Configuring incoming email for your system

Incoming email must be configured before users can communicate with FootPrints via email. At least one POP3 or IMAP email account must be set up for the exclusive use of FootPrints. Otherwise, FootPrints deletes the mail from the POP3 account, does not enter it as a request, and the mail is lost.

The system checks the account inbox every 60 seconds and moves new messages into the appropriate internal inboxes.

You can refine how the system processes incoming email by using any of the following options:

• Configure one email account for your entire system or associate individual email accounts with each item in a container. For tracking purposes, it can be useful to set up separate accounts for sending and receiving emails.
• Specify out-of-office, email address, and specified word filters to screen incoming email messages
• Specify error handling
• Set maximum message size

The following topics are provided:

• • Email servers
  •  Prerequisite
  • To configure incoming email for your system
  • Next step

Email servers

Most email servers are shipped with one or all protocols enabled. Each mail server is different with its default protocol support. For some of the larger Mail systems, like Exchange, these protocols are not enabled due to interoperability with their own client software (Outlook) that knows how to communicate by using MAPI. In these cases, the mail server must be configured to use either POP3 or IMAP, or incoming email into Footprints do not function. Footprints supports the following types of incoming email protocols:

 Prerequisite

Ensure that the item and container that you want to use as the default (for creating records) have been configured, and the container has been published. You must also have available the following email server information:

This video (5:41) provides information about how to set up incoming email on your new FootPrints server:

https://youtu.be/iCbWqTEtsZU

To configure incoming email for your system

1. Click the Administration tab.
2. In the System Management section, click Email Settings > Incoming Email (System).
   The System Incoming Email page appears.
   
   
3. In the Incoming Email section, click Add.
   The Configure Account dialog box appears. All fields are required.
4. In the Email Account fields, enter the user ID, password, and email address of the account.
5. In the Server Information section:
   1. Select Email Retrieval Protocol.
   2. Enter the Email Server Address and Server Port information.
   3. In the Default Ticket Type field, select the container and item that you want to be used as the defaults when creating records from incoming email. When an email is received by this email box that does not identify the desired container item, the system generates a ticket of the default type.
   4. Click Save.
6. (Optional) In the Out-of-Office Filters section, select the level of screening that you want applied to incoming email.
   For more information, see Email-filters. 
7. (Optional) In the Filter if Specified Words Appear in Subject Field table:
   
   • To edit an existing filter, click the pencil icon next to the filter. Modify the Filtered Word field and click Update.
   • To add a new filter, click Add.
     A new row appears. Enter the word or phrase that you want filtered and click Update.
   • To delete a filter, select the filter row and click Delete.
     A confirmation message appears. Click Yes.
   • To return these settings to the defaults, click Reset.
     All custom filters are deleted and the default filters are returned to their original settings.
8. In the Email Address Filters section:
   • To add an address:
     1. Click Add.
     2. In the Filtered Address field, enter the address that you want filtered.
        Wildcards are permitted.
     3. In the Action field, select an action.
        The options are Do not accept from address, Accept only from address, or Always accept from address.
     4. Click Update.
   • To edit an address, click the pencil icon next to the filter. Modify the fields as needed and click Update.
   • To delete an address, select the check box next to the address and click Delete.
     A confirmation message appears. Click Yes.
9. In the Error Notification & Content Restrictions section:
   1. (Optional) In the Error Notification section, select whether to send notifications to the submitter and to specified administrators.
      The default is to notify only the submitter.
   2. (Optional) Select Enable email debugging.
      Debugging information related to the processing of incoming email requests is saved in the footprints.log file. The footprints.log file is stored in the FootPrints installation folder (for example, C:\Program Files\BMC Software\FootPrints\logs).
   3. (Optional) In the Content Restrictions section, enter the maximum size allowed for incoming messages including attachments.
      The default is 1 MB.
10. Click Save.
    Your changes are implemented. 

Next step

To test your configuration, you must configure incoming email for a Workspace and follow the testing instructions in Configuring-incoming-email-for-workspaces.