Hi,

We are encountering issues with the email task in VC with larger message bodies.

We are including a variable in the message body based on the output of a prior task.

Our testing indicates this occurs in [6.1.8] and [6.1.9]

If we read a file (containing 1000 underscores) we find the output correct when viewing the output in the VC Client on a Read Task (and in the file itself).

If we include that via a Variable in an Email Task (with the Output included in the email via a variable in the Email) we get an exclamation mark introduced ~ character 989). This repeats with larger files (our use case is emailing html report output).

Simple Test File & Simple Job Export Attached - Are you able to reproduce the issue ?

As above, we had been using HTML as the Email, but then switched to Plain Text for a Test and were able to Reproduce there also.

We were not able to reproduce this. This kind of error is related to codepage and regional settings. I think the problem is settings in the Email Client that you use. This is easy to test if you email another email account like hotmail or Google. Please test this and get back to us.

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Hi Henrik,

No joy sending to hotmail - same outcome, insertion of <space>!<cr> around position 989

As noted above previous task (read file) is fine and output displayed in VC Client appears correct (as in the file).

Our test server is 6.1.9

Our Email server & client is MS Exchange Server 2010 + Outlook 2010. . . . . however our central mail server VisualCron is connecting to for mail <which this traffic is passing through> is Unix Based.

We will look more into code pages though to see if that gives a clue.

Hi Support,

I've tried changing the codepage of the mail task itself from utf-8 to windows-1250 and there is no differene. The '!<cr><lf><space>' string is still being injected. I opened up the saved mail message in a text editor to verify this as well.

Note that no characters are being corrupted / replaced - it's just that these 4 bytes are being injected. So I don't see how it can be a codepage issue - especially as we're using ascii characters.

Also this problem occurs regardless of whether the mail task is resolving the text from a file, a visualcron variable or a visualcron sql task.

I suspect it's more likely a buffer reading / array size issue with the email task.

Regards

It is probably nothing with the email Task but the File read Task. Try changing code page on that one.

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Hi Henrik,

I can replicate the issue just by setting a variable to have (let's say 4000) underscores, and include that variable in the email task, text like '{USERVAR(Var_lotsOfUnderscores)}'.

So I can reproduce the exact same issue without the file read task - just by inputting the underscores directly into a variable, and emailing the variable content via the email task.

When you attempt to reproduce Henrik - please try with 4000 characters.

As stated above - we can reproduce this on 6.1.8/9 Windows 2008 R2 64bit.

Underscores are not affected by codepage issues.

Regards,
Matt.

I created a new Variable where I pasted the content of the attached file (4000 blank underscores). I used the Variable in the text field of the Email Task and ran it. I did not get any ! in the email.

Try exporting that Job along with the Variable and send to us. Also, try sending one email to support@visualcron.com

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Hi Henrik,

I've emailed through the example and the zipped up job+variable.

I've now reproduced this using gmail as the smtp server along with our local ms exchange.

I've also tried using a Job variable instead of a local variable - but there's no difference.

Looking forward to any suggestions you may have.

Regards,
Matt.

Hi Henrik,

Also - I don't believe I didn't try this earlier...

I get the '!' corruption if I just put the underscores straight into the email task text box as per the attached image!

So you can remove the variables/files/etc from the equation.

The problem purely is with the email task.

Regards,
Matt.

Hi Henrik,

We've now isolated the problem - it seems that the email task can't handle individual line lengths greater than 989 or so characters. You can have multiple lines no worries - but no single line can be > 989 chars or you'll get some corruption. If you put in a cr+lf - the problem goes away (for us).

So the workaround for us is to ensure we're not emailing lines (and this includes the html text) lines longer than 989 characters.

I don't know why you couldn't reproduce the problem though.

Cheers,
Matt.