There are two different ways to configure the behavior of outgoing emails. The recommended way is a screen in the Configuration menu, called Email Settings.
The legacy way, is still supported as a matter of backwards compatibility and is a collection of system preferences and should not be used. So long as the Email Settings screen is left completely blank, the system preferences will function as they always have. However, entering any values on the Email Settings screen will cause the system to ignore all of the related system preferences, and only use the configuration settings from the screen; this warning is displayed at the top of the screen.
The Email Settings screen is the best way to configure general email behavior. On this screen the user can do two things:
configure the construction of emails going out of the system
configure the to/from logic for failure notification emails.
The screen has two distinct sections, each devoted to one of these tasks.
Email Header Configuration
The top section of the screen is devoted to controlling the email headers for all emails that get sent from the Equus Platform. All emails have up to three headers, but end-users do not normally see these headers. Email clients like Microsoft Outlook hides these details, but still obeys the behavior they require.
Click
in the Email Header Settings to add a row. Each row in the grid will enable one of these headers (whichever one is picked from the drop-down list), and the “email address” field will specify the email address that should be used for that header. In the case of the Reply-To header, more than one email address can be specified (comma-separated).
Below is a screenshot of the three different email header type that an email can have and a description of each of the headers.
From Address:
All emails have a From header which contains a single email address representing the originator of the email. When an Equus Platform user causes an email to be sent, the system will, by default, supply the email address set in this field. This email can either be a monitored mailbox or an unmonitored address such as [email protected]. The domain (the part after the @ sign) must be configured to always contain an email address that has the same email domain as the site itself.
For example, if the URL is https://clientname.assignmentpro.com/ then the email domain that should be using is @clientname.assignmentpro.com. If there are multiple sites e.g. a TEST and a PROD site, the email domain in that TEST site should still match the URL of the PROD site. The username of the email address can be whatever the client wants it to be i.e. no-replyTEST@clientname.assignmentpro.com
This in conjunction with configuration of the Sender and ReplyTo headers can allow the originator of the email to be identified by the recipient.
IMPORTANT: Do not use the merge code "&EQ_FROM_EMAIL" or the value "NULL@NULL" as the From Address.
Sender Address:
The Sender header is not supplied by the Equus Platform unless configured to do so. When it is specified, it allows another single email address which is different from the address specified in the From header which can identify the initiator of the email. When a receiving email system like Microsoft Outlook reads the Sender header, it will display the email as being originated from the Sender email address “on behalf of” the From email address. So if the Sender email address is [email protected], and the From email is [email protected], the email will show in Microsoft Outlook as being from “[email protected] on behalf of [email protected]”
Reply-To Addresses:
By default, when the user clicks to reply to an email, the reply will be addressed to whatever email address is specified in the From header. When a ReplyTo header is present, the new email will be addressed to the ReplyTo instead of the From. This header can take a list of email addresses.
IMPORTANT: Do not use addresses that are similar to "No_Reply@{some domain.com)}"
Things to note
Click here to see best practice suggestions to avoid encountering email reception issues.
Be aware that if you type an email address into this grid, all outgoing emails will use that email address in their header (with the exception of failure notification emails, as defined below).
Also, the Email Address field in this grid can optionally accept a merge code for Sender and ReplyTo headers. The merge code is “&EQ_FROM_EMAIL” and the merge code should NOT be used for From Header to avoid emails from the Equus Platform being blocked because they may be considered as email spoofing.
The Default Address When Blank field is used to set a fallback email address to prevent emails from being sent without a From email address.
For the following scenarios, the From email address set in the Email Settings screen will always be used:
Sending a Quick Workflow (QWF) email from the Assignment Coordinator in which that resource has an email address
Sending a QWF email from the Assignment Coordinator in which that resource does NOT have an email address
Sending a QWF email from the Assignment Coordinator in which the assignment does NOT have an Assignment Coordinator assigned
Other Email Settings
The lower half of the Email Settings screen contains configuration for failure notification emails. These emails get sent when the Equus Platform tries to send an email, but fails. The intent is to notify the sender of the failure, so they can take appropriate action.
The default logic is as follows:
The notification email is from the same person the original email is from.
The notification email is also TO the same person the original email is from.
If it so happens that the notification would be sent to either of [email protected], or [email protected], the TO changes. These email addresses are “disallowed.” Equus Platform is not permitted to send failure notification emails to these addresses, so a replacement must be found.
If a replacement email must be found (as per rule 3 above), Equus Platform will attempt to find a coordinator associated with the email, and will send it to that person. If that attempt fails, an error gets logged and the email is not sent.
The screen allows overriding of the logic as follows:
If an email address is entered into the “Failure Notification Email From” field, all failure notification emails will be from this address (overriding rule #1 above).
“Failure Notification Email To Additional Disallowed Addresses” accepts a comma-delimited list of email addresses. All addresses entered here are considered “disallowed”, just like [email protected] and [email protected], and so any attempt by the Equus Platform to send a failure notification email to these addresses will result in the replacement logic to kick in (as per rule #3 above). Be aware that this concept of “disallowed emails” only applies to failure notification emails.
“Failure Notification Email To Additional Replacement Addresses” can also accept a comma-delimited list of email addresses. Any failure notification emails will be sent to these addresses in addition to whoever the normal recipient would be (as per rules 2 and 4 above).
“Use Replacement Addresses When” is a drop-down list of options that control when the Replacement Addresses (3rd bullet point) are used. The options are:
For All Failure Notifications: whenever a failure notification is sent, the additional replacement addresses always receive a copy.
Only When Replacement Is Made: whenever an attempt is made to send a notification failure email to one of the disallowed addresses, and the replacement logic is used instead, then the additional replacement email addresses will receive a copy (in addition to the Assignment Coordinator, if one can be found).
Only When Address Is Blank: If replacement logic kicks in (as per rule 3 above), and no coordinator email can be found, only then will the Replacement Addresses (3 bullet point) receive the email (making them a last-resort fallback).