Michael Thomas wrote:
Thanks for your response, Michael. Your points all seem to hit the mark, but I find that I didn't describe the target itself very well. My apologies.In a nutshell, I'm trying to figure out how to populate mailing lists overanetwork. Here's why:Have you thought about using ASP code or VBScript and your favorite flavor of database. You could generate the list on the fly or you could send the message itself on the fly.
The application you describe is indeed very similar to the one I'm trying to complete. The process we have is:
1. Compose alert message (the docs, er, Public Health Doctors want to do this from scratch).
2. Select addressees individually and/or by categories.
3. Hit "send."
One application is responsible for maintenance of the contact list, accepting the text of alerts, and sending them out. We might move this application to the web at some point, but it began life as an Access application, and will probably remain so for a while. (Phase II: Java, web app, Oracle - but this gets done first). It's trivial for me to produce the addressee list; and I like the idea of simply handing it off to a robust and reputable list server for distribution.
> Also, if this is in response to an emergency, you would want the fastest,
> easiest generation method. The method I described is a one step process. The
> method you describe is at least a two step process (create the list, send
> the email from the list owner account to the list) with a cleanup process
> (delete the list) after the message has been transmitted.
As far as speed goes, here's my thinking: I don't know how quickly I can send 3,000 individual emails under program control, but I doubt I can do it more quickly than an Imail list. (I am ready to be corrected, however.) Handing off the broadcast message and addressee list from one program to the other will doubtless take some small amount of time, but I expect it to be insignificant next to the time spent actually transmitting the emails. (Ready to be corrected, again.)
Again, thanks very much for your input. I don't claim to be sure that my method is ultimately the best, but for Phase I of this project I'm willing to trade a little for expediency. (Hmm...that rings a bell ;) ) Still, I welcome your and others' thoughts on the design.
Another response to my note indicates that the domain TopDir can in fact be on a network share, which might solve my initial problem, if true. Back to the drawing board...
-Lauren
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