................................................................................................................................... 8 5. Output window .............................................................................................................................. 8 6. Status text .................................................................................................................................... 8 7. Data status text ............................................................................................................................ 8

My Projects .............................................................................................................................................. 9 My current project ............................................................................................................................. 9 Recent projects .............................................................................................................................. 10 Get started with QIOS Pelican ....................................................................................................... 10 Message center .............................................................................................................................. 11

Project & Files ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Datasource ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Data ....................................................................................................................................................... 14

After retrieving .................................................................................................................................... 14 Check & Uncheck ........................................................................................................................... 14 Search ............................................................................................................................................ 15 Hide Unchecked & Modify Data ..................................................................................................... 15

After testing or sending ...................................................................................................................... 16 E-mail ..................................................................................................................................................... 17

E-mail text fields ................................................................................................................................. 18 E-mail options .................................................................................................................................... 19 Design view ........................................................................................................................................ 22 HTML View ........................................................................................................................................ 25

Field map ............................................................................................................................................... 26 Transformation ...................................................................................................................................... 27

Properties and Methods of QMailerTransformationFields ............................................................. 28 Preview .................................................................................................................................................. 30 Finish ..................................................................................................................................................... 31

Apply these settings to this project only ......................................................................................... 32 E-mail & Server settings ................................................................................................................. 32 Advanced settings .......................................................................................................................... 32 Additional settings .......................................................................................................................... 33 Send preview .................................................................................................................................. 33 Test run .......................................................................................................................................... 34 Execute .......................................................................................................................................... 34

Various Datasources ............................................................................................................................. 35 Microsoft Access Database ............................................................................................................... 35 Microsoft Excel Sheet ........................................................................................................................ 36 Microsoft Exchange Server via WebDAV .......................................................................................... 37 Microsoft Outlook Mailbox.................................................................................................................. 39 Microsoft SQL Server ......................................................................................................................... 40 Microsoft .NET DataSet over HTTP ................................................................................................... 41

Building the Microsoft .NET ASPX page ........................................................................................ 42

QIOS Pelican Manual


Using Forms Authentication ........................................................................................................... 42 Oracle Database ................................................................................................................................ 43 MySQL Database ............................................................................................................................... 44 Text File ............................................................................................................................................. 45 Custom ODBC Connection ................................................................................................................ 47 Custom OLE DB Connection ............................................................................................................. 48

Basic HTML and CSS Styles ................................................................................................................. 49 Default elements ............................................................................................................................ 49 Common used formatting elements ............................................................................................... 49 Attributes ........................................................................................................................................ 50 Full HTML example ........................................................................................................................ 51

The Style element (CSS Stylesheet) ................................................................................................. 52 Most common styles ....................................................................................................................... 53 Full CSS Stylesheet example ......................................................................................................... 54 Additional resources ....................................................................................................................... 55

Glossary................................................................................................................................................. 56

QIOS Pelican Manual


Introduction With QIOS Pelican you can send all your customers, colleagues, friends, employees, club members or another group of people the same e-mail, but with personalized content. This means that you write one e-mail, but the parts that differ per e-mail are filled in with the correct information automatically. For example the person‟s name, his club membership expiration date, or at which time he is expected to show up for his evaluation meeting. To accomplish this, QIOS Pelican contains two basic elements: a Datasource and the E-mail. The Datasource contains the information about the group of people you want to e-mail. It contains a list with the e-mail addresses of the people, their names, and (if the e-mail is regarding club membership expiration) their club membership expiration dates. The e-mail is the part that is the same for each recipient. You also define which parts differ per recipient in the e-mail with E-mail fields. Between having a list of people with additional data and sending the actual e-mail, there are a few steps involved. To execute these steps QIOS Pelican has a tabbed user interface. The following chapters will explain each step in detail.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Guidelines for a decent mailing When sending e-mail with QIOS Pelican or sending mass e-mail in general, you are advised to:

put a descriptive text in the subject line about the content of the e-mail.

tell clearly who is the sender of the e-mail.

explain in which context the recipient is receiving your e-mail (member of, registered user of, etc); do not send e-mail to people who did not explicitly have chosen to receive such messages from you.

provide a usable reply address.

provide the recipient with an easy way to unsubscribe or opt-out. We believe that following these guidelines will make your message more friendly and effective.

QIOS Pelican Manual


The five steps involved

Figure 1. The five steps involved

Step 1: Create a datasource During the first step you have to specify where the data that should be contained in the e-mail comes from. You probably have a list of e-mail addresses and additional data like the person‟s name, customer number, etc, stored somewhere on your computer or network. Most often those lists are maintained in Microsoft Excel or Access files, in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications that use a database like Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database or MySQL Database. You can also have a simple comma (or otherwise) delimited text-file. You can also retrieve the data directly from your Microsoft Exchange Server (via WebDAV) if needed. And if at this point the source of your data is not mentioned yet, you can use Custom OLE DB or ODBC connections to retrieve your data. In Step 1, you identify where and how the data you want to use must be retrieved. See the chapter Datasource

Step 2: Retrieve and modify the data After you have specified where the data resides, you can retrieve the data so that it is ready to be used. This basically happens with a single button click. However, you can optionally modify the data so that it meets your exact requirements. See the chapter Data for details.

Step 3: Create the e-mail When the data is known, it is time to create the actual e-mail. You can easily incorporate the data by typing them in your e-mail or by selecting them. The e-mail can be created via the Design mode or by typing it in the HTML view. You can also create e-mails in plain Text. See the chapter E-mail for details.

Step 4: Map the fields and / or transform the data To let QIOS Pelican know which E-mail field must be replaced by which Data field, you have to map them. This can happen automatically. In this case the mappings of E-mail fields that correspond to a Data field are automatically created. See the chapter Field map for details. It is even possible to do custom transformations on your Data fields before inserting them into the e-mail. A simple example of this is adding “Mr.” before the person‟s name if the person is male or “Mrs.” when she is female. Of course much more can be done with these custom transformations. See the chapter Transformation for details.

Step 5: Test and send it In the final step you have several options to test the e-mail. You can see what the e-mail will look like on the Preview tab, you can send the preview e-mail to a preselected test address or do a complete test run on the Finish tab. After that, a click on the Send button will send the e-mails to all the people. See the chapters Preview and Finish for details.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Main QIOS Pelican window QIOS Pelican has the following elements on the main window:

Figure 2. Main QIOS Pelican window

1. Main menu

The main menu contains items to open, create and save the several files, retrieve the data, specify additional options and show help related items. File The file menu lets you create new projects or files or you can save the complete project or individual files. To save an individual file, make sure the related tab (for example, the E-mail tab) is active. Then you have the possibility to save the e-mail. Data In the Data menu you can retrieve the data. This is disabled as long as there is no valid Datasource specified in the Datasource tab.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Options The options menu gives you access to user interface related items. When you close QIOS Pelican, the layout of the window and the location on the screen is saved. In the User interface sub menu you can choose to revert the window back to the last saved state or to the default state. Help In the help menu you can access this manual. You can register your free version or unlock the full version via the Manage licenses menu-item. You have also access to the About… screen that shows the exact details of the current QIOS Pelican version.

2. Project toolbar

The Project toolbar gives you faster access to the most common items from the Main Menu. It is context sensitive. This means that the action the buttons represent are related to the current active Tab. For example: If your are currently viewing the E-mail tab, the New item will create a new e-mail, the Open item will let you open another e-mail and the Save button will allow you to save the e-mail. For the Datasource tab, the items work the same only then for the Datasource file. You can also expand the several items if you want to choose what kind of file you want to create, open or save.

3. Data toolbar

This toolbar lets you retrieve the data and navigate through the records. The Retrieve Data button retrieves the data from the Datasource. It will be disabled if there is no Datasource. The Navigation buttons are only enabled after data has been retrieved and while on the Data or Preview tab.

4. Tab strip

The main tab strip lets you switch between the various elements and steps of QIOS Pelican.

5. Output window

The Output window gives you additional information and a history of the actions you have performed. It shows the details of an exception that has occurred or shows you when a specific action was started and completed.

6. Status text

The Status text shows the current or last action that has been performed. It also tells you the progress when you are sending or testing e-mails.

7. Data status text

This area shows how many records are contained in the data, and how many are checked for receiving the e-mail.

