The new advanced email workflow is a new enhancement on the old workflows for emails ONLY. It allows for multiple triggers, but also now allows for multiple actions to occur to that newly created document. Now by triggers we mean something that matches within an email, for example the Subject of the email contains a certain word which will ‘trigger’ that email to be processed by the workflow Automator. By actions we refer to what happens to that email/document metadata whilst being saved to Info-Organiser. For example, change User-Defined Name property to ‘XXXXX’ once processed.

 

  1. Advanced Workflows is accessed via the Create Workflows then by choosing the Advanced Email Workflow button at the top of the form.

 

 

Advanced Email Workflow button.

 

  1. The Advanced Email Workflow screen looks like:

 

  1. It has 4 tabs. Advanced Workflows tab is where new Workflows are created and Renamed or Deleted. This tab also is used to determine which email folders or even email accounts are used by the newly created workflow. Using the Up and Down buttons we can also determine the order in which the workflows are run in the Automator.
    1. Triggers tab is where a trigger list is created for the workflow.
    2. Extra trigger options is a special trigger where we can search within the Subject of the email for specific words.
    3. Actions are where things happen to the email/document metadata once the document is saved into Info-Organiser.
  2. Let’s create a simple workflow so you can see how all the tabs are used.
    1. Give the workflow a name of Test and press the Create button.

  1. Test is now created and added to the list.

 

 

  1. Now add a folder/email address for the workflow to process. As the example suggests we can have multiple folders/email addresses, all you must do is to separate each one with a semi-colon ‘;’. If you DO NOT specify an email address in front of the folder name the default email address will be used to look for that folder. You MUST precede the folder name with a forward slash ‘/’ if using an email address AND folder name. The example blow is using simon@info-organiser/ThisFolder. So the folder ThisFolder will be processed in the email address simon@info-organiser.com.au

 

  1. Now for a simple trigger (trigger flow will be explained in more detail later).

  1. So, we have chosen the Subject field and that it CONTAINS the words Azure AD. Now we press Add to list to add it to the trigger list.
  2. Once the trigger is in the list it can be modified or Removed by choosing one of the buttons on the right hand side. If you select a trigger the values are automatically shown in the bottom fields ready to be updated. Just change the value or field or condition and choose Update button on the right hand side. Or simply change the value and add it as another trigger by choosing ‘Add to list’ button.

 

  1. Move to the actions tab and choose a User-Defined property, in this case we use Sender. With the User-Defined properties you can choose an existing selection of properties already existing in the database by starting to type in the ‘To this index property edited here:’ box.         Then we also choose either Move or Copy to process the email. Finally add these to the Actions list and choose Save in the top right hand of the form. 

 

  1. As per the trigger tab you can add more actions or update or delete an action from the list. BUT if you remove the File Email action and then Save the workflow a default action of File Email – Move is added back in as there MUST be an action of either Move or Copy. We will discuss enhanced Actions a little later.
  2. The Extra Trigger Options tab allows you to check for words before or after words or text within the SUBJECT of the email being processed.

 

  1. In the above example we are looking for the word Invoice AFTER the word ‘Test’ in the Subject of the email. Now Extra Trigger Options act as an ‘OR’ to other Triggers in the triggers tab. This means if we used the previous trigger example in f. and the Extra Trigger Option above we would have 2 triggers that would act like:

If the Subject CONTAINS ‘Azure AD’ OR the word after the word ‘Test’ EQUALS ‘Invoice’ then we can process this email.

  1. Pretty straight forward so far. Now this is where things change slightly. Let’s say we DON’T have an Extra Trigger Option set but we do have 2 Triggers set as per:

 

  1. Now these 2 triggers act as an AND when processing emails, in other words the triggers act as:

If the SendersEmail EQUALS ‘simon@info-organiser.com.au’ AND the Subject CONTAINS ‘Azure AD’ then we can process the email and perform any actions we have added.

  1. So basically all Fields of the same type act as an OR and differing Fields act as an AND. Here’s a more complex example:

 

  1. What we are saying here is: (Check the brackets)

If 

(SendersEmail EQUALS ‘simon@info-organiser.com.au’

OR

SendersEmail EQUALS ‘harry@info-organiser.com.au’)

AND

(Subject CONTAINS ‘Azure AD’

OR

Subject EQUALS ‘Invoice’)

Process the email and perform any actions we have added. It’s basic Boolean algebra:

1 OR 1 = 1

1 OR 0 = 1

1 AND 1 = 1

1 AND 0 = 0

So if the email that was being processed had a SendersEmail of ‘harry@info-organiser.com.au’ but the Subject said ‘This is a test’ that email would NOT be processed as:

1 AND 0 = 0

  1. Enhanced Actions allow you to extract data from the email metadata, like SendersEmail and use that to change User-Defined values. This is achieved but setting the value to the same name as the trigger field but with before and after special characters. For example we have a field called SendersEmail and we want to use that data to change the User-Defined Sender filed to be the same. So what we do is to choose the Actions tab and the User-Defined Sender Type but instead of typing a value into the Sender index property we put in [*SendersEmail*] and add that to the list. As per:

Now what occurs when the triggers are valid and the email is processed the index property Sender gets set to the incoming emails ‘SendersEmail’.

  1. Note: You DO NOT have to have ANY triggers if you don’t want to. What happens with no triggers is that ALL emails in the added folder will ALL get processed and actioned.
  2. On the right hand side of the Triggers tab there are 2 buttons ‘Import List’ and ‘Export List’. This allows you to Export just the Triggers list and use that exported list and re-import it for a given Workflow. So if you have a large trigger list (for example a lot of email senders) you can import the same list to another workflow.

 

  1. The Import and Export on the Create Workflow on the normal workflows form will also Export Advanced Email Workflows, Advanced Document Workflows as well as normal workflows, and also the same when Importing them back in.