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This page contains various components written by Magenta Systems Ltd to extend the François Piette's Internet Component Suite (ICS) version 7 from http://www.overbyte.be/.  ICS v7 supports Delphi 7, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, XE and XE2.  Note that all ICS versions now include SSL free of charge.

The latest versions of ICS may be downloaded from the ICS SubVersion server using a subversion client such as TortoiseSVN.  Once your SVN client is installed, you can browse to svn://svn.overbyte.be/ics or http://svn.overbyte.be:8443/svn/ics.  The SVN login usercode is ics and password is ics for read access.

Alternatively, the latest ICS SVN release may be downloaded as zips from the File Transfer Components page or from  http://wiki.overbyte.be/wiki/index.php/FAQ 

Magenta Systems Mail Queue Component
Version 1.2 - 23 Aug 2011 (1,172,488 bytes)

Magenta Systems Mail Queue Component has two main benefits over a simple TSslSmtpCli component: it supports extended retries over many hours or days, and supports multiple SMTP relay servers, while alleviating the need for the application to handle retries. The component also allows HTML mail to be sent using SSL, something THtmlSmtpCli does not currently support. Mail is queued to disk, so retries will continue if the application is restarted.

TMagMailQueue is designed to prepare, queue and send email. Preparing the email is done using the the ICS THtmlSmtpCli component so it may be plain text or HTML email with one or more file attachments.

Once the mail properties in QuHtmlSmtp have been specified, it is queued using the QueueMail method which saves it to an EML spool file.

The component runs a thread which checks the queue for new EML spool files, and attempts to forward them to one or more SMTP Mail Servers using TSslSmtpCli, optionally with SSL. If mail delivery succeeds, the spool file may be deleted or moved to an archive folder. If mail delivery fails, the spool file remains in the queue and further attempts are made separated by the times in minutes listed in the RetryList list. If all delivery attempts fail, the spool file may be deleted or moved to a badmail folder.

Note that some email servers support grey listing and reject the first email attempt from a new sender but allow a retry 10 or 15 minutes later, something that is very effective in blocking spam emails (since they don't usually retry).

If multiple mail servers are specified, delivery is attempted once using each server, for each retry attempt. Each mail server is specified as TMailServer and there is no limit to the total.

Each time the queue is updated or a delivery attempt made, the queue is saved to file in the control folder, so the component may be stopped and restarted with failed attempts continuing.

The EML spool files are compatible with those created by many Microsoft email applications such as CDO, and the AddtoQueue method can also be used to queue existing EML files with the queue details specified in MailQuItem.

Note, this component is intended for sending low volume email from individual Delphi applications, with more flexibility than a simple TSslSmtpCli component. For use as a heavy duty SMTP server, queue processing could be improved to avoid moving records around as much or saving them to disk as often, and mail bodies could be read as required from disk instead of being read entirely to memory first. DNS look-up could be added to find the MX records for each domain to send email directly. A mail pickup folder could be added which is scanned for new EML files. Finally, an SMTP server component could be added to accept new email on port 25, and save it as EML files for redelivery. Beware such an addition has various security implications for open relaying and spam detection.

Files and Folders Used

The TMagMailQueue component heavily uses disk files, in different sub-directories within the mail root directory specified in property MailQuDir, these are:

  •  control - contains MailQuItems.Ctl a single row file with the next message item number, and MailQuItems.Hdr which is a CSV file containing one row for each mail item still in the queue.
  •  spool - contains any queued email files, named in the format item00000001.eml with the number increasing, taken from MailQuItems.Ctl
  •  archive - if ArchiveSent property is true, once an email has been successfully sent it is moved into the archive directory
  •  badmail - if DeleteFailed property is false, once an email has exceeded all the retry attempts it is moved into the badmail directory, from where it may be manually requeued if necessary

A demo application mailqudemo.exe illustrates simple email queuing.  The zip contains the EXE demo and required SSL files.

Magenta Systems IP Log Streaming Component
Version 1.4 - 11 Aug 2011 (543,688 bytes)

TMagIpLog is designed for IP stream logging, using TCP Client, TCP Server, UDP Client or UDP Server protocols, sending simple text lines across a network so they may be displayed or written to disk remotely. The component allows two way communication with TCP and UDP, so may also be used for simple protocols such as communication between two applications. The component supports multiple client sockets so may be used to send data to two or more different remote servers at the same time. For TCP and UDP clients, the component will optionally ping the remote computer first before opening an IP connection to allow faster failure retries and some confirmation that UDP may work. TCP client provides repeated connection retry attempts, including re-establishing a lost connection. UDP client will optionally keep pinging the remote during a connection to ensure it's still there. UDP server sends data to the IP address and port from which it last received data. TCP server supports multiple remote clients connecting. Received data is parsed for various line endings optionally removing control characters and triggering an event for a received line. The only other two events are optional, one for state changed when starting and stopping, the second offering progress information and errors.

A demo application testiplog.exe illustrates use of TMagIpLog as a TCP or UDP client or server, and both in the same program sending data locally.

The same component may be used in a client or server application, to send or receive.

Note: applications using this component also need OverbyteIcsLogger in application uses to satisfy the event type TLogOption.

The Magenta Systems ComCap application may also be used to capture IP streams to files or a database.

Using TMagIpLog:

1 - Drop the component onto a form (or create it in code, see testiplog.exe)
2 - Specify LogProtocol as one of logprotUdpClient, logprotUdpServer, logprotTcpServer, logprotTcpClient
3 - For client protocols, specify RemoteHost (name or IP address) and RemoteIpPort, CheckPing true if ping to be used, RetryAttempts to non-zero if continual retries not needed, RetryWaitSecs for delay between retries
4 - For server protocols, LocalIpAddress is 0.0.0.0 to listen on all local addresses, LocalIpPort must be non-zero.
5 - For sending data, AddCRLF to false if line already have terminating characters, UdpNoCRLF to false if UDP should send CRLF.
6 - For receiving data, LineEndType to one of lineendCR, lineendLF, lineendCustom (set in hex in CustomLineEnd) or lineendPacket (for UDP), then MaxLineLen if a line should be returned before lineend is found, StripControls to false if CR, LF, FF should not be removed from received data, RawData to true if nulls should not be removed.
7 - Assign onLogRecvEvent if data is to be received, onLogChangeEvent if tracking of start and stop is needed, onLogProgEvent if progress information is needed for logging.
8 - Call StartLogging. The LogChangeEvent and LogProgEvent will trigger when LogState changes to logstateOK when data may be sent.
9 - To send a line, if function GetAnyStateOK is true, call SendLogLine 10 - Received data will trigger LogRecvEvent once per line.
11 - Call StopLogging to stop. Buffered data may continue to be sent.
after close, keep calling CheckStopped until true when it's really finished and component may be destroyed.

To send to multiple clients, set MaxSockets to the number needed, then use the function SetRemotes to specify the remote host and port for each socket number, base 0. The events all return Socnr to indicate which socket. MaxSockets also specifies how many remote clients can connect to TCP Server, but note that Socnr is dynamic and changes as remote clients come and go.

Release Notes

18th August 2007 - 1.1 - using OverbyteIcsFtpSrvT instead of OverbyteIcsLibrary, UDP receive packets may be from multiple hosts, always keep IP.

5th August 2008 - 1.2 - made compatible with ICS V7 and Delphi 2009. Note only supports ANSI with Delphi 2009.

20th August 2009 - 1.3 - fixed problem with MaxSockets being reported as closed in the event when only one was open, tested with Delphi 2010.

9th August 2010 - 1.4 - removed cast warnings with Delphi 2009 and later

Threaded Ping Component and Trace Route Demo
Version 1.0 - 3 Sep 2010 (267,489 bytes)

A threaded version of Ping to avoid applications becoming non-responsive while pinging. Note the application needs to use a TThread OnTerminate event in which to retrieve the Reply results of the ping. The component will optionally look-up the host name of the computer that was pinged. Also includes a UDP echo component.   A demo application illustrates use of the threaded ping to perform multiple pings at the same time.  It also illustrates how to write a Trace Route application. Supports ICS v7.

Whois Component and Demo
Version 1.0 - 2 Nov 2005 (254,079 bytes)

A Whois component and demonstration application.  Whois is a protocol to interpret a remote server for information about a domain name or an IP address, and return textual information about 'owner' of the name or address.  The demo application interprets the result and will perform a secondary query to another Whois server is necessary.

SNTP Time Server and Client Components
Version 1.0 - 9 Mar 2006 (11,405 bytes)

TTimeServ is an updated version of Nathan Anderson's time server component adding SNTP support.  TWSTimeClient is an updated version of Chris Barber's time client component adding SNTP support and functions to change the PC UTC time.  SNTP provides time correction with fractional seconds, unlike the earlier Time protocol that is round seconds only.

Magenta Systems Ltd, 9 Vincent Road, Croydon CR0 6ED, United Kingdom
Phone 020 8656 3636, International Phone +44 20 8656 3636
Fax 020 8656 8127, International Fax +44 20 8656 8127
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