I have an application in which under certain type of activities I need
to send a few automated emails.

I am facing 3 possibilities
1: do it from the front end
2: write a UDF that will create a text file to be emailed and have a
separate program polling the directory to send the emails
3: write a UDF that will send itslf the emails

I would favor option 3 but do not know what kind of limitations/issues
I will face. any opinion/idea will be welcomed.

Thanks in advance
Didier