email single invoice to multiple recipients (Page 1 of 2)

Here i have an article for you to understand it well. Also the image explains you the way to setup the multiple recipients.

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

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?

Hi tm,

Thank you for your response.

In the testing I have been doing, it starts to look like separating the email addresses with a comma isn't actually working as expected.  I have been phoning around to find who has gotten invoices and who hasn't, and it seems the mail does not actually send when the email field contains comma separated values.

hence why I am working on getting this thing figured today....

The EMail Name issue is discussed in another thread.

Chief Dev Response

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....

Thank you so much for your reply.

Okay, so I am not 1000% sure exactly which function that is.  I am still swimming in code. 

But; in mail.class.inc, the email address also shows as a single element in an array, both in the to($mail) function at the top, and in the foreach at the bottom.  so by my understanding of the term, not a scalar

in pdf_report.inc there is a function called End, in it I *think* it is supposed to loop through each contact.  I dumped a bunch of stuff in here, but none of it returned anything from my secondary contacts, only from the one.

Poking around some more, in rep103, the branch contacts show all the components of one contact, but do not print anything about the 2nd contact.

Not sure if that is what you mean?  but I will keep poking at the code, maybe an epiphany is waiting to happen...

Check:

| grn_clearing_act           | glsetup.purchase  | varchar  |     15 | 0                                    |
| bcc_email                  | setup.company     | varchar  |    100 |                                      |
+----------------------------+-------------------+----------+--------+--------------------------------------+
52 rows in set (0.00 sec)

I have also verified that the bcc function works.

This post refers to complete failure to send mail, where as I can reliably send.  I checked to make sure I do not have suhosin installed, and I don't.  But I find it interesting that he messed with the format of his headers, I need to stick that idea in my back pocket.  But I don't think the failure to send is due to malformed headers, as I still have no indication that there is a 2nd address to malform them with.

I am guessing by this you are suggesting I follow the example in the above post?  shouldn't I verify that FA is actually finding two addresses to send to before I figure out if it can send them?  and doesn't the fact that I can send to single contacts indicate that php is successfully sending mail?  maybe I am missing your point, I am pretty good at overlooking the obvious...

The fixes suggested in this post already appear to be implemented in the files on my installation. 

Thank you again for taking the time to respond, I truly appreciate it

Thank you again for your insights, and for the breakdown.  I understand the words, now to see if I can apply the meaning.

I have my test situation where I have my company added as a customer, with one contact being my real info, and another contact going to my hotmail address.  I have tried putting contacts in both the branch and the customer, but as of now I have them just in the branch.

If I understand this correctly, then I should be able to capture all email addresses that FA is adding from within these functions.

In class.mail.inc I adjust the to() function and the cc() function:

    function to($mail)
    {
        $this->to[] = $mail;
$tooutput = print_r($this->to, true);
file_put_contents('/var/www/fa.computerisms.ca/tmp/tooutput.txt', $tooutput, FILE_APPEND);

    }
    function cc($mail)
    {
        $this->cc[] = $mail;
$ccoutput = print_r($this->cc, true);
file_put_contents('/var/www/fa.computerisms.ca/tmp/ccoutput.txt', $ccoutput, FILE_APPEND);
    }

I send an invoice, and tail -f the tooutput.txt and the ccoutput.txt files and get:

Array
(
    [0] => Bob Miller <bob@computerisms.ca>
)

so it is reasonable to assume that FA is not picking up the 2nd contact?  I am not a practised coder, so please point out any fallacies in my assumptions.

If I set one contact to invoice and the other to general, the email goes to the one set as invoice.  If I have them set the same, it goes to the first contact.  regardless, only one address ever shows up in the output files I have set up.

Given my above test, I am working on the assumption that the wrapper function is not populating the addresses.  In pdf_report.inc at line 976 I find a line  if ($email == 1), and it seems to my untrained eye this is the block that deals with obtaining the addresses to deliver to and crafting the mail.  I see a line "foreach($contactData as $contact)" which makes me think it should be looping through more than one contact if it exists, but dumping the  $contactData and $contact variables only adds details on one contact to the output file, not the 2nd.  If I dump the $to variable, only one address shows up in my dump file, but I expect two.

I am not sure yet how to work backwards from here.  based on what I have read, I am looking through the rep files, but I don't have any insights to share yet.

