Purpose

 

This example demonstrates how to use the watch directory features of NetMailBot. Specifically, a directory is watched for new files, when new files are found, they ZIP compressed then sent to the recipient as an one email attachment. After the email is sent, the files in the directory being watched are deleted. 

 

NOTE: You should change the email addresses in the batch file to your own email address(es) before running a test. 

 

Prepared Example Files

 

 

The -watchdir parameter in NetMailBot uses full paths. We have assumed a particular path as shown in the batch file contents below. Therefore, download this file to C:\tmp on your hard drive or edit the -bodyfile parameter to reflect wherever you unzip the archive.

 

The archive contains one file and a directory containing three more files:

 

• WatchZIPSendAndDelete.bat - The batch file that will instruct NetMailBot to send the email message.
• watch\attach1.txt - a file to attach
• watch\attach2.txt - a file to attach
• watch\attach3.txt - a file to attach

 

Batch File Contents

 

This is the content of the batch file:

 

netmailbot -to test@exclamationsoft.com -from test@exclamationsoft.com -server localhost -watchdir "c:\tmp\watch" -watchdelete -zip

 

Steps

 

1. Unzip the WatchZIPSendAndDelete.zip file. This will produce a directory called "WatchZIPSendAndDelete". Open this directory.
2. Open Notepad and edit the batch file "WatchZIPSendAndDelete.bat". Open Notepad and edit the batch file "MailMergeAccess2Tbls.bat". Note these important parameters used in the batch file:

• Change the parameters: -to test@exclamationsoft.com -from test@exclamationsoft.com to your own email address.

• Change the parameter: -server localhost to your own mail server.
• The parameter -watchdir "c:\tmp\watch" instructs NetMailBot to watch the directory "c:\tmp\watch" for files to send as attachments to the -to email address. Adjust this if you did not extract the archive to "c:\tmp".
• The parameter -watchdelete instructs NetMailBot to delete the files in the directory "c:\tmp\watch" after the email is sent. Adjust this if you did not extract the archive to "c:\tmp".
• The parameter -zip instructs NetMailBot to ZIP compress all of the attachments into one ZIP file and send it as the attachment.

3. Invoke the batch file by double-clicking the icon or straight from the command line.
4. Go to the directory "c:\tmp\watch" to ensure the files have been deleted.
5. Check your email account for an email containing the file attachments.