Custom Mail for Active X Solutions: Case Studies

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 Case Study: Enhancing an established PowerTCP product to support additional features

 

Problem Definition:

Dart's customer is an ISV requiring high-performance email functionality as part of a high-volume email processing application. The solution must conform to latest mail protocol standards and support a wide range of email servers. Email retrieval must be fast and secure, and must support a legacy technology, BinHex 4.0.

 

Background:

Customer desired a product that could seamlessly integrate into an existing VC++ application. Dart was chosen for its extensive experience in email protocols, security, and ActiveX technology. In order to meet project requirements, customer contracted Dart to enhance its established Mail for ActiveX product in two ways: First, to add security features to the IMAP component. Second, to add support for messages containing legacy BinHex attachments.

 

Technical Approach:

Dart Dart added SSL/TLS support to its Imap control, in order to communicate securely with mail servers. Dart added encoding and decoding support for messages containing BinHex 4.0 attachments.

This solution was developed using VC++ 6.0. Demonstrative test applications were developed in VB6.

 

 Case Study: Monitor email and log SMTP connections and session for a specified mail server

 

Problem Definition:

Dart's customer is an ISV with a requirement to record all incoming and outgoing SMTP traffic for a target mail server.

 

Background:

Customer desired a windows service that would monitor SMTP activity. All SMTP session and connection information would be logged, and all incoming and outgoing email would be stored for potential analysis. The service could not act as an SMTP proxy: monitoring would be transparent as clients would continue to connect directly to the existing SMTP server. Dart was chosen for its vast experience in email protocols, server applications and the .NET Framework.

 

Technical Approach:

Dart developed an SMTP sniffer service that monitored and logged SMTP traffic for any specified server.

In addition, a Windows Forms application was developed as an interface for configuring the service, viewing logs, and examining messages. The solution was developed in VB.NET.

 

 Case Study: Integrate Email functionality into CRM software, including automatic zipping and unzipping of attachments

 

Problem Definition:

Dart's customer is an ISV developing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software with integrated email. The software must provide an interface for creating, sending and receiving nicely formatted HTML messages.

 

Background:

The solution must include all features expected in a sophisticated email application, including interfaces for setting server properties, replying, forwarding, deleting, grouping, sorting and creating templated messages. A powerful editor for creating and viewing HTML messages is required. There must be an option for auto-zipping and unzipping attachments.

The application must store messages in a database, and link to contact records in the database.

Dart was chosen for its expertise in mail and zip compression protocols.

 

Technical Approach:

Dart provided a complete email solution comprised of a reliable email communication element, and a heavy GUI element. Dart's PowerTCP Mail for ActiveX product was used to creating, sending and receiving emails. A third-party Windows Forms HTML editor was utilized for interfacing with the Mail products. The PowerTCP Zip Compression for ActiveX product was used for zipping and unzipping attachments.

The solution was created using VB6.

 

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