What is an Email Action?

 Email actions send emails to specified addresses.

The Email action can be used to send one or multiple emails. If 100 records are pushed into the Actionflow then 100 emails will be sent, unless a phase is used to send a single email. 

Creating Email Actions

1. Click and drag the  Email icon from the toolbar onto the canvas
2. Enter a name for the Email action, then select Create Action
3. In the Email action  Properties on the right, populate the following details:

Verifying Emails

It is possible to check an email has successfully been sent using the Email tab at the top of the system console. System Console → Email Tab. See System Console

Attachments

Sending emails with attachments is possible in PhixFlow but not yet supported in Actionflows. To send an email with an attachment, see Sending Emails.

Built-in Error Handling

Basic validation is performed to ensure that email addresses are well-formed. If they are not this will cause the Actionflow to fail immediately. Other errors, such as email addresses for accounts that don’t exist, won’t cause a failure of the Actionflow but they will result in an unsuccessful email send.

Opening an Email Client

The  Open URL action can be used to open an email client where the user can send an email.

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?subject=" + in.Subject

//or

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?subject=Email Subject"

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?cc=" + in.cc1 + "," + in.cc2

//or

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?cc=someoneelse@email.com, another@email.com"

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?bcc=" + in.cc1 + "," + in.cc2

//or

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?bcc=someoneelse@email.com, another@email.com"

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?body=" + in.Body

//or

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?body=This is the body of the email."

// use %0d%0a to start a new line

'mailto:' + in.EmailAddress + "?body=This is the body of the email.%0d%0aThis is the second line of the body of the email."

"mailto: " + in.EmailAddress + "?cc=" + in.cc1 + "," + in.cc2 + "&bcc=" + in.bcc + "&subject=" + in.Subject + "&body=" + in.Body

Worked Examples

Here are worked examples using the Retail Data (available from the Learning Centre).

In this example, we are using:  

• A Shop Staff Form screen containing blank input fields, set up to create a new staff member  - this screen was created using the Edit Form template
• A Shop Orders screen containing a grid of the Shop Orders data, Order Status filters buttons and a card container of the Shop Order Lines data  - this screen was created using the Multi-Tile template

Example 1: Send One Email For One Record

In this example, we'll modify the Actionflow on the Save button of the Shop Staff Form. We'll configure this Actionflow to send an email to the Team Leader (i.e. you) with a reminder to complete a full induction.

1. On the Shop Staff Form screen, open the Actionflow on the Save button

2. Create a new  Gateway action to ensure an email is only sent when a new employee is saved but not when an existing employee is saved, and insert this between the  input node and  Save action

    How?

   

   • Ensure that staffID is mapped into the Gateway action from the input
3. Click on the Save action on the canvas and rename this to: Save NEW Staff
   1. Ensure Auto Save Attributes is toggled on and change the Type to Insert
4. Create an additional Save action and name it: Save EXISTING Staff
   1. Ensure Auto Save Attributes is toggled on and change the Type to Update
5. Hover over the Gateway action
   1. Map the SaveOnly connector to the Save EXISTING Staff action
   2. Map the SaveAndEmail connector to the Save NEW Staff action 
   3. You should now have a Gateway action, followed by two Save actions, with the attribute staffID mapped to both
6. Hover over the Save NEW Staff action on the canvas and select, out

7. Click onto any blank canvas space and choose the 

    icon
   1. Enter a suitable name for the node and select Create Action
8. Map across the staffID attribute from the table to the Email action
9. Click on the input connection point, under Connections, and map in the following attributes:
   1. departmentID
   2. departmentName
   3. employmentType
   4. first_name
   5. last_name
   6. startDate

10. Then map these attributes into the Email action

     Checkpoint

    

Email Action Setup

1. Click on the Email Action to open its Properties and pin the tab
2. For the From field, we need to use the email address specified as the login email in your Outbound Emailer; to find this, in the  Full Repository, expand  Email Accounts
   1. Double-click on  Outbound emailer and copy the login email 
3. Paste this into the From field on your pinned  Email properties, and enter the following:
   1. To: enter your email address
      1. This way you can see if the Actionflow is working

   2. Subject:

      New Employee: ${in.first_name} ${in.last_name}

   3. is HTML: Toggle on  

   4. Message:

      Hello ${_user.name},
      
      You have a new team member! Here are ${in.first_name} ${in.last_name}'s details:
      
      ID Number: ${in.staffID}
      
      Start Date: ${toString(in.startDate, "dd MMMM yyyy")}
      
      Department: ${in.departmentID} ${in.departmentName}
      
      Contract Type: ${in.employmentType}
      
      Please ensure ${in.first_name} ${in.last_name} completes their full induction training and all training sign offs are completed by ${toString(dateAdd(in.startDate,_WEEK_OF_YEAR, 2), "dd MM yyyy")}.

      1. Leave all other fields blank

   5.  Apply and Close

       Checkpoint

      

Testing

1. To test the Actionflow:
   1. Create a new staff member using the Staff Form and if you provided your own email in the To field, you will receive the email you set up above
   2.  Update an existing staff member and after saving, you should not receive an email 

Example 2: Send One Email For Multiple Records

In this example, we'll configure a button to run a processing check of all order lines for all incomplete orders. This will check for any incomplete orders where all order lines are marked as 'Closed'. Where an order's order lines are all closed, the order will be updated to Completed and an email will be sent detailing how many orders have been updated to Completed that day.

In an Actionflow, to send one email for multiple records, an additional  Phase will be required.