QIOS Pelican Manual


My Projects When you first start QIOS Pelican, the My Projects tab will show. This chapter will describe what you see and what you can do with it.

Figure 3. My Projects

My current project

This section shows the project you have currently loaded. Each time you start QIOS Pelican, a new project is created. When you load a project or save the new project, this section will tell you where the project is located and when it was created, modified or accessed.

Figure 4. Sample - Revenue project loaded

In Figure 4, a sample project is loaded. You see the name, the location, the creation, last saved and accessed date of the project.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Recent projects

This section shows you the projects you have recently worked at. When you first start QIOS Pelican, three sample projects will show. These projects are located in the My Documents\QIOS Pelican\Sample Projects\ folder. They are good examples of what you can do with QIOS Pelican. As soon as you save or open another project, this project will show at the top of this list. The loaded project will get a surrounding rectangle.

Figure 5. Recent projects showing sample projects

Get started with QIOS Pelican

The Get Started with QIOS Pelican section shows you how to access this help file.

Figure 6. Get started

QIOS Pelican Manual


Message center

The Message center section gives you information from several sources. It contains preconfigured messages based on the state of your QIOS Pelican registration or license and it can contain downloaded messages from the Internet.

Figure 7. Message center

When you start QIOS Pelican for the first time, the Message center section will contain three messages: Unlock full version To unlock the full version, you have to purchase a license and activate it. Clicking the activate item shows how you can do that. After you have unlocked the full version, you will be able to:

Send commercial e-mails to your customers.

Change the Delay between e-mails or Parallel senders values on the Finish tab. See the chapter about the Finish tab for details.

To unlock the full version, you don‟t need to download another version of QIOS Pelican. You just fill in the received License number and Authentication code under the Activate link. Register your free version If you don't need a license, because you don't send commercial e-mail, just register your free version with us. Registering has the following advantages:

We will keep you up to date about QIOS Pelican.

The default delay between e-mails is decreased from 2000 to 1000 milliseconds (See the chapter Finish for details about the Delay between e-mails).

To be able to receive information about QIOS Pelican check the “Keep me informed about QIOS Pelican” checkbox. Version up-to-date If you are using the latest QIOS Pelican version available, this message will show. Otherwise you are told that a new version is available and you can download it from the QIOS Pelican website.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Project & Files When you start QIOS Pelican, a new project is automatically created. A QIOS Pelican project consists of:

Project file Containing the locations of the other files, settings and the Field Map (.qmp extension)

Datasource Containing the settings of the Datasource (.qmds extension).

Data file Containing the retrieved data and possible the results. (.qmdf extension).

E-mail Containing the e-mail. (.qmht extension)

Transformation file Containing the Transformation code. (.qmcs extension) Open project & Files You can choose to open an existing project or individual files. You open an existing project by selecting Open and then Project from the File menu. You open an existing file by selecting Open and then selecting the requested file from the File menu. You can also open projects via the Open Recent Project item in the File menu or via the Recent Projects on the My Projects tab. New project & files When you have opened a project and you want to start with a new project or one or more files you can create a new project or a new file. You do this by selecting New and then the project or file from the File menu. Save project & files When you change the content of one of the tabs (except the Preview and Finish tab) you have the option to save that file or the complete project. You save the file by using the Save button or select Save from the File menu. You can save the complete project by clicking the Save Project button or select Save Project from the File menu. When you first save the project a dialog will popup that will ask you to specify the filenames. You can specify per file if it needs to be saved and where to save it:

Figure 8. Specify where to save the files

Keep files in project folder When this checkbox is checked, all the files will be saved in the same folder. If you have opened an existing file in your project you will see that the file will remain in the folder you have opened it from,

QIOS Pelican Manual


even if this is a different folder than where you want to save your project. If you check the Keep files in project folder checkbox, the file will be saved in the project folder.

Datasource On the Datasource tab you define a link to a data repository containing the list of persons (and / or their additional information) you want to send the e-mail to. Because there are several ways to have this list on your computer or network defined, you can choose between several Datasources:

Microsoft Access Database

Figure 9. Select the type of Datasource

Microsoft Excel Sheet

Microsoft Exchange Server via WebDAV

Microsoft Outlook Mailbox

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft .NET DataSet over HTTP

Oracle Database

MySQL Database

Text File

Custom OLE DB Connection

Custom ODBC Connection

When you first start the application, a Microsoft Access Database Datasource is automatically created. If you have the information in another Datasource, you can press the link Choose other Datasource type or select New Datasource from the File menu or Toolbar. See the chapter Various Datasources for the details on how to configure each type of Datasource.

Figure 10. Define your Datasource

QIOS Pelican Manual


Data The Data tab is used to display the retrieved data from the Datasource. This is the data that is going to be used in the e-mail. This tab is also used to display the results after testing or sending. This way when the sending process is stopped or finished, the test or send result can function as input for a new test or send process.

After retrieving After the data is retrieved from the Datasource, the Data tab displays the retrieved data. On this tab you can make a selection which people you want to send an e-mail to.

Figure 11. Select the recipients

Check & Uncheck

You can include or exclude somebody by checking or unchecking the box in the first column. When you have a large list, you can check Records by using the Check and Uncheck buttons above the list.

Check All. With this button you check all the available recipients.

Check Selected. When you make a selection in the list by holding the Shift or Ctrl key, you can check those recipients with this.

Check Sent. When your list contains recipients that already received an e-mail, you can check those with this.

Check Unsent. This button checks all the recipients that haven‟t received an e-mail yet.

Check Tested. When you have executed a test run you can check the tested records again by pressing this.

Check Untested. When you have untested records, you can check those records with this.

Check Exceptions. When an exception occurred during the test run or while sending, this will be displayed in the Record. You can check all the exceptions by clicking this.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Next to the Check button there is an Uncheck button. This will uncheck the specified records instead of checking them.

Search

Next to the Uncheck button, there is a Search box. You can search records in the data by typing a search value and then press Enter or the Search Button. All the records that contain the searched value will be shown. The search box will appear orange so that it is clear that you have searched. The navigation buttons on the top will only work on the found records. In the right bottom corner you will see the amount of records that are found. The Check and Uncheck buttons will change to the Check Found and Uncheck Found. This means that the buttons will only work on the found records. Important When searched, the navigation and preview works on the found records. However, sending or testing (See the Finish chapter) does work on all the checked records. So also the records that might not be visible after a search, but still are checked. Press the Clear button to clear the search value and show all the records again.

Figure 12. Search in the data

Hide Unchecked & Modify Data

The last button is the Hide Unchecked button. This will allow you to only show the records that will be used during the test run or send procedure (See the Finish chapter). You can modify fields in the data by selecting the cell you want to modify and then double clicking it.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Figure 13. Modify data

After testing or sending When you have executed a test run or have actually sent the e-mail, you will see that the focus will be set back to the Data tab and it will contain an icon and two extra columns.

Figure 14. Data After testing or sending

The two columns are Result and Result date. Result contains whether the Record was tested or sent successfully and if not, what the exception was. Result date contains the date and time the last action took place. The icon indicates the type of result:

Indicates that an error occurred during the test run or while sending. The Result column will specify the exact exception.

Indicates that the record is successfully merged with the e-mail during the test run.

Indicates that the record is successfully merged with the e-mail and sent to the recipient.

QIOS Pelican Manual


E-mail On this tab you write the actual E-mail. You fill out the regular fields like From, To and Subject and create the body of the e-mail. There are two ways to create the body. You can use the simple Design view, which allows you to type the e-mail like you would in a text-editor, or you can do it in the HTML view, which gives you full control of the layout of the e-mail. In the e-mail you define E-mail fields. Those fields will be replaced by the Data fields that they are mapped to or filled by the Transformation when the resulting e-mail is generated. E-mail fields are written as names surrounded by brackets ( „[„ and „]‟ signs ). For example: [email] or [name]. You can also insert Data Fields into the e-mail by selecting them from the Insert Data Field option. See the chapter E-mail options for details.

Figure 15. Type the e-mail containing E-mail Fields

QIOS Pelican Manual


E-mail text fields At the top of the E-mail tab, you define the regular fields that will be used in the e-mail.

