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Email Receive Connector

Version 24.2.9039

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 an 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 it supports additional IMAP filters.

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

Connector Configuration

This section contains all of the configurable connector properties.

Settings Tab

Email Receive Configuration

Settings related to establishing the connection.

  • Connector Id The static, unique identifier for the connector.
  • Connector Type Displays the connector name and a description of what it does.
  • Connector Description An optional field to provide a free-form description of the connector and its role in the flow.

IMAP Connection

Settings related to establishing the connection to the IMAP server.

  • Host The hostname or IP address of the IMAP server.
  • Port The port on which to connect to the IMAP server. Typical values include 143 and 993.
  • Mailbox The IMAP mailbox to poll for messages.
  • TLS Type The method used to negotiate SSL/TLS when connecting to the server:
    STARTTLS: A plain text connection is established. Afterwards, SSL/TLS can be started with an explicit command.
    SSL/TLS: Negotiation occurs immediately without first establishing a plain text connection.
    None (Plain Text): A plain text connection is established, and no SSL/TLS is used.

Authentication

Settings related to authenticating the connection.

  • User The username to login to the IMAP server.
  • Authentication Method The type of authentication to use to login to the server. Choose between Basic, OAuth 2.0, and NTLM. The options change based on your choice.
  • Password (Basic and NTLM) The password to the IMAP server.
  • Auth URL (OAuth 2.0) The authorization URL for the service. This is the URL you are directed to when clicking the Connect button to log in and grant permission to the application.
  • Access Token URL (OAuth 2.0) The URL to the access token.
  • Client Id (OAuth 2.0) The client Id assigned when you registered for OAuth.
  • Client Secret (OAuth 2.0) The secret assigned when you registered for OAuth.
  • Scope (OAuth 2.0) A list of scopes that the application should have access to.
  • Callback URL (OAuth 2.0) The URL where the service you connect to returns tokens to provide access. Services often require you to whitelist the URLs that are allowed, so this is the value to use when configuring the application registration with your service.

Download

Settings related to processing messages.

  • New Messages Whether to only process new messages. This is usually controlled by tracking the UID of downloaded messages. If the UID values become invalid, the connector falls back to using the timestamp of the last processed message or the Days to Search setting if no messages have been processed.
  • Days to Search The number of days to search for messages. If Only process new messages is checked, this value is only used if the connector cannot search by UID or the timestamp of the last processed message.
  • Additional Search Filters Supply an IMAP RFC compliant search filter to append to the query that is automatically built based on the New Messages and Days to Search settings.
  • Download Type Choose to download full messages in EML format or only email attachments.
  • Delete Emails Whether to delete successfully downloaded messages from the mailbox.
  • Expunge After Delete Whether to permanently remove emails marked for delete. Important: If you choose this option, there is no way to restore expunged emails.

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 Past the Hour The minutes offset for an hourly schedule. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Hourly. For example, if this value is set to 5, the automation service downloads at 1:05, 2:05, 3:05, etc.
  • Time The time of day that the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
  • Day The day on which the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Weekly or Monthly.
  • Minutes The number of minutes to wait before attempting the download. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Minute.
  • Cron Expression A five-position string representing a cron expression that determines when the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Advanced.

Alerts Tab

Settings related to configuring alerts and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Connector Email Settings

Before you can execute SLAs, you need to set up email alerts for notifications. Clicking Configure Alerts opens a new browser window to the Settings page where you can set up system-wide alerts. See Alerts for more information.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Settings

SLAs enable you to configure the volume you expect connectors in your flow to send or receive, and to set the time frame in which you expect that volume to be met. CData Arc sends emails to warn the user when an SLA is not met, and marks the SLA as At Risk, which means that if the SLA is not met soon, it will be marked as Violated. This gives the user an opportunity to step in and determine the reasons the SLA is not being met, and to take appropriate actions. If the SLA is still not met at the end of the at-risk time period, the SLA is marked as violated, and the user is notified again.

To define an SLA, click Add Expected Volume Criteria.

  • If your connector has separate send and receive actions, use the radio buttons to specify which direction the SLA pertains to.
  • Set Expect at least to the minimum number of transactions (the volume) you expect to be processed, then use the Every fields to specify the time frame.
  • By default, the SLA is in effect every day. To change that, uncheck Everyday then check the boxes for the days of the week you want.
  • Use And set status to ‘At Risk’ to indicate when the SLA should be marked as at risk.
  • By default, notifications are not sent until an SLA is in violation. To change that, check Send an ‘At Risk’ notification.

The following example shows an SLA configured for a connector that expects to receive 1000 files every day Monday-Friday. An at-risk notification is sent 1 hour before the end of the time period if the 1000 files have not been received.

Advanced Tab

Proxy Settings

These are a collection of settings that identify and authenticate to the proxy through which the Email Receive connection should be routed. By default, this section uses the global settings on the Settings Page. Clear the checkbox to supply settings specific to your Email Receive connector.

