Defining Email Rule Engine use case rules

This topic describes how to define Email Rule Engine use cases. The general procedure for defining each use case is the same. However, the way that you use the fields on the Rule Configuration tab depends on the purpose of the use case. The first section describes the panes on the Rule Configuration tab and then presents an example that shows you how to use those panes to create use cases.

Topics provided include:

Note

You can define and edit custom Email Rule Engine use cases for any company that you create. However, you cannot add or edit use cases for the Global company.

Functional panes on the Rule Configuration tab

You define the Email Rule Engine use case rules on the Rule Configuration tab, which has the following panes:

Rule Qualification pane, where you define the rule
Actions pane, where you specify the type of action that occurs when the rule qualifications are met: a Create action or an Update action

When you open the tab, the Rule Qualification pane appears first. To see the Actions pane, click inside the Actions bar at the bottom of the tab. To go back to the Rule Qualification pane, click the Rule Qualification bar.

The following tables describe the fields on each of these panes:

Rule Qualification pane

Field name	Description
Field Name	The field on the incoming email message scanned by the Email Rule Engine to determine whether the rule applies: From — Apply the rule when the message comes from a specific sender. Plain Text Body — Apply the rule when the body of the email message contains specific words or phrases. Subject — Apply the rule when the subject line contains specific words or phrases. To — Apply the rule when the message is sent to several valid email accounts, but you want only one of the accounts to do anything with message. The BMC Remedy Email Engine can be configured to host more than one account to handle service request emails.
Operation	The logical operator for the rule qualification with which the Email Rule Engine compares the content of Field Name with the value of Field Value when evaluating incoming email messages: Contains — Specified field must contain the specified word or phrase Equals — Specified field must match the specified word or phrase Starts with — Specified field must begin with the specified word or phrase
Field Value	The word or phrase that the Email Rule Engine scans for in the field specified in Field Name Note: You can use % as a wildcard character in this field.
Add button ()	Click to move Field Name, Operation, and Field Value selections into the Qualification field. You can add more qualifications by clicking an operator such as AND, OR, or NOT, specifying values for Field Name, Operation, Field Value, and then clicking the Add button ().
AND	Add a qualification that is joined to a preceding qualification by an AND condition.
OR	Add a qualification that is joined to a preceding qualification by an OR condition.
NOT	Add a qualification that is joined to a preceding qualification by a NOT condition.
Qualification	Contains the rule qualification If you are familiar with the syntax, you can type directly into this field to create a qualification without using the Field Name, Operation, or Field Value fields. You can also use this field to edit existing qualifications.
Action Name	Specifies the basic action that the Email Rule Engine takes when the email message meets the rule qualification: Create — Create a record (available only if the form type selected on the Base Configuration tab is Incident, Change or Work Order). Update — Update a record (default).

