KB-1874 "The system has encountered a problem" error in setup tab of Send Email Smart Service node

Symptoms

The Setup tab of a Send E-mail Smart Service node throws the following error:

The system has encountered a problem.
We're sorry! A problem occurred while processing your last request. 
Please contact the system administrator for more information.

Additionally, the application server log prints the following error for SYSTEM_DOC_EMAIL_HEADER or SYSTEM_DOC_EMAIL_FOOTER:

ERROR com.appiancorp.common.struts.BaseAction - Error executing action: com.appiancorp.ix.binding.UnresolvedRuntimeException: type=content, sourceId=SYSTEM_DOC_EMAIL_HEADER: 
java.lang.NullPointerException [{1}] cannot be found. [{1}] cannot be found.

Cause

The emailHeader.html and/or emailFooter.html files are missing from Appian. 

Action

The e-mail templates can be exported from any Appian environment and imported into the environment where they are missing. The default location for e-mail templates is All Objects > Default Community > System Knowledge Center > E-mail Templates. 

1. Confirm that one or both of the files are missing from Appian by searching for emailHeader or emailFooter in the Objects tab of Appian Designer.
2. Open Appian Designer in an environment where the the emailHeader.html and emailFooter.html exist. Ensure that the environment is running the same major version or older as the malfunctioning environment.
3. Create an application containing the emailHeader.html and/or emailFooter.html.

4. Export this application from the working environment and import it into the malfunctioning environment.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all versions of Appian.

Last Reviewed: June 2019