Send Email

Send Email output tasks send the data files they receive via email.

In some combinations of Microsoft Outlook and Windows versions, it is not possible for Outlook to be opened while PReS™ Workflow is running, so emails are not sent out automatically. To correct this, make sure to logon to Windows on the PReS™ server using the same login that PReS™ is using, and open Outlook before starting the PReS™ services. You could also use a startup process to start Outlook before the rest of the services.

Input

Any data file.

Processing

While an email is always sent by this task (or at least attempted to be sent), the contents of the file and presence of attachments depends on the selected option. Refer to the properties' descriptions below to know what each option does.

Once the contents of the file and attachments is determined, the email (and attachments) is either sent directly to the selected SMTP server, or is deposited in the "Outbox" folder of the local Microsoft Outlook account.

Task Properties

Recipients tab

To: Enter the email address(es) of the recipient(s). Remember this is a variable property box and you can therefore use various schemes to use email addresses that change with each job at runtime.
Cc: Specify addresses to which copies of the generated emails are to be sent.
Bcc: Specify discreet addresses (other recipients will not be able to see these addresses) to which copies of the generated emails are to be sent.
Subject: Enter the subject of the emails generated by PReS™ Image for this task. Note that if you use a data selection in this box, you must be sure that the data that will be selected at runtime will not contain any parentheses, as this would cause the task to fail. If you suspect that the data may contain parentheses, you should use a Run script action task (see Run Script) with a Strip() function to strip them out.
Message: Enter the content of the email message. Since this is a variable property box, the text may be personalized using variables and data selections. Note that since this is a variable property box, its content is parsed at runtime. If HTML code is entered or pasted in this box, percent (%) and backslash (/) HTML characters must be doubled otherwise they will be disregarded.

Different email clients have different support for various features, especially with HTML emails. In most cases, if you want to send your email as an HTML message, your very first line should start with <html> or <!doctype html>. It should not be any other character). Also note that it is not currently possible to send both an HTML and plain-text version of your message.

Attachments tab

Use this tab to add the files received by this task (plus any other file that you may choose to attach) to the emails sent by PReS™.

Attach input job files: Select to attach the file received by this task to the emails it will generate. If this option is not selected, the recipients will not receive any of the data file.
File: Select additional files to include as attachments. You may enter the file name directly and use text, variables and data selections. You may also use the Browse button to navigate and select the file. To add the file to list displayed in the Attach box, you must the click the downward pointing arrow button.
Attach: Lists the files that will be attached to the messages sent from PReS™ Workflow for this task. Selecting the Attach output file(s) option adds these files at the top of the list. Any other file that may have been added using the File box (above) is also listed here.
Zip mode: Select how you want the files checked in the Attach box to be zipped. Select Zip individually to have PReS™ Workflow create a zip file for each file. Select Archive and Zip if you prefer to have one zip file that contains all the attached files.
Zip file name: Enter the name of the one zip file that will be created if the Archive and Zip option was selected in the Attach box (this box is otherwise not enabled).
Password protect Zip file(s): Select to force recipients to use a password to open the attached zip files. Note that users will be required to use this password open each one of the generated zip files.
Password: Enter the zip file password.

Login tab

Use Microsoft Outlook: Select to use Microsoft Outlook to send emails (and attachments). The host computer must be running Outlook, and PReS™ must have access to Outlook. Emails generated by PReS™ Workflow appear in the outbox before being sent by Outlook whenever it is set to send emails.
Use SMTP mail: Select to use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send the emails (and attachments). To use SMTP you must enter information in the Name, Email Address and Outgoing Mail (SMTP) boxes below.
Name: Enter the sender’s name that will be used in emails sent by PReS™ Workflow for this task.
Organization: Enter the organization name that will be used in emails sent by PReS™ Workflow for this task (this is optional).
Email address: Enter the sender’s email address that will be used in emails sent by PReS™ Workflow for this task.
Reply address: Enter the reply address that will be used in emails sent by PReS™ Workflow for this task (this is optional).
Outgoing mail (SMTP): Enter the IP address of the mail server PReS™ Workflow is to use to send emails via SMTP.
Port: Specify the outgoing SMTP Port if it is different from the default port (25).
Server requires authentication: Select if the outgoing server mentioned above requires authentication. To use authentication you must enter information in the Account name and Password boxes below.
Account name: Enter the name of the account that PReS™ Workflow is to use to send emails via the mail server.
Password: Enter the password associated with the account name entered above.

Examples & Use Cases

This task is put into effect in the following use cases and example processes:

Capture Post Processing Workflow

On Error Tab

By default, any action task, branch, splitter or condition that generates an error will simply be ignored, and the task just under it (not within a branch) will be given control of the job file without any modification. Any initial input task that generates an error will stop the process from running as a whole, and output tasks will not generate output. The On Error tab can be used to overwrite the default behaviors.

Send to Process: Check this option to send the job file to an error management process.
Error Process drop-down: Enabled only when the Send to Process option is checked. Lists any process of which the initial input task is the Input Error Bin task.
Action Group: This group is disabled in the initial input tasks and defaults to Stop Process. In all other tasks where the On Error tab is present, the following options are available:
- Ignore: The task is ignored as if it did not exist, and the job file is passed on to the next task in the process.
- Stop Branch: If the task is in a branch of the process, the branch is stopped and the job file is returned to the process after the branch. The branch will not produce any output.
- Stop Process: The process is stopped and no more processing is done. No further output is produced.
Log Message: Check this option to enable logging a custom error message in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Message: Enabled only when the Log Message option is checked. Enter a message that will be logged in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file. You can use any variables available in PlanetPress Workflow to customize the message.
Store the message in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the message content.
ID: Enter an error ID. This ID will be visible in the Windows Event Viewer. However, the ID is not visible in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Store the ID in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the error ID.
Reset to defaults: Resets all options in this tab to their default values.

If storing the message or ID, if they are store in a jobinfo they will be available in any error handling process where errors are being forwarded. In all cases, if your process continues after the error, the contents of the variables selected in this window will be available for the rest of your process, or whenever they are overwritten.

Common Errors

Though some error messages are specific to a task in particular, others may apply to any and all tasks because they are related more to the system than to PlanetPress itself. Some examples would be W3813, W3830, W3991, W4005. These correspond to issues such as not having any space to write files, permission errors on folders or files, etc.

Comments Tab

The Comments tab, added in PlanetPress Suite 7.5, is common to all tasks. It contains a single text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button, and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.