This idea is an improvement to my previous idea, the Attachments to webdownload converter.

That idea suggests a server side solution, while it should be easier to solve it in the mailclient.

It should become as easy for users to FTP something to their website as it is to attach a file to an e-mail now.

The mailclient takes care of everything. The FTP-priviliges can often be deduced from those for e-mail (same username/password), so in many cases the feature will work right away.

It inserts a clickable URL in the body of the open outgoing message when a file from the harddisk is chosen using the new 'Upload' option (which works just like the 'Attach' option does now).

It manages the webspace, automatically deleting the oldest files it has uploaded to stay within the diskquotum.

The 'unique selling point' for this feature would be: "Fed up with your attachments being refused by flooded mailboxes? Upload the file to your own webspace instead and e-mail only the link!"

Confidential attachments can be stored in a password protected area on a website. It is possible to include a password in a link, like ftp://username:password@server.domain.tld

The good thing about this idea as opposed to my previous idea is that it requires nothing new on the server side, just an extra feature in the mailclient.

I will e-mail this idea to Eudora immediately!

PS. Optionally you can have the file checked online for a virus with the latest virus definitions before sending the message. That should be a new product for the anti-virus software companies, to have downloadable files checked for a virus by them. Also useful for the recipient. Before you download anything, you have it checked first before it gets on your harddrive. The risk of virus infection is far less anyway because fewer executables end up on your harddrive as attachments when you actively have to choose to pick them up from the website of the sender.
-- rrr, Jan 01 2003

Attachments to webdownload converter http://www.halfbake...ownload_20converter
[rrr, Oct 04 2004]

It's really much easier to introduce new features on the server than on the client. Upgrading one mail server isn't that big a deal; getting a million users to switch clients is.

Having either the source or destination mail server replace attachments with links, which krelnik suggested on your other idea, is the sensible approach. Then users can keep their current mail client and don't need to change in any way. (The only annoyance would be that links to unclaimed files in old messages will be broken as the server removes old files.)
-- Monkfish, Jan 01 2003


You could bake this yourself with Outlook pretty easily, as it has a quite extensive plug-in API. You could even use an FTP client that has an API itself, so all you would have to write is the "glue". (IPSWITCH's WS-FTP client has an API to do stuff like this).
-- krelnik, Jan 01 2003



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