I am also still thinking that if this code is working correctly for others, the problem must be in my environment.  But what kind of setting could prevent the code from picking up the 2nd bit of data, maybe an encoding issue in the database?  am I going about this all wrong looking in the code for the answer to the problem?

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.

In includes/current_user.inc, the following function is defined:

//
//    Search $needle in $haystack or in $haystack[][$valuekey]
//    returns $needle found or null.
//
function array_search_value($needle, $haystack, $valuekey=null)
{
    foreach($haystack as $key => $value) {
        $val = isset($valuekey) ? @$value[$valuekey] : $value;
        if ($needle == $val){
            return $value;
        }
    }
    return null;
}

This function is used by function get_branch_contacts in sales/includes/db/branches_db.inc (this file has another similarly named function prefixed with an underscore that is neither used in the FA core nor in any extension).

At the very end of the function get_branch_contacts we find that only one element is returned because of a return within the loop:

    foreach($defs as $type) {

        if ($n = array_search_value($type, $results, 'ext_type'))

            return $n;
    
    }

If this value is captured in a separate array if it is not empty, then that array would have all the necessary contacts.

This is clearly a bug.

@joe: please update accordingly in FA 2.3 and into FA 2.4.

PS: The error in includes/ui/simple_crud_class.inc is tolerated because of the "@" prefixing the assignment. A check for the variable's existence before assignment would remedy it and it is needed in more than one place in the same function!

@apmuthu

I am quite busy at present. Will you send me a patch to fix this in release 2.3. Release 2.4 will then be updated when the final merge is done.

Thanks in advance.

/Joe

While multiple To headers would work just fine, CC would actually be more appropriate in most of my cases for the exact reason you state.  Most of my customers are small businesses, so I send the invoice to the accounting person/department, who need to do something about it, but need to send a copy of the invoice to the manager/owner so they are informed.

Maybe having a CC check box in the contacts section or something would be cool.

But really, To vs CC is minutia when compared to getting every thing bundled into a single mail...

Whilst getting all contacts and using it for emailing (To, Cc, Bcc, etc) is fine, getting only one contact is important for report printing and for use in the FA user interface screens.

Currently, the function get_branch_contacts is used in:

sales/includes/ui/sales_order_ui.inc
repXXX.php
where XXX in 103 (commented out), 107 (Invoice), 108 (commented out), 109  through to 113.

In the extensions, rep_email_customers calls it in modules/reporting/rep_email_customers/includes/customer_emailer.inc with the last parameter as false (no defaults). Also, when the second parameter ($action) is set to null as in this file, all contacts accrue.

In sales/includes/ui/sales_order_ui.inc the following construct in lines 112-114:

    $contact = get_branch_contacts($branch_id, 'order', $customer_id);
    $order->set_branch($branch_id, $myrow["tax_group_id"],
    $myrow["tax_group_name"], @$contact["phone"], @$contact["email"]);

expect to have defaults (missing last parameter assumed $default as true) and restricted to the 'orders' type alone and is used as a single contact for populating the branch details alone.

The standard repXXX.php listed above use the following constructs:

rep107.php:
$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'invoice', $branch['debtor_no'], true);

rep109.php:
$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'order', $branch['debtor_no'], true);

rep110.php:
$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'delivery', $branch['debtor_no'], true);

rep111.php:
$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'order', $branch['debtor_no'], true);

rep112.php:
$contacts = get_branch_contacts($myrow['branch_code'], 'invoice', $myrow['debtor_no']);

rep113.php:
$contacts = get_branch_contacts($branch['branch_code'], 'invoice', $branch['debtor_no'], true);

which makes last parameter $default to be true but allows for (but currently does not obtain) multiple contacts in subsequent emailing usage alone.

Either we determine it to be a single contact (count elements in array), or choose only the first one for the sales/includes/ui/sales_order_ui.inc and all other places we need single contacts or make a new function called get_branch_contact (singular) with the current code in it and make new content for the existing function get_branch_contacts (plural) for usage where multiple contacts are needed.

As far as emailing is concerned, we can make the first contact as the "To" recipient and all others as the "Cc" recipients if they exist!

Way forward is to be decided - all your thoughts on this is welcome before a patch is forwarded to @joe.

Hence currently, no code change is required except for setting the last parameter as false in reports that need to be emailed to multiple entities!