Action label

The Action label defines the operation to perform on a specific AR System form. The Action label/value pair is required in the incoming email so that the parser can generate valid instructions. Valid actions are Submit, Query, Modify, and a user-defined value. If no value is given to the label, the email is only logged and no actual execution takes place. An alias for Action is Instruction.

Value	Description
Submit	Submits a new entry on a specific AR Systemform. This is valid within any incoming email. The syntax is Action:Submit.
Query	Searches for entries on a specific AR Systemform. The syntax is Action:Query.
Modify	Modifies a specific entry contained within a specific AR Systemform. This is only valid in reply emails, that is, in emails that have been sent to the user from a AR System server. The syntax is Action:Modify.
User-Defined	An instruction that the administrator defines. The syntax is Action:adminDefinedText.

Submit action

By using the Submit action in an email, users can enter values for field labels, and submit a new record. You can see an example of a template with a Submit action in Submitting-a-request-through-email.

Query action

The Query action lets you search for existing entries. To increase server performance, you can configure a limit to how many matches are returned in the message. If a request exceeds the configured search match limit, an additional message is provided that indicates what the limit is. See the definition for "Limit Number of Items Returned" on the AR System User Preference form in Search-and-other-general-preferences.

For sample templates with Search (Query) actions, see Using-templates-with-outgoing-email.

Modify action

The Modify action enables you to modify existing entries, but due to the nature of this command and the security implications, the command can be executed only under the following conditions:

The message containing the Modify action must be sent from an administrator to the user.
The user can only change field values and cannot add new actions or modify existing actions when replying to the email that contains the Modify action. The user must not modify the modify key included in the email.
The sender or the user of the email must supply a valid Security Key.
Do not modify the Password field (field ID 102).

The incoming mailbox must be configured to allow modifications. For more information, see Allowing-and-securing-modify-actions-through-incoming-emails.
In the outgoing mailbox, make sure the Delete Outgoing Notification Messages field is set to No. You cannot modify a record by email if you delete outgoing email messages.

The Email Engineinserts the following special label and value into the email if the email contains a Modify action:

##Modify##:[$$the encrypted information$$]

The encrypted value contains information, which the Email Engineuses to determine the following items:

The Request ID of the email being sent
The AR System server to which the email was submitted
Form name

For more information, see How-to-use-workflow-to-modify-requests and Sending-a-Modify-instruction-to-the-Email-Engine.

User-defined instruction

A user-defined instruction is a text string that the administrator determines and that is used as a value for an Action label. A user-defined value can consist of any text, as long as it is defined in the AR System Email User Instruction Templates form for user-defined instructions. For more information, see Sending-incoming-email-with-user-instructions.

Global and local parameter declarations

Any parameter defined in the email before an Action label is regarded as global and applies to all the actions within the email. As a result, you do not have to repeat parameters, such as login information or form names, for each instruction.

If the parameter is defined again after an action statement, that parameter takes precedence over the global parameter for that action only. For more information, see Email-content-template-with-Submit-and-Query-actions.