[Zope] sendmail not part of a transaction

[Jim Fulton]

Michel Pelletier wrote:
> 
> "Jay, Dylan" wrote:
> >
> > Not sure if this is a bug but I doubt it. If an exception occurs after a
> > sendmail tag the mail is still sent. It should probably be part of a
> > transaction.
> >
> 
> Yes you're right, the sendmail tag sends the mail straight out.  Queing
> and delaying delivery for the end of the transaciton however is asking
> for trouble, Zope's smtp code is fragile as it is, since it predates
> smtplib.

I don't think that this would make things less stable.  Besides,
maybe whoever did this (probably not DC) could improve the SMTP logic at the
same time. :)

One disadvantage of defering sending mail is that you wouldn't be able to 
catch errors with the try tag. If someone wanted to work really hard, 
they could ad some logic to make a preliminary SMTP connection early to try
to catch errors and a second one at commit time to actually send the mail.

> I would check for all your error conditions first, and let the transport
> of mail be the very last option.  Also this way you can tell if any of
> the 'important' stuff failed or not if the mail doesn't get delivered.

This is what they have to do now, but it is not ideal. Transactions *are*
a really good idea and very helpful.  I think if someone wanted to 
make the sendmail tag more transactional (or add a more transactional
SMTP interface) it would be a good thing.

Jim