Email start point properties

Use the Process Properties view to configure the following Email start point properties:

General

Properties for identifying the start point and determining how the process is invoked.

Name:
The name of the start point. The name appears in the Service Management pages of Administration Console. Provide a name that is meaningful to both Workbench developers and service administrators.

Description:
(Optional) A description of the start point. Provide a description for other developers who edit the process. The text you provide also appears as a description for the corresponding endpoint in the Service Management pages of Administration Console.

Invoke Asynchronously:
Determines the number of responses that are sent when a received email includes multiple attachments. (The process is invoked once for each attachment.) When selected, a response is returned for each invocation. When not selected, a single response is returned that includes the output for all process invocations.

For example, an email endpoint is created for a service that requires a single Word document as input and returns it as a PDF file. An email that includes three Word files is sent to the inbox. When the endpoint is configured as synchronous, a single response email is sent that includes three PDF files. If the endpoint is configured as asynchronous, three response emails are sent. Each email includes a single PDF attachment.

By default, this option is selected (asynchronous invocation).

Domain Name:
The User Management domain of the user that is used to invoke the process. The default value is DefaultDom, the default domain that is created for LiveCycle.

User Name:
The name of the LiveCycle to invoke the process. The user must be assigned the Services User role. This value is the user ID property, which is the name used to log in to LiveCycle. The default value is SuperAdmin.

Options

Properties for configuring how users interact with the LiveCycle Server using email. You also specify how the LiveCycle Server interprets file attachments.

Successful Job’s Recipients:
An email address to which messages are sent to indicate the process completed successfully:
  • The default value is sender, which sends messages to the reply-to address of the email that invoked the process.

  • You can specify a maximum of 100 email addresses. Separate multiple addresses with commas (,).

  • To send no email message, provide no value.

Failed Job’s Recipients:
An email address to which messages are sent to indicate that the process did not complete successfully:
  • The default value is sender, which sends messages to the reply-to address of the email that invoked the process.

  • You can specify a maximum of 100 email addresses. Separate multiple addresses with commas (,).

  • To send no email message, provide no value.

Character Set Encoding:
The character set that LiveCycle Server uses to encode email attachments. This value must match the character set that was used to create the attachments.

Failed Email Sent Folder:
The email folder in which to store email messages that the LiveCycle Server could not send to the SMTP server. For example, email cannot be sent if the SMTP server is not operational.

Domain Pattern:
A pattern that matches the domain from which email messages are accepted. The LiveCycle Server ignores email from domains that do not match the pattern. For example, for the pattern adobe.com, only email from the adobe.com domain can invoke the process.

File Pattern:
A pattern that matches the file names of attachments that are used as input to the process. The value is case-sensitive. The following examples illustrate valid values:
  • *.pdf uses all files with the file name extension .pdf.

  • data uses all files named data.

  • *.[dD][aA][Tt] uses all files with the file name extension .dat regardless of letter case. For example, both of the files named file1.Dat and file2.dAt are used.

Server Configurations

Properties that enable the LiveCycle Server to connect to the email server. An email account that the LiveCycle Server uses must be configured on the email server. Contact your email server administrator for the correct values to use.

Inbox Host:
The name or IP address of the email server that hosts the inbox where the LiveCycle Server receives email. The default value is localhost.

Inbox Protocol:
The email protocol that the email server uses. Select either POP3 or IMAP. The default value is IMAP.

Inbox Port:
The port that the email server uses. The default value for POP3 is 110, and the default value for IMAP is 143.

Inbox Time Out:
The amount of time that the LiveCycle Server waits while checking for new email messages before a time-out occurs. This value is in seconds. Specify a value that is large enough to provide enough time to receive a response from the email server when it is running. Large values hinder server productivity when the email server is offline. The default value is 60.

Inbox User:
The user name that the LiveCycle Server uses to log in to the POP3 or IMAP server. Depending on the email server and configuration, provide only the user name portion of the email or the full email address.

Inbox Password:
The password for the POP3 or IMAP user account.

SMTP Host:
The name or IP address of the SMTP server. The LiveCycle Server uses the SMTP host to send email messages.

SMTP Port:
The port that the SMTP server users. The default value is 25.

SMTP User:
The user name that the LiveCycle Server uses to log in to the SMTP server.

SMTP Password:
The password for the SMTP user account.

Send From:
The email address (for example, user@company.com) used to send email notifications of results and errors.

If you do not specify a Send From value, the email server attempts to determine the email address automatically. The server combines the value of the SMTP User property with the default domain that is configured on the email server. If your email server does not have a default domain and you do not specify a value for Send From, errors can occur. To ensure that the email messages have the correct from address, specify a value for the Send From setting.

