E-Mail Routing In Sharepoint With Virtosoftware (Helpdesk With E-Mail Submissions)

Introduction

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is a Windows Server technology that provides integrated services for work sharing and messaging, and represents a platform for Internet business applications design. The platform is highly flexible and easy to adjust, however the flexibility is often limited by poor realization of standard components. Luckily there are a lot of external components that provides the user with more features for business tasks resolving.
This article describes a sample of automatic e-mail routing organization in SharePoint and redirecting e-mail messages on behalf of internal e-mail box. The e-mail messages will be collected from several external e-mail boxes on different e-mail servers, for instance, Gmail or Hotmail. Incoming messages will be registered in a SharePoint list and redirected automatically on behalf of a single internal e-mail box to several recipients.





This scenario suits the task of HelpDesk systems when it's required to process incoming e-mails, create (register) Issues based on these e-mails and redirect original e-mails to a responsible user.





If a specific ticket is added to an e-mail message subject before it is redirected to a responsible user, it will be possible to process the responsible user's reply and relate it automatically to the Issue. In such a case, working with Issues will be more efficient by e-mailing clients and SharePoint will have the e-mails router's role.



Two VirtoSoftware components will be used for realization:
1. Incoming E-mail Feature
2. Workflow Activities Kit for SharePoint

Incoming E-mail Feature Review

SharePoint has a built-in mechanism for e-mail routing. However, it requires installation and adjustment of local SMTP service. Detailed instructions can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287879.aspx. But what do you do when your e-mail works on an external e-mail server such as Gmail or Hotmail, or you have more than one e-mail addresses? Your issue can be resolved with Incoming E-mail Feature by VirtoSoftware.
When the component is installed, you have the opportunity to adjust the rule for collecting e-mails from unlimited amount of e-mail servers and select a place to store the e-mail messages. POP3 protocol is used for connection to the e-mail box. E-mails can be saved to a list, a file library, or a folder on the disc.




As well as standard services, Incoming E-mail Feature adds special fields to a list for saving detailed information about an e-mail (EmailTo, EmailCc, EmailFrom, EmailSubject). The component also adds one more field EmailHtmlBody that allows getting text view of the message. Original e-mail (in the EML format) and all attachments are saved as attachments in a current item. Saving e-mails to a document library is also supported. Please see more detailed information on the component site http://www.virtosoftware.com/incoming-email-pop3-for-sharepoint.aspx.

Workflow Activities Kit for SharePoint Review

VirtoSoftware expands the range of SharePoint activities, allowing the ability to create custom activity sets, and thus, more flexible customization of business processes. Virto SharePoint Workflow Activities Kit is a set of no-code blocks that you can easily add to SharePoint Designer and build your own custom workflow within minutes. Virto Workflow Activities Kit can be used as an add-on for MS SharePoint and includes extended activities for sending e-mails and SMS as well as messaging to Twitter, Jabber and Miranda.
One activity is used as an example for our case — "Forward Email". This activity allows forwarding of the attached email file in EML format (EML file is a plain text file in MIME format, containing the e-mail header as well as the message contents and attachments) from the selected list item. The activity finds an email (file with .eml extension) in either list item attachments or in the file library. The activity modifies only the recipients, sender and subject headers. The email body and attachments are to remain in its original form; the activity does not add any modifications.
Installation

Before you start working, you need to install:
1. Virto POP3 Incoming E-mail Feature
2. VirtoSoftware Workflow Activities Kit for SharePoint

Email Routing Organization

First of all, let's create a list where all incoming e-mail messages will be placed in. Go to Site Actions -> Create and select creating a list based on Virto Incoming E-Mail List template.



Enter "Incoming Email" in the "Name" field and click "Create".





The list created from Virto Incoming E-Mail List template automatically has all Email fields. However, if you use your own template or existing list, all required fields will be added to the list only after you select it as the list for collecting e-mail.



Now we need to create a new e-mail box. Go to Site Actions -> Site Settings and select Virto Incoming E-Mail Settings in Site Administration.





The list of e-mail boxes is empty by default. Use "Click here to add a new POP3 box". We're going to use Gmail e-mail box as an example. Enter your connection parameters and select "Incoming Email" list to store e-mails. You can instantly check the connection settings. If you make this e-mail box active, it will start collecting e-mails and saving them in the list. Inactive e-mail boxes can be run with "Receive Email" button.



The adjustment is finished; click "Save" to save the settings. This way you can adjust the process of collecting e-mail messages from any amount of e-mail boxes.





The example of saving e-mail messages is below.



To organize e-mail routing with SharePoint Designer, let's create a new business process that will start automatically when an e-mail message is added to "Incoming Email" list.
Run SharePoint Designer and find File -> New -> Workflow. Select "Incoming Email" as a list, select the boxes for the business process to be run both manually and automatically when a new item is added to this list.



Click "Next". Add "Forward Email" activity to Workflow Actions.



This activity automatically finds EML files and sends it to the new recipients without any modifications. The activity enables the message to be left the same or change both the sender and the e-mail subject. This can be useful for HelpDesk systems when it's required to replace the sender with an email box and to insert a ticket that will relate the message in the system to the e-mail subject. We will use a fake ticket instead of a subject and add an original subject. Sender will be changed as well.
Note: the text and attachments are not modified while routing. Sender, recipient and subject are changed.

Note: activity "Forward Email" uses SharePoint SMTP settings by default. However, it supports email sending throughout any e-mail server with SMTP protocol. You just need to add "Set SMTP server settings" activity before this activity.




The activity with a full list of parameters looks as follows:




After this, we should save this business process.
Now, when new e-mails are received, it will be saved to "Incoming Email" and automatically resent to external recipients on behalf of internal e-mail box with a ticket in the subject. Here is a sample of a processed e-mail message.




You can change the business process and add a new Issue based on the e-mail message before this e-mail message gets redirected.

Conclusion

This article has fully described how e-mail retrieval and routing can be organized in SharePoint with VirtoSoftware components: Virto POP3 Incoming E-mail Feature & VirtoSoftware Workflow Activities Kit for SharePoint. This opportunity can be used in Help Desk systems, since it allows you to organize registration of all incoming e-mail messages in the system. Using the ticket number in a message subject enables tracking of which Issue the e-mail message belongs to.

Please read the whole article at Virto SharePoint Blog