Multiple recipients in BCC via Exchange

MS Exchange requires that fields containing multiple email addresses be separated by semicolons.  It appears that ColdFusion is taking my semicolon-delimited BCC list and converting it to commas based upon the undeliverable which results.  Does anybody know if I can prevent ColdFusion from doing this?  Exchange just won't accept commas.   Thanks! J

ColdFusion needs a comma-separated list of email addresses. Unless your Exchange admin has done something funky, it should work fine with commas. I don't think Exchange requires semicolons, anyway.  I think that is more of an Outlook setting.  In Outlook, you can enable the comma as a separator. However, in our case, the comma would mess things up because our display names are "Last, First".  Again, this is only an Outlook issue, because ColdFusion expects email addresses, not display names. m!ke MS Exchange requires that fields containing multiple email addresses be separated by semicolons.  It appears that ColdFusion is taking my semicolon-delimited BCC list and converting it to commas based upon the undeliverable which results.  Does anybody know if I can prevent ColdFusion from doing this?  Exchange just won't accept commas.   Thanks! J

I'm fairly certain MS Exchange will not allow comma delimited emails.  I also manage our Exchange Server. ColdFusion needs a comma-separated list of email addresses. Unless your Exchange admin has done something funky, it should work fine with commas. I don't think Exchange requires semicolons, anyway.  I think that is more of an Outlook setting.  In Outlook, you can enable the comma as a separator. However, in our case, the comma would mess things up because our display names are "Last, First".  Again, this is only an Outlook issue, because ColdFusion expects email addresses, not display names. m!ke MS Exchange requires that fields containing multiple email addresses be separated by semicolons.  It appears that ColdFusion is taking my semicolon-delimited BCC list and converting it to commas based upon the undeliverable which results.  Does anybody know if I can prevent ColdFusion from doing this?  Exchange just won't accept commas.   Thanks! J

According to CF LiveDocs, CFMAIL needs a comma-separated list of email addresses for TO, CC and BCC attributes. I have always used commas to separate multiple email addresses in a CFMAIL tag. m!ke   _____   Sent: Fri 5/9/2008 4:39 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Multiple recipients in BCC via Exchange I'm fairly certain MS Exchange will not allow comma delimited emails.  I also manage our Exchange Server.

> I'm fairly certain MS Exchange will not allow comma delimited emails.  I > also manage our Exchange Server. I'm sending comma deliminated emails via our corporate Exchange-based SMTP server. -- Tom Chiverton **************************************************** This email is sent for and on behalf of Halliwells LLP. Halliwells LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under registered number OC307980 whose registered office address is at Halliwells LLP, 3 Hardman Square, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3EB.  A list of members is available for inspection at the registered office. Any reference to a partner in relation to Halliwells LLP means a member of Halliwells LLP.  Regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority. CONFIDENTIALITY This email is intended only for the use of the addressee named above and may be confidential or legally privileged.  If you are not the addressee you must not read it and must not use any information contained in nor copy it nor inform any person other than Halliwells LLP or the addressee of its existence or contents.   If you have received this email in error please delete it and notify Halliwells LLP IT Department on 0870 365 2500. For more information about Halliwells LLP visit www.halliwells.com.

Jas > I'm fairly certain MS Exchange will not allow comma delimited emails. For SMTP the delimiter is irrelevant because all recipient email addresses, To, CC and BCC, are split up on the sending side and each one is presented to the receiving server as a separate RCPT TO: command. > I also manage our Exchange Server. How times change: I wasn't allowed to touch any mail server before I understood SMTP, POP3 and IMAP and could use them by just typing in a telnet window. You can probably make the mail pass by changing the IMF SCL threshold for the whole Exchange server, but check your UCE folder first to see if the mail is there. If it isn't, use the message tracking center to find out where it went. Jochem