SMTP SSL Enabled:
Select to force the LiveCycle Server to use SSL to connect to the SMTP server. Ensure that the SMTP server supports SSL.

POP3/IMAP SSL Enabled:
Select to force the LiveCycle Server to use SSL to connect to the POP3 or SMTP server. Ensure that the POP3 or IMAP server supports SSL.

Scheduling

Properties that specify how often the LiveCycle Server checks for new email messages. You can also specify the maximum number of messages the server processes each time it checks for new email messages. Typically, the default values are adequate.

The configuration of Scheduling properties can affect the productivity of the LiveCycle Server. The values you provide depend on the expected frequency of new email messages. For example if you expect to receive one message every 10 minutes, server resources are wasted if email is checked every 10 seconds.

If many email messages are received at once, the LiveCycle Server can be processing messages when it is scheduled to check for messages again. To avoid this situation, specify a small batch size to minimize the time required to process email at each interval.

Cron Expression:
A cron expression that schedules when the LiveCycle Server checks for new email messages. Specify a value only if the POP3 or IMAP server requires one. Contact the POP3 or IMAP server administrator for information about how to formulate the cron expression.

Repeat Interval
The time frame to wait for performing the next scan for email. The value provided is in seconds. The default value is 10.

Repeat Count:
The number of times the LiveCycle Server scans the inbox. The value -1 indicates indefinite scanning. The default value is -1.

Batch Size:
The number of emails the receiver processes per scan for optimum performance. A value of -1 indicates all emails. The default value is 2.

Delay When Job Starts:
The time to wait to check for email after the scheduled time.The default value is 0.

Inputs/Outputs

Properties for specifying process input values and for storing process output values.

Input

Specify a value for each input variable of the process. The type of variable determines how you express the value:

Simple data types:
Provide literal values for the input value of simple data types such as string, number-based types, xml, and date and time-based types. For example, the text SomeText is provided as a string value of SomeText. Use the following keywords to specify the email subject, body, header, or sender’s email address as the input value:
  • %SUBJECT%

  • %BODY%

  • %HEADER%

  • %SENDER%

For example, %SUBJECT% uses the email subject as the input value. Email properties are useful when process input variables are simple data types, such as string or int.

document, list of documents, and map of documents:
Specify a pattern that is matched with the file name of an email attachment. A file attachment with a name that matches the pattern is used as the value for the input variable. For example, a value of *.pdf causes PDF file attachments to be used as input. Patterns are useful when multiple attachments must be mapped to different input variables. For example, a process requires a PDF file and a DDX file as input. Email messages that invoke the process require these files as attachments. The patterns *.pdf and *.ddx are used for the values of the input variables.
Hinweis: Complex variable types and list or map values that do not contain document values do no appear in the Input area. You cannot specify values for these variable types.

Output

Specify values for output variables. The type of variable determines how you express the value.

Document variables:
Specify how to name files that the process returns. When processes provide document values as output, they are converted to files and attached to email messages. When the process returns a list or a map of documents, each document is attached to the email message. The messages are sent to the addresses that are specified in the Successful Job’s Recipients property.

To name the attached files, you can include literal text, use the attributes of the returned document value, or both:

  • Use literal text to use the same name for all attached files of every process instance. For example, the value output.pdf causes the names of all file attachments to be output.pdf.

  • Use attributes of the returned document value to name the returned file based on the name of the file that the document value was created from:

    • %F: The name of the file (not including the file name extension)

    • %E: The file name extension

    Document attributes are assigned values when the document is created from a file. The file can be retrieved from a file system, a URL, or an email attachment. Attributes of the document value are based on the original file name.

    Often, a process takes a document as input, manipulates the document, and returns it as output. For example, an email attachment is used as the input value and the pattern %F.%E is used as the output file name. The returned email attachment has the same name as the input file attachment.

    If the attributes of an output document value do not have values, the %F and %E characters cause errors to occur on the server. If your process does not return an email when it completes, check the server log for error messages.

  • You can use a mixture of literal text and %F and %E characters.

If the values of the Output properties result in files with the same name, the LiveCycle Server appends an index number to the file name. For example, a process returns three documents in a list. The Output property is out.pdf. The files that are attached to the returned email are out.pdf, out_1.pdf and out_2.pdf.

Simple data types:
Provide literal values for the input value of simple data types such as string, number-based types, xml, and date and time-based types. For example, the text SomeText is provided as a string value of SomeText.
Hinweis: Complex variable types and list or map values that do not contain document values do no appear in the Output area. You cannot specify values for these variable types.