Setting up mail

[Andrew]

I wonder why MadCap didn't just give users the option to open your default mail client with a message and attachment?

[helen]

I wonder why MadCap didn't just give users the option to open your default mail client with a message and attachment?

Me too.

Trust me Dave, you don't ever want to see that dialog box, if you do, kill Flare before it kills itself.

[RamonS]

I wonder why MadCap didn't just give users the option to open your default mail client with a message and attachment?

Keep in mind that MadCap is a Microsoft .NET showcase company. I still think they need to be "Microsoft only" as much as possible to keep the goons in Redmond quiet.

[NorthEast]

I wonder why MadCap didn't just give users the option to open your default mail client with a message and attachment?

That's what it does for me.

So does that mean if your setup doesn't work, it works?

[Adrian Durand]

Hi All,

I'm in the same situation as Dave, with the same results.

I've confirmed with our technical department that we run Active Directory with Outlook on a WIn2003 Server, but I got the 'Failed to find Active Directory' message when setting up the e-mail.
However, as per Dave, I can still send the message as it opens as a draft e-mail with the attachment, and was received by the intended recipient after being sent.

Does anyone know if a setting needs to be made to the Outlook / AD server?

Thanks

Adrian

[Richard Ferrell]

Active Directry is not required for Sending topics, please see this message.

http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 803#p38803

[Richard Ferrell]

If you are having problems send our your topic for Review then please open a support ticket.

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/support/contact.aspx

[helen]

The problem has been fixed!!

We have a Windows Server 2003 x64 domain XXXXX hosting user accounts and machines. We outsource email and SMTP on the DC is set to forward to our provider. Our user profiles do not specify email information - as soon as we gave it one, everything worked perfectly (as Dave described above) and Flare stopped being stroppy.

DeNelo - I don't know if yours is the same problem but on the off chance it is I hope the above (from my manager) helps you.

Ahh today is going to be a Good Day.

[Richard Ferrell]

Helen,

Thanks for the feedback, I am going to be passing it over to the Developers and QA to check it out!

[gmorgan]

I am having the exact same issues. The AD that holds all our email info sits on a different network than what I work on so I think that is why the process is getting hung up for me. I need to be able to get behind that progress dialog as well, I could then manually add the email server. Has there been resolution to this issue or even a workaround?

[Richard Ferrell]

Does Your Domain Account have an Email address setup for it? You would need to go in your Domain Account settings to verify this. Your IT dept shoudl be able to do this.

[DeNelo]

Helen:
My "problem" is that we do not run AD or Exchange. We run Lotus Notes on Domino 8, as do a lot of mostly large corporations (we're not large, though, but we do Lotus Notes development).

Richard Ferrell:
I, too, have opened a support case on the day of my first post...

I still can't see why Flare needs to look up anything. In MS shops it would be clever to integrate with Sharepoint, though!

[RamonS]

Sharepoint??? That's an overhyped conglomerate of all the not so great Microsoft applications. I can see why companies use it as there is a need for such a tool, but Sharepoint is really horrible and unflexible. We used it based on the bazillion promises that were made, but either it didn't work or it was just cumbersome to do and required a high level of web development skills. And it requires IIS.
Still, putting Sharepoint together was one of the best moves Microsoft did in a decade.

[helen]

Sharepoint??? That's an overhyped conglomerate of all the not so great Microsoft applications. I can see why companies use it as there is a need for such a tool, but Sharepoint is really horrible and unflexible. We used it based on the bazillion promises that were made, but either it didn't work or it was just cumbersome to do and required a high level of web development skills. And it requires IIS.

Somewhat offt opic, but *shudder* I agree 100%. I can't see the need for the tool personally, I felt the company (who I no longer work for) got very little benefit from it. Terrible workflow, pointless bulky tasks and a general all round unreliable waste of space.

Sorry DeNelo, I guess because I didn't fully understand the set up we have here I was being hopeful that my solution might help you.

[DeNelo]

Helen, RamonS,
I agree that Sharepoint can be a major pain, and I too shudder - imagine MadCap trying to integrate into that, when they can't even make Flare send an e-mail. (Or respond to support tickets, for that matter.)
Sorry to be so long in answering - a testimony to my dwindling interest in Flare, I guess... I don't like closed MS shops... (for instance - the new legacy search optimizer - supports IE6+ only...)

[RamonS]

I agree and it is one of my biggest complains about MadCap for years.
Disclaimer: The next paragraphs are pure speculation are potentially wrong and not based on any hard facts!
I think it isn't so much that MadCap is hellbent on doing MS only stuff (although developers were at the root of MadCap), but that there are particular mechanisms in the market that caused the MS centric design, mainly the fact that a startup company needs capital and many investors are more likely to put their dough into something that has Microsoft stapled on it somewhere than something else. Plus, by buddying up with Microsoft a lot of otherwise costly tools can be obtained at a bargain price (a price I consider to be the fair price for the development tools). And everyone knows Microsoft, that vast majority of software runs on Windows, and by being MS centric a lot of complexity can be removed. Since especially the US industry loves Microsoft products there is really no compelling reason to aim for Mac or *nix compatibility as this would likely double the development efforts for the sake of catching 10 to 15 percent more of potential market. I think that was the hard truth that made MadCap become an MS-only shop with a few exceptions, such as using Flash first for Mimic (since Silverlight wasn't available at the time and still isn't a really serious option) or making efforts to have WebHelp work on Firefox.
I don't know how long the influx of outside cash is needed before MadCap can carry itself on the annuities generated by support contracts (which depends heavily on the retention rate) and continued sales. And even when that point is reached it may still be no business case to support anything else other than Microsoft platforms. The reasons are quite simple. As long as we continue being hypocrites (me included) bashing Microsoft and MS-only shops, but continuing to use Windows, MS Office and documenting DotNet based applications we do not foster change. For the very same reasons we and our companies continue to use Microsoft products predominantly MadCap will aim for the platforms that generate the best ROI. After all, MadCap is a business and not a free-spirited organization of nerds that set out to produce software applications that run on anything that ever came out of a waver factory. Sure, there is a lot of ground between and I, too, love to see MadCap be more aware and supportive of alternatives. I firmly believe they really like to do that, but after crunching the numbers it just doesn't make economical sense and would potentially jeopardize the entire company. I also have no doubt that the MadCap developers are capable of creating a cross-platform application with cross-platform outputs that can do cross-everything equally well. It is difficult to be Robin Hood and live in a castle while having the populace embrace that concept.

[Richard Ferrell]

Dear DeNelo,

In your Email you say we don't Respond to tickets, I am only showing one Bug entry with your email, 6822, that was replied on 9/10/2008, as a feature suggestion, Are there other tickets that you have that you feel that we have not responded to?