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Either I am misunderstanding what this means, or this is not the case.

I think this means that in rep107.php if I change this line:

$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'invoice', $branch['debtor_no'], true);

to this:

$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'invoice', $branch['debtor_no'], false);

the mail should send to both contacts.  I had actually tried this before, based on the content of one of the posts you pointed me at earlier.  If I put the sales/includes/db/branches_db.inc file back to how it was originally and change true to false as described above, it throws this error on the screen when I send an email:

You have no email contact defined for this type of document for 'Computerisms'.

If I am misunderstanding, can you please clarify?

while it is unfortunate there is a bug in the code, I can't say how happy I am to know that it wasn't stupid-user syndrome.  I am also super-happy that I was able to find it and point it out.  Thanks again for your guidance on that apmuthu.

I have two follow-up questions:

1.  I have tried commenting each part(s) of the stanza in the get_branch_contacts function but seems I have to comment the whole thing for email to work.  Can I make a change there to fix this properly, or am I to understand from your reply that the problem is more involved than that?

2.  There is a CC function in class.mail.inc, but I don't find any way to use it.  it seems when a mail is sent to multiple contacts, it make a separate mail for each individual, such that nobody can see if the other recipients got it.  Can this be adjusted?  I have one client who says I need to send by snailmail if it can't, and I am not sure if I remember how to use a stamp

Thank you *very* much for staying with me on this.  been busy making money so haven't had time to work on this the last couple days.

I am populating my contacts through the web interface.  my primary methodology is using the procedure defined in this link:

http://www.kvcodes.com/2014/10/send-invoice-multiple-recipient-frontaccounting/

Whch was kindly provided early in my investigation of this problem.  I have also consulted the wiki pages on the topic and based on my understanding of branch contacts overriding customer contacts and the invoice vs general type of contact, I have spent many hours trying various combinations of stuff; at first trying to get it working as per the instructions, and then just to try it all since following the instructions weren't working.  I think at this point I have tried everything that the program will let me do.

Everything about the database is within my skill set and understanding.  Tracing the code that does the queries... well, I am learning.  probably I did this the longest hardest way.

I started by examining the tables in mysql; the first thing I noted is I don't have a #_ prefix.  not sure if that matters. I found that both contacts are listed in crm_persons, and it looks to me like crm_contacts has everything linked up correctly.  Next I logged all mysql queries and sent my invoice, and found only one query checking the crm_contacts, and I used that query to figure out there is a function called get_branch_contacts in a file sales/includes/db/branches_db.inc.  From there, I find reporting/rep103.php and reporting/rep107 through rep113 call this function, and thanks to the handy little title at the top of each file (thanks Joe Hunt), 107 is the one to do with invoices.

Phew.

pdf_report uses the $contacts variable to populate $contactData.  the $contacts variable is populated by this line in rep107.php:

$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'invoice', $branch['debtor_no'], true);

so, dig out the ol' print_r; put one before this line to find the values of $branch, put one after to find the values of $contacts.  $branch correctly dumps the company, $contacts dumps only one contact.  hrm...

On to branches_db.inc.  Here I dump the $sql statement, find the string "&TB_PREF&" in the variable twice.  Not sure why they are there, but clearly they are not being passed to mysql else there would be no contacts.  remove those strings and run the sql statement manually and it returns all contacts.  dump the $results a line or three down, and it returns 2 arrays of data.  Hmm, so the database is being queried for all contacts and is returning them. 

In the next stanza there is an interesting comment:

// select first available contact in $defs order

Sooooo... selecting only the first contact is by design?  Seems to describe what is happening.  Playing with that for a bit, I ended up commenting the whole block starting at line 203 that reads:

if ($results && $default) {

And now when I send the email, it lists at the top of the page that it is sending to both contacts, and even more importantly, email is received at both addresses.  /me does the genius dance...

Surely that block of code is there for a reason, what am I wrecking by commenting it?  it seems like it is making sure it is only sending to contacts that are either invoice or general type?  If that is the case, then I consider this solved, but it may not be a suitable solution for others.

PS, I found this in tmp/errors.log, I produced it by adding a contact to the customer, however the contact did add, and as far as I can tell it is in the database correctly.

[07-Feb-2015 22:35:44 UTC] 0:bob:simple_crud_class.inc:116: key() expects parameter 1 to be array, string given

Anyway, thank you very very much apmuthu, I really appreciate your guidance.

Aha.  thank you.

I guess this won't change the existing invoice, though, presumably I will have to void that one and make another?

I am sorry to resurrect an old topic, but this starts to turn into a sliver in my toe. 

I never did solve the problem at the end of last time I worked on it, instead I was just manually saving the invoices and mailing them.  But now a good chunk of my customers are loaded into the program and I simply don't have enough RAM in my brain to keep track of who needs multiple recipients. 

