Programming ColdFusion

Chapter 13. Working With Email

It’s no wonder that email is considered the Internet’s “killer application.” The ability to send and receive text messages as well as binary file attachments to locations around the globe has revolutionized the way we communicate. ColdFusion wouldn’t be a complete development platform without a way to tap the power of email. As such, two tags are provided for working with email, one for sending messages (CFMAIL) and another for retrieving messages (CFPOP).

There are lots of ways to integrate email into your ColdFusion applications. For example, you can allow users to enter feedback about your web site via an HTML form and have the feedback automatically emailed to the appropriate people. You can send email confirmation message to users, such as a registration confirmation when the user signs up for an account or an order confirmation after the user places an order with your e-commerce application. You can also allow users to sign up to receive periodic information via email, such as announcements of new products.

Sending Email

ColdFusion uses the CFMAIL tag to send email messages using an Internet standard known as Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). In order for ColdFusion to send email, an SMTP server must be specified in the ColdFusion Administrator under the Mail option. If you don’t have access to the ColdFusion Administrator, the CFMAIL tag provides an optional attribute, SERVER, where you can provide a hostname or IP address to your ...