Incident Creation from Exchange Logic

This topic describes incident creation from the Exchange Integration Service.

When the Exchange Integration Service runs, if Enable Incident Creation from Emails is selected on the Exchange Integration Parameters form, the following occurs:

  • All the folders and emails specified to be monitored on the Exchange Integration Parameters form are reviewed.
    Note:  Only messages marked as Unread are evaluated.
  • When an email is received to a folder or inbox being monitored, an incident is created and is populated as follows:
    • The system uses the From email address and looks for a matching email address within contacts so that customer and contact information can be assigned.
    • If a match on the email address is not found, a second search is performed.
    • If a match is not found or more than one match is found, the Customer Number and Ship To fields are left blank on the incident being created.
    • The notes for the incident are populated with additional information from the email, such as the Email To list, Email CC list, names of all attachments, and the text version of the body of the email.
    Note:  If the email contains highly formatted/special HTML, then the contents may look different from the original email.
  • Upon successful creation of the incident, the following occurs:
    • The email is marked as read.
    • The subject line of the original email is altered to include the incident number that was created in the system to track the request.
    • The email is moved to the archive folder specified on the Exchange Integration Parameters form (if populated).
    • A notification email containing the incident number, description, and notes of the incident created is sent to the address specified in the folder/inbox grid (if the Email column is populated).
    • If Store Attachments is selected in the grid on the Incidents tab of the Exchange Integration Parameters form, the attachment files of the email are stored to a subdirectory name that is the same as the created incident number. The name of the attachment file is altered to ensure a unique file name and prevent it from being overwritten. The filename is altered to include the incident number and current system date.
  • When an incident fails to be created, the message remains in the folder or inbox, and is picked up by form processing at the next interval. Typically, the only reason the incident would not be created is because of a network failure or inability to connect to the application database.