iOS Command Line Like Email

[xStep]

Wirelessly posted

Anyone know of a way to send email from iOS without using a mailto URL which invokes Apple's email app?

My interest is limiting what a user can alter. For instance I don't want them altering the subject header.

 

[jnoxx]

You know you don't need to send them to the Mail app, and you can use the UIMessageController, but you can't prohibate them from altering the subject i'm afraid..

 

[xStep]

I couldn't find any documentation on that class. It lead me to another one called MFMailComposeViewController that also has the limitation you mentioned.

So the search is still on.

 

[dejo]

It lead me to another one called MFMailComposeViewController...

That's probably what jnoxx meant (but didn't take the time to look it up and confirm).

 

[jnoxx]

That's probably what jnoxx meant (but didn't take the time to look it up and confirm).

That's exactly what I meant, i'm quite sure you can't limit it, same like sending text messages without people actually knowing what's up.
Just bad practice for the end user, they wan't total control 😉

 

[chown33]

Anyone know of a way to send email from iOS without using a mailto URL which invokes Apple's email app?

My interest is limiting what a user can alter. For instance I don't want them altering the subject header.

Please explain why it's necessary to have an unaltered Subject header.

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish? If we know what that is, then maybe we can suggest an alternative. Right now, you've described an XY Problem:

You want to do X, and you think Y is the best way of doing it.
Instead of asking about X, you ask about Y.
​

 

[xStep]

Please explain why it's necessary to have an unaltered Subject header.

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish? If we know what that is, then maybe we can suggest an alternative. Right now, you've described an XY Problem:

You want to do X, and you think Y is the best way of doing it.
Instead of asking about X, you ask about Y.
​

I asked exactly what I needed to ask within the current constraints I have and know.

Some of the emails will be sent to a corporate server and an identifier is required on the receiving end. The user can not be allowed to alter this. (I'm not here to discuss if this is a good idea.)

 

[chown33]

Do you have any control over where the identifier resides?

If I absolutely had to do it by email, I'd make the email recipient be the identifier.

Not because users won't be able to muck upp the recipient, but because if a user does muck it up, not one could reasonably think that doing so was inconsequential. "Of course it didn't work, it wasn't sent it to the right recipient". The contents of a subject line doesn't have the same kind of logical weight as the recipient address.

If there were any other way to do this, like accessing an HTTP URL, I think that would be more reliable than an email of any kind. Probably faster, too.

 

[firewood]

You app could implement its own sendmail client using email settings built into the app or maybe entered by the user into the app.

 

[xStep]

Thanks everyone. I don't have all the details yet and from what I've been told I too think a direct upload would be a better solution for a couple of the items.

I'm hoping we don't have to implement our own sendmail solution just to control a subject line. 😱

 

[xStep]

Updated Details

A current PC system sends email with a special subject line through MS Exchange which recognizes that and for mail going outside the company passes it to Cisco IronPort for secure processing. The PC Outlook program has some plugin & button to allow the user to notify it that they want the email to be encrypted. That plugin alters the subject line when the user hits the send key. Since we would be sending from an iPad app, that selection process won't be needed. We'll know what requires this work flow.

The Cisco IronPort system encrypts the message and as I understand it, saves it to the cloud. Apparently another clear text message is sent to the recipient who clicks a link, logs into IronPort, and picks up their mail in a decrypted form.

The destination email address is free form. The subject line needs some special text at the beginning so that the Exchange server recognizes that the mail needs to be forwarded to the IronPort system. The body of the text is personal information to be kept private.