Preparing Your System for E-mail Submission

Several steps must be taken to prepare your system to accept e-mail submission of primary items:

On-premise customers – Configure the Mail Client in SBM Configurator (on-premise customers). For details, refer to the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide.
On-demand customers – Use the pre-configured Mail Client or override it and use a mail server of your choice. For details, refer to Mail Servers.
Create dedicated mail accounts for e-mail submissions. For details, refer to Creating Dedicated Mail Accounts.
Prepare the workflow in SBM Composer. For details, refer to Preparing Workflows.
Prepare projects in SBM Application Administrator. For details, refer to Preparing Projects.
Create a mailbox for each project that will accept e-mail submissions. For details, refer to Creating Mailboxes.
Prepare user accounts in SBM. For details, refer to Preparing User Accounts.

Creating Dedicated Mail Accounts

For each project that will accept e-mail submissions, you or a network administrator must dedicate a mail account that uses a mail protocol supported by SBM. For example, you might use ITRequests@yourcompany.com to handle IT requests submitted by e-mail.

You can create multiple mailboxes for each project, as long as the mailbox name is unique.

For on-premise customers, the mail account must adhere to the protocol set for the Mail Client in SBM Configurator.

For on-demand customers, a POP3 mail account must be used, or the mail account must adhere to the protocol of the mail server you define in the Mail Servers view (as described in Mail Servers View).

The administrator who configures e-mail submission in SBM Application Administrator must know the mailbox name and password for these mailboxes; users who will submit through e-mail must only know the e-mail address for applicable mailboxes.

Preparing Workflows

Each project that allows e-mail submission must contain a transition that originates in the E-mail state. This transition is defined in SBM Composer and inherited by projects assigned to the workflow in SBM Application Administrator.

Consider the following best practices when you prepare workflows for e-mail submission:

Only one transition coming from the E-mail state to another state is allowed per project. This single transition can be used to submit items by users, XML e-mail submission, and cross-database posting.
For best results, provide default values for required fields in the E-mail submit transition to avoid unexpected failures.
Consider creating an "E-mail Submit" item type to make e-mail submissions easier to identify in the SBM. Item types are defined in SBM Composer.
Included attachments are added to the newly created item in SBM; however, they are added asynchronously. This means that the item is created first, and then the attachments are added afterwards. If you have a script that parses the attachment, it might not succeed if the attachments are not added to the item yet. To work around this problem, consider using an escalation notification to execute the script a few minutes after the item is created. This should allow the system enough time to add the attachments to the item.

Preparing Projects

Follow these steps in SBM Application Administrator to prepare your projects for e-mail submission:

Verify that the Allow new items to be submitted option is set on the project's General page.
Verify that the project contains an enabled transition that originates in the E-mail state.
Review required fields for the E-mail transition and either remove the requirement or set default values for these fields.

Creating Mailboxes

Each project that accepts e-mail submissions must have its own mailbox. You can create mailboxes while you are editing a project or from the global Mailboxes page.

To create a mailbox:

Do one of the following:
- From the Administrator Portal, select the Mailboxes icon.
- Edit a project, and select the Mailboxes tab.
Click Add.
Configure the mailbox, using the information in Mailbox Configuration Settings for guidance.
For user e-mail submissions, map e-mail fields to project fields. Refer to Mailbox Field Mapping. Otherwise, inform users which fields and field values should be included in the message body for an e-mail submission. For details, refer to Specifying Fields and Values in the Message Body.
Prepare confirmation and success e-mail templates. Refer to Working with E-mail Submission Templates
Note: Templates used by e-mail submission are stored in the SBM database and must be modified in SBM Application Administrator.

Preparing User Accounts

Users must have valid SBM accounts and:

Be granted the "Submit New Items" privilege for each project they will submit items into through e-mail.
Add the e-mail address from which they will submit items to the E-mail Address box of their SBM account profile.
Note: Users can submit items into the system from more than one account. Multiple accounts should be separated by a semicolon.
If you are using an automated process to submit items through e-mail, including XML email submission, a user account with an e-mail address that matches the "From" address in the e-mail message must exist in the database. This account must also be granted the "Submit New Items" privilege for the specific project.
Note: For best results, specify an English locale in the user preferences for the SBM user account used for XML e-mail submissions. If not, data may not be parsed as expected. For example, numeric values may be parsed incorrectly for locales that use characters other than a period as a decimal point.