2 APEX_MAIL

ADD_ATTACHMENT Procedure

This procedure sends an outbound email message from an application as an attachment. To add multiple attachments to a single email, APEX_MAIL.ADD_ATTACHMENT can be called repeatedly for a single email message.

Syntax

APEX_MAIL.ADD_ATTACHMENT(
    p_mail_id                   IN    NUMBER,
    p_attachment                IN    BLOB,
    p_filename                  IN    VARCHAR2,
    p_mime_type                 IN    VARCHAR2);

Parameters

Table 2-1 describes the parameters available in the ADD_ATTACHMENT procedure.

Examples

The following example demonstrates how to access files stored in APEX_APPLICATION_FILES and add them to an outbound email message

DECLARE
    l_id NUMBER;
BEGIN
    l_id := APEX_MAIL.SEND(
        p_to        => 'fred@flintstone.com',
        p_from      => 'barney@rubble.com',
        p_subj      => 'APEX_MAIL with attachment',
        p_body      => 'Please review the attachment.',
        p_body_html => '<b>Please</b> review the attachment');
    FOR c1 IN (SELECT filename, blob_content, mime_type 
        FROM APEX_APPLICATION_FILES
        WHERE ID IN (123,456)) LOOP

        APEX_MAIL.ADD_ATTACHMENT(
            p_mail_id    => l_id,
            p_attachment => c1.blob_content,
            p_filename   => c1.filename,
            p_mime_type  => c1.mime_type);
        END LOOP;
    COMMIT;
END;
/

PUSH_QUEUE Procedure

Oracle Application Express stores unsent email messages in a table named APEX_MAIL_QUEUE. You can manually deliver mail messages stored in this queue to the specified SMTP gateway by invoking the APEX_MAIL.PUSH_QUEUE procedure.

Oracle Application Express logs successfully submitted message in the table APEX_MAIL_LOG with the timestamp reflecting your server's local time. Keep in mind, the most efficient approach to sending email is to create a background job (using a DBMS_JOB package) to periodically send all mail messages stored in the active mail queue.

Syntax

APEX_MAIL.PUSH_QUEUE(
    p_smtp_hostname             IN    VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
    p_smtp_portno               IN    NUMBER   DEFAULT NULL);

Parameters

Table 2-2 describes the parameters available in the PUSH_QUEUE procedure.

Note that these parameter values are provided for backward compatibility, but their respective values are ignored. The SMTP gateway hostname and SMTP gateway port number are exclusively derived from values entered on the Manage Environment Settings when sending email.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of the APEX_MAIL.PUSH_QUEUE procedure using a shell script. This example only applies to UNIX/LINUX installations.

SQLPLUS / <<EOF
APEX_MAIL.PUSH_QUEUE;
DISCONNECT
EXIT
EOF

SEND Procedure

This procedure sends an outbound email message from an application. Although you can use this procedure to pass in either a VARCHAR2 or a CLOB to p_body and p_body_html, the data types must be the same. In other words, you cannot pass a CLOB to P_BODY and a VARCHAR2 to p_body_html.

When using APEX_MAIL.SEND, remember the following:

• No single line may exceed 1000 characters. The SMTP/MIME specification dictates that no single line shall exceed 1000 characters. To comply with this restriction, you must add a carriage return or line feed characters to break up your p_body or p_body_html parameters into chunks of 1000 characters or less. Failing to do so will result in erroneous email messages, including partial messages or messages with extraneous exclamation points.

• Plain text and HTML email content. Passing a value to p_body, but not p_body_html results in a plain text message. Passing a value to p_body and p_body_html yields a multi-part message that includes both plain text and HTML content. The settings and capabilities of the recipient's email client determine what displays. Although most modern email clients can read an HTML formatted email, remember that some users disable this functionality to address security issues.

• Avoid images. When referencing images in p_body_html using the <img /> tag, remember that the images must be accessible to the recipient's email client in order for them to see the image.

  For example, suppose you reference an image on your network called hello.gif as follows:

  <img src="http://someserver.com/hello.gif" alt="Hello" />]
  

  In this example, the image is not attached to the email, but is referenced by the email. For the recipient to see it, they must be able to access the image using a Web browser. If the image is inside a firewall and the recipient is outside of the firewall, the image will not display. For this reason, avoid using images. If you must include images, be sure to include the ALT attribute to provide a textual description in the event the image is not accessible.

Syntax

APEX_MAIL.SEND(
    p_to                        IN    VARCHAR2,
    p_from                      IN    VARCHAR2,
    p_body                      IN  [ VARCHAR2 | CLOB ],
    p_body_html                 IN  [ VARCHAR2 | CLOB ] DEFAULT NULL,
    p_subj                      IN    VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
    p_cc                        IN    VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
    p_bcc                       IN    VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
    p_replyto                   IN    VARCHAR2);

Parameters

Table 2-3 describes the parameters available in the SEND procedure.

Examples

The following example demonstrates how to use APEX_MAIL.SEND to send a plain text email message from an application.

-- Example One: Plain Text only message
DECLARE
    l_body      CLOB;
BEGIN
    l_body := 'Thank you for your interest in the APEX_MAIL 
package.'||utl_tcp.crlf||utl_tcp.crlf;
    l_body := l_body ||'  Sincerely,'||utl_tcp.crlf;
    l_body := l_body ||'  The APEX Dev Team'||utl_tcp.crlf;
    apex_mail.send(
        p_to       => 'some_user@somewhere.com',   -- change to your email address
        p_from     => 'some_sender@somewhere.com', -- change to a real senders email address
        p_body     => l_body,
        p_subj     => 'APEX_MAIL Package - Plain Text message');
END;
/

The following example demonstrates how to use APEX_MAIL.SEND to send an HTML email message from an application. Remember, you must include a carriage return or line feed (CRLF) every 1000 characters. The example that follows uses utl_tcp.crlf.

-- Example Two: Plain Text / HTML message
DECLARE
    l_body      CLOB;
    l_body_html CLOB;
BEGIN
    l_body := 'To view the content of this message, please use an HTML enabled mail client.'||utl_tcp.crlf;

    l_body_html := '<html>
        <head>
            <style type="text/css">
                body{font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
                    font-size:10pt;
                    margin:30px;
                    background-color:#ffffff;}

                span.sig{font-style:italic;
                    font-weight:bold;
                    color:#811919;}
             </style>
         </head>
         <body>'||utl_tcp.crlf;
    l_body_html := l_body_html ||'<p>Thank you for your interest in the <strong>APEX_MAIL</strong> package.</p>'||utl_tcp.crlf;
    l_body_html := l_body_html ||'  Sincerely,<br />'||utl_tcp.crlf;
    l_body_html := l_body_html ||'  <span class="sig">The APEX Dev Team</span><br />'||utl_tcp.crlf;
    apex_mail.send(
    p_to   => 'some_user@somewhere.com',   -- change to your email address
    p_from => 'some_sender@somewhere.com', -- change to a real senders email address
    p_body      => l_body,
    p_body_html => l_body_html,
    p_subj      => 'APEX_MAIL Package - HTML formatted message');
END;
/