• Sending an Email
• Send a personalized email using a database
• Using SMTP Authentication
• Using Multiple SMTP Servers
• Sending an attachment
• Embeding an image in HTML Email
• Sending an alternative message part
• Adding a custom header
• Setting the message importance
• Setting the message Precedence

The following code will send an email to [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">
Hi, just wanted to announce that I've got a new cow!
</CF_MAIL>

The next example selects email addresses from a query, and dynamically makes the TO list using CF's ValueList() function. This example will also send a multi-part message, because both TEXTMESSAGE and HTMLMESSAGE is specified. This will also generate a verbose logfile with the date in the filename.

<cfquery name="qry" datasource="ds">
   SELECT email, name
   FROM farmers
</cfquery>

<CF_MAIL
   QUERY="qry"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   TO="email"
   SUBJECT="Hey %name% I got a new cow"
   VERBOSE="1"
   TOKENS="1"
   TYPE="HTML"
   TEXTMESSAGE="Hi %name%, just wanted to announce that I've got a new cow.">
Hi %name%, just wanted to announce that <b>I've got a new cow</b>.
</CF_MAIL>


The following QUERY could be used to generate an address that looks like First Last <[email protected]> with fields in a database named FirstName, LastName, and Email. Using this format recipients will see their name in the TO box of the message, instead of just the email address.


<cfquery name="qry" datasource="ds">
   SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF
   SELECT firstname + ' ' + lastname + ' <' + email + '>' AS Email
   FROM users
</cfquery>
Note: SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF is used to prevent SQL Server from making the result of the concatenation NULL if any of the fields are null. If your name, and email address fields do not allow nulls then you may remove that line. If your email address field allows NULL's and you are concatenating with a name, you should add an extra statement to the where clause that removes null addresses (eg WHERE email <> ''). The above example was designed for SQL Server, if you are running other servers check your database server's documentation.

Add your SMTP username and password to the SERVER attribute using the pattern user:password@server:port

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   SERVER="billy:[email protected]"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">
Hi, just wanted to announce that I've got a new cow!
</CF_MAIL>

Add a comma seperated list of mail servers in the SERVER attribute using the pattern user:password@server:port user password and port are optional

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   SERVER="smtp1.server.com,billy:[email protected],smtp3.server.com:2525,billy:[email protected]:25"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">
Hi, just wanted to announce that I've got a new cow!
</CF_MAIL>

Use the file attribute to specify an attachment.

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">

Hi, check out the attached picture of my new cow

    <cf_mailattachment file="/activmail/2_0_0/docs/ccow001.jpg" type="image/jpeg" name="/activmail/2_0_0/docs/billysCow.jpg">

</CF_MAIL>

Use the CID attribute to embed an image into HTML message

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   TYPE="html"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">

Hi, check out the picture of my new cow:

<img src="cid:cow" id="cow">

    <cf_mailattachment file="/activmail/2_0_0/docs/ccow001.jpg" type="image/jpeg" cid="cow">

</CF_MAIL>

You want to send rich text email that can be read by AOL 6.0 users

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   TYPE="html"
   TEXTMESSAGE="I got a new cow"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">

I got a new <b>cow</b>

    <cf_mailattachment file="c:\aol.html" type="text/x-aol" alternative="true" disposition="inline">

</CF_MAIL>

Use the CF_MailAttachment tag to add a custom header to the email message.

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">

I got a new cow

    <cf_mailheader name="X-Mailer" value="Billys Mail Server Farm">

</CF_MAIL>

You can set the Importance header to Low, Normal, or High.


<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">

I got a new cow

    <cf_mailheader name="Importance" value="High">

</CF_MAIL>

Its a good idea to set the precedence to bulk when sending bulk email.

<CF_MAIL
   TO="[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]"
   FROM="Billy Jones <[email protected]>"
   SUBJECT="Billy's got a new cow">

I got a new cow

    <cf_mailheader name="Precedence" value="bulk">

</CF_MAIL>

ActivMail Documentation

• Getting Started
• Installing ActivMail
• Tag References
• Examples
• Whats New!
• ActivMail Log Reference