Configuring processing rules
Updated in 8.4
On the Processing tab of the Mail Connector window you can view, modify, or create how the Mail Connector process incoming e-mail. Processing rules are grouped in two sections:
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Operations - These workflow operations define how the Mail Connector creates objects from new e-mail messages and updates objects (for example, adds entries to the object's Activity Log) when the e-mail message is part of an object's communication thread. These operations are performed through workflow Service Actions configured for the Mail Connector.
NOTE: When the Mail Connector creates or updates objects, it extracts attachments from incoming e-mail message and adds them to created objects or object Activities. This behavior is hard-coded and does not depend on Service Actions.
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Incoming E-mail Handling - These options define how the Mail Connector treats original e-mail messages after processing.
To access the Mail Connector window, from the Sidebar, navigate to E-Mail Processing > Mail Connector and click New to create a new job or double-click an existing one to modify it. The Mail Connector window appears.
Configuring workflow operations
When you create a Mail Connector job, Alloy Navigator automatically populates the Operations section of the Processing tab and places existing Service Actions for the Mail Connector in the default conditional statement.
The first criteria (IF %[EML ObjectRef]% is not blank
) checks whether the message is part of a thread initiated for an existing Alloy Navigator object, i.e. whether the system parsing rule has detected the ID of an active object in the e-mail Subject. If the first criteria return TRUE, Alloy Navigator checks the nested IF and ELSE IF criteria to find out the class of the object to update, and updates that particular object using the corresponding Update Service Action. If the first IF criteria return FALSE, Alloy Navigator creates a new object using the corresponding Create Service Action.
NOTE: The ObjectRef virtual field contains the ID of an active object. When the object is inactive (closed Ticket, retired Computer, inactive Person, etc.), its ID is placed in the InactiveObjectRef virtual field.
TIP: Click the plus icon (+) to expand and the minus icon (-) to collapse a node in the statement. To expand or collapse all nodes, click Expand All or Collapse All.
In addition to operations in the conditional statement, the Mail Connector creates new Person records when the message sender cannot be matched to an existing Person record.
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To specify the Service Action for creating Persons for new senders:
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To attach the original e-mail message to corresponding objects:
Configuring incoming e-mail handling
Depending on the type of e-mail account you use (POP3, IMAP4, or Microsoft Exchange), the Mail Connector differently treats original e-mail messages after processing. The Incoming E-mail Handling section of the Processing tab displays the default e-mail handling. If needed, you can customize these default options.
Next Steps
After you have configured processing rules for the Mail Connector job, you can test the job and check its results to make sure it works correctly. You can test even a disabled job. For instructions, see Checking Mail Connector job results.
You may have multiple Mail Connector jobs that process several e-mail accounts. By default, all Mail Connector jobs run using the Automation Server startup account and connects to the database using the Automation Server database connection. If you consider having all resources available under the same Automation Server startup account a security risk, you can configure to use a dedicated Windows account for every job. For instructions, see Configuring Mail Connector settings.