@Jochem Are you insinuating that I don't know how to use telnet or am otherwise incapable of managing a mail server?  I'm not sure what your point was. I'm unable to send mail... not receive it.  Does CFMAIL not send a single message regardless as to the number of recipients? In any event, I searched for a way to verify that MS Exchange will accept a comma delimited list.  I didn't find anything helpful.  So... I called a colleague who managed 200+ Exchange servers for a large brokerage firm.  He said I was SOL. In 2006, someone had the same issue I'm experiencing.   http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/thread.cfm/threadid:47327 @Tom C Do you know if there were specific adjustments needed to be made to your Exchange Server?  I'm using 2003. Jas > I'm fairly certain MS Exchange will not allow comma delimited emails. For SMTP the delimiter is irrelevant because all recipient email addresses, To, CC and BCC, are split up on the sending side and each one is presented to the receiving server as a separate RCPT TO: command. > I also manage our Exchange Server. How times change: I wasn't allowed to touch any mail server before I understood SMTP, POP3 and IMAP and could use them by just typing in a telnet window. You can probably make the mail pass by changing the IMF SCL threshold for the whole Exchange server, but check your UCE folder first to see if the mail is there. If it isn't, use the message tracking center to find out where it went. Jochem

Jas > Are you insinuating that I don't know how to use telnet or am otherwise > incapable of managing a mail server? I'm saying that you are focusing too much on the application and not enough on the protocol. SMTP uses neither a comma nor a semi-colon so your whole premises is irrelevant. > I'm unable to send mail... not receive it.  Does CFMAIL not send a > single message regardless as to the number of recipients? Yes it does. > In any event, I searched for a way to verify that MS Exchange will > accept a comma delimited list.  I didn't find anything helpful.  So... I > called a colleague who managed 200+ Exchange servers for a large > brokerage firm.  He said I was SOL. I am glad your colleague doesn't manage my Exchange server. This is from a packet sniffer trace of a mail send from CF to Exchange with 1 address in the To and 2 addresses in the BCC: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- Like I wrote before: look in the UCE folder and if it is there change the IMF SCL threshold and if not use the message tracking service. Jochem

I agree with your comment about focusing on the application over the protocol.  Thanks for setting me straight. We are not using IMF and the message tracking center returns 'The tracking db on xxxx is not available or the message has left the Exchange Organization'.   Jas > Are you insinuating that I don't know how to use telnet or am otherwise > incapable of managing a mail server? I'm saying that you are focusing too much on the application and not enough on the protocol. SMTP uses neither a comma nor a semi-colon so your whole premises is irrelevant. > I'm unable to send mail... not receive it.  Does CFMAIL not send a > single message regardless as to the number of recipients? Yes it does. > In any event, I searched for a way to verify that MS Exchange will > accept a comma delimited list.  I didn't find anything helpful.  So... I > called a colleague who managed 200+ Exchange servers for a large > brokerage firm.  He said I was SOL. I am glad your colleague doesn't manage my Exchange server. This is from a packet sniffer trace of a mail send from CF to Exchange with 1 address in the To and 2 addresses in the BCC: ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- <293172.01210615418649.JavaMail.SYSTEM@192.168.0.60> Queued mail for delivery > mgxswitch > smtp [ACK] Seq=491 Ack=730 Win=16951 Len=0 Like I wrote before: look in the UCE folder and if it is there change the IMF SCL threshold and if not use the message tracking service. Jochem

Jas > I agree with your comment about focusing on the application over the > protocol.  Thanks for setting me straight. > > We are not using IMF and the message tracking center returns 'The > tracking db on xxxx is not available or the message has left the > Exchange Organization'.   In the IIS Admin you can increase the logging for the SMTP service (the defaults are rather useless). Then you should be able to see if the message got relayed elsewhere or not. If it didn't see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998971.aspx Jochem

I'm not sure how it was fixed, but it's working properly now.  I *may* have been because I was connecting to the public interface on Exchange and didn't have my gateway's IP address allowed to relay.  However, that doesn't explain why I could relay to a single recipient but not multiple recipients. I don't think I made any other Exchange changes other than a couple of reboots (SMTP service wouldn't come back after starting it). I'll do as you suggested and get more detailed logging for SMTP.  Thanks for your help. Jas > I agree with your comment about focusing on the application over the > protocol.  Thanks for setting me straight. > > We are not using IMF and the message tracking center returns 'The > tracking db on xxxx is not available or the message has left the > Exchange Organization'.   In the IIS Admin you can increase the logging for the SMTP service (the defaults are rather useless). Then you should be able to see if the message got relayed elsewhere or not. If it didn't see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998971.aspx Jochem

