HotMailBoxes – “Start one workflow for each e-mail”

Applies to version: 8.1.x and above, author: Martyna Kubiak

Functionality description

With WEBCON BPS users can now create HotMailBoxes. A HotMailBox automatically starts workflows or adds files to them whenever an e-mail message is delivered to an inbox configured in it. A HotMailBox can operate in one of the following modes:

• “Start one workflow for each e-mail”;
• “Start one workflow for each selected attachment”;
• “Add to elements based on barcodes in attachments”;
• “Add to elements based on e-mail content”.

Example – “Start one workflow for each e-mail”

Company X has an incoming correspondence workflow in an administrative office process. For each e-mail message delivered to a mailbox (to a relevant folder) an incoming correspondence workflow is started. The workflow form is filled out with data on title, sender, and e-mail content and files attached to the e-mail are added to it.
The incoming correspondence workflow diagram is presented below.

Fig. 1. The incoming correspondence workflow diagram

1. Registration – a step through which the system goes automatically when a workflow is started for a document appended to an e-mail sent to the HotMailBox.
2. Revision – a task holder must verify the content of an e-mail and its attachments. There are three options for such a person:

– starting separate workflows (e.g. for incoming correspondence, submission) that automatically close incoming correspondence document through the “Complete automatically” path,
– closing the incoming correspondence workflow by going through the “Complete” path if no other workflows are required,
– moving an e-mail to the “Canceled” step when it is a spam.

3. Archive – a final positive step.
4. Canceled – a final negative step.

HotMailBox configuration

To start configuration, first create a HotMailBox. To do that go to “System settings” module in WEBCON BPS Designer Studio and click the “HotMailBoxes” item in the selection tree on the left. A “New HotMailBox” button appears in the upper bar – click it to start configuring new HotMailBox.

Fig. 2. Creating new HotMailBox

The “General” tab

There are five fields to fill out in the “General” tab of a new HotMailBox:

• “Hotmailbox” – enter the HotMailBox name here, as well as the server used for its operation. Filling out the “Description” field is optional. To activate the HotMailBox check the “Active” checkbox.
• “Connection settings” – the section is used to fill out parameters for connection with the mailbox. After selecting the “Use custom inbox settings” choose the server type and enter its address. Then, enter the data of a user whose account is to be used for connecting with a mailbox. When configuring connection with a mailbox, you can test the status of connection with the mailbox with the tool “Test connection parameters”.

Fig. 3. The “Test connection parameters” tool window

• “Folder settings (exchange)” – here, you can specify the mailbox folder from which the system downloads messages (“Source directory”) and to which it moves e-mails processed successfully (“Archive directory”) and unsuccessfully (“Error directory”). These folders must be created beforehand in the mailbox, and selected from the selection tree that appears after pressing the ellipsis button placed next to the source and archive folder fields.
• “Working mode” – for the purpose of this example select the “Start one workflow for each e-mail” option in the “Main mode” field. Proceed to the “Attachments to be processed” field and choose which files are to be added to the workflow. Define how the names of those files are to be formatted in the “Template for created attachment name” field. Possible variants for a name template can be viewed in the context-sensitive help.

Fig. 4. Context-sensitive help for the “Template for created attachment name” field 

All files attached to an e-mail are added to the incoming correspondence workflow, so select the “All with extension” option in the “Attachments to be processed” field.

• “Additional attachments” – define additional files to be added to the started workflow. Here, you can append e-mail content to the workflow as an “.eml” file. It is also possible to define a template specifying which files are additionally downloaded. The available variables can be previewed in the context-sensitive help.

Fig. 5. Context-sensitive help for the “Additional attachments filter” field

There are no additional files downloaded in the discussed example.

An example of configuration of the “General” tab is presented in fig. 6.

Fig. 6. A demonstrative configuration of the “General” tab

The “Advanced settings” tab

Once you configure the “General” tab proceed to the “Advanced settings” tab. The tab is divided into two sections:

• “Restriction of supported e-mail sender list” – the field allows you to specify that only e-mails from senders defined in the data source are processed.
• “Limits of processed e-mails” – define the maximum number of e-mails processed within a day and a single iteration, as well as the number of days back from which the messages are downloaded.

An example of configuration of “Advanced settings” tab is presented in fig. 7.

Fig. 7. A demonstrative configuration of the “Advanced settings” tab

The “Starting workflow settings” tab

There are two sections in the “Starting workflow settings” tab:

• “Creating new process elements” – the section allows you to define which document, in which workflow and process, and for which company is started (in the discussed example it is the “Incoming correspondence” document)  You also need to select a path the uses to register the document.
• “Additional form field values” – here you can assign e-mail data to respective workflow form fields, e.g. e-mail sender or title. Full list of available variables can be found in the context-sensitive help (fig. 8).

Fig. 8. Context-sensitive help for the “Workflow field values” field

The configuration of the “Starting workflow settings” tab for this example is presented in fig. 9.

Fig. 9. A demonstrative configuration of the “Starting workflow settings” tab

Saving a HotMailBox

After configuring tabs “General”, “Advanced settings”, and “Starting workflow settings” you can save your HotMailBox by clicking the “Save” button in the upper bar.

When correctly saved, a message appears with information on actions to be taken to make the changes in the HotMailBox effective.

Service configuration

After saving the HotMailBox, enable the “E-mail/MailApproval inbox monitoring” role in a service. To do that click the “System settings” button in the right, lower corner, select the “Services configuration” node from the selection tree on the left, choose the “Services” item, and select the right service.

Fig. 10. Service selection

Once you select a service, check the “E-mail/MailApproval inbox monitoring” role, and save changes in service configuration. For the HotMailBox to work correctly, you need to reload service configuration.

After clicking the “Load configuration” button, the system asks to confirm the intent to reload configuration, as this involves stopping all active service tasks. Stopped operations are restarted when a service reloads its configuration.

Fig. 11. Service configuration

Your HotMailBox is correctly configured. Once an e-mail is delivered to the specified inbox source folder, a new incoming correspondence workflow is started.