Please give me the extended Outlook.
February 28, 2019 11:00 AM Subscribe
I would like to know if there is some way to accomplish a concept in sending e-mail to an Outlook user. Complication: It needs to originate from Linux. More details inside!
Here's my basic need: For each of a few dozen users, I generate a list of Things. I want to send an e-mail with their list of Things, but embedded in the list is a radio button or check box next to each Thing along with a drop-down containing 3-4 options. The recipient would get this e-mail, check a few boxes and select a few dropdowns, and reply to the sender.
The reasoning for this is to foster a higher response rate; the audience is such that a lot of them don't want to be bothered with saving an attached spreadsheet, updating it, and attaching the updated file to a reply (or other similar manual solution). The recipients will see the e-mail in Outlook 365, if it matters.
The complicating factor is that the e-mails will originate in Linux (using mailx or a similar equivalent) based on the output of a script being run. I could incorporate some manual work on my end but I'd really like to have this 100% automated.
Could this be accomplished using HTML tags in the e-mail body or something? Or am I trying to simplify this to the point of non-feasibility?
A backup option might be to dynamically generate or update a Confluence page which would have all the data, buttons, drop downs, etc. and simply e-mail the user a link to their personalized page. Also not sure how this would be accomplished but I suspect it might be more possible.
The more automated the better, and certainly open to ideas for accomplishing this that I'm not thinking of.
Thank you!
Here's my basic need: For each of a few dozen users, I generate a list of Things. I want to send an e-mail with their list of Things, but embedded in the list is a radio button or check box next to each Thing along with a drop-down containing 3-4 options. The recipient would get this e-mail, check a few boxes and select a few dropdowns, and reply to the sender.
The reasoning for this is to foster a higher response rate; the audience is such that a lot of them don't want to be bothered with saving an attached spreadsheet, updating it, and attaching the updated file to a reply (or other similar manual solution). The recipients will see the e-mail in Outlook 365, if it matters.
The complicating factor is that the e-mails will originate in Linux (using mailx or a similar equivalent) based on the output of a script being run. I could incorporate some manual work on my end but I'd really like to have this 100% automated.
Could this be accomplished using HTML tags in the e-mail body or something? Or am I trying to simplify this to the point of non-feasibility?
A backup option might be to dynamically generate or update a Confluence page which would have all the data, buttons, drop downs, etc. and simply e-mail the user a link to their personalized page. Also not sure how this would be accomplished but I suspect it might be more possible.
The more automated the better, and certainly open to ideas for accomplishing this that I'm not thinking of.
Thank you!
I don't think you'll be able to embed the form itself in an email due to the difficulty with posting the response, as mentioned above. If I were trying to do this, I would look for a survey service that has an API you could use to programmatically generate surveys and harvest results.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 12:45 PM on February 28, 2019
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 12:45 PM on February 28, 2019
I don't think this is possible really. While you can send HTML email, it's not the same thing as a full fledged web browser, and there is a lot of stuff you can't do (e.g., scripting). While I can't speak to the capabilities of Outlook specifically in terms of what subset of HTML it supports well, my guess would be "not very much, probably just basics."
You're going to better off sending them an email with a link embedded taking them to a website with the form in question. Such a website could be generated from your script (i.e., one survey page per person) or you could use another approach which would be to have the site itself be something dynamic (i.e., a CGI script of some sort, or a servlet) that configures itself appropriately for each user. The latter is more complicated to create but probably the preferred solution for a good programmer. The former is simpler but brittler (for example, if you screw up something it's hard to fix because the user has already been sent the link). Judging from the phrasing of your question it sounds like either (1) you have some linux scripting skills and a grasp of html and will be writing this yourself or (2) you have someone else who will be implementing the solution. If it's (2) you should ask them what approaches they're capable of implementing. If it's (1) you're probably going to have to teach yourself some new tricks. Another option is to use a 3rd party service for surveys and the like, which might be able to get your desired result without requiring you to roll your own solution.
posted by axiom at 2:44 PM on February 28, 2019
You're going to better off sending them an email with a link embedded taking them to a website with the form in question. Such a website could be generated from your script (i.e., one survey page per person) or you could use another approach which would be to have the site itself be something dynamic (i.e., a CGI script of some sort, or a servlet) that configures itself appropriately for each user. The latter is more complicated to create but probably the preferred solution for a good programmer. The former is simpler but brittler (for example, if you screw up something it's hard to fix because the user has already been sent the link). Judging from the phrasing of your question it sounds like either (1) you have some linux scripting skills and a grasp of html and will be writing this yourself or (2) you have someone else who will be implementing the solution. If it's (2) you should ask them what approaches they're capable of implementing. If it's (1) you're probably going to have to teach yourself some new tricks. Another option is to use a 3rd party service for surveys and the like, which might be able to get your desired result without requiring you to roll your own solution.
posted by axiom at 2:44 PM on February 28, 2019
Definitely send an email with a link to a real website.
In addition to the above technical issues, I suspect any email with so much embedded scripting and doodads stands a good chance of running afoul of many spam and security filters.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:19 PM on February 28, 2019
In addition to the above technical issues, I suspect any email with so much embedded scripting and doodads stands a good chance of running afoul of many spam and security filters.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:19 PM on February 28, 2019
Yeah, it's been well over a decade since even Microsoft thought that scriptable HTML forms embedded in email within Outlook was a good idea... A link to a website with a form is a much better idea - and also not dependent on any specific email client technology.
posted by jkaczor at 2:34 PM on March 1, 2019
posted by jkaczor at 2:34 PM on March 1, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
You could build the form and use a "Submit" button like a regular web page, but this page, which is a few years old, indicates that Outlook clients (including the web client) will not properly submit the form data. It's possible this has changed and, if you have access to an Outlook 365 account, it's worth testing using the sample in the article, but you'd still need a web server to accept that form data.
posted by hanov3r at 12:17 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]