[Dnfbb-developers] Mail

[Simon B. <sbo...@us...>]

From the options presented below I have to say that I prefer the second
option as I think this would give the most power and flexibility even though
it might need a little more work to implement.  The first option does seem
the easiest but I have to say that personally I don't think it is a
particularly neat way of doing it.  It would get the job done but I am not
convinced about its scalability.  The third one would work but I don't think
it would provide the required extensibility of the second option.
 
Options:
 
A: Scheduled task, calling a specific .aspx page at regular intervals which
sends/receives emails.
B: Scheduled task, which hooks into the database directly and sends/receives
at regular intervals.
C: Send directly when needed through the presentation layer.

As indicated in the original post there could be a large amount of mail
being generated with mailing lists etc... and if you are to send it directly
this could generate a lot of activity on the server end.  The draw back to
not sending it straight away would have to be weighed up against the volume
of email being sent at that time.  For the odd email this is fine but for
large mailing lists it could be better to delay it.  Being able to schedule
it would provide the forum admin more power and control over how the mail is
sent.  The only problem is that you wouldn't want to be waiting too long for
a simple registration email to be sent to you before you could join the
forum.
 
By using a scheduled task, which interacts directly with the database, you
can achieve a lot more control over the way in which the mail is delivered.
By implementing this type of scheme there would be nothing to stop you
running a number of different schedules which controlled the way in which
the mail was transmitted.  For example, there could be a schedule which
handled all internal mail (user to user within the database) which ran at a
different rate to the mailing lists which runs at a different rate to the
external mail schedule.  I do like the idea of the task hooking into the
database directly.
 
These are just idea's which need more thought but you can probably see where
I am coming from.  I would be interested to hear your comments on the above.