email unique docs to unique addresses

[kep55]

We want to email statements to our members. Each statement is in pdf format. The management software we have can do this but a test of 15 members had the program spinning the wait for it snake for 20 minutes and nothing had gone. Is there an open source / free program that will do this?

Windows 7 Professional
Office 2013

 

[Ralston18]

Verify that the Windows 7 System meets the specs for the management software.

Test with one member first and then keep adding members to see if and when the "spinning" begins.

What is the source of the .pdf files? How big are they? Are they being created on the fly via some conversion process?

The real issue is the "spinning".

Use Task Manager and Performance Monitor to see what is going on during the "spinning". Whenever it happens to start.....

How do you exit the spin? Any resulting error messages or warnings in the Event Viewer logs?

Gather a few specific details and also contact the management software manufacturer.

 

[rgd1101]

email software? some do have command line to send out email.

 

[kep55]

Verify that the Windows 7 System meets the specs for the management software.

Test with one member first and then keep adding members to see if and when the "spinning" begins.

What is the source of the .pdf files? How big are they? Are they being created on the fly via some conversion process?

The real issue is the "spinning".

Use Task Manager and Performance Monitor to see what is going on during the "spinning". Whenever it happens to start.....

How do you exit the spin? Any resulting error messages or warnings in the Event Viewer logs?

Gather a few specific details and also contact the management software manufacturer.

I killed the management software process after 45 minutes. The problem I found is that it has no way to create a custom report with the info we want to send out. Plus, it has two fields for email addresses - household & personal - but will only pull from the Household fields for email. Some people have individual emails because their spouse is not a member. The software does not provide a way to do a mass update nor select the email address to use. There were o error messages. Their tech support said "that shouldn't happen. Try again."
The PDF files are created by the software on the fly and there are about 125 files, each under 75kb.
I can export the reports needed as one large PDF file which I then extracted to individual PDF files using Foxit Phantom.
I used the Windows secret handshake to create a list of file locations (select folder, hold shift key + right click to copy the file locations) and pasted the addresses into Excel creating a CSV file. I matched each PDF file to each email address. I tried A-PDF Automail but couldn't get it to pull in the info to email.

 

[Ralston18]

Not knowing your data structure nor the individualized data to be sent I would still hazard the thought that you may be able to meet your requirements via an Access Database or Word.

And Access can easily link to spreadsheets or other tables containing the various data pieces you need.

Lots of "how to's" on the internet.....

Word has a variety of mail merge templates as well if Access is not viable for one reason or another.

May require some upfront effort and a learning curve to climb on your part. But once you have it all set up, under control, and perhaps more customizable the work will have been worth it.

And you will no longer have the expense of a third party application or the related dependencies upon them (i.e., "that shouldn't happen").

 

[kep55]

Solved the problem. The software itself had puked and shutting down and rebooting solved the problem. Too bad the software support line didn't know what to do. Thanks all!