Email Connector
The Commit Email Connector module allows you to process incoming emails and perform appropriate actions (like creating new Tickets). It also allows you to parse and analyze XML formatted emails that contain new Tickets, Accounts, Assets or other Commit record information.
The Commit Email Connector module automatically generates new Tickets from emails sent by clients to a defined public email address. It also provides a full API to Commit using XML formatted email messages.
Email Threading
The Email Connector manages email threads for you. If a customer replies to your support email in regards to a specific ticket, or if you, as a technician, reply to the customer, the correspondence will be automatically filed under the ticket in the system.
There are two email threading scenarios:
- A customer replies to Support regarding an email sent from the system, which contains a ticket number in the email subject. In this case, the system files the email under the ticket and forwards the email to the internal email support address.
- An employee replies on a customer email, which contains the ticket number in the email subject. The employee then needs to BCC the support email to automatically file the email in the system. When a technician BCCs the Email Connector, the email will be filed in the ticket, and will not be forwarded for manual processing.
Note that this will apply only when the sender email address is defined as one of employee's emails (Email1 or Email2), and the employee is marked as an Active employee in CommitCRM. See more details on matching the email to an account in Matching by Email or Domain Name.
In both cases, the Email Connector receives the email, finds the ticket in the subject, finds the ticket in the database, and then files the email as a document under the ticket.
Matching by Email or Domain Name
Commit connects an incoming support email to specific accounts based on the full email address of the sender, or by the domain name (if defined for the account).
If one of your clients has many possible email addresses, you should either add each of the email addresses as the email in the secondary contact (in the Account Contacts tab), or define the client's domain name in one of the Account's email addresses or secondary contacts.
To define a domain name for an account:
Set the domain name (e.g. "commitcrm.com") as the email address in one of the following places:
- Account's Email field (in the General tab)
- Account's Email 2 field (in the Address tab)
- Add a secondary contact, and set the domain in the contact's email field
Notes:
- Account detection will first try finding the full email address.
- Only if this email address does not exist in the database, the system will search by the domain name.
- Duplicate domain names will create an error when processing the incoming email. Note that the system does not prevent entering duplicate domain names.
Commit Email Connector Setup
The Commit Email Connector is a plug-in for the Commit Server. Setting up the Commit Email Connector module includes using general settings used by the Commit Server, and specific settings for the Email Connector plug-in.
To run the configuration application:
- Log into the Server with a Windows Administrator user. Note that the setup program must run from the same server as the one where the Commit installation sits and from where you plan to run the Email Connector.
- Run <Installation_DIR>\Server\ServerConfig.exe
The following window will open:
The server configuration window consists of the following three tabs:
- Outgoing Mail Server Settings - here you can define the settings for all outgoing emails sent by the Commit Server.
- Email Connector Settings - here you can define all the settings for the Commit Email Connector.
- Email Alerts Settings - here you can define all the settings for the Commit Email Alerts (not in the scope of this document).
In order to run the Commit Email Connector, the following settings should be configured (in this order):
- Outgoing Email Setup - Define the setting for outgoing emails. These settings will be used by the Commit Server for all outgoing emails.
- Incoming Email Setup – Set up the mail server and incoming mailbox which manages incoming emails prior to being processed by the Commit Email Connector.
- Email Processing Setup - Define how incoming email is processed. Commit Email Connector reads each email and performs the actions as defined in these settings.
- Internal Support Team Email - Define settings for the Internal Support Team Email, which is used if the system cannot decide what to do with the Email, or if there are errors.
- Installing and Running Commit Email Connector Service - After setting up all of the above, you should actually install the Email Connector service and run it on your server.
Only once the setup is complete can you run the Commit Server and start using the Commit Email Connector plug-in.
To set up the Email Connector, start with the Outgoing Email Setup below.
Outgoing Email Settings
The Outgoing Email settings are used for any outgoing emails sent from Commit Server.
Note: The Outgoing Email settings should be set only once for the Commit Server, so if you already defined this for the Email Alerts Server, you can skip this step.
The Outgoing Email settings should be set in the Outgoing Mail Server tab.
To reduce errors and improve security, it is strongly recommended to use SMTP authentication, with a user name and password for SMTP access.
Parameters:
- SMTP Host - your Outgoing SMTP Mail Server
- Port - the Outgoing SMTP port
- My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication - if checked, must fill in the authentication details below:
- User Name - the User Name to be used for SMTP authentication
- Password - the password related to the specified User Name
Verification Tests (required!):
- Test SMTP Connection - click this option to verify that your account is working. If there is missing or incorrect information, such as your password, you will be prompted to supply or correct it.
- Send Test Email - Use this option to send an outgoing email using the settings you defined. After clicking it you need to specify the From email address and the To email address that will be used for sending the Test Email message.
After completing the Outgoing settings, move on to the next step > Setting up the Incoming Email Settings.
Incoming Email Settings
After setting up the Outgoing Email settings, you should now define the incoming mailbox settings.
Setting up the Incoming Email Settings includes four steps:
- Setting up the Email Connector Status
- Setting up the Public Email Address
- Setting up the Incoming Mail Server
- Setting up the Backup option (optional)
To set up the Incoming settings, go to the Email Connector tab:
In this window, fill in the settings as explained in the following sections:
Email Connector Status
The Commit Email Connector status can be one of the following:
ON (default) - Commit Email Connector is active and processes incoming emails.
OFF – Commit Email Connector is not active and does not process incoming emails (emails are left in the defined mailbox until you review them manually or turn the connector to ON again.
Note that in order for the status changes to take effect, you should restart Commit Server Service (see Running Commit Email Connector).
Public Email Address
The Public Email Address is the main support email address (e.g. support@yourdomain.com) to which customers can send support-related emails. Tickets are automatically created out of these emails, and this address is also used to process XML-formatted emails (API) sent by external systems, such as a form on your website. All Emails sent to this email address will be analyzed and processed by the Commit Email Connector.
Note: This email address should ONLY be used as the incoming email for the Email Connector. You should define a different address for your internal email which will be used for unrecognized emails, error handling and direct email threads with your customers (see Internal Support Team Email).