Sending email from smtp

Question

Hi ,
below is the scripts for sending email which i copied from PL/SQL User guide :
declare
l_mailhost VARCHAR2(64) := '1.1.1.1';
l_from VARCHAR2(64) := '[email protected]';
l_to VARCHAR2(64) := '[email protected]';
l_mail_conn UTL_SMTP.connection;
BEGIN
l_mail_conn := utl_smtp.open_connection(l_mailhost, 25);
utl_smtp.helo(l_mail_conn, l_mailhost);
utl_smtp.mail(l_mail_conn, l_from);
utl_smtp.rcpt(l_mail_conn, l_to);
-- If we had the message in a single string, we could collapse
-- open_data(), write_data(), and close_data() into a single call to data().
utl_smtp.open_data(l_mail_conn);
utl_smtp.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'This is a test message.' || chr(13));
utl_smtp.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'This is line 2.' || chr(13));
utl_smtp.close_data(l_mail_conn);
utl_smtp.quit(l_mail_conn);
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
-- Insert error-handling code here
NULL;
end;
though it managed to execute properly , and i could receive the email from LOTUS NOTES
BUT from LOTUS NOTES i could not see any address in the To : and there's no message in the details section as well
is this an smtp issue ?
pls advise
tks & rdgs

Answer 1

The issue is you not understanding SMTP and Internet Message Bodies.
SMTP is the delivery mechanism. Think of it as a truck that delivers the a-mail payload. SMTP has no interest or concerns as to what the payload is. It simply moves it. Nothing more.
The payload needs to be a valid Internet Message Body. It should consist of a header and a body. An e-mail header should include the following fields:
From: <sender>
To: <recipient>
Subject: <subject>
The header is terminated by a blank like. After which the message body starts.
Things like attachments requires additional header fields specifying what the bounadaries are of attachments in the body. With these boundaries being used in the message body.
Two suggestions. Read the RFCs on Internet Message Bodies (links provided below). Look at the raw contents of an e-mail in your e-mail box - often it is much easier to grasp the concepts explained in these RFCs by looking at your own mailbox.
At http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc-titles.html :
RFC 2049 - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples
RFC 2048 - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Four: Registration Procedures
RFC 2047 - MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text
RFC 2046 - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types
RFC 2045 - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies