taskcentre® v4.5 send message (smtp) tool white papersmtp)_tool.pdf · send message (smtp) tool 3...

Document Number: PD500-03-17-1_0-WP Orbis Software Limited © 2010

TaskCentre® v4.5

Send Message (SMTP) Tool

White Paper

Table of Contents

i

COPYRIGHT 1

TRADEMARKS 1

INTRODUCTION 2

Overview 2

FEATURES 2

GLOBAL CONFIGURATION 3

Address Book dialog 4

New Contact dialog 5

Address Properties dialog 5

TECHNICAL SUMMARY 5

Working with other Steps 5

Dependencies 6

Objects Consumed 7

Objects Exposed 7

CONFIGURATION 7

General 8

Main 9

Select From dialog 9

Select Recipients dialog 10

New One Off Recipient dialog 12

Options 12

Copyright & Trademarks

1

Copyright The copyright in this document is owned by Orbis Software 2010. All rights reserved.

This publication may not, in whole or part, be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval

system or translated into any language in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of

Orbis Software Limited.

Head Office:

Orbis Software Limited (UK)

2 Nuffield Road

Nuffield Industrial Estate

Poole, Dorset

BH17 0RB

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 241124

Fax: +44 (0) 1202 241125

Email: [email protected]

Trademarks Orbis Software Ltd owns the registered Trademark ‘TaskCentre’.

All other Trademarks used within this documentation are acknowledged as the property of their

respective owners.

The information provided in this publication may contain errors, omissions, or typographical errors or

may be out of date. Orbis Software may change, delete, or update any published information at any time

and without prior notice. The information published in this document is provided for informational

purposes only and is not binding on Orbis Software in any way except to the extent that it is specifically

indicated to be so.

mailto:[email protected]


2

Introduction

Overview

The ‘Send Message (SMTP)’ is an ‘Output’ Tool which is used to create a Task Step that sends

messages to any SMTP compliant mail server. The Step is capable of sending multiple messages in either

text or HTML formats, incorporating data from an Input and/or Format Step to any number of recipients.

If data being used from an Input Step includes a column containing e-mail addresses, then this may be

used as a ‘dynamic’ recipient address.

The Tool is configured globally with the name or IP address and port number of the SMTP Server to use,

and this is then transparent for all Steps created. An internal address book is provided so that common

SMTP addresses can be defined and re-used. MAPI address books such as those available from Microsoft

Mail, Microsoft Outlook and the Microsoft Exchange Server Global Address List (GAL) are also supported.

Commonly the message content would be a document generated by a Format type Step such as ‘Format

As Text’, ‘Format As HTML’ or ‘Run Crystal Report’ but it is also possible to attach the document to the

message and additionally create fixed or dynamic message content by inserting columns from the

recordset being used or Task variables or parameters by dragging and dropping them into the message

from the ‘Task Browser’ dialog.

There are extensive management facilities for handling file attachments (e.g. the contents of a database

query can be incorporated into the file attachment and the message body can be used for accompanying

notes/actions list). It is also possible to define the file contents per recordset row, or grouped by a

chosen field. In addition to this a file(s) may be attached from a Network fileserver; the path(s) of which

may be defined using a field from the recordset or a static address.

Features


3

Global Configuration Before the Send Message (SMTP) Step may be used a User with System Administrator rights must first

select an SMTP Server. This is achieved through a Global Configuration dialog which is displayed by

clicking on the Outputs node in the Task Manager and then double-clicking on the Send Message (SMTP)

icon in the Items List.

The dialog consists of the following:

o ‘Server Address’ (field) - A DNS Name or an IP Address may be entered for the SMTP Server.

o ‘Authentication’ (area) - This area contains the following for configuring a connection to the

SMTP server:

‘Enable Authentication’ (check box) - This option should be selected if authentication is

to be used to connect to the server and if checked provides the following options for

selection:

Windows Authentication (NTLM) - The currently logged in users details are used to

access the server.

Plain Text Authentication (LOGIN) - Specific user details may be entered in the

'Username', 'Password' and 'Domain' fields which become active when this option is

selected.

Figure 1. Send Message (SMTP) Global Configuration dialog – Main tab.

o ‘Authentication’ (area) - This area contains the following connection options for selection:

Abort send if Authentication not supported by host.

Abort send if Authentication Fails.

o ‘Connection Security’ (area) - This area contains the following connection options for

selection:


4

Use Secure SMTP.

Require Secure SMTP.

o ‘Connection Details’ (area) - This area contains the following:

‘Port Number’ (field) - The connection port to be used may be entered. This defaults to

25.

Note: The TaskCentre SMTP port is configurable and may be changed from its default

setting of 25 should port clashes occur during configuration. Please refer to the

documentation on your mail server in order to co-ordinate any change from the default of

25 so that TaskCentre can communicate successfully with your mail server.

o ‘Message Formatting’ (area) - This area contains the following formatting options for

selection:

Send plain text using HTML – By default this option is not selected and therefore

assumes that there may be recipients of TaskCentre notifications who are unable to read

HTML mail. This means that plain text notifications can be constructed and hence not be

converted into HTML by the mail server.

Figure 2. Send Message (SMTP) Global Configuration dialog – Advanced tab.

Address Book dialog

The ‘Address Book’ dialog (Ref: Figure 3) contains the following:


5

Figure 3. Address Book dialog.

New Contact dialog

Figure 4. New Contact dialog.

