MetaServer > Help > Export to Email

030-010 MetaServer Export – Export to Email

MetaServer’s Export to Email feature allows you to distribute your processed documents electronically through email. Fields can be used to specify the email recipient(s), subject, attachment’s file name and to define the body text.

Some example use-cases:

– Email the processed documents to trigger a business process.
– Email documents to a predefined email address to save it in a document management system.
– Automatically send the processed documents as PDF attachments to specified recipients.
– Email documents with missing information, for example, a missing signature, to a pre-defined email address for exception processing.

In our example, we will make use of the “CB – INVOICES US” workflow. This workflow is automatically installed with CaptureBites MetaServer.

We want to make it possible to mark invoices during validation for being emailed to management. For example, if an invoice is higher than $20,000, we want to email it to management:

The email will have a dynamic body text where the document’s extracted fields are filled out. The recipient’s address is specified in a field.

01 Export to Email - Adding the Action

To add an Export to Email action, select the action after which you want to insert the Export to Email action and press Add -> Export -> to Email. The Setup window will automatically open.

You can also open an existing Export to Email action by double-clicking the action or by pressing the setup button on the right side of the action or in the ribbon, as shown below.

02 Export to Email – Setup - Send information

When opening the Export to Email setup window, the Send Information tab is opened by default. Here, you specify your SMