Tech Forum Archive

Problem sending email to leaders in new directory

8 postsstarted by zaneclark 3,064 viewsoriginal topic

zaneclark
Senior Member
#1
When I try to send an email to all the leaders in an organization, the addresses in the "to" slot are separated by a semi-colon instead of a comma and are rejected. You have to go through each one and change it.... Is this a bug or am I missing something?
aebrown
Community Administrator
#2
zaneclark wrote:When I try to send an email to all the leaders in an organization, the addresses in the "to" slot are separated by a semi-colon instead of a comma and are rejected. You have to go through each one and change it.... Is this a bug or am I missing something?
The problem is that the email address separator varies with the email client being used to send the message, and the email feature of the Directory simply uses your computer's default email client. A semicolon is definitely the correct choice if you are using Outlook as your email client; a comma will be rejected. But other email clients expect a comma and will reject a semicolon. Others still will accept either separator. I wish that all email clients were that tolerant, but they're not.

I'm not sure what the solution would be, but it would certainly be good for you to report the problem.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
#3
aebrown wrote:I'm not sure what the solution would be

A user option?
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
samliddicott
Member
#4
aebrown wrote:The problem is that the email address separator varies with the email client being used to send the message, and the email feature of the Directory simply uses your computer's default email client. A semicolon is definitely the correct choice if you are using Outlook as your email client; a comma will be rejected. But other email clients expect a comma and will reject a semicolon. Others still will accept either separator. I wish that all email clients were that tolerant, but they're not.

I'm not sure what the solution would be, but it would certainly be good for you to report the problem.
Use mailto: cc arguments; - and possibly to arguments:

Code: 

mailto:bishop@ward.lds.org?cc=yw@ward.lds.org&cc=ym@ward.lds.org&cc=primary@ward.lds.org&to=clerk@ward.lds.org
I'm pretty sure that all the cc entries there will work, and quite sure that the additional to recipient will work on all email clients. Because the email client parses, it will use it's own separator automatically.

Edit - nope - it works for evolution, but outlook only takes the last recipient of each type, and ignores the to. bah!
samliddicott
Member
#5
I note that http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2368.txt which has been around for 12 years now states the email addresses should be comma-separated.

From he first couple of pages of the RFC, I learn that the example that I posted ought to work.

RFC 2368 has been superseded by 6068 in October 2010 which advises against repeated use of cc headers as some mail clients don't handle them all; but it does not change or relax the use of a comma as the address separator.

it states clearly with example:

Code: 

   <mailto:addr1@an.example,addr2@an.example>

   is equivalent to

   <mailto:?to=addr1@an.example,addr2@an.example>

   is equivalent to

   <mailto:addr1@an.example?to=addr2@an.example>
From a personal preference, I wish that the default behaviour of the lds site was not to support a non-compliant piece of software whose use legal is limited to those with 83 dollars to spend on it, but rather by default supported all the many standards compliant email programs, most of which are available at low cost or no cost.
zaneclark
Senior Member
#6
I have found a solution to the problem in my first post..... If you go to Leader and Clerk Resources, in the upper right is a link to Send a Message. I had no problem in sending emails to different organizations using this link.... In fact, it has some other nice features not currently available in the Leaders section of the Directory.
aebrown
Community Administrator
#7
That works because the Leader and Clerk Resources uses a web interface for sending email, rather than using the default email client on the computer you are using. It's nice that it's working for you, but the vast majority of members have no access to Leader and Clerk Resources, but they do have access to the Directory, which is where the problem that you originally reported is.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
zaneclark
Senior Member
#8
aebrown wrote:That works because the Leader and Clerk Resources uses a web interface for sending email, rather than using the default email client on the computer you are using. It's nice that it's working for you, but the vast majority of members have no access to Leader and Clerk Resources, but they do have access to the Directory, which is where the problem that you originally reported is.
Well, I solved my problem...let the masses solve theirs! Just kidding, but is it possible that this same web interface could be used in the Directory?