Routing a Form to a preset Email address

[SamanthapudiR]

Hi,

I am trying to route a form through a series of preset email addresses. I have designed the form and was able to test it by creating a process that uses workspace to invoke and route the form and now I am at a point where I am trying to use the preset email addresses instead of the "assign user" service operation that I had used to test the form using workspace.

Here are a few questions that came across my mind when I went about acheving this:

1. Should I be using the "Send With Document" email service operation in order to route the form to the preset email address?
2. How do I setup the attachment so that the form (PDF) that was initally filled while invoking the process is sent as an attachment to the preset email address?
3. After the first user receives the email attachment with the PDF form, then the user is supposed to fill additional data into the form and then when the user clicks on Send/Complete button the form should be routed to the another preset email address. Do I need to setup an "email endpoint" to accomplish this?
   

Routing the forms through workspace seemed to be fairly trivial, but I couldnt find any guidance for routing a form through a series of emails. I am new to LiveCycle, so any help/adivse would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Varma

[Former Community Member]

Email support is built into the Process Management suite. So you can get your work items in email as well as in WorkSpace. The email must be configured so that the server can send them out. In adminui under the Process Management service you can choose Server Settings. There is a tab for configuring the email account as well as a Task Notification tab where you can customize the look of the emails that are sent out. One last point ...make sure that each form that you use has the Process Fields object on them. These extra fields will hold the state information while the task is offline in your email.

Paul

[SamanthapudiR]

Thanks for your response and I have configured the email server settings as you had suggested. I was able to receive the PDF attachment in the user's inbox and now would like to complete the task from the PDF itself rather than using Workspace, as our users are not expected to log into Workspace. Here are few additional questions that came across when I tried to setup the email endpoint for the Complete Task.

1. Just to confirm that I understand this correctly - Users can complete their assigned tasks via email without having to log into Workspace right?
2. While configuring the Email endpoint for Complete Task are we supposed to set the Operation Name to "invoke" as that is the only option I see in the dropdown and if so, are we supposed to setup any Input/Ouput Parameter Mappings or can we leave them empty?
3. When I open the PDF that is sent to the user along with the email as an attachment, it now has the "submit" button, which was not displayed when the user tries to access the form for the same task using Workspace. Is the submit button what the user should be using to complete the task via email? When the "submit" button is clicked, it opens up an email with the XDP attached and the to address populated to the administrator account in my case. I am not sure how it picked this email address from, could you let me know how to change it so that a different email address is used while clicking on the submit button on PDF attachment.?
4. I dont think I still totally understand how setting up an email endpoint for the Complete Task, ends up completing the task for the user and forwarding it to the next task. i.e. how clicking on the submit button on the PDF attachment and clicking on the Complete icon on the Workspace are correlated.

Thanks,
Varma

[Former Community Member · Accepted solution]

Yes ...they have the option of completing the task via workspace or via email. I strongly recommend that you do not allow one user to do both as the queues are impossible to keep in synch. That is to say that if a user completes the task in workspace then there is no way to pull the email out of their mailbox. But if they complete the task in email then the completed item wil be reflected in the workspace.

Yes, you are invoke the Complete Task process.

Yes they shodul use that button (in fact it is the same button that is used in workspace it is simply hidden so that the button in the workspace can be used. The code behind determines which mode you are running in and will react accordingly. The address is coded in the server adminui settings that you did at the beginning and is included in the process management fields that you put on th eform (to keep the state of the process). You do not want to change it ...it shoudl be the address that that livecycle server is monitoring for the email endpoint.

The secret is in those process fields. As a test - if you make those fields visible you will see state information (Process ID, Assigned ID, route names, selected route etc) that will be updated based on the task that is being completed. Once the server recieves the email, it will "complete" the task on your behalf (like you clicked the submit button in workspace.

Hope that helps

Paul

[Jasmin_Charbonn]

One thing to mention on #1

"Just to confirm that I understand this correctly - Users can complete their assigned tasks via email without having to log into Workspace right?"

The users will have to login to Workspace once to set their preference to receive email notifications with form data. Once that's done, they don't need to go in Workspace ever.

Jasmin

[SamanthapudiR]

Paul,

Thanks a lot for your detailed response as all of it is beginning to make sense now. I was able to setup the the email endpoint for the complete task service and completing the task through the email works like a charm.

Jasmine/Paul,

I had couple of final questions regarding this discussion. Jasmine had mentioned that User's would have to login atleast once into workspace in order to set the preferences to receive the notifications via email and wouldnt have to log in to workspace ever again.

1. Is this something we can handle in the back end (update a field for the users in the database) so that we update the user's preferences and they wouldnt have to log in even for the first time? Or is it compulsory that they log in for the first time and set it manually?
   
2. Are you guys aware of how licensing works within LiveCycle ES/Workspace - Is it dependant on number of user accounts that are setup to use workspace or is it going to be the same even if users dont use workspace and just rely on email for completing their tasks?

Thanks,

Varma

[Jasmin_Charbonn]

#1. Unfortunately, we can't set it on the back side easily. I mean, there's a db tables that can be updated, but this would have to be maintained also when new users would be added. So it would soon become a nightmare to manage.

#2.It's going to be the same. What you buy is LiveCycle Process Management. It doesn't make a different whether you use the email or Workspace (or any other interface) to complete the task.

Jasmin