Setup the Views and Calculate Action

1. On the Shop Orders screen, use the palette to create a button that will initiate the Actionflow
2. Right-click on the button and  Add Actionflow 
3. On the Actionflow canvas, configure an Input of On Click

4. Add a   View Action and set the Primary Table to the Orders data

5. Filter on the View Action to only retrieve the incomplete orders

   1.  How?

      Add a Filter with the filter conditions:

      1. Status not equals Completed 

      Add Output Attributes:

      1. orderID
      2. status

      For more help on using View actions, see 1.15 View Action Configuration.

   2. Remember to save the View Action properties which will display with a * if unsaved
      1. 

6. Connect the input to this View Action

7. Add a  Calculate Action from the toolbar

   1. This Calculate Action will be to used to change the order status

8. Connect the View Action to the Calculate Action

9. Map across the attributes orderID and status

    Checkpoint

   

10. Add another   View Action from the toolbar to the canvas and set the Primary Table to the Order Lines data

11. Hover over the Calculate Action and choose Add Lookup, and give the lookup a suitable name, e.g. ORD, then click on the View action you just created
12. Click on the View action node and set the Output Attributes:
    1. lineStatus
    2. orderID
    3. orderLineID
    4. orderLineNumber
13. Filter on the View Action to only retrieve Open order lines, and where the orderID from the Orders data equals the orderID from the Order Lines data
    1.  How?

       Add a Filter with two filter conditions:

       1. Where ALL of the following are true:
          1. lineStatus not equals Closed
             1. The field should be interpreted as an Literal value
          2. orderID equals orderID
             1. The field should be interpreted as an Expression
        Checkpoint

       

       
       

14. Click on the lookup connector to configure the Request (Incoming) Mappings:
    1. Map across orderID
15. Configure the Return (Outgoing) Mappings:
    1. lineStatus
    2. orderID
16. Click on the Calculate Action and using the function countElements, add two Output Attributes:
    1. add an Output Attribute that will be used to modify the order's Status. The expression should count the records coming from the lookup. Where this is more than zero, return the order's status. Where this is zero, return the string, "Completed"
       1. zero records means that all Order Lines are Closed
       2. the "Completed" string will be mapped to the Order Status

    2. add an Output Attribute that will be used to modify the order's Completion Date. The expression should count the records coming from the lookup and where this is more than zero, return NULL but where this is zero, return today's date 

        How?

       Add an Output Attribute for the status:

       StatusOutputAttribute

       if(
           countElements(ORD) > 0, in.status, 
           
           //flag record as Completed if all order lines Closed
           "Completed"
       )

        Add an Output Attribute for the completion date:

       CompletionDateOutputAttribute

       if(
           countElements(ORD) > 0, _NULL, 
           
           //return today's date for complete orders
           now()
       )

17. Add a  Save Action to the canvas that saves data back to the Orders dataset
18. Connect the Calculate action to this Save action, and map across:
    1. The StatusOutputAttribute onto the status in the data
    2. The CompletionDateOutputAttribute onto the completionDate in the data
    3. The orderID from the Orders View onto the orderID in the data

    4. Change the Type to Update in the Save Action Properties

        Checkpoint

       

Setup the Email Phase

Create an additional phase in the Actionflow to send an email in. This is required to ensure only one email is sent regardless of the amount of records passing through the Actionflow.

As data cannot be passed between phases, the emailing phase will include a lookup to the Orders data, specifically to the data that was saved as part of the first phase of the Actionflow.

1. Add a  Start Phase to the canvas and create an additional phase to send the email in
2. Connect the Save action to the Start Phase action
3. Open the Emailing Phase and configure an Input of On Phase Start
4. Add a  Calculate Action that will be used to count records coming from a lookup
5. Connect the input to the Calculate Action
6. Add a   View Action with the Orders data as the Primary Table
   1. Filter on the View Action to only retrieve Orders with a Completion Date of today 
      1.  How?

         Add a Filter with the filter condition:

         1. CompletionDate equals today()
7. Hover over the Calculate Action and choose Add Lookup, then click on the View action you made above
8. On the Output Attributes section of the View action, drag and drop the attributes completionDate and orderID
9. Click on the lookup connector to map the Return (Outgoing) Mappings:
   1. completionDate
   2. orderID

10. Click on the Calculate Action and using the function countElements, add an Output Attribute that simply counts the records coming from the lookup connector 

     How?

    Add an Output Attribute:

    1. Type: Integer

    2. Expression: 

       countElements(lu)

11. Add a  Email Action to the canvas and connect the Calculate Action to this
    1. Map across the above Output Attribute from the Calculate action to the Email action
12. Click on the Email Action to open its Properties, and enter the following:
    1. From: use the email address you used in Example 1
    2. To: enter your email address
       1. This way you can see if the Actionflow is working

    3. Subject:

       Order Completion Check

    4. is HTML: Toggle off  

    5. Message:

       Overnight order processing run finished at ${toString(now(),"dd MM yyyy, HH:mm:ss")}.
       
       ${in.YourOutputAttribute} order(s) now completed.

       1. Ensure you modify the above code with the name of your Output Attribute
       2. Leave all other fields blank

    6.  Apply and Close
       
       

        Checkpoint

       

Test the Actionflow

To test the Actionflow we need an Open or Processing order that has all of its order lines set to Status of Closed. 

1. On the Shop Orders screen, use the filters to find an Open or Processing order
2. Choose an Order and change all of its Order Lines to Closed and Save each change
3. Click on the button you created on the screen to initiate the Actionflow