Recipe 8. Mail Merge

Email has long been recognized as a true killer app and it's a vital communication tool for workgroups of any size. Although individuals send email all the time, there are situations in which a mass email capability is advantageous, especially where workgroups are concerned. One advantage of a Web application-based emailer versus individual email clients is that a history of all emails sent is maintained. Another plus is that emails can be sent to dynamically created groups.

The Mail Merge application allows workgroups to search for a group of recipients or to email a series of individuals. If the user chooses to send to a selected group, his email addresses are listed in the BCC field of the email. The email can either be composed of plain text or HTML. The user can even set the priority of the email. The application includes both a master and a detail page of email information for administrators.

The most difficult part of an email application is actually sending the email and, with a little custom code, it's not difficult at all. After the custom email function is executed, a standard Insert Record server behavior stores the relevant data for later inspection. Our Mail Merge application includes three user-based pages and two administrator oriented ones.