How BMC Remedy Email Engine works

This section contains information about:

• Improving the appearance of your email
• Multiple mail server support

This topic presents a sample scenario that demonstrates how Email Engine interacts with the BMC Remedy AR System and your mail server. The following figure presents a sample environment for an Email Engine implementation, including the flow of activity.

How Email Engine interacts with the AR System server
(Click the image to expand it.)



In the XYZ Company, Shelly needs a list of the latest issues stored in the Help Desk (HD) Incident form. She wants the results of this query to be returned in an easy-to-read email. Also, Shelly wants to make sure that her coworkers, Katie and Mark, will be copied with the results of this query. All of the steps that Email Engine and the users must take to make this happen follow.

1. The local administrator installs Email Engine, configuring Incoming and Outgoing mailboxes to work with the company mail server.
   After Email Engine is started, it contacts the AR System server. It then reads all the entries in the AR System Email Mailbox Configuration form and creates Incoming and Outgoing mailboxes based on that information.
2. After the administrator notifies the user base that Email Engine is running, Shelly composes an email instructing the Email Engine to perform a query of the HD Incident form. She uses specifically formatted instructions to be read and understood by the Email Engine. She sends this message to an email account on the company mail server that Email Engine polls for incoming.

3. After waiting for a prescribed polling period, Email Engine logs in to the company mail server by using the email account information gathered during step 1. Because the mailbox information tells the Email Engine that this email account is to be treated as an Incoming Mailbox, the Email Engine reads the most recent emails from this account, by using one of several email protocols (POP3, IMAP4, MBOX, MAPI, or EWS), including the email that Shelly sent.

   Note

   If you want to use the MAPI protocol, you should use Exchange Server 2013 or earlier. However, if you want to use the EWS protocol, you should use Exchange Server 2016 or later.

4. Email Engine interprets the instructions and translates them into API calls to the AR System server, attempting to fulfill her query request.
5. The AR System server responds to Email Engine API calls with the appropriate query information for the HD Incident form.
6. Email Engine uses the formatting instructions in the Outgoing Mailbox to construct an email message to the company mail server. Email Engine then transmits the message with instructions to send the message to Shelly, Mark, and Katie, by using the outgoing email protocol (SMTP, MAPI, or EWS).
7. Shelly, Mark, and Katie log in to the mail server, and they find the email constructed by the Email Engine, which contains a neatly formatted list of the most recent requests.

This example illustrates the relationship between the Email Engine and other systems in a simplified environment. Your environment might differ from the one presented here. For example, the Email Engine might reside on the same system as the AR System server. Alternatively, you might configure the Incoming Mailbox and Outgoing Mailbox to use the same email account on your mail server, and so on. Many of the configuration options available are explained in the upcoming sections. Also, as you proceed through this section, you will learn about the other Email Engine features for processing email.