NWMail

[Ne0nx3r0]

I've been tinkering around with a new module that could use a function to send emails out, and I was wondering - what's the best way to accomplish this?

I have a server 2003 (legally licensed ) machine that can run SMTP, so a standard text file output would work alright, but I also thought it might be better to have the emails saved to a mysql table, then have some external application grab them and send them out periodically.

I guess it really boils down to just outputting a few strings (and creating the appropriate new lines) into a text file who's name would need to be (slightly) unique that would be located in my C:\inetpub\mailroot\pickup folder... or of course the mysql option I mentioned above, which could use the exsiting database plugins, and some external app to periodically query the DB.

Would it just be best to write a custom plugin for nwnx to do this, or is there something already started I could possibly mutate into what I'm looking for?

I'm a fairly experienced coder, so anything, even a place to start reading would be helpful to me.

Thank you for your time ,
Ne0nx3r0

[Papillon]

I think a new plugin would be the way to go.

Might I add one suggestion ? SMTP is an easy protocol, and I am sure there are C++ libraries that handle the more complicated stuff like authentication. You could create a plugin that directly talks to the SMTP server, like a normal mail client would.
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Papillon

[Grinning Fool]

Just remember that you'd need to have a separate thread for actually communicating with the SMTP server. Otherwise, if the SMTP server stopped responding, the NWN server would get hung.
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Khalidine, a NWN2 persistent world

Looking for volunteers.

[Ne0nx3r0]

That's true, but I thought it would just be simpler to use the built-in SMTP functionality server 2003 has, since all it requires it outputting a text file - that way it not only is simpler to write, but wont cause the actual server processes any issues if something goes wrong - you just have a bunch of text files that'll get sent out when the SMTP service gets on it's feet. Plus it just saves a mess of time on dealing with error handling and all that.

Thank you for your ideas though

[Khamul85]

If it is to for example to use it on your own PW/RP server then I belive the simplest way would be to use NWNX and mysql database.. Save whatever mails you want emailed in a mysql table from game. Then make a php script or something that runs a interval that checks the table for content, if so then it gets sendt as a email and delete it from the database..

Use this function in PHP to send mail: http://no.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php

[Ne0nx3r0]

I'm thinking that might be a decent option... either PHP or ActivePerl, since it's a window server. I think you're right though, that is the simplest option, since it doesn't require very much coding or extra addons. I'm tempted to write a plugin to export text to a specified file anyway, if for nothing else than just for stacks and giggles.