Email Input

Email Input retrieves email data through a Microsoft Outlook or POP3 connection.

If Microsoft Outlook connection is used, Microsoft Outlook 2000 or higher must be installed on the computer where PlanetPress Workflow is located.

Input

Email Input captures all emails and their attachments from the selected inbox, when those emails correspond to the rules defined in the General tab. If no rule is defined, all emails in the inbox are retrieved. Emails retrieved using POP3 are deleted from the server, emails retrieved from an Outlook inbox are moved to the Deleted Items folder by default.

Processing

Depending on the options selected below, each email is converted into a text-only data file, and each attachment is separated from the email.

Output

Depending on the options, each email is sent as a data file, followed by each of its attachments sequentially.

If you use Email input tasks to capture data encoded using a Double-Byte character set (such as those used for Japanese or Chinese, for instance), it is preferable to use attachments rather than the email body to carry the data from its source to the input task, as data corruption is less likely to occur using this method.

Email input task properties are as follows:

General tab

Data Location group
- Message body: Select to use the data found in the body of the email.
- Attached file: Select to use the data found in the email’s attachment. If both the Message body and Attached files options are selected, the message’s body and the message’s attachment are treated as separate data files and processed one after the other.
- Unzip attached file: Select to unzip the attached files.
  - Zip password: Enter the password required to unzip the attached files (if any). Note that you can use variables and data selections.
Conditions group
- “Subject” contains: Select to limit those messages used by this task to those with a specific subject. The subject you enter in the box below can include variables.
- Nothing: Select to limit those messages used by this task to those that do not specify any subject.
- “From” contains: Select to limit those messages used by this task to those that are sent from a specific address. The address you enter in the box below can include variables.
- “To” contains: Select to limit those messages used by this task to those that are sent to a specific address. The address you enter in the box below can include variables.

Login Tab

Use Microsoft Outlook: Select to use the Microsoft Outlook email account of the current user to receive emails. The current user is the one defined in PlanetPress Workflow Service Logon.
- Move message after processing to folder: Enter the name of an Outlook Folder to keep copies of the emails taken by this email input task. You should enter only the name of the folder as it appears in Outlook’s Folder List area, regardless of whether it is a child of another folder. For example, if you want to use a folder named Bills that is listed under another folder named PassedDue, only enter Bills in the text box. Make sure no two folders have the same name, even if they are under different parent folders, as this could generate errors. Consider creating a special folder in Outlook (perhaps a child of the Deleted Items folder named Watch) and then using that folder as your backup folder.
Use POP3 mail group
- Select this option to use a POP3 mail server and to activate this group. Note that emails retrieved via POP3 are always deleted from the server.
- Incoming mail (POP3): Enter the address of the incoming POP3 mail server. This box is only enabled when the Use POP3 mail option is selected.
- Account name: Enter the email account name on the POP3 mail server. This box is only enabled when the Use POP3 mail option is selected.
- Password: Enter the password required to unlock the selected account on the POP3 mail server. This box is only enabled when the Use POP3 mail option is selected.

"Other" Tab

Job Information group
- Information elements: indicates what job infos are automatically created by the input task.
- Add lines before first data page: Using the arrows keys you can add any job information directly at the beginning of your data file.
Backup input files: Check this to save a copy of each data file that is captured by your input. These files are saved in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools working folders under the "Backup" folder.
Backup filename: Enter the filename that you wish the input data file backup to be saved under.
Delete Existing Metadata: Check to remove any metadata from memory. This option is disabled on initial input tasks, and is checked by default on secondary input tasks.

Job Information definitions

%1 - Date received. Contains the date of the reception of the email (and not the date of retrieval by PlanetPress Workflow). The format is YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS.
%2 - Sender's name: Contains the name of the sender as defined by the sender himself (or, if the sender is using Exchange, by the name defined in his Exchange server).
%3 - Sender's address: Contains the email address of the sender as defined by the sender himself.
%4 - Subject: Contains the subject of the received email (may be blank).
%5 - Recipients:Contains a list of the names of all the recipients of the email, separated by a semicolon (;).

Because of the way Microsoft Exchange works, when receiving an email from a user on the same local Exchange server, the email address may not be available. See FAQ-1509 in the Knowledge Base for details.

On Error Tab

By default, any action task, branch, splitter or condition that generates an error will simply be ignored, and the task just under it (not within a branch) will be given control of the job file without any modification. Any initial input task that generates an error will stop the process from running as a whole, and output tasks will not generate output. The On Error tab can be used to overwrite the default behaviors.

Send to Process: Check this option to send the job file to an error management process.
Error Process drop-down: Enabled only when the Send to Process option is checked. Lists any process of which the initial input task is the Input Error Bin task.
Action Group: This group is disabled in the initial input tasks and defaults to Stop Process. In all other tasks where the On Error tab is present, the following options are available:
- Ignore: The task is ignored as if it did not exist, and the job file is passed on to the next task in the process.
- Stop Branch: If the task is in a branch of the process, the branch is stopped and the job file is returned to the process after the branch. The branch will not produce any output.
- Stop Process: The process is stopped and no more processing is done. No further output is produced.
Log Message: Check this option to enable logging a custom error message in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Message: Enabled only when the Log Message option is checked. Enter a message that will be logged in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file. You can use any variables available in PlanetPress Workflow to customize the message.
Store the message in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the message content.
ID: Enter an error ID. This ID will be visible in the Windows Event Viewer. However, the ID is not visible in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Store the ID in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the error ID.
Reset to defaults: Resets all options in this tab to their default values.

If storing the message or ID, if they are store in a jobinfo they will be available in any error handling process where errors are being forwarded. In all cases, if your process continues after the error, the contents of the variables selected in this window will be available for the rest of your process, or whenever they are overwritten.

Common Errors

Though some error messages are specific to a task in particular, others may apply to any and all tasks because they are related more to the system than to PlanetPress itself. Some examples would be W3813, W3830, W3991, W4005. These correspond to issues such as not having any space to write files, permission errors on folders or files, etc.

Comments Tab

The Comments tab, added in PlanetPress Suite 7.5, is common to all tasks. It contains a single text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button, and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.