Product: MailBuilder 1.0

Summary: MailBuilder Internet Mail Toolkit is a system for developing email-enabled applications. The sample projects are well designed, and the ActiveX controls are easy to use. This is an email enabling tool for both the novice and the expert Internet mail user.

Suggested List Price: $598.00 (non-commercial use)

MailBuilder Internet Mail Toolkit is a set of controls and "drop-in" Visual Basic forms for developing email enabled applications. The need for integrated email capabilities in applications has never been greater, and Dartcom has created a tool that can add reliable email capability to your programs.

Dartcom has been in business since 1994 providing Internet tools for developers and is the first on the market with a MIME enabled email toolkit.

MailBuilder includes a development guide and comes on three diskettes. I would have preferred a CD-ROM installation rather than disk swapping, but the installation went off without a hitch.

Before using the product, I dug into the guide, hoping for some quick tips and samples describing how to use the various features. I would suspect that the most pressing need developers have is for a simple method of sending and receiving email, or perhaps sorting through mountains of mail receipts.

The main focus of the development guide is Internet email formats and protocols. While the initial section on the basics of email is informative, the bulk of the tutorial-type information is dedicated to such things as EDIFACT (RFC 1797) and EDI-X12 (RFC 1767) specifications, with footnotes pointing you to [X125] ANSI X12.5 Interchange Control Structure publications from the ANSI Committee in Washington, DC.

Fortunately, the Help files included with MailBuilder are easy to understand and include simple examples. Knowing what to look for is always the key, so you should familiarize yourself with the included controls by looking through the explanations toward the back of the guide. Also, an online FAQ at www.dart.com/support/mailbuilder-faq.html has excellent information and quick answers to most of your questions. I highly recommend checking the FAQ before searching any other source.

I also perused the guide for information on encryption. Most email today is unencrypted and can be read by anyone who has access to the servers that the message passes through on its way to the intended recipient. MailBuilder mentions encryption only in passing and has no capabilities to automatically encrypt mail.

Where MailBuilder shines is in its excellent collection of sample applications. These samples use "drop-in" forms that you can easily add to an existing project. All the drop-ins are conveniently installed into a single directory and the sample projects load from that directory.

I was able to add basic e-mail abilities using the POP3 drop-in, PopClient, to a test project. Like all the drop-ins, the PopClient form includes extensive comments at the top of the form and throughout the code. A list of required forms and modules is also included. However, these really need to be updated with a list of filenames rather than object names, since forms like "MimeDisplay" are actually loaded using the filename, "Mime.frm". The list must also be checked in each loaded module or form, or you must at least compile using Ctrl-F5 to force a complete syntax check. Some of the forms I needed for PopClient had their own requirements that weren't included in PopClient's list of required modules.

Included with the drop-in forms is a complete set of ASP and HTML pages for using the Web to send and receive email. A development license for MailBuilder must be installed on the server, so I didn't get a chance to test this. Simple instructions are included to setup MailBuilder for web use.

MailBuilder includes three ActiveX controls, IMAP4/POP3, MIME, and SMTP. These controls can be used by themselves, but they are really designed to work together. For example, I used the IMAP4/POP3 control with just five lines of code to login to my mail server, retreive a message, display it in a TextBox control, and logout. However, the actual data returned by the IMAP4/POP3 control includes the complex routing and field identifier information discussed in the development guide. Fortunately, the MIME control takes care of practically all the parsing needed to create a readable message. When you tell the IMAP4/POP3 control to retrieve information, you can pass a MIME control object as a parameter, then use the MIME control's properties to view the message data.

The SMTP control is used for sending messages. Dartcom has conveniently given the SMTP control methods and properties similiar to the IMAP4/POP3 control. If you see methods with the same names, chances are good that they have exactly the same parameters and result messages. The SMTP control was just as easy to use as the IMAP4/POP3 control - I was able to login, send an email message, and logout with just three lines of code.

Applications built with MailBuilder require several sytem files to be properly installed. As I'm sure you all know, creating installations is one of the biggest headaches in producing software, but Dartcom has tried to make using MailBuilder something you won't regret when it comes time to build a setup program. The Help file includes a page on distribution, and MailBuilder installs with the AXDIST.EXE program that installs various Internet related DLLs needed on machines without Internet Explorer installed. The controls themselves are 168K or smaller, while the AXDIST.EXE setup program is 785K.

If you are going to create an application to be resold, Dartcom requires end-user licenses for each copy sold that basically works out to a $40 royalty for every program. They also have an OEM Partner License agreement for unlimited distribution.

Using MailBuilder to create email-enabled applications is fast and easy. Both the provided drop-in forms and the simple controls make emailing a snap. The Help file is your best resource and is extensively indexed and well designed. Although the development guide and sometimes the help file can go into detail on obscure MIME message parameters or SMTP status codes, it also includes simple examples to accomplish what you need. Free technical support will get you up and running and a real-live person promptly answered an email query regarding one of the samples.

Dartcom has taken the extra step of providing exhaustive documentation and sample applications with their first release, something many toolmakers still don’t have after their tenth release. One sample I would like to see is a program that duplicates the functionality of Outlook Express or Eudora. The PopClient sample can read the messages, but it doesn’t preserve formatting or display the attachments included with the messages. The pricing scheme seems geared toward the development of in-house email utilities, and the samples included bear out that focus with such programs as a mail sort and forward utility. I’d also like to see built-in encryption and decryption.

If you need a MIME enabled Internet Email Toolkit, you should take a look at MailBuilder. Download the free trial version from their web site and see how easy it is to email-enable your software.