Email node use (examples)

Simple

Suppose you want to create a process on your site that automatically sends an email notification to your IT department when a new staff person is joining your company. The IT department then knows to set up a new user on your computer system.

For this application, your process would include an Email activity node. An email would be sent automatically, to the email address configured in the node, whenever a new hire action request was run.

Using variables

In the email message header (To, From, Send, and so on) or in the body of the message, you can use variables. Variables let you send the message to a recipient or group of recipients who meet specified criteria.

For example, instead of sending a message to the specific email address of the person who currently holds the position of IT Manager at your site, you could create a variable for "IT Manager" and link the variable to an email address of the IT Manager position. This ensures that the message is always received by an appropriate person.

All activity nodes can use variables from Process Properties. These are properties from the service whose variables are available to any activity node in a process.

For the Email activity node, you can also use variables from the following activity nodes:

  • Start: Enclose

  • MsgBuilder

  • Infor Lawson Query

  • Infor LawsonTransaction

Specifying variables for the Email node

For Process Properties, Start, and MsgBuilder, use the following format:

<!variableName>

For Infor Lawson Query and Infor Lawson Transaction, place the Infor Lawson Query or Infor Lawson Transaction node immediately before the Email node in your process. You can then reference these variables in the Email node.

Creating content for the message

You can do this by:

  • Specifying the text directly into the message space

  • Referencing a variable name of a MsgBuilder node that occurs before this email node in the process

  • Importing pre-created text. The file must have the extension .txt.

Sending pre-created content for the Email node message

You can use a text document (file format must be .txt) that already exists for the body of the email.

There are two ways to do this. You can:

  • From the Properties dialog box / Email tab, click Browse and browse to the location of the text file.

Sending documents with the Email node

You can send documents with the Email node. These can be reports, spreadsheets or other information.

When you configure a document to send, supply the actual location of the file (absolute filepath) or a variable that resolves into an absolute path. You can send this information along with the file name or you can make sure the document is located in LAWDIR/bpm/emailattachments. If a file location is not specified, the server looks in this location for attached documents. To do this from the Properties dialog box/Email tab, click Browse, navigate to the location where the document is stored and then click Open.

You can also attach an uploaded document. To do this, access Tools->Manage Documents. These uploaded files can be included in an email attachment.