There are times when you may wish to disable the automated mail functions of StoreFront 2000, such as when testing on a local development platform the mail component required by StoreFront 2000 may not be present. If you try to run a test order without a mail component, you will encounter an unavoidable ASP 0177 error. Disabling the mail functions will allow you to test the entire ordering process locally before publishing the site to the Internet. Another difficulty that some users may encounter is that many webhosts may not allow the installation of a server-side mail component such as StoreFront requires. If moving to a different host isn’t desirable or convenient, then the simplest solution may be to disable the mail functions all together.
To disable the StoreFront 2000 mail functions, first open your database in Access 2000. If you have to download the database from a remote site first, make sure that you create a backup copy of the database in the web before you begin downloading. The database should open in Tables view; if it doesn’t, switch to Tables view.
Double-click the selectvalues table and locate the MAIL_METHOD column. Add a value to the list called No Mail. Save the changes and close the database.
After adding the new value and saving the database to the web, use the StoreFront Administrator to connect to the database (click here for more information on connecting to the database using the StoreFront Administrator). After the Administrator opens, go to the Mail Setup tab and select No Mail from the Mail Method drop-down menu. Click OK, and yes to save. This will disable the mail functions of StoreFront 2000. To enable the mail functions once again, just change the mail method from No Mail back to the appropriate type.
