MATLAB: Using e-mail with matlab

Hi,
I would truly appreciate it if anyone may help me with this. I would like to know what, perhaps, is wrong with the collection of code herein provided to send e-mails from matlab. In this code, I am using my puma31sumsum@yahoo.com account and have not included some information, such as my password or the e-mail to which I am sending, for privacy purposes:
mail_address = 'puma31sumsum@yahoo.com'; user_name = 'puma31sumsum'; password = '*******'; smtp_server = 'mail.yahoo.com';
setpref('Internet', 'E_mail', mail_address); setpref('Internet', 'SMTP_Username', user_name); setpref('Internet', 'SMTP_Password', password); setpref('Internet', 'SMTP_Server', smtp_server); props = java.lang.System.getProperties; props.setProperty('mail.smtp.auth', 'true'); props.setProperty('mail.smtp.socketFactory.class', 'javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory'); props.setProperty('mail.smtp.socketFactory.port', '465'); sendmail('another email', 'Mail from me','Hello')
I am getting the following message when I try to run it:
Error in ==> sendmail at 17 sendmail('another email', 'Mail from me','Hello') ??? Attempt to execute SCRIPT sendmail as a function
In addition to this, I would like to know how I may run a loop. That is, if I wanted MATLAB to send out an e-mail every 30 seconds, how would I do this? Thank you very much.

Best Answer

From the error message, it looks like your program is called sendmail. This is bad, because you're trying to call the sendmail function from it!
which sendmail -all
will verify this.
Try renaming your program.
To clarify: search the documentation for 'function precedence' to see a list of how MATLAB resolves a variable/script/function call. If you have a sendmail.m in your current directory, it will take precedence over the sendmail that ships with MATLAB. So inside your sendmail it's trying to call your sendmail again, not the MATLAB sendmail function.
EDIT TO ADD: regarding your additional question, a very simple way is to use a for-loop with a pause(30). This will tie up MATLAB while the program is executing (ie you won't have access to the command prompt). Another way would be to create a timer object, with a callback that calls your email program:
t = timer('TasksToExecute',5,'Period',2,'ExecutionMode','FixedRate',...
        'TimerFcn',@(~,~) disp('hello world'))
start(t)
(replace the hello world callback with a call to your program)
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