> Are you insinuating that I don't know how to use telnet or am > otherwise incapable of managing a mail server?  I'm not sure > what your point was. > I'm unable to send mail... not receive it.  Does CFMAIL not > send a single message regardless as to the number of recipients? In SMTP, multiple recipients are specified one by one, with multiple RCPT TO commands: HELO sendinghost.sendingdomain.com MAIL FROM: sender@sendingdomain.com RCPT TO: recipient1@receivingdomain.com RCPT TO; recipient2@receivingdomain.com ... DATA Message goes here . QUIT What Jochem was saying - not insinuating - is that someone familiar with SMTP, and who's used telnet to send SMTP, would know this. Arguably, if you're going to manage a mail server, you should be conversant with the protocols it uses. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Training: Adobe/Google/Paperthin Certified Partners http://training.figleaf.com/ WebManiacs 2008: the ultimate conference for CF/Flex/AIR developers! http://www.webmaniacsconference.com/

Thank you for your reply.  The first explanation was taken (incorrectly) as inflammatory.  My apologies. With that in mind... Exchange doesn't care.  It must be something else. Back to the drawing board... :) > Are you insinuating that I don't know how to use telnet or am > otherwise incapable of managing a mail server?  I'm not sure > what your point was. > I'm unable to send mail... not receive it.  Does CFMAIL not > send a single message regardless as to the number of recipients? In SMTP, multiple recipients are specified one by one, with multiple RCPT TO commands: HELO sendinghost.sendingdomain.com MAIL FROM: sender@sendingdomain.com RCPT TO: recipient1@receivingdomain.com RCPT TO; recipient2@receivingdomain.com .... DATA Message goes here .. QUIT What Jochem was saying - not insinuating - is that someone familiar with SMTP, and who's used telnet to send SMTP, would know this. Arguably, if you're going to manage a mail server, you should be conversant with the protocols it uses. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Training: Adobe/Google/Paperthin Certified Partners http://training.figleaf.com/ WebManiacs 2008: the ultimate conference for CF/Flex/AIR developers! http://www.webmaniacsconference.com/

Hi Jason, Just in case you hadn't considered this. The anti-spam policies of many mail servers frown upon use of bcc. It is recommended (happen to have done a lot of reading on this this week), that a personalised email each sent to each recipient. Jenny Thank you for your reply.  The first explanation was taken (incorrectly) as inflammatory.  My apologies. With that in mind... Exchange doesn't care.  It must be something else. Back to the drawing board... :) > Are you insinuating that I don't know how to use telnet or am > otherwise incapable of managing a mail server?  I'm not sure > what your point was. > I'm unable to send mail... not receive it.  Does CFMAIL not > send a single message regardless as to the number of recipients? In SMTP, multiple recipients are specified one by one, with multiple RCPT TO commands: HELO sendinghost.sendingdomain.com MAIL FROM: sender@sendingdomain.com RCPT TO: recipient1@receivingdomain.com RCPT TO; recipient2@receivingdomain.com ..... DATA Message goes here ... QUIT What Jochem was saying - not insinuating - is that someone familiar with SMTP, and who's used telnet to send SMTP, would know this. Arguably, if you're going to manage a mail server, you should be conversant with the protocols it uses. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Training: Adobe/Google/Paperthin Certified Partners http://training.figleaf.com/ WebManiacs 2008: the ultimate conference for CF/Flex/AIR developers! http://www.webmaniacsconference.com/

> With that in mind... Exchange doesn't care.  It must be > something else. You might want to try sending the message via telnet, just to see what happens. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Training: Adobe/Google/Paperthin Certified Partners http://training.figleaf.com/ WebManiacs 2008: the ultimate conference for CF/Flex/AIR developers! http://www.webmaniacsconference.com/