We are planning to introduce email approvals in our processes. Please guide me if anyone implemented it already.
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If I understand correctly, following approach might work -
1) Create a process model which has start node with receive message event looking for email message. Please refer - https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/17.2/Start_Event_-_Receive_Message.html. This node can fetch attachments too.
2) In Appian a process can be started by sending an inbound email to process model. Please refer - https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/17.2/Sending_an_Email_Message_to_a_Process.html
3) Considering that Appian sends an email to approver with case or application details - Create a custom sender with process model email as mentioned in point 2 above and use it as from in send email smart service. Along with it you can send an excel attachment which will be protected and only cells required to entered will be present for user to enter and reply back to email with this attachment. Excel can contain hidden sheets which might contain some information filled in by system before sending an email to approver.
Refer shared component for manipulating excel - https://forum.appian.com/suite/sites/shared-components/page/shared-components/record/lMBCLGOdlMUpdGVqW3dQaIKmclBmvvNEj8vu_cjb7T-5YiPr4Fu8ly5Yj1s09uenE4RYzA8zKyx7eiUh-mhLnP-zRWuXMAWLSh_Ffkgey8jrCr-KQ/view/summary
Refer - https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/17.2/Configuring_Custom_Email_Senders.html.
This will start an process in Appian which will check for details in excel sent by user and perform actions in system.
There is another thread - https://community.appian.com/discussions/f/plug-ins/4128/is-there-any-method-by-which-an-appian-generated-email-could-provide-an-approve