Count the number of mail views

Question

Hi All,
I send an email which has following html code :
<pre >
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="blank-region">
<b> <img width="100" height="100" src="
https://xyz.com/pls/apex/Test.WCE_KM.download_my_files?p_id=22539227238556772"/>
</b>
This is the email text 1 <b> 1</b> times.
This is the email text 2 <b>0</b> people.
<div class="clear"/>
</div>
</pre>
The code is inserted into outlook or thunderbird as a mail text .
I would like to know how many people have opened that email. The idea is count the number of times the image is loaded in the mail box. and in the "download_my_files" procedure I write an insert statement to insert one count each time the image is loaded.
Since it is inserted as a html text, I am not able to capture the image download hits or how many times people have opened the mail.
Any idea how to achieve this ?
Regards,
Archana

Answer 1

Thanks AndyH for the reply. I am using "download_my_files" just to record the number of accesses for the files for later processing on the database server.
The mail body has few images which are stored in the table as a blob type. Those images are uploaded from the file browse button in the apex application.
I use "download_my_files" to record the number of accesses for the image files. Who views those image files in their mail when they open the mail- download_my_files process should be executed to show the file in the mail and ideally it should enter a hit in my hits table.
I use the following process to view a file in the browser as well in the mail body . I pass the file id as a parameter
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE download_my_files(p_file in number) AS
v_mime VARCHAR2(48);
v_length NUMBER;
v_file_name VARCHAR2(2000);
Lob_loc BLOB;
BEGIN
SELECT MIME_TYPE, BLOB_CONTENT, name,DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(blob_content)
INTO v_mime,lob_loc,v_file_name,v_length
FROM oehr_file_subject
WHERE id = p_file;
-- set up HTTP header
-- use an NVL around the mime type and
-- if it is a null set it to application/octect
-- application/octect may launch a download window from windows
owa_util.mime_header( nvl(v_mime,'application/octet'), FALSE );
-- set the size so the browser knows how much to download
htp.p('Content-length: ' || v_length);
-- the filename will be used by the browser if the users does a save as
htp.p('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'||replace(replace(substr(v_file_name,instr(v_file_name,'/')+1),chr(10),null),chr(13),null)|| '"');
-- close the headers
owa_util.http_header_close;
-- download the BLOB
wpg_docload.download_file( Lob_loc );
INSERT INTO mail_hits(hitcount,viewdate) VALUES (1,SYSDATE);
end download_my_files;
But when I add the html code as a text which includes image file links and some text, as I mentioned in my first post-- it is pasted as a content on the mail body. It doesn't contain the link to the file in the apex server.
Is there any solution to track the hits in this method or You suggest any other method to calculate the mail count who has opened the email which has few images.
Regards,
Archana