  • Proxy Type The protocol used by a proxy-based firewall.
  • Proxy Host The name or IP address of a proxy-based firewall.
  • Proxy Port The TCP port for a proxy-based firewall.
  • Proxy User The user name to use to authenticate with a proxy-based firewall.
  • Proxy Password A password used to authenticate to a proxy-based firewall.
  • Authentication Scheme Leave the default None or choose from one of the following authentication schemes: Basic, Digest, Proprietary, or NTLM.

Advanced Settings

Settings not included in the previous categories.

  • 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 The public key certificate used to verify the identity of a TLS/SSL server. If the target server uses TLS/SSL, set this field to the certificate that identifies the server. If the server’s certificate is not available, you can leave this setting blank to allow the underlying OS/JVM to perform certificate validation, or set it to Any Certificate to implicitly trust the server’s identity.
  • Command Timeout (seconds) The command execution timeout duration in seconds.
  • Local File Scheme A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.

Message

Message settings determine how the connector searches for messages and manages them after processing. You can save messages to your Sent folder or you can group them based on a Sent folder scheme, as described below.

  • Save to Sent Folder Check this to copy files processed by the connector to the Sent folder for the connector.
  • Sent Folder Scheme Instructs the connector to group files in the Sent folder according to the selected interval. For example, the Weekly option instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all sent files for the week in that folder. The blank setting instructs the connector to save all files directly in the Sent folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders can help keep files organized and improve performance.

Logging

  • Log Level The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
  • 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 helps keep logs organized and improves performance.
  • Log Messages Check this to have the log entry for a processed file include a copy of the file itself. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Input or Output tabs.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.

  • Other Settings Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, setting1=value1;setting2=value2). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.

Establishing a Connection

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

  • Host
  • Port
  • TLS Type

Use the Test Connection button to 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 or OAuth 2.0 authentication credentials
  • Mailbox

Receiving Emails

If Receive Automation is enabled, the Email Receive connector automatically polls the configured IMAP mailbox for messages to download. By default, the connector only receives messages it has not already downloaded. The first time the connector receives messages, use the Days to Search setting in the Download configuration section to specify the range of messages to download.

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

The Download Type setting determines whether full messages or just message attachments are downloaded. Downloaded files are placed in the Output Folder or passed along to the next 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 only downloads 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 contain 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.

Macros

Using macros in file naming strategies can enhance organizational efficiency and contextual understanding of data. By incorporating macros into filenames, you can dynamically include relevant information such as identifiers, timestamps, and header information, providing valuable context to each file. This helps ensure that filenames reflect details important to your organization.

CData Arc supports these macros, which all use the following syntax: %Macro%.

Macro Description
ConnectorID Evaluates to the ConnectorID of the connector.
Ext Evaluates to the file extension of the file currently being processed by the connector.
Filename Evaluates to the filename (extension included) of the file currently being processed by the connector.
FilenameNoExt Evaluates to the filename (without the extension) of the file currently being processed by the connector.
MessageId Evaluates to the MessageId of the message being output by the connector.
RegexFilename:pattern Applies a RegEx pattern to the filename of the file currently being processed by the connector.
Header:headername Evaluates to the value of a targeted header (headername) on the current message being processed by the connector.
LongDate Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in long-handed format (for example, Wednesday, January 24, 2024).
ShortDate Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in a yyyy-MM-dd format (for example, 2024-01-24).
DateFormat:format Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in the specified format (format). See Sample Date Formats for the available datetime formats
Vault:vaultitem Evaluates to the value of the specified vault item.
Subject Evaluates to the subject of the email currently being received by the connector.

Examples

Some macros, such as %Ext% and %ShortDate%, do not require an argument, but others do. All macros that take an argument use the following syntax: %Macro:argument%

Here are some examples of the macros that take an argument:

  • %Header:headername%: Where headername is the name of a header on a message.
  • %Header:mycustomheader% resolves to the value of the mycustomheader header set on the input message.
  • %Header:ponum% resolves to the value of the ponum header set on the input message.
  • %RegexFilename:pattern%: Where pattern is a regex pattern. For example, %RegexFilename:^([\w][A-Za-z]+)% matches and resolves to the first word in the filename and is case insensitive (test_file.xml resolves to test).
  • %Vault:vaultitem%: Where vaultitem is the name of an item in the vault. For example, %Vault:companyname% resolves to the value of the companyname item stored in the vault.
  • %DateFormat:format%: Where format is an accepted date format (see Sample Date Formats for details). For example, %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff% resolves to the date and timestamp on the file.

You can also create more sophisticated macros, as shown in the following examples:

  • Combining multiple macros in one filename: %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%%EXT%
  • Including text outside of the macro: MyFile_%DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%
  • Including text within the macro: %DateFormat:'DateProcessed-'yyyy-MM-dd_'TimeProcessed-'HH-mm-ss%