I have been through the diagram provided by kvvaradha (and thank you for providing that) multiple times across multiple customer additions now.  The only discrepancy between that diagram and what I enter is that I cannot enter just an email address, I must also enter a name and reference.  But in no customer where two contacts are setup does it ever send two emails.

This afternoon I started by verifying all my previous observations and ensuring that any changes I have made are not the culprit.  turns out all my changes are limited to the doctext.inc and header2.inc files.  I also upgrade from 2.3.21 to 2.3.22.  So my environment is clean, and the problem is still that FA is sending only one mail to one recipient.

I am running FA on a debian server with exim4.  Exim4 is configured to use my main mail server as a smarthost.  One observation I can add to previous ones is that the php mail() function uses sendmail, which in this case is linked to exim4, which in turn creates an smtp session to may mail server.  I was unable to find a way to get mail() to send via another route, nor from here was I able to find any proof that FA was sending to multiple recipients.

I curse myself that after all my time playing with linux servers I haven't ever become truly proficient in php.  but I got to poking around, and I believe that class.mail.inc and pdf_report.inc are the two files, or at least two of the files, that are responsible for determining the recipients and mailing to them.

I am not clear if the secondary recipients of the mail are supposed to be cc'd, or if an individual mail is supposed to be created for each recipient.  I put a print_r statement in the foreach loop at the bottom of class.mail.inc; $this->header shows no CC entry, and $this->to contains only one entry in the array.  If I put my print_r statement in pdf_report.inc at around line 1000, $this->contactData also only shows one entry in the array.  I have dumped several of the variables but I can find nothing that  indicates FA is finding a 2nd recipient.

Maybe I am not checking the right variables, or in the right place, but this seems to confirm my suspicion that FA is indeed only sending one email to one recipient.  But I am still no closer to figuring out how to fix it.  If this is working for everyone else, then I must have a configuration error in my apache or php or something, but what could it be?  As before, suggestions would be greatly appreciated....

By good fortune I manage a couple mail servers, and I have been rootin' through the logs trying to figure out what exactly is up with how FA deals with mail.  But as of now I can't decide if I am more confused or less confused than I was.  I am pretty comfortable with email, but I am not sure what this php mailer is up too...

First, I have found that while the from header of delivered mails contains my address, the actual sender of the mail is the username that apache is running under.  by way of example, I use mpm-itk on my server and run frontaccounting under user fa, so bounces go to fa@domain.tld instead of my mail address.

I also found that you cannot use multiple email addresses in one field, whether separated by semi colon or comma.  FA will say that it is sent, and in the strictest sense that is true, however, the mail will be bounced back as malformed.  Though I did find it quite consistently successfully delivered the mail to the first recipient in the list when using semi colons.  Having dealt with emailing from Perl scripts, I suppose this isn't too big of a surprise.

I found consistently that when multiple contacts exist within a branch, regardless if they all have the same contact category, only one of the contacts will have mail sent to it.  I found consistently the same with customer contacts.  I found that deleting all contacts from the branch and using only customer contacts was the same as deleting all contacts from the customer and using only contacts from the branch.  I found that setting a contact's contact category to invoice will cause it to be prioritized over general contact category in both cases.

I can demonstrate through smtp sessions on the recipient mail server and through the exim logs on the server where front accounting resides that no attempt is made to deliver mail to the 2nd recipient.  it is not that the mail fails to send, it is that it is not sent, at least as far as I can tell.

I have found that while only one contact will be sent too, the auto-BCC function works perfectly. 

I think I have tried all combinations of contact category, branch contact, customer contact, and under no circumstance can I get FA to send two emails at the same time.  At this point, the only successful way I have sent one invoice to multiple recipients is to save the invoice as a pdf and attach it manually.

Any suggestions as to further things I could try would be most welcome.

BTW; when a mail gets sent, it starts with "Dear ," and in my experimenting it gets populated with the last name of the recipient.  For example, if I populate a contact with first name Bob and last name Miller, the mail will be addressed Dear Miller, .  Not sure if this is the intended design, or if this indicates I have a misconfiguration somewhere; and if I do have a misconfiguration, perhaps it is related to my inability to send multiple mail?

kvvaradha:

Thank you for your instructions.

I have set up another customer following the 8 steps you outlined.  I think your instructions are clear and I (think I) understand what it supposed to happen. 

Now that it is setup, when I look under customer branches, select the customer, I see one item in the list with a short name, tax group, etc., and a single email address.  I then click the edit icon, select the contacts tab, and I can see both contacts, each with their individual email, exactly as the picture you setup shows it should be.  Then I go to customer reports to email an invoice, and it gets sent only to the first contact. 

Do I need to delete the contacts under manage customers or something to make this work?