The new features added to Devmailer in version 1.7 are primarily related to ease of use (preventing relaying denied errors), and also validation of email addresses, and a reasonable validation of receipt.

• Direct SMTP:  Direct-SMTP allows Devmailer to look up the mail server from the domain part of an email address and then contact their mail server directly to deliver the email.  The benefits are that it is no longer necessary to relay through a local SMTP server, and it also allows for more accurate validation that an address is correct and that it was delivered.  Devmailer is smart about its delivery, and will cache mail server information, sort recipients by their respective mail servers, and send to all the recipients for that server on one connection while skipping any invalid email addresses.
  

• Script Modules: A scripting module is a file in Jscript or VBscript that conforms to our Scripting Module interface.  These scripting function "hooks" are called at appropriate events during the sending process, such as when Devmailer connects, finds an invalid recipient, or completes a successful send or failed message attempt.  The power and customization this offers to you is basically as unlimited as your imagination.  The obvious application is to use it to log email activity, success, and failures to a database or log file.  But this feature also allows you to modify the sending process as it happens, as you have complete access to the Devmailer interface from the scripting modules as well as any other feature of Jscript/VBscript.
  

• Templates: Templates are a text format which allows you to plug in variables for complete dynamic customization of your messages.  Our Template Preparser allows you to use template variables as input for other template tags, such as specifying which images to embed dynamically.
  

• Embedded Images: Embedding images inside of HTML using our Template schemes is by far the easiest way to embed images inside of your messages. Just add [embed="c:\yourimage.gif"] to a template and Devmailer handles the rest.
  

• Mail Merge: We offer full Mail Merge support with this release.  The subject, from, to, body, reply to, and most any other useful header can be templated.  No need to worry about Recordsets, just open the ODBC connection and tell Devmailer to MergeByQuery.
  

• ODBC Database Support: Database support was integrated inside of Devmailer for the express purpose of making DB logging inside of scripting modules more efficient. It is also important for ease of use with our MailMerge features.  Why mess with ADO if you don't have you?
  

• SMTP Authentication: Allows Devmailer to be used with SMTP servers that require logins.
  

• Email Address Validation: Devmailer can validate an email based on if the address is well formed and also if the domain name is valid, and if sending via Direct-SMTP Devmailer can even confirm that the recipient exists on the server or not.
  

• Automated Invalid Recipient List: Devmailer can keep track of any invalid email addresses it comes across in a text file of your choosing.  It can also be told to ignore addresses in this list if additional mail is sent to them.
  

• Server MessageID Retrieval: Devmailer can give you access to the mail server's message id for the messages it sends.  Devmailer handles the default Sendmail and Qmail MessageID formats out of the box, however you can specify a simple pattern to get MessageIDs for other servers who return them to the client.  This is useful for matching what happens in Devmailer to what happens on the server.  If you wanted more extensive email tracking while using a local SMTP server, you could write a log parser that runs on the server, and tie it with messages sent via Devmailer.