The ‘New Contact’ dialog (Ref: Figure 4) is used to specify a name and email address for a new contact

through the following:

Address Properties dialog

Clicking the ‘Edit...’ button, when contact details have been selected, will invoke the ‘Properties’ dialog

for the selected Address. This is essentially the same dialog as the ‘New Contact’ dialog, but is used to

amend the details.

Technical Summary

Working with other Steps

The other Steps that the Send Message (SMTP) Step will interact directly with, whether by exposing

information to it or consuming information from it are listed below.

Step Icon Name Step Type

Schedule Event Step

MS SQL Server Trigger Event Step


6

Oracle Trigger Event Step

SMTP Event Step

Workflow Job Submission Event Step

Format As Text Format Step

Format As HTML Format Step

Run Crystal Report Format Step

Merge MS Word Document Format Step

XML to Recordset Format Step

Create Workflow Job Format Step

Text Parser General Step

Decision General Step

Dependencies

The products, technologies, protocols or systems that are required for the Send Message (SMTP) Step to

work are listed below.


7

Objects Consumed

Objects that the Send Message (SMTP) Step consumes that are exposed by other Steps are listed below.

Objects Exposed

Objects that the Send Message (SMTP) Step exposes, that can be utilised by other Steps are listed below.

Configuration The Send Message (SMTP) Step is configured through the Send Message (SMTP) dialog which is the main

interface for creating a new Step. The dialog is displayed through the methods described below.

To create a new Step:

To open an existing Step:

The dialog contains the three tabbed panes described below through which a Send Message (SMTP) Step

may be created and configured.


8

General

Figure 5. Send Message (SMTP) – General tab.

The contents of the ‘General’ tab (Ref: Figure 5) are as follows:


9

Main

Figure 6. Send Message (SMTP) – Main tab + Browser dialog.

The ‘Main’ tab (Ref: Figure 6) allows the selection of message recipients and the message content to be

configured through the following:

o Message only – If this option is selected then the message will consist of the text entered in

the ‘Message’ text box area, including any columns, properties and variables incorporated within

the text that are current at the time the Task is run.

o Document output only – If this option is selected then text cannot be entered in the ‘Message’

text box area and the message will consist of the document or report from the chosen data

source in the ‘General’ tab.

Select From dialog

The ‘Select From’ dialog (Ref: Figure 7) is used to select the reply address of the e-mail. It contains an

‘OK’ and a ‘Cancel’ button. The ‘OK’ button will close the dialog and save any changes made. The

‘Cancel’ button will close the dialog without saving any changes.

The contents of the ‘Select From’ dialog are as follows:


10

Figure 7. Select From dialog.

Select Recipients dialog

The ‘Select Recipients’ dialog (Ref: Figure 8) is used to choose the recipient of the e-mail in either ‘To’,

‘Cc’ or ‘Bcc’ categories. The dialog contains an ‘OK’ and a ‘Cancel’ button. The functionality of these

buttons is the same as used elsewhere within TaskCentre®.

The contents of the ‘Select Recipients’ dialog are as follows:

o Used to add a one-off e-mail recipient to either the ‘To’, ‘Cc’ or ‘Bcc’ fields,

o Invokes the ‘New One Off Recipient’ dialog (Ref: Figure 9).

Figure 8. Select Recipients dialog.


11

Using Dynamic Recipients

Another alternative to selecting recipients from the address books is to use 'Dynamic Recipients'. This

allows the user to define the recipients by using email addresses from the data source. E.g. in an

Accounts or CRM system the customers email address will form part of the contact management details

and hence the email address data could come from there.


12

To use this method:

Right-clicking on a column in a field displays options to remove it and also to view the properties through

the ‘Dynamic Recipient’ dialog (Ref: Figure 9).

Note: If the recordset contains more than one record related to the recipient and you wish for all related

records to appear in one email then the email address field must be a primary sort key in the Input Step

Figure 9. Dynamic Recipient dialog.

New One Off Recipient dialog

The ‘New One Off Recipient’ dialog (Ref: Figure 10) is used to assign a new recipient name and e-mail

address to the Step. It contains an ‘OK’ and a ‘Cancel’ button. The functions of the ‘OK’ and ‘Cancel’

buttons are the same as used elsewhere within TaskCentre®. The contents of this dialog are as follows:

o ‘To’ (radio button) – Will add the new recipient to the ‘To->’ field

o ‘Cc’ (radio button) – Will add the new recipient to the ‘Cc->’ field

o ‘Bcc’ (radio button) – Will add the new recipient to the ‘Bcc->’ field

o ‘Name’ (field) – Used to add the new recipients name

o ‘Address’ (field) – Used to add the new recipients e-mail address

Figure 10. New One Off Recipient dialog.

Options

The ‘Options’ tab (Ref: Figure 11) of the Send Message (SMTP) dialog is used to configure the Step

behaviour if an error occurs when the Step is being processed.


13

Figure 11 Send Message (SMTP) – Options tab.

The following options are provided for selection:

o Abort Step - If an error occurs then the Step is aborted.

o Continue - If an error occurs then the Step will continue.

o Abort Task - If the Step is aborted then the Task is aborted.

o Continue - If the Step is aborted then the Task will continue onto the next Step in the process

if one exists.

taskcentre® v4.5 send message (smtp) tool white papersmtp)_tool.pdf · send message (smtp) tool 3...

Documents