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Email Receive Connector

Version 22.0.8473

Email Receive Connector

The Email Receive Connector supports retrieving messages from an IMAP mail server.

Overview

The Email Receive Connector provides a simple way to automate the process of receiving emails. The connector connects to a specified IMAP server and polls a specified mailbox for new messages to process. By default the connector only receives messages that have not yet been processed, and supports additional IMAP filters.

The connector supports receiving entire messages in EML format, or only downloading attachments on the emails to be processed.

Connector Configuration

This section contains all of the configurable connector properties.

Settings Tab

IMAP Connection

Settings related to establishing the connection to the IMAP server.

  • Connector Id The static name of the connector. All connector-specific files are held in a folder by the same name within the Data Directory.
  • Connector Description An optional field to provide free-form description of the connector and its role in the flow.
  • Host The hostname or IP address of the IMAP server.
  • Port The port on which to connect to the IMAP server.
  • User The username credential to login to the IMAP server.
  • Password The password credential to login to the IMAP server.
  • Mailbox The IMAP mailbox to poll for messages.
  • SSL Type How to negotiate SSL/TLS when connecting to the server. When set to ‘Explicit’, a plaintext connection will be established and then SSL/TLS will be started with an explicit command. When set to ‘Implicit’, SSL/TLS will immediately be negotiated without first establishing a plaintext connection.
  • Download Type Whether to download full messages in EML format or only email attachments.

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.

  • Receive Whether the connector should automatically poll the remote mailbox for messages to download.
  • Receive Interval The interval between automatic download attempts.
  • Minutes The number of minutes to wait before downloading. Only applicable when Receive Interval is set to Minute.
  • Minutes Past the Hour The minutes offset for an hourly schedule. Only applicable when Receive Interval is set to Hourly. For example, if this value is set to 5, the automation service will download at 1:05, 2:05, 3:05, etc.
  • Time The time within a given day that the download should occur. Only applicable when Receive Interval is set to Daily, or Weekly, or Monthly.
  • Day The day on which the download should occur. Only applicable when Receive Interval is set to Weekly or Monthly.
  • Cron Expression An arbitrary string representing a cron expression that determines when the download should occur. Only applicable when Receive Interval is set to Advanced.

Advanced Tab

Other Settings

Settings not included in the previous categories.

  • Log Level The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When requesting support, it is recommended to set this to Debug.
  • Days to Search The connector will automatically filter out messages it has received before. The first time the connector runs, however, it will process messages that were received within the number of days set in this field.
  • IMAP Search Filter Additional IMAP filters for receiving messages. By default the connector already filters for messages it has not processed before.
  • IMAP Headers A comma-delimited list of headers from the IMAP message that should be promoted as metadata in the downloaded file.
  • Incoming Server Public Certificate If the IMAP server is an SSL server, this field should be set to the SSL Certificate that identifies the server. If the server’s certificate is not available, this field can be set to ‘Any Certificate’ to implicitly trust the server’s identity.
  • Parent Connector The connector from which settings should be inherited, unless explicitly overwritten within the existing connector configuration. Must be set to a connector of the same type as the current connector.
  • Log Subfolder Scheme Instructs the connector to group files in the Logs folder according to the selected interval. For example, the Weekly option instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. The blank setting tells the connector to save all logs directly in the Logs folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders can help keep logs organized and improve performance.
  • Log Messages Whether the log entry for a processed file will include a copy of the file itself.
  • Save to Sent Folder Whether files processed by the connector should be copied to the Sent folder for the connector.

Miscellaneous

Settings for specific use cases.

  • Other Settings Allows configuration of hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list, like setting1=value1;setting2=value2. Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require use of these settings.

Establishing a Connection

The following settings are required to establish a network-level connection to the IMAP server:

  • Host
  • Port
  • SSL Type

The Test Connection button can verify that the connector can reach the server.

Once network-level connectivity has been established, the following settings are required to access the messages stored on the IMAP server:

  • User
  • Password
  • Mailbox

Receiving Emails

If Receive Automation is enabled, the Email Receive Connector will automatically poll the configured IMAP mailbox for messages to download. By default, the connector will only receive messages it has not already downloaded. The first time the connector receives messages, however, the range of messages to download needs to be specified via the Days to Search setting.

Messages can be manually retrieved by clicking the Receive button in the Output tab of the connector.

The Download Type setting determines whether the full messages or just the message attachments will be downloaded. Files that are downloaded are placed in the Output/Receive Folder or passed along to the next connected connector in the flow.

Search Filters

The IMAP Search Filter setting allows for further customization of the range of messages to retrieve. This field accepts standard IMAP protocol filters and will only download messages that match the configured filters.

The following filters are supported:

<message set> Messages with message sequence numbers corresponding to the specified message sequence number set
ALL All messages in the mailbox - this is the default initial key for AND-ing.
ANSWERED Messages with the \Answered flag set.
BCC <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's BCC field.
BEFORE <date> Messages whose internal date is earlier than the specified date.
BODY <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the body of the message.
CC <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's CC field.
DELETED Messages with the \Deleted flag set.
DRAFT Messages with the \Draft flag set.
FLAGGED Messages with the \Flagged flag set.
FROM <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's FROM field.
HEADER <field-name> <string> Messages that have a header with the specified field-name (as defined in [RFC-822]) and that contains the specified string in the [RFC-822] field-body.
KEYWORD <flag> Messages with the specified keyword set.
LARGER <n> Messages with an RFC822.SIZE larger than the specified number of octets.
NEW Messages that have the \Recent flag set but not the \Seen flag. This is functionally equivalent to "(RECENT UNSEEN)".
NOT <search-key> Messages that do not match the specified search key.
OLD Messages that do not have the \Recent flag set. This is functionally equivalent to "NOT RECENT" (as opposed to "NOT NEW").
ON <date> Messages whose internal date is within the specified date.
OR <search-key1> <search-key2> Messages that match either search key.
RECENT Messages that have the \Recent flag set.
SEEN Messages that have the \Seen flag set.
SENTBEFORE <date> Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is earlier than the specified date.
SENTON <date> Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is within the specified date.
SENTSINCE <date> Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is within or later than the specified date.
SINCE <date> Messages whose internal date is within or later than the specified date.
SMALLER <n> Messages with an RFC822.SIZE smaller than the specified number of octets.
SUBJECT <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's SUBJECT field.
TEXT <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the header or body of the message.
TO <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure's TO field.
UID <message set> Messages with unique identifiers corresponding to the specified unique identifier set.
UNANSWERED Messages that do not have the \Answered flag set.
UNDELETED Messages that do not have the \Deleted flag set.
UNDRAFT Messages that do not have the \Draft flag set.
UNFLAGGED Messages that do not have the \Flagged flag set.
UNKEYWORD <flag> Messages that do not have the specified keyword set.
UNSEEN Messages that do not have the \Seen flag set.