[Tutor] Sending email as html

[Tim Johnson]

On Friday 05 September 2008, Alan Gauld wrote:
<...> 
> The argument to the contrary is simple enough - its not secure and
> vulnerable to 'virus' type attack. For that reason many corporate
> firewalls
> trap or even prevent its delivery. (This is due to the ability to
> embed
> script tags with VBScript functions that on a suitably enabled PVC
> can access the local hard drive,  etc)
Sounds like nothing much has changed in 5 years. I did a project like
this in 1993 with another programming language despite my reservations
and had the client sign a "Hold Harmless" doc before I proceeded.
> OTOH if they insist I assume(I've never looked at the spec for HTML
> mail)
> that its just a case of inserting a boilerplate header and then adding
> styling
> tags to the message text. After that you should be able to send as
> plain text...
I've already looked at some recipes that send both html and 
text as an alternative.... there's one at 
http://code.activestate.com/recipes/67083/ 

> However it might be easier (and is definitely safer) to send an HTML
> file as a mime attachment which gives the recipient some control over
> how/when it is opened. But if mime is OK you could use PDF which
> is safer still and the best format for when accurate layout needs to
> be transmitted in a portable format. Unfortunately there are now
> programs which can edit PDFs which has somewhat destroyed
> their value as a read-only document format for contracts, invoices
  I'm inclined to encourage the client to spend his money on something
  else :-) 
  Thanks as always, Alan