Figure 16. E-mail text fields

From Here you need to specify where the e-mail comes from. This usually is your own e-mail address. Of course, you can fill out an E-mail field if the from address must be a value from the Data. To Here you need to specify the destination e-mail address. This will be often an E-mail field that will be replaced with the e-mail address of the recipient. Cc and Bcc Here you can specify additional Carbon Copy (Cc) and Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) fields. This can also be an E-mail field Subject This will contain the subject of your E-mail. This can also be an E-mail field. By default this text-field will have an orange background color. This indicates that the field hasn‟t been changed since the e-mail was opened or created. As soon as the subject is changed, the background color will become white.

QIOS Pelican Manual


E-mail options In the area below the E-mail text fields, the E-mail option bar is displayed. It contains the following options:

Figure 17. E-mail option bar

Attachments It is possible to send one or more attachments with your e-mail. You select those attachments via this button. When selecting attachments you type the name of the file or press the Browse button to browse to the file and click Add. While doing this, it is possible to fill the path with E-mail fields. For

example, an attached file could be: C:\Clients\[Username]\Invoice200805.pdf In this case, when the e-mail for a recipient with the Username “Brown” is sent, the file:

C:\Clients\Brown\Invoice200805.pdf is attached.

Figure 18. E-mail fields in attachments

Of course, the use of E-mail fields is optional during the attachment selection.

QIOS Pelican Manual


More addresses Besides the regular addresses, you have the possibility to add more addresses to the e-mail. Unsubscribe Some e-mail systems (like www.gmail.com) work automatically on an unsubscribe address. This means that it will show the recipient an Unsubscribe link that will send an e-mail to a specific address. You can fill out this address in the Unsubscribe field. You can choose whether an e-mail must be send (mailto:), or a website must be opened (http(s):). You can use the E-mail fields in all the addresses; however this is not obligated. In the Unsubscribe field, you can use parameters with the mailto like the Subject of the returning e-mail, for example:

mailto:[email protected]?Subject=UnsubscribeClientID-[ClientID] Reply to If you fill out an e-mail address here, this e-mail address will be used when the recipient replies to your e-mail. Bounce to If for some reason your e-mail cannot be delivered, an undeliverable response will be send to this address.

Figure 19. More Addresses

http://www.gmail.com/

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Request Read Receipt It is possible that you request a Read Receipt. In this case you will (if supported by the recipients E-mail client) receive an e-mail as soon as the recipient has read the e-mail. The Read Receipt will be delivered to the e-mail address you filled out in the From field. Note: Request Read Receipt is not widely supported. The e-mail client must support it (Like Microsoft Outlook). Web based e-mail clients (Like www.hotmail.com or www.gmail.com) do not support it. Therefore, if you request a Read Receipt, you might not get a receipt from some recipients although they have read your e-mail. Priority: Normal, Low or High You can choose at which priority the e-mail must occur in the recipient‟s Inbox. Normal is the regular priority. High will often show some sort of explanation mark or a plus sign next to the e-mail. Low is below normal priority and is often indicated with some arrow pointing down or a minus sign. HTML or Text You can choose whether you want to send the e-mail in HTML or just plain Text. If you send the e-mail in HTML, all kind of formatting can be done like bold text, different fonts, tables and images. In basic Text this cannot be done. You will see that if you switch to plain Text, The Design view will disappear and you can just type your e-mail in one font.

Figure 20. Switching to Text mode

If you switch to Text mode you will be asked whether QIOS Pelican must remove the HTML formatting for you. If you choose No, then all the HTML formatting code will remain. If you choose Yes then all the HTML Tags will be removed and the same text will remain as you saw in Design view. If you choose Cancel nothing will happen, you will not switch to Text mode. Insert Data Field After you have retrieved data from a Datasource, it is possible to automatically insert those fields into the e-mail or any related text field like the To or Subject field. This is an automated substitute for typing the fields with brackets (the „[„ and „]‟ signs). Note: after inserting them, the fields still need to be mapped in the Field map. (This can of course also happen automatically with the Automap function). Insert Transformation Field As with the Data Fields, it is also possible to insert fields that are created during Transformation. Every

occurrence of Destination["XXX"] (or Destination(“XXX”) in VB) in the transformation-code will show up in the Insert Transformation Field list.

http://www.hotmail.com/

http://www.gmail.com/

QIOS Pelican Manual


Design view To create the actual body of the e-mail, there is a Design view and a HTML view available. The Design view automates the HTML generation process. You can basically type and format your text here as you would in a regular text editor. Advanced features The QIOS Pelican Design view is created to support basic text-formatting. It cannot be seen as a full featured HTML Designer like Microsoft Expression Web (successor of FrontPage) or Adobe Dreamweaver. If you want to use such kind of advanced features, we recommend that you use one of the mentioned programs and open the created HTML file in QIOS Pelican. You can do this via the Open E-mail function. In the Open window you have to specify that you want to open a HTML File in the Files of type section. Design options The design view has the following options:

1. Undo

After you have made a change in the text, you can undo that change with this item.

2. Redo This item reapplies the action that has been undone with the Undo button.

3. Cut This item removes the selected text and adds it to the Clipboard, so that it can be pasted somewhere else or in another application.

4. Copy This item copies the selected text to the Clipboard so it can be pasted somewhere else or in another application.

5. Paste To paste the text available on the Clipboard, which can be placed there via the Cut or Copy items, or via these options in another application, use the Paste item.

6. Delete This deletes the selected text.

7. Show paragraph marks and other hidden formatting symbols This item shows or hides the hidden formatting symbols. This can be a powerful feature when you want to be fully aware of the generated HTML.

8. Text format With this item you can mark the selected text as a Header (H1 until H6). The way the headers appear can be specified in the CSS Stylesheet which can be included in the HTML. See the chapter Basic HTML and CSS Styles for more details on how to do this.

9. Bold This item makes the selected text bold.

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10. Italic

This item makes the selected text italic.

11. Underline This item makes the selected text underlined.

12. Font To change the font of the selected text, a font can be typed in this text-field or selected from the list. Be aware that the font you are going to use must be installed on the computer of the recipient, otherwise it is not displayed.

13. Font size The size of the selected text can be changed in this box. You can select one from the list or type it. The default unit is Point (pt). However, every unit that can occur in a CSS Stylesheet can be applied here.

14. Font color This item lets you change the color of the selected text.

15. Remove text format This item clears all the formatting options on the selected text.

16. Align left Aligns the selected text to the left.

17. Align center Aligns the selected text centered.

18. Align right Aligns the selected text to the right.

19. Justify

This item justifies the selected text so that it aligns equally to the left and right.

20. Remove alignment This item removes any alignment applied to the selected text.

21. Bullets This item can be used to start a bullet list or transform the selected text to a bullet list.

22. Numbering This item does the same thing as a bullet list, but uses numbers instead.

23. Increase indent To increase the space on the left of the selected text, this item can be clicked.

24. Decrease indent Removes any space on the left of the selected text created with Increase indent

25. Create hyperlink If you want to create a hyperlink to an external web page or e-mail link, you can select some text and press this item. You can type the address of the link and the tooltip you want readers to see when they move over the link. To create an e-mail link replace “http://” with “mailto:” for example: mailto:[email protected]

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26. Remove hyperlink This item lets you remove the hyperlink created with Create hyperlink.

27. Add image If you want to include an image in the e-mail, you can add it here. The image must be publicly available on the Internet, so you need to upload the image to some Internet location if it is not available yet. In the Tooltip field you can specify the text the reader will see when he moves the mouse over the image.

28. Create table With this item you can create a table, or modify one if the mouse cursor is in a table. If you want to specify a specific style, the CSS Stylesheet in the HTML view must be used. See the chapter Basic HTML and CSS Styles for details.

29. Horizontal rule This item lets you insert a horizontal line in the e-mail.

Figure 21. E-mail Design View

Note: When you press ENTER in the text, a Paragraph (<p>) will be inserted. This will cause a margin above and below the paragraph. To insert a regular line-break (<br>) without margins, press SHIFT+ENTER.

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HTML View For full control of the layout of the e-mail, the HTML View can be used. In this view you can type full HTML and embed a CSS Stylesheet.

Figure 22. E-mail in HTML View

You can switch to Preview at any time to see what your resulting e-mail would look like. For additional information on HTML, see the chapter Basic HTML and CSS Styles

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Field map To combine the Data fields with E-mail fields a Field map is used. This tells which E-mail field must be replaced by which Data field. On the left side you see the Data fields. On the right side you see the E-mail Fields. You need to select a Data field and an E-mail field and click the Add button. This way the data represented by the Data field will be displayed on the location of the E-mail field in the resulting E-mail. When the names of your E-mail fields correspond with the names of your Data fields, you can click Auto map. This way the fields are mapped automatically on their name. When you want to remove a mapping, you need to select the mapping in the lower list and click Remove

Figure 23. Mapping fields

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Transformation For advanced users, there is the possibility to write a bit of programming code to fulfill exceptional needs. This way you can combine Data fields into one E-mail field, generate custom E-mail fields or base the contents of E-mail fields on conditional statements. This all happens in the C# (C-sharp) or Visual Basic language.

Figure 24. Transformation

For example: If you have a field Salutation (Containing ”Mr”, ”Mrs” or is empty) and Name you

probably want to setup your e-mail like this: Dear [Salutation]. [Name],

But, when the salutation of the recipient is not known, this will give an unwanted result: Dear . Brown,

This problem can be solved by transformation. You can define a not-mapped E-mail field in your e-mail, and fill the contents of that field with Transformation: Dear [Heading],

The Transformation can look like this in C#: if (Source.IsEmpty("Salutation"))

{

Destination["Heading"] = "Mr. / Mrs. " + Source.GetString("Name");

}

else

{

Destination["Heading"] =

Source.GetString("Salutation") + ". " + Source.GetString("Name");

}

Example 1. Heading via transformation in C#

QIOS Pelican Manual


The same transformation will look like this in Visual Basic: If Source.IsEmpty("Salutation")

Destination("Heading") = "Mr. / Mrs. " + Source.GetString("Name")

Else

Destination("Heading") = _

Source.GetString("Salutation") + ". " + Source.GetString("Name")

End If

Example 2. Heading via transformation in Visual Basic

The transformation code will be placed in a C# function or a Visual Basic Sub, so you can do the same as in a C# function (or Visual Basic Sub). You have access to a Source and a Destination object. Both these objects are derived from the class QMailerTransformationFields. The Source object contains one row of Data fields which can be put into the Destination (The E-mail fields). Before the transformation is executed, the values are mapped. So the Destination already contains the Source fields that were successfully mapped. You have access to the following properties and methods on the Source and the Destination objects:

Properties and Methods of QMailerTransformationFields

C#: public object Item[string fieldName]

VB: Public Default Property Item(ByVal fieldName as String) as Object

This property gets or sets the value of the field with the specified fieldName. The returning object can be of any type, from String to DateTime. It also can be null. You can access this property as an indexer, so like:

C#: Source["Fieldname"] or Destination["Fieldname"]

VB: Source("Fieldname") or Destination("Fieldname")

C#: int Count

VB: ReadOnly Property Count As Int32

This property gets how many fields are defined. C#: void Clear()

VB: Sub Clear()

This method clears the values and names. You should not call this on the Source object. C#: bool IsEmpty(string fieldName)

VB: Function IsEmpty(ByVal fieldName As String) As Boolean

This method returns true when the field is not defined, when the value of the field is null or when the value is an empty string. Else it returns false.

C#: string GetString(string fieldName)

VB: Function GetString(ByVal fieldName As String) As String

This method returns the value of the specified field converted to a string. If the field is a string, then it is just returned, if it is a numeric value, date value or boolean value, it is converted to a string using the current culture.

C#: string GetString(string fieldName, string format)

VB: Function GetString(ByVal fieldName As String, _

ByVal format As String) As String

This method returns the value of the specified field converted to a string using the specified format. For example, if the specified field is a date field, you can call this method as:

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C#: string MyString = GetString(“MyDateField”,”dd-MM-yyyy”)

VB: Dim MyString As String = GetString("MyDateField", "dd-MM-yyyy")

C#: bool GetBool(string fieldName)

VB: Funtion GetBool(ByVal string fieldName) as Boolean

This method returns the value of the specified field converted to a boolean. C#: int GetInt(string fieldName)

VB: Funtion GetInt(ByVal string fieldName) as Int32

This method will return the value of the specified field converted to an int. C#: double GetDouble(string fieldName)

VB: Funtion GetDouble(ByVal string fieldName) as Double

This method will return the value of the specified field converted to a double. C#: DateTime GetDateTime(string fieldName)

VB: Function GetDateTime(ByVal string fieldName) as DateTime

This method will return the value of the specified field converted to a DateTime

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Preview When the data is retrieved, the e-mail is written and the fields are mapped, you see how the resulting E-mail would look like in the recipient‟s Inbox. You can also use this tab to see how the e-mail would look like while writing the e-mail or for testing the Transformation.

Figure 25. Use the Preview tab to see what it is going to look like

Important The preview window uses Microsoft Internet Explorer to display the e-mail. This does not guarantee that the e-mail will show with the exact same layout in the recipients Inbox. This depends on the E-mail Client.

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Finish After all the steps are completed, it is time to test and send the actual e-mail. On the Finish tab you can specify and test the SMTP Server settings, send the preview to the test address, execute a complete test run which will test everything but does not send the e-mail, and you can actually send the e-mail to all the required recipients.

Figure 26. Use the Finish tab to test and send the e-mail.

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Apply these settings to this project only

When you fill out the information, you can choose whether you want to save the information for this project only. If this is checked, the settings will be saved with this project and your system settings will not be overwritten. This can be useful if you have projects that require other settings than your regular settings. If you have multiple projects with different settings, you can choose via Use settings from which settings you want to use.

E-mail & Server settings

This part of the Finish tab allows you to specify the SMTP Server, a test address and the support line. SMTP Server The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Server is the server that will be responsible for distributing the e-mail to the recipients. It is recommended that you use the SMTP Server that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has provided to you. This often looks like: “smtp.myisp.com” or “mail.myisp.com”. If you want to use the Windows XP Virtual SMTP Server, fill the box with “localhost”. This Virtual SMTP Server is not available in newer versions of Windows. Test e-mail address When you have specified your SMTP Server settings and you want to test them or you want to send the preview for test purposes, you can specify your e-mail address here. When you click the Test SMTP button an e-mail will be send from your test address to your test address. Include the QIOS Pelican support line in the e-mail QIOS Pelican sends a Support line by default in the e-mail. Uncheck this box if you don‟t want to include this line in your e-mail

Advanced settings

When you want to specify other SMTP Server settings like port or authentication, you can click the Advanced button.

Figure 27. Specify advanced SMTP Settings

If your ISP requires you to authenticate or use another TCP Port, you can specify those settings here. You can contact your ISP about those settings or copy them from your e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook.

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TCP Port This field contains the TCP Port that will be used. Normally this is 25. If your ISP requests another port you can fill this here. Authentication Type Most SMTP Servers work without authentication. However, if your ISP requests some authentication you can choose that here. Username If some authentication is used, you have to fill out a username and password. Fill the username here. Password If some authentication is used, you have to fill out a username and password. Fill the password here. Time-out The time-out indicates how long QIOS Pelican must wait on a response of the SMTP Server. If the time-out exceeds and no response is received, an error is generated. It is recommended that you set this as low as possible, especially when you are using Parallel senders. This way, when something goes wrong during the sending, QIOS Pelican won‟t wait a very long time before informing you. The default value is 10 seconds. However, when sending an e-mail gives a Time-out error, the Time-out value is set too low. This can happen with relatively slow connections or when you send e-mails with large attachments. In this case, increase the Time-out value until the error does not occur anymore. Use SSL It is possible, if your SMTP Server supports it, to send the e-mails over a Secure Socket layer (SSL). This makes sure nobody between you and the recipient can read the e-mail. Check this box if you want to use SSL.

Additional settings

Delay between e-mails It is possible to specify a delay between e-mails. This can be useful to turn down processor usage or when your SMTP Server has a limit on how many messages are accepted within a time frame. This delay must be specified in milliseconds. If your SMTP server has no limit, then the recommended value is 0 milliseconds. Note: you have to unlock the full version of QIOS Pelican to adjust this value. See chapter Message center details. Parallel senders It is possible to speed up the sending process by sending e-mails simultaneously with multiple parallel senders. However, this must also be supported by your SMTP Server. Some servers do not allow parallel connections from the same user. If this is the case, you have to specify 1 parallel sender. Otherwise our recommend value is 20. Note: you have to unlock the full version of QIOS Pelican to adjust this value. See chapter Message center details.

