ASP.net - Incoming emails saves into DB - How?

[Dave Smithz]

Hi there,

I need to build a database that also handles emails. That is, the database
is a customer list database and there is quite a lot of contact with the
customers through email. We want all emails to and from the customers to be
stored into the database.

Is it quite easy to set it up that if an email is received at a certain
email address, this is automatically inserted into the database? I assume it
is also easy to set it up that pressing a button on the database front end
can be made to email out thousands of people in the database with each
customer receiving an individually addressed email message.

What would I need to think about getting to set this up (I do not really
know much about MS exchange or anything like that but if this is what is
required then I will learn)?
Are there any issues I should be aware of in sending out mass emails in this
way (this is legitimate emailing - not SPAM related or anything like that)?

Any other insights from experts appreciated.

Kind regards,

Dave

 

[David Jessee]

Dude, you'll have to look at your Mail Server to see what can be done there.
If its Exchange, then it has a good scripting model that will allow you to
open mails for a folder, read them and then place them wherever you want to.

 

[MWells]

Dave, you have a couple of options, but none of them involve web development
so posting to the ASP.NET group won't net you much information.

You will need to do a lot of research into mail servers and database
integration. Likely, there are a number of products that support the use of
a relational database as a mailstore. I think there are even some products
that allow Exchange to do this with Oracle. You best bet is to choose your
server OS, make a list of mailservers that support it, and start working the
websites and sales phone lines.

If you can find a solution that handles all the mailserver-to-database work
cleanly, than the rest of what you want to do should be clean enough.
Creating a mail message would essentially be as simple as inserting a
database row. Storing and reading mail messages is just a query, etc.

If you can't find the solution you want, you could roll your own by
developing an NT Service that handles the synchronization between the
mailserver (using POP / SMTP / IMAP) and your custom database. This is
significantly more work but would also win you some added flexibility.
However if you go that route, you will need to plan your architecture
carefully. If your users are using standard mail clients directly against
the mail server, then your application is simply sitting off to the side,
listening. It's involvement and capabilities are constrained. If you roll
your own mail client, you can have it interact directly with the database
and from there, your NT Service would coordinate with the mailserver.
Again, more work, more capability.

Take a look at www.aspnetemail.com. The name is misleading; the product is
very useful for standard .NET applications (including NT Services) as well
as ASP.NET applications. The company offers SMTP, POP, and IMAP components,
so you can fully integrate your application with any standards-compliant
mailserver.

/// M