Actions pane

Field name	Description
Request Form	Autopopulated from the Base Configuration tab, specifies the application form on which the specified actions will occur. You cannot edit this field.
Find Request in fields (available only if you select Update from the Action menu)	Specifies where the Email Rule Engine gets the service request ID number, which enables the Email Rule Engine to handle messages about existing service requests You can select one or both of the following qualifications: Subject — The subject line of the forwarded email message Body — The plain text body of the forwarded email message
Data Handling (you can select more than one)	Include Email Fields — Add the entire content of the email (the To, From, subject line, and body text) to the record, instead of just the body text, which is the default behavior. When you are running a Create use case, the content is added to the Notes field on the Incident form. When you are running an Update use case, the content is added to the Notes field on the Work Info tab. Replace Blank Subject — When the subject line of an incoming email message is blank, add "[No subject provided]". When you are running a Create use case, the phrase is added to the Subject line on the Incident form. When you are running an Update use case, the system uses the phrase only when displaying the details of the selected email message in the Messages tab. For information about the Messages tab, see Troubleshooting email record creation and updates. Replace Blank Body — When the body of an incoming email message is blank, add "[No details provided]". When you are running a Create use case, the phrase is added to the Notes field on the Incident form. When you are running an Update use case, the phrase is added to the Notes field on the Work Info tab.
Authorization	Not available
Notify Sender	Send a notification to the email sender. Select none or all that apply: On Success — When the action initiated by the sender's email message finished successfully On Failure — When the action initiated by the sender's email message did not finish successfully On Rejection — When the email message does not pass all of the rule's qualifications
Option and Value (available only if you select Create from the Action menu)	(If needed) Allows you to specify default information to add to the specified fields when creating or updating a service request. Alternatively, it allows you to specify a template for the use case to use. For example, if you select Assigned Group from the Option list and type Front Office in the Value field, when the Email Rule Engine runs the rule, it will update the Assigned Group field on the service request record with the value Front Office. Option— Provides a list from which you select one of the following options: A field name. Type the value that you want the field to contain in the Value field. Template Name. Type the name of the template that you want the use case to use. TemplateID. Type the InstanceID value of the Incident Template that you want the use case to use. Value — Provides an entry field for the value of the option that you selected from the Option list. Note: You can use % as a wildcard character in this field.
Arrow button ()	Click to move Option and Value to Configured Options.
Configured Options (Read only)	Displays the options that you specify in Option and Value.

Before you begin

To perform any Email Rule Engine configuration procedure, you must have Email Rule Config permissions (these are Foundation related permissions). Also, ensure that the BMC Remedy Email Engine is installed on your system. This includes ensuring that the specific email inbox that your system will use to receive the incoming email is configured. For information about configuring mailboxes, see Configuring BMC Remedy Email Engine.

Also, for the user creating the email service request, one of the following conditions must be satisfied:

The user's People record is configured with their email address and a Login ID.
The user’s email address is configured as a ‘Trusted address’ and a recipient is associated with it.

Before you define an Email Rule Engine use case rule, you must create the use case record.

Example of creating an email incident request from a template

This example demonstrates how to create a use case that configures the Email Rule Engine to create an incident request from the Locked User ID template whenever an inbound email message's subject line starts with the phrase "Locked User ID." The Email Rule Engine evaluates email messages by using this rule before any other rule, and it notifies the email sender when the incident request is created successfully.

To create a use case that generates an incident request from a template

After completing the steps described in Creating Email Rule Engine use cases, click the Rule Configuration tab.
In Form Name, select Incident.
In Use Case, select the use case that you created in Creating Email Rule Engine use cases.
The Rule Qualification pane appears.
In Field Name, select Subject.
In Operation, select Starts with.
In Field Value, type Locked User ID.
Click the Add button () to the right of Field Value to add the qualification.
The following qualification appears in Qualification:
```
('Subject' LIKE "%Locked User ID%")
```
Tip

You can add more qualifications by clicking an operator such as AND, OR, or NOT and then repeating steps 4 to 7.
In Action Name, select Create.
Click the Actions bar at the bottom of the form to open the Actions pane.
Under Notify Sender, click On Success.
In Option, select Template Name.
Note

If there is a strong likelihood that the template name could change, either through the intervention of a system administrator or because the template is migrated to another server, consider selecting the TemplateID instead of the Template Name from the Option menu. If you do this, the value that you place in the TemplateID field is the InstanceId (Field ID 179) from the HPD:Template record (not "Locked User ID" as shown in the next step). To determine the InstanceId value, run an AR System report on the HPD:Template record, which returns, along with other information, the InstanceId. Although it takes a little more work to use the InstanceId, this attribute does not change if the template name itself changes.
In Value, type Locked User ID.
Before saving, click the arrow button () to the right of Value to add the configured option.
The following text appears in the Configured Option area:
```
<templateName>Locked User ID</templateName>
```
Click Save in the lower-left corner of the Rule Configuration tab.
Run a test of the rule by sending an email message that satisfies this rule to the inbox.

Where to go from here

When you finish creating the use cases and defining their rules, enable the email service request feature.