We have a process model that is triggered by inbound emails, using the OOTB Receive Message Event. We are using the message properties to get the metadata about the email, and we are saving the subject, body, attachments, etc.
What I want to be able to do, is save the entire email that was sent to the process model, as a document of some sort, so that it can be included in the case and be referenced throughout the process. Has anyone done this before? I've thought of some non-ideal options, including using the msg!body to create a Word or HTML document, but that wouldn't maintain the format of the original email, nor would it include the subject, from/to/cc/bcc fields. I also didn't see anything in the documentation that might lead to a solution.
Any ideas would be great - thanks!
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Hi Ashvin, I'm starting work on project with similar requirements and was wondering what solution you implemented to meet your requirements to store email message data and display in Appian user interfaces? Did you leverage Tim's suggestion or pursue other alternatives?
Hi, any idea on it? Peter Lewis
The new a!styledTextEditorField() might be an option.
docs.appian.com/.../Styled_Text_Editor_Component.html
Yeah this might work if you store the data in the database and then display the text in the styled text editor field. I also think creating a PDF or HTML document like Ashvin originally suggested might work too. You'd probably need to create a template for those that would add the context about the subject, recipients, etc.
Hi Ashvin,
you can try using this PDF tools plugin, PDF Tools
create a template and use fill pdf and you can fill i the details as per the defined template from the pv! values which you get after you read the email subject, body etc.
Yes, this could be a solution if you don't work with email threads, with email threads it becomes difficult to work this way and also putting it in a simple template. I thought that maybe there was some smart service or plugin that transforms an email into a file or something similar.Thanks
If you're using the OOTB receive message event, this could be a potential solution. You can use the Eml Utility plugin to convert the inbound email to an EML file. From there, you can have the user download and view the email. If the requirement is to view the email in Appian, you can convert the EML file into HTML or PDF using the EML and MSG Conversion plugin.
I personally haven't used this approach, but in theory, it should keep the email formatting intact, which was the OP's main concern.
Alternatively, I've worked on similar use cases using the Mail Poller . We had a process on a timer that would kick off and process any new emails in a dedicated mailbox. The plugin processes the emails, creates an EML file, saves all attachments as Appian documents, and saves the email body as HTML along with other useful metadata. Hope this helps!