May 20, 2007 - A New Tool in My Tester's Tool Box - Blat

Often, we find the need to send an email from within a batch file, or an automated test script - as a progress indicator, as a completion report, or as an indicator that something has gone awry and needs manual intervention.

One very handy way of solving that need is with a tool like Blat.

From the Readme.txt file:

"Blat is a Public Domain (generous aren't we?) Win32 console utility that sends the contents of a file in an e-mail message using the SMTP protocol. Blat is useful for creating scripts where mail has to be sent automatically (CGI, backups, etc.) To use Blat you must have access to a SMTP server via TCP-IP. Blat can store various default settings in the registry. The command line options override the registry settings. Input from the console (STDIN) can be used instead of a disk file (if the special filename '-' is specified). Blat can also "carbon copy" and "blind carbon copy" the message. Impersonation can be done with the -i flag which puts the value specified in the "From:" line, however when this is done the real senders address is stamped in the "Reply-To:" and "Sender:" lines. This feature can be useful when using the program to send messages from users that are not registered on the SMTP host.

 

Optionally, Blat can also attach multiple files to your message."

Blat has a command line version (handy for batch files) and a DLL version as well (handy for invoking from automated testing scripts).

Try it out for yourself at http://sourceforge.net/projects/blat/

See all the tools in my tool box at:
http://www.sqablogs.com/jstrazzere/55/Tester%26%2339%3Bs+Tool+Box.html

Have a tool you use a lot?
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