E-mail Programming Without IDSMaill

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The Old Way...

While it is certainly possible to build an E-mail interface into your application without IDSMail, it is not at all easy. Here's why:

• E-mail programming generally requires low-level and complex DLL calls. One indicator of complexity is the length of the documentation required:
  • VIM Developer's Toolkit - 477 pages
  • VINES Mail Client Documentation - 266 pages
  • SMF v7.1 Reference (MHS) - 299 pages
    
    
• Download our Programming Guide (140k) and compare for yourself.
  
  
• Each E-mail system is designed and works very differently. Knowledge gained from programming one is not always applicable to another. IDSMail compensates for these differences and makes all mail systems appear identical to you, the application developer.
• Inconsistencies exist even within a single mail API. For example, many VIM calls for cc:Mail need to be made differently from VIM calls for Notes mail. The same is true within MAPI for Microsoft Mail vs. Microsoft Exchange. IDSMail handles these differences automatically.
• Things change, even a corporation's preferred mail system.. Today you (or your customers) may have standardized on cc:Mail. Tomorrow they may want to migrate to Exchange. Do you really want to rewrite your code? Or have your application be the single impediment to the migration?
• Mail system function calls for 16-bit development environments are not compatible with 32-bit environments. Even worse, some mail systems provide only a 16-bit API, and others provide only a 32-bit API. If you develop 32-bit programs and wish to use a mail system that only has a 16-bit interface, you are stuck (Example: GroupWise v4.x). One solution would be to use a VERY complex programming technique called "thunking". The easiest solution is to use IDSMail. Unlike other Active X controls, the 16-bit version of IDSMail can be used from a 32-bit application, and the 32-bit version can be used from 16-bit applications. This gives you the most flexibility and the greatest coverage of mail systems, regardless of your development environment.
• A few words about VB's MAPI VBX/OCX... Though a bit more complex than IDSMail, these work reasonably well for Microsoft Mail. Not so great for Microsoft Exchange. And forget about supporting cc:Mail, BeyondMail, DaVinci, Notes mail, or any others not based directly on MAPI.