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Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

Title:*OLD* ALL-IN-1 (tm) Support Conference
Notice:Closed - See Note 4331.l to move to IOSG::ALL-IN-1
Moderator:IOSG::PYE
Created:Thu Jan 30 1992
Last Modified:Tue Jan 23 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4343
Total number of notes:18308

2680.0. "Mail attachments" by UTRTSC::SMEETS (Martin Smeets DS SSO Utrecht (NL)) Fri May 07 1993 15:43

Hi,

I've a customer who complaints about the following behaviour of ALL-IN-1 (V2.4 +
(V3.0).

1. Customer creates a document
2. Sends this document via the send (S) option on the WP menu.
3. Fills in the addressees, some of them are ALL-IN-1 mail for DOS users
3. Doesn't attach a cover note.

The ALL-IN-1 mail for DOS and the DECmailworks users who receive the message,see
a message containing two attachments. One is empty, the other contains the text
of the orginal document.

If however the sender attaches a covernote the receivers still see two 
attachments, now the first contains the cover note text, the second the text of 
the original document.

I've looked in OA$SHARE subdirectories and found two new files. I've listed the
contents of these files via <LIST filename within ALL-IN-1 and noticed that one
of the files contains the original document text, and the other contains the 
text of the cover note. The filename of the cover note is the key for SDAF.

If I don't specify a covernote I still get two files of which one is empty.

I've explained to the customer that this behaviour is normal, but he won't 
accept it.

Is it possible to change this behaviour ?

The solution the customer wants is when he sends a document without a cover 
note, the receiver just receives a message with one attachment.

Is this possible ?

Thanks,

Martin
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
2680.1Explanation and suggestionSCOTTC::MARSHALLSpitfire Drivers Do It ToplessFri May 07 1993 17:2043
Hi,

When you *S*end a document from the WP menu, ALL-IN-1 actually performs a
*F*orward operation (as you can tell from the 'Forwarding Message Header' form
that appears.  Note this also happens if you *S*end a document (as opposed to
an unsent message) from the EM menu.

What ALL-IN-1 does when you forward a document is: create a mail message, and
add the addressees you specify to that message.  The message body file will be
the 'cover note'.  So if you don't provide a cover note, the message body file
will be empty.  The document that is being forwarded is then attached to this
mail message.  Thus you have a mail message with a body part (possibly empty)
and one attachment.  You don't get two attachments, and you don't get an
empty attachment.

ALL-IN-1 mail for DOS should preserve this structure; I've never used it so
can't comment on whether it's converting the message body part into an (empty)
attachment.  I suspect it isn't, and that the customer is confused over the
difference between body parts and attachments.

However, whatever the reason for the customer's dissatisfaction, there is a
solution.  Instead of just trying to *S*end the document, which as discussed
above results in it being forwarded, the customer should convert the document
to a mail message, and send that.  Then the document gets sent as the main
body part, and there are no attachments, empty or otherwise.

To convert a document into a message, go to the EM menu, then type MH -
Modify Header.  At this point, the document doesn't actually have a mail header,
so ALL-IN-1 creates blank one, then puts you on the standard "Message Header"
form to edit it.  Add the addressees, a message title, etc, close the form and
*S*end the message.

The one downside to this is that the document is no longer an editable document;
it's been converted to a mail message, put in the shared area, etc, etc; it
behaves just like any other message in the user's outbox.

This may not be acceptable, so you'll just have to try and persuade the customer
that there is nothing wrong with the way it works at present: if you forward
a document, and don't provide a cover note, then you get an empty body part.  It
would be the same on just about any mail system.

HTH,
Scott
2680.2These customers....UTRTSC::SMEETSMartin Smeets DS SSO Utrecht (NL)Mon May 10 1993 20:0713
Hi,Scott

Thanks for your explanation. Customer wasn't happy at all, he still believes 
it's a bug.

He thinks there something wrong with our forward principle........

Customers are sometimes realy .......

Anyway thanks for your help
CLOSE topic.

Martin
2680.3More suggestionsSCOTTC::MARSHALLSpitfire Drivers Do It ToplessTue May 11 1993 10:3631
A few more suggestions...

>> He thinks there something wrong with our forward principle

As with most things in ALL-IN-1, we can't please all 5 million users all the
time.  There's nothing "wrong" with it, it just doesn't work the way this
particular user would like.  So...

...why don't they customise it?

They could change the forward option to do one of the following:

- automatically 'MH' the document, as previously described

or, if they don't want to "lose" the document as a document, they could:

- create a new mail message, and gold-get the document into it

or, if they're worried that might mess up the document attributes:

- create a new mail message, then overwrite the VMS file for the message body
part with the VMS file for the document (eg $ COPY)

or, if that's too complicated, they could:

- MCD the document, then MH the copy.

All of these could be done via a UDP / script / whatever, so the user still
just types 'S'end or 'F'orward and the rest happens transparently.

Scott