Send preview

Although you can see what the e-mail is going to look like on the Preview tab, you probably want to know what the e-mail actually looks like in your inbox. Therefore, you can fill out the Test E-mail address and send the currently selected preview to that address.

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Test run

When you use Transformation or you just want to be sure that everything will be correct when you are going to send your e-mail you can do a test run. During this run every record is merged with the e-mail and is checked. The only thing that does not happen is sending the e-mail. When you want to stop during the test run you can always press the Stop button. Also, when an e-mail is incorrect you are informed about it, after that you can continue with testing or you can stop and continue later. When the test run is complete, you will see the result in the Data tab. See the chapter Data for more information.

Execute

The last step of the process is sending the e-mail. When you execute this step the e-mail will be sent to all the checked recipients. When you want to stop during the sending you can always press the Stop button. Also, when sending an e-mail wasn't possible, you will receive a warning message. Now, you can choose to continue to send, or you can stop and continue later. After the sending process you are taken to the Data tab and that will show you the result. See the chapter Data for more information.

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Various Datasources This chapter will explain how you setup the various datasources that can be used with QIOS Pelican.

Microsoft Access Database When the list of people you want to e-mail resides in a Microsoft Access Database, you need this type of Datasource. To establish a correct link with this Datasource you need to fill out the following information: Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. File The most important part of the link to a Microsoft Access Database is the file that contains the database. Here you type path of the file or you press … to browse to the file. Has password It is possible that the file is password protected. If this is the case you need to check this box and fill out the password of the file in the Password field. It is possible that because of settings the Username differs from the regular Admin username. If this is the case you also need to specify the username. Username When the file is password protected, the username is generally Admin. If different, you can specify the username here. Password If the file is password protected, you need to specify the password here. Test connection When a file is opened and a possible username / password are entered, you can test the connection to make sure you have filled out everything correctly. Type (Table / Query) After the connection test succeeds, you have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the database. Most likely the information is stored in a Table. If you are a more advanced user you may want to specify a Query to retrieve the information. Table If the information is in a table and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the table that is the list of people. Query When the Type was set to Query, you need to specify your Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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Microsoft Excel Sheet When the list of people you want to e-mail resides in a Microsoft Excel sheet, you need this type of Datasource. To establish a correct link with this Datasource you need to fill out the following information: Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. File The most important part of the link to a Microsoft Excel Sheet is the file that contains the sheet. Here you type path of the file or you press … to browse to the file. Version Because the connection with the Microsoft Excel Sheet is made via an ISAM driver for Microsoft JET, here you have to define which Microsoft Excel ISAM Driver must be used. Initially this is set to Automatic. This means when you open a .xls file, ISAM driver Excel 8.0 will be used. When you open a .xlsx file (Excel 2007), a different OLE DB driver is used and the ISAM version is set to Excel 12.0. Test connection When a file is opened, you can test the connection to make sure you have filled out everything correctly. Type (Sheet / Query) After the connection test succeeds, you have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the sheet. Most likely you want to retrieve the information directly from a Sheet. If you are a more advanced user you may want to specify a Query to retrieve the information. Sheet If you retrieve the information directly from a sheet and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the sheet that contains the list of people here. Query When the Type was set to Query, you need to specify your Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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Microsoft Exchange Server via WebDAV It is possible that the information that you want to use in your e-mail resides on a Microsoft Exchange Server. This can be the case when your company uses Microsoft Outlook in combination with Microsoft Exchange as an e-mail / contact / calendar solution. QIOS Pelican uses WebDAV to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server. Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. Exchange Server Here you type the name of the computer on which the Microsoft Exchange Server is installed. You do not need to type additional information like “http://”. Use integrated security There are two ways to connect with the Microsoft Exchange Server. You can use integrated security in which case your computer uses its local security token to connect to the server, or you don‟t use integrated security and type your username, password and domain in the succeeding textboxes. Username If you don‟t use integrated security, you have to specify your username. Password Fill in the password here when integrated security is not used. Domain When the user that is entered under Username is a member of a Windows Domain you need to specify that domain here. Test connection When the server and user information is filled out, you can test the connection to make sure you have everything correct. Type (Mailbox / Public folder / Query) The Type field indicates where the data must come from, this can be a Mailbox, a Public folder or a Query. Mailbox When the Type is set to a Mailbox you need to specify the name of the Mailbox. Often this is the name of the user the Mailbox belongs to or the part of the user‟s e-mail address before the „@‟ sign. Folder When the Type is set to a Mailbox or a Public folder you need to specify the folder. This can be done by typing the name of the folder or by selecting it via the … button. Folder type When selecting a folder the Folder type is automatically filled in. This is done by how that folder is defined in the Microsoft Exchange Server. You may want to change it to a more specific folder type. For example, if you select your Sent Items folder, the folder type probably jumps to Folder, while you know it is a Mailfolder. Therefore you may need to select a more specific folder type.

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Fields When the location of the data is filled out, you can select the fields you want to display. You can also change their Display As name by clicking the field. When you don‟t specify any fields, all the possible fields are selected. Show all fields Because Microsoft Exchange Server saves a lot of information, a lot of fields are not very interesting to see. To see all the possible fields in a folder, you can check Show all fields. It is also possible to change the visibility of a field by a right-mouse-click on the field and checking the Visible item. Retrieve Types / Save Types / Open Types Because it is possible that your Exchange Server has a custom schema defined, you can choose to retrieve the Folder Types from your Exchange Server. This replaces the default Folder Types. It is also possible to save those types to a file or open types from a file. Create Query This button is an easy way to create a Query as a start for a more custom selection. If you want your data to be retrieved from a Query you might want to start out by filling the regular information and press Create Query Query URL (When Type is Query) When the Type is set to Query you need to set the URL where the Query is sent to. For example: if you need to select information from your inbox, the URL may be: http://MyExchangeServer/exchange/MyMailBox/Inbox/ Query (When Type is Query) Here you specify the query that selects the data. After you have made a link to the Datasource, you can retrieve the data onto the Data tab with the Retrieve button.

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Microsoft Outlook Mailbox When you want to e-mail contacts, people you have received e-mails from or another folder in Microsoft Outlook, you need this type of Datasource. To establish a correct link with this Datasource you need to fill out the following information: Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. Test connection Because a Microsoft Outlook configuration doesn‟t need any settings, you can directly test the connection. Mailbox You can have several mailboxes in Microsoft Outlook. Here you choose which one you want. In the most default configuration this is usually Personal Folders. Type (Folder / Query) Now you have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the mailbox. Most likely you want to retrieve the information directly from a Folder. If you are a more advanced user you may want to specify a Query to retrieve the information. Folder If you retrieve the information directly from a folder, you can select the folder that contains the list of people here. Query When the Type was set to Query, you need to specify your Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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Microsoft SQL Server When the data you want to use is located in a Microsoft SQL Server, this is the type of Datasource you need to use. To establish a correct link with this Datasource you need to fill out the following information: Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. SQL Server Here you type the name of the computer (and a possible instance) on which the Microsoft SQL Server is installed. When you have multiple Microsoft SQL Servers installed on the system you need to specify the instance name like: “MyServerName\MyInstanceName”. Else typing “MyServerName” will do. Use integrated security There are two ways to connect with the Microsoft SQL Server. You can use integrated security in which case your computer uses its local security token to connect to the server, or you use SQL Server Security. In this case you need to fill out the Username and the Password. Username When you don‟t use Integrated security, you need to specify the username of the user you want to use for this connection. Password When you don‟t use Integrated security, you need to specify the password of the user. Test connection When the name of the server is given and a possible username / password are entered, you can test the connection to make sure you have filled out everything correctly. Database There can be several databases on one SQL Server. After a successful connection test, you can select or type the name of the database here. Type (Table / View / Query) You have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the database. The information can be retrieved from a table, a view or you can specify a Query. The difference between a table and a view is that a table is the place the information is actually stored and a view is a selection on one or more tables. If one of these is requested you need to check Table or View. If you are a more advanced user you may want to check Query so that you can specify a Query to retrieve the information. Table If the information is in a table and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the table that contains the list of people. View If the information is in a view and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the view that contains the list of people. Query When the Type was set to Query, you need to specify your Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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Microsoft .NET DataSet over HTTP If you have a Microsoft .NET (.aspx) Website or application, it is possible to create a page on that website that will return the data needed for QIOS Pelican. The page on that website should return an

XML DataSet (System.Data.DataSet). How to implement such a page will be explained later. To establish a connection with the page, you need to fill out the following information: Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. Address In this field you specify the address (URL) of the page that will return the DataSet. This will probably

look like http://www.mycompany.com/WebStore/ClientsForQPelican.aspx Authentication You can use some default HTTP authentication methods, like Basic Authentication or Windows Integrated Security. Username When specifying Basic authentication, you need to specify a username. Password When specifying Basic authentication, you need to specify a password. Domain When specifying Basic authentication, you might need to specify a domain. Test Connection When everything is specified, you can test the connection.

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Building the Microsoft .NET ASPX page

The page on the address specified in the address field, should return a System.Data.DataSet. A basic implementation of such a page could look like this: ClientsForQPelican.aspx markup file: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="ClientsForQPelican.aspx.cs"

Inherits="ClientsForQPelican" %> ClientsForQPelican.aspx.cs C# Code file: using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Web;

public partial class ClientsForQPelican : System.Web.UI.Page

{

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

//Clear the Response and set the content type.

Response.Clear();

Response.ContentType = "text/xml";

//Build the DataSet

DataSet tmp_oDataSet = this.BuildDataSet();

//Write the DataSet to the response.

tmp_oDataSet.WriteXml(this.Response.OutputStream, XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema);

}

private DataSet BuildDataSet()

{

//In this example the DataSet will be created runtime.

//However, you can retrieve your DataSet from any ADO.NET datasource.

DataSet tmp_oDataSet = new DataSet();

DataTable tmp_oTable = tmp_oDataSet.Tables.Add();

tmp_oTable.Columns.Add("EmailAdress");

tmp_oTable.Columns.Add("Name");

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)

{

DataRow tmp_oRow = tmp_oTable.NewRow();

tmp_oRow["EmailAdress"] = String.Format("JohnDoe{0}@example.com", i + 1);

tmp_oRow["Name"] = String.Format("John Doe {0}", i + 1);

tmp_oTable.Rows.Add(tmp_oRow);

}

tmp_oTable.AcceptChanges();

return tmp_oDataSet;

}

}

Using Forms Authentication

QIOS Pelican can work with the default HTTP authentication schemes. However, lots of web applications use Forms authentication. When a user is not authenticated in Forms authentication, a 302 redirect occurs to the Login page. QIOS Pelican cannot work with this login page, it needs the HTTP authentication methods (WWW-Authenticate headers). For this problem Microsoft created a solution. It is called Mixed Authentication Disposition ASP.NET Module (MADAM). It allows a website to use the HTTP authentication schemes with use of Forms authentication. You can chose which pages should be redirected to a login page and which pages should use the HTTP authentication scheme. More details can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479391.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479391.aspx

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Oracle Database To retrieve data from an Oracle Database, this type of Datasource is needed. To establish a correct link with this Datasource you need to fill out the following information: Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. Server Here you type the name of the computer on which the Oracle Database is installed. Username You need to specify the username of the user you want to use for this connection. Password You need to specify the password of the user. Test connection When the name of the server is given and a username / password are entered, you can test the connection to make sure you have filled out everything correctly. Type (Table / View / Query) After the connection test succeeds, you have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the database. The information can be retrieved from a table, a view or you can specify a Query. The difference between a table and a view is that a table is the place the information is actually stored and a view is a selection on one or more tables. If one of these is requested you need to check Table or View. If you are a more advanced user you may want to check Query so that you can specify a Query to retrieve the information. Table If the information is in a table and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the table that contains the list of people. View If the information is in a view and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the view that contains the list of people. Query When the Type was set to Query, you need to specify your Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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MySQL Database When the data you want to use is located in a MySQL Database, this is the type of Datasource you need to use. To establish a correct link with this Datasource you need to fill out the following information: Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. Server Here you type the name of the computer on which the MySQL Database is installed. Username You need to specify the username of the user you want to use for this connection. Password You need to specify the password of the user. Test connection When the name of the server is given and a username / password are entered, you can test the connection to make sure you have filled out everything correctly. Database There can be several databases in one MySQL Database. After a successful connection test, you can select or type the name of the database here. Type (Table / View / Query) You have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the database. The information can be retrieved from a table, a view or you can specify a Query. The difference between a table and a view is that a table is the place the information is actually stored and a view is a selection on one or more tables. If one of these is requested you need to check Table or View. If you are a more advanced user you may want to check Query so that you can specify a Query to retrieve the information. Table If the information is in a table and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the table that contains the list of people. View If the information is in a view and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the view that contains the list of people. Query When the Type was set to Query, you need to specify your Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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Text File If the lists of people exist in a Text File you need this type of Datasource. Because a Text File can be formatted in various ways you need to specify how the Text File is formatted. Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. File Here you type the path of the file or you press … to browse to the file. File type There can be several ways that the characters in the file are encoded like UTF7, UTF8, ASCII or Unicode. Here you choose the type of encoding that is used in the file. Row delimiter Every line in the Text File must contain a Record. Each Record contains information about one person. You have to specify how the lines are separated from each other. On a Microsoft Windows system, this happens with a Carriage return character followed by a Line Feed character. Because you cannot visually see those characters, it is hard to type them. Therefore you can type or select substitutions of those characters:

Carriage return = [CarriageReturn]

Line feed = [LineFeed]

Tab = [Tab]

Space = [Space]

(nothing) = [None] All the other characters represent themselves, so if in your case the rows are delimited by an R character you can specify „R‟. First row defines column names It is possible that the first line in your Text File does not contain a record, but contains the names of the columns. If this is the case, you need to check this box. If you have checked the box First row defines column names. You need to fill out the Delimiter and Qualifiers for both the columns and fields. Otherwise you just need to fill it out for the fields. Delimiter This specifies how the various fields are separated. Common values are tab, comma („,‟) or semicolon („;‟). Qualifiers It is possible that text values in your Text File are surrounded by Qualifiers, like quotes. If this is the case, you need to specify the qualifiers. Example If your text file looks like this: Name; E-mail; Gender;

"Mr. Brown"; "[email protected]"; "male";

"Mrs. Smith"; "[email protected]"; "female";

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Then you need to specify: Row delimiter: [CarriageReturn][LineFeed] First row defines column names:Yes Columns delimiter: ; Columns Qualifier (before): [None] Columns Qualifier (after): [None] Fields delimiter: ; Fields Qualifer (before): " Fields Qualifer (after): " Test connection After you have filled out all the information, you can test the connection with the Datasource by clicking Test connection. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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Custom ODBC Connection If there is no OLE DB Provider for the type of Datasource you want to use, there might be an ODBC driver. With the Custom ODBC Connection, you can use this type of Datasource Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. Connection string The hearth of an ODBC Connection is the connection string. You can enter the connection string here or press Configure Datasource to create a connection string. Test connection After the connection string is created. You can test it by pressing Test connection. Database When the connection string is created and the Datasource supports several Databases, you may need to select the requested database here. Type (Table / View / Query) You have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the database. The information can be retrieved from a table, a view or you can specify a Query. The difference between a table and a view is that a table is the place the information is actually stored and a view is a selection on one or more tables. If one of these is requested you need to check Table or View. If you are a more advanced user you may want to check Query so that you can specify a Query to retrieve the information. Table If the information is in a table and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the table that contains the list of people. View If the information is in a view and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the view that contains the list of people. Query When you have specified that the type is a Query, then you need to fill out the Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

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Custom OLE DB Connection When the list you want to use does not exist in the previous mentioned Datasources, you can always use a Custom OLE DB Connection. You may need some help from your database administrator to setup this Datasource. Description In this field you can specify a useful description for the Datasource. This is not required to establish a link to the Datasource. Connection string The hearth of an OLE DB Connection is the connection string. You can enter the connection string here or press Configure Datasource to create a connection string. Test connection After the connection string is created. You can test it by pressing Test connection. Database When the connection string is created and the Datasource supports several Databases, you may need to select the requested database here. Type (Table / View / Query) You have to make a decision about how you want to retrieve the information from the database. The information can be retrieved from a table, a view or you can specify a Query. The difference between a table and a view is that a table is the place the information is actually stored and a view is a selection on one or more tables. If one of these is requested you need to check Table or View. If you are a more advanced user you may want to check Query so that you can specify a Query to retrieve the information. Table If the information is in a table and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the table that contains the list of people. View If the information is in a view and the connection is tested successfully, you can select the view that contains the list of people. Query When you have specified that the type is a Query, then you need to fill out the Query here. When all the information is filled out, you can press the Retrieve button from the Data menu or Toolbar.

QIOS Pelican Manual


Basic HTML and CSS Styles Although Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are very large subjects, we will give a basic idea of what you can do with it and how you apply styles to elements (like tables or headers) that you can use in the Design View. A default HTML document looks like this: <html>

<head>

<title>My HTML document</title>

<style>

</style>

</head>

<body>

This is the part of the HTML document

that will be actual visible to the reader.

</body>

</html>

Example 3. Basic HTML

The first thing that is very noticeable is the text enclosed in brackets („<‟ and „>‟ signs). These are the Markup Elements of the HTML language. Most of the markup elements consist of two text parts enclosed in these brackets. Each part is called a Tag. The first part indicates the start of the element and the second (last) part indicates the end of an element. To illustrate this: in Example 3 you see: <body> and </body>. This is the Body element. The first <body> occurrence is the Start Tag and the second one is the End Tag. Notice the „/‟ sign before the word „body‟, this indicates that it is an End tag. Every Markup Element has a meaning. For example the Body element marks the beginning and ending of the actual content (visible for the reader) part of the HTML file.

Default elements

The default elements that almost every HTML document contains are:

<html></html> This indicates that everything inside this element is HTML.

<head></head> This contains information about the document and other formatting or scripting code. Everything that is not in written in the body element must be in the head.

<title></title> This contains the title of the document. This element must appear in the Head element. For an e-mail this is not often used, but for a regular HTML page viewed in a browser, this specifies the text that is visible in the caption of the browser.

<style></style> The style tag is a very powerful tag. It lets you define the appearance of all the elements. We will get back to this later.

<body></body> This element marks the beginning and ending of the visible content of the HTML file.

Common used formatting elements

To give the document formatting like bold text, different fonts, colors and images several elements are used. The most common are the following:

<b></b> or <strong></strong> Everything that appears between these tags, will be displayed bold.

<i></i> or <em></em> This element makes everything inside italic.

<u></u> This element underlines the text.

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<p></p> These tags mark the beginning and ending of a paragraph. Usually a paragraph contains spacing above and below the paragraph. How much spacing can be specified in the Style element.

<h1></h1> … <h6></h6> With these tags you can apply 6 different headers to your text.

<span></span> Using the span element is a good way if you want to change the font, color or some other formatting inside this element.

<table></table> To create a table containing multiple columns and rows, a Table element is used. This element can contain Table rows (<tr></tr>) which can contain Table cells (<td></td>) or Table Headers (<th></th>).

<img> To include an image in HTML you use this element. This tag does not have an End Tag.

<br> To break the text (a regular Enter) you use this element. This element does not have an End Tag.

<hr> This inserts a horizontal line in the document. This element does not have an End Tag.

<a></a> This element is used to create a hyperlink to another HTML document. The a stands for Anchor.

Attributes

What you might have missed so far, is how to specify „which image‟ should appear on the Img element, or „where‟ the hyperlink must link to on the A element. That is where attributes come in. Attributes give additional information to the element. For example: <a href=”http://www.qiospelican.com”>QIOS Pelican</a>

<img src=”http://www.qios.nl/externgfx/qpelican50.jpg”>

Example 4. Attributes

In Example 4 you see the href attribute on the A element. This attribute indicates where the link goes to when it is clicked. The text QIOS Pelican inside the element is the text that can be clicked. The src attribute on the img element indicates which image you want to show there. Which attributes can be applied depends on the element. For example, applying a href attribute to a b (bold) element doesn‟t make sense.

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Full HTML example

To demonstrate the possibilities of the paragraphs above, here is a full HTML Example: <html>

<head>

<title>Full HTML Example</title>

</head>

<body>

<h3>This is a third header</h3>

This is the regular body text.<br>

<b>This is bold text</b><br>

<i>This is italic text</i><br>

<a href="http://www.qiospelican.com">

This is a link to www.qiospelican.com

</a><br>

Here follows the QIOS Pelican logo:<br>

<img src="http://www.qios.nl/externgfx/qpelican50.jpg">

</body>

</html>

Example 5. Full HTML

The example above will result in the following layout:

Figure 28. Full HTML result

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The Style element (CSS Stylesheet) At this point, some explanation will be given about the Style element. Because it can be a powerful way to adjust the way the formatting will appear, both in the Design View and actual e-mail. You can specify, for example, how the different Header elements (which are selectable in the Design View) must appear or what a table must look like. First an example: <html>

<head>

<title>My HTML document</title>

<style>

body

{

font-family:Verdana;

font-size:8.5pt;

}

</style> </head>

<body>

This is the part of the HTML document

that will be actual visible to the reader.

</body>

</html>

Example 6. A style for the body.

In Example 6 you see a style applied to the body element. Every text in the body element will have Verdana as font in size 8.5pt. The style is made up out of the following parts. Rule A rule is one or more styles defined to one or more elements. Every rule consists of a selector and its declaration. In Example 6, everything between the <style> and </style> tags is one rule. However, there can be more than one rule in the Style element. Selector The selector indicates what the set of styles (the declaration) must be applied to. There are several advanced ways to make up this selector, but in this document we limit ourselves to just the element selector. In Example 6, the selector is body. This means that the styles are applied to every Body element. It is also possible to group several element names by separating them with commas. For example: h1, h2, h3, h4

{

…

…

…

}

Example 7. Grouped selectors

Declaration The declaration is the set of styles that must be applied. This is everything between the „{„ and „}‟ signs. Property The property is the name of the style that must be applied, it is the part before the „:‟ sign. In Example 6, font-family and font-size are the properties that are going to be set.

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Value The value of the style is what the Property must be set to. In case of Example 6, the values are Verdana and 8pt. Every Property and Value combination must be separated by a „;‟ sign.

Most common styles

The most common used styles are:

Font-family. This defines which font must be used.

Font-size. This indicates the size of the font and in which unit this size must be. For example pt for points or px for pixels.

Font-weight. Indicates the weight of the font. Regular values are Bold or Normal.

Font-style. Defines the style of the font. This can be Italic or Normal.

Text-decoration. Indicates what for additional decoration must be applied to the font. For example: underline, line-through or none.

Color. Defines the color of the text. This can be just a named color like Blue or Red, a hexadecimal red, green, blue (RGB) value: #12AFC3 or a decimal RGB value: rgb(128,128,128);

Padding and Padding-left, -top, -right, -bottom. This indicates how much spacing must occur between the text and the border of the element. This can be applied all at once with the regular Padding property or per border via the Padding-X properties. You specify the amount and unit. For example: 3px for 3 pixels.

Margin and Margin-left, -top, -right, -bottom. Indicates how much spacing must occur between the border of the element and other elements. This can be applied all at once via the Margin property or per border via the Margin-X properties.

Border-left, -top, -right, -bottom. This indicates how the border of an element must appear. There are three sub properties that can be applied: Color, Style and Width. You can apply the properties in one value or specify them in separate properties:

o Border-left-color. This sets the color of the border and follows the same rules as the regular Color property.

o Border-left-style. This indicates the style of the border. Most common values are: Dashed, Dotted, Solid or None.

o Border-left-width. Indicates the width of the border. You specify the amount and unit. For example 1px.

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Full CSS Stylesheet example

To demonstrate the possibilities of CSS, and how that can affect the layout of the document even in Design view, here a sample CSS Stylesheet embedded in the HTML. <HTML>

<HEAD>

<STYLE>

body

{

font-family:Verdana;

font-size:8.5pt

}

table

{

border-collapse: collapse;

border-style:solid;

border-width:1px;

border-color: #999999;

font-size:8.5pt

}

td, th

{

border-style: solid;

border-width: 1px;

padding:2px;

}

th

{

background-color: #FA922A

}

p { margin:0px; }

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5

{

font-family:Tahoma;

padding-left:0px;

margin-left:0px;

margin-top:10px;

margin-bottom:3px;

color:Black;

}

h1 { font-size:14pt; }

h2 { font-size: 12pt; color:#FA922A; }

h3 { font-size: 10pt; color: #707090; }

h4, h5, h6 { font-size: 10pt; color:#666666; }

hr { height: 1px; color:#C0C0C0; }

</STYLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<h1>This is a header 1</h1>



<p>This is a paragraph</p>

<hr>

<table>

<tr>

<th>This is a table header</th>

<th>This is a table header</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>This is one cell in a table</td>

<td>This is the second cell</td>

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</tr>

<tr>

<td>This is one cell in a table</td>

<td>This is the second cell</td>

</tr>

</table>

</BODY>

</HTML>

Example 8. Full HTML with CSS Stylesheet

Figure 29. Result of Full HTML with CSS Stylesheet

As you can see, with some stylesheets applied, the layout of the e-mail can look a lot more professional without any change to the <body> element of the document.

Additional resources

This chapter just gave a glance of what is possible with HTML / CSS. To learn more about it, we refer to the examples delivered with QIOS Pelican. Besides that, there are a lot of resources on the Internet. Here are a few:

www.w3schools.com This website has a lot of good tutorials that will give you more insight in HTML and CSS

www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide. W3C is responsible for maintaining the HTML and CSS standards. They also have a starters guide.

www.htmldog.com. Another good way to start off with HTML.

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide

http://www.htmldog.com/

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Glossary Adobe Dreamweaver This is an application that can generate HTML via a designer. It allows you to create very advanced websites without any knowledge of HTML. ASCII This is a character set (the most basic available) to assign a computer number to characters, digits and punctuation signs. By default, it contains 128 characters. The extended version contains 256 characters. Which character is assigned to which number is defined in an ASCII table. It takes 1 byte to store 1 character. See also: Unicode, UTF7 and UTF8. C# (C-sharp) This is a programming language for the Microsoft .NET platform. In this language you can develop code that a computer can execute. Clipboard The Clipboard is a feature of Microsoft Windows. When you Copy something to Paste it somewhere else, it is stored on the Clipboard. This Clipboard is not visible to the user. Applications communicate with each other via this clipboard during copy / paste actions. CSS Stylesheet A Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) contains rules about how elements in HTML should appear on the screen. See the chapter Basic HTML and CSS Styles for more details. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications This is a general term to reference the applications that help businesses to keep track of their customers and additional administration (invoices, orders, etc.). These kind of applications usually use a Database to store the information. Database A database is a collection of structured information. For example a list of recipients often resides in a database. Databases exist in several forms. You have file-based databases, where a set of files is used to maintain the data and there is no application that constantly manages the database (Like Microsoft Access). Or you have database servers, which is an application that is responsible for saving the data and maintaining consistency (Like Microsoft SQL Server). Data field One single element in the list of recipients is called a Data field. For example the name of one recipient is a Data field. Datasource Information can come from several places. For example a Text File, an Excel Sheet or a Database. All those types of places where information can come from are called a Datasource. E-mail Client An E-mail Client is a general term to reference applications that are capable of reading and sending e-mails. Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail or Gmail are examples of E-mail clients. E-mail field When you are writing the e-mail you want to define the places where the information per recipient differs. You also want define which Data field will be written at that place in the e-mail. You do this by placing an E-mail field in your e-mail, which will be replaced by the Data field that you have mapped your field to in the Field map.

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HTML The layout of pages on the Internet and e-mails is written in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). In this language you can define how big a font must be, if it must be bold or italic, how to show a table or place an image at a required position. E-mail in QIOS Pelican is written in HTML. See the chapter Basic HTML and CSS Styles for more details. Internet Service Provider (ISP) An ISP is the company that provides Internet Services. Those services usually exist of: The actual internet connection, a possibility to send and receive e-mails and sometimes a personal website. ISAM To be able to open Microsoft Excel Sheets like they are Microsoft Access databases, an Index Sequential Access Method (ISAM) driver is needed. This driver allows you to open a Microsoft Excel Sheet via the Microsoft JET OLE DB Provider. Microsoft Access Database As explained under Database a Microsoft Access Database is a file based database in which structured information can be stored. Microsoft Excel sheet Microsoft Excel is an application to create tables of data and use calculations in those tables. One table in Microsoft Excel is called a Microsoft Excel Sheet. Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft has a solution where you can store contacts, documents, calendars, tasks and send e-mails and other information. This place is called a Microsoft Exchange Server. Normally you connect to Microsoft Exchange Server via Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Expression Web Microsoft Expression Web is the successor of Microsoft Frontpage. It is like Adobe Dreamweaver a way to generate advanced HTML pages without any knowledge of HTML. Microsoft FrontPage An easy way to create HTML pages is with Microsoft FrontPage. This is the predecessor of Microsoft Expression Web. It lets you layout the pages in a regular way and saves the HTML. You can use the saved pages as an e-mail in QIOS Pelican. Microsoft Jet To access a Microsoft Access database, or use a file via an ISAM driver, Microsoft has created Microsoft Jet. This is a software component that is used internally (via OLE DB) to connect with a Microsoft Access Database and a Microsoft Excel Sheet Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is an e-mail client in which you can manage your e-mails, contacts, calendar tasks and notes. You can also connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server so that all the information is stored on one central place. Microsoft SQL Server Unlike a Microsoft Access Database Microsoft SQL Server is a database that runs on an application. This application makes sure that the data is stored and remains consistent. A general way to communicate with it (on top of the ODBC or OLE DB connection) is SQL. MySQL Database MySQL Database is like Microsoft SQL Server a database that runs on an application.

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ODBC This is a way to connect to a Datasource. It stands for Open DataBase Connectivity. A lot of vendors that have developed a Database system, also provide a way to connect with it via ODBC. Therefore this is a generic way to connect to Datasources. OLE DB Like ODBC, this is a way to connect to a Datasource. It stands for Object Linking and Embedding for DataBases (OLE DB). Record A list of some kind, for example; „recipients‟, contains several rows. Each row contains several Data fields. One row in a Datasource is called a Record. Oracle Database Like Microsoft SQL Server, this is a Database system that runs on an application. It is considered to be one of the first database systems that is implemented as a Relational database and uses SQL. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Via SSL it is possible to establish an encrypted connection between a client application (like QIOS Pelican) and a server (like an SMTP Server). Besides the encryption this layer also ensures the identity of the server: That the server is actually the server you wanted to connect to. It is also possible that this layer ensures the identity of the client. SQL SQL stands for Structured Query Language and is a way to retrieve data from a database. You specify what you want to see in this language. For example: “I Want all the names from my list of customers” will become: “SELECT Name FROM Customers”. SMTP Server When you are sending e-mail you have to send it to a server that will make sure that the recipient will receive the e-mail. The most general way on the Internet to do this is to send it to a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Server. This is the server will make sure that the recipient will receive the E-mail. TCP Port To be able to connect to other systems over the Internet, your computer has to follow a protocol that the other systems understand. Part of that protocol is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). This part makes sure the data you send over the Internet is received without errors and in the correct order by the destination. TCP uses ports to know which data belongs to which application on a system. By default, to connect to an SMTP Server, you have to send data to port 25 on the destination system so it knows the received data is for the SMTP Server. Of course, the administrators of the SMTP Server can choose that their SMTP Server must listen to another port. Text file A file written in plain text instead of binary code is called a Text file. A Text file can always be opened by an editor, like Microsoft Notepad or Microsoft Word. Transformation The process of filling the E-mail fields in an e-mail with Data fields is called Transformation: You “transform” the e-mail in combination with the Data Fields into one resulting e-mail. Unicode Like ASCII, this is also a character set. However, the set is much bigger because it stores each character in 2 (aka UTF16) or 4 bytes (aka UTF32). UTF7

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This is a flexible version of the Unicode character set. It stores every character in one, two, three or four bytes. It avoids some characters and represent them otherwise to be save in some text transfer systems. UTF8 Like UTF7 this is a flexible version of the Unicode character set. It also stores every character in one, two three or four bytes. However, all the 8 bits of the bytes are used. This is the most common character set these days. Visual Basic This is a programming language for the Microsoft .NET platform. In this language you can develop code that a computer can execute. Virtual SMTP Server This is an SMTP Server, running on a Windows XP computer which can be used to send e-mails. This server is not available on newer versions of Windows. WebDAV Information stores like Microsoft Exchange Server must be accessed by client applications to read and write information. To access these kinds of stores over the Internet there is a general way: Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning. Query To retrieve information from a Datasource you can select the table, sheet or folder where you want the information to come from. You can also write a Query. With a Query it is possible to select information from several tables and filter or sort it. This way you can specify exactly which information you want to retrieve from the Datasource. Queries are often written in SQL.