How-to

How to integrate Alloy Navigator with Microsoft 365 mailboxes

Updated in 2021.1

This article describes how you can set up email settings in Alloy Navigator to work with your Microsoft 365 (former Office 365) email accounts.

Why should you integrate Alloy Navigator with your email service?

Alloy Navigator can receive and send email. To male it happen, you should integrate Alloy Navigatorwith your Exchange Online service.

  • Inbound mail flow - Alloy Navigator can convert incoming email messages to Service Desk tickets, purchase orders, contracts, knowledge base articles, and any other Alloy Navigator objects. These can be messages from technicians and end-users, or automated email notifications from various third-party hardware and software monitoring tools. Alloy Navigator processes incoming email messages using a special tool— the Mail Connector. You set up and manage individual Mail Connector jobs for each Microsoft email account you want to process. For more details about processing incoming email, see Administration Guide: Processing incoming email.

    For instructions on integration with Exchange Online, see Incoming email processing settings below.

  • Outbound mail flow - Alloy Navigator can send outgoing email notifications and alerts in response to various events, such as ticket assignments or approaching due dates. For more details about outgoing notifications, see Administration Guide: Configuring and controlling outgoing notifications.

    For instructions on integration with Exchange Online, see Settings for outgoing email notifications below.

Deprecation of Basic Authentication in Exchange Online

In 2022, Microsoft is retiring Basic Authentication in Exchange Online for all tenants—for security reasons. All Exchange Online users are expected to move to OAuth 2.0-based Modern Authentication, which is an umbrella term for multiple authentication and authorization methods. For more details, see Deprecation of Basic authentication in Exchange Online.

Starting with version 2021.1, all Alloy products support the OAuth 2.0-based Modern Authentication. As part of the migration to Modern authentication in Exchange Online, you may need to update your email settings in Alloy Navigator.

About Automation Server

All email operations in Alloy Navigator are run by the Automation Server. Before you begin configuring email integration, make sure your Automation Server is set up and running.

INFO: For details, see Administration Guide: Automation Server.

Incoming email processing settings

You set up and manage the Mail Connector in the Settings App, in the E-mail Processing > Mail Connector section.

NOTE for Alloy Navigator administrators: If you have multiple jobs and you want to change their default names (such as "Mail Connector", "Mail Connector (1)", "Mail Connector (2)", etc.), assign a distinctive name for each job on the Settings tab.

Exchange Online is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of products. By Microsoft account here we understand the account you use to work with your Microsoft 365. That account will be used by the Mail Connector, so it must have sufficient permissions to work with your Microsoft mailbox. You can create a dedicated mailbox account for this task, or use an existing one.

To configure incoming mail settings for Microsoft Exchange Online with OAuth authentication:

  1. On the Settings tab of the Mail Connector dialog box, under Mail Server, choose Exchange Online with OAuth authentication from the drop-down list.

  2. Under API, choose the Microsoft Graph option. Microsoft Graph API usage ensures the latest Microsoft standards in Microsoft 365 mail protocols for very latest in security and connectivity.

    The other available API option is Exchange Web Services (EWS). However, Microsoft Graph offers improvements over EWS in terms of security, simplicity, and efficiency. Microsoft strongly recommends switching to Microsoft Graph to take advantage of these improvements, all through one single endpoint.

  3. Click the Sign in hyperlink to sign in to your Microsoft account. If you're already signed in with one account, you can change it by clicking the Change hyperlink and choosing another account.

  4. Specify which folder on the server the Mail Connector will monitor for incoming messages. The default folder is "Inbox". If needed, you can use a subfolder, such as "Inbox/Support".

  5. Click Test Connection to verify that the Mail Connector can access the specified mailbox.

NOTE: By default, the Mail Connector polls the email server for new messages every 5 minutes. You can customize the default schedule. For details, see Administration Guide: Customizing the Mail Connector Schedule.

Next steps

You can proceed as follows:

  1. Customize the schedule. For instructions, see Administration Guide: Customizing the Mail Connector Schedule.

  2. To understand how your job would work, switch to the Processing tab of the Mail Connector dialog box and review the default processing rules. You can customize them, if needed. For instructions, see Administration Guide: Configuring Processing Statements.

  3. To clean the message from unwanted text, switch to the Preprocessing Rules tab and choose preprocessing rules for your job. Alloy Navigator offers a set of pre-configured rules for the popular email clients. These rules are initially disabled. You can view the rules and change their order. For more information, see Administration Guide: Configuring Preprocessing Rules.

  4. Test the job to make sure it works correctly. For instructions, see Administration Guide: Checking Results of the-Mail Connector Job.

  5. If you plan to monitor several email accounts, you must create multiple Mail Connector jobs, providing individual jobs for each email account. For instructions, see Administration Guide: Configuring Mail Connector Settings. If you want to monitor several Microsoft Exchange accounts, the scenario requires that you configure Microsoft Exchange accounts and assign distinctive names to each job. For instructions, see Administration Guide: Running the Mail Connector under a dedicated Microsoft Exchange account.

Settings for outgoing email notifications

For outgoing email, your mail server settings must have similar configuration. You may want to use the same Exchange Online email account that the Mail Connector already uses.

To configure outgoing mail settings for Microsoft Exchange Online with OAuth authentication:

  1. In Settings, go to Notifications > E-mail Notifications > Settings and choose Exchange Online with OAuth authentication from the Choose e-mail service list.

  2. Under Exchange Online, choose the Microsoft Graph API option.

  3. Click the Sign in hyperlink to sign in to your Microsoft account. If you're already signed in with one account, you can change it by clicking the Change hyperlink and choosing another account.

  4. Click Test Connection to verify that the Mail Connector can access the specified mailbox.

    INFO: For additional information, see Administration Guide: Integration with Microsoft Exchange Online.

Next steps

You can proceed as follows:

Related Information for administrators:

Administration Guide: Creating E-mail Notifications

Administration Guide: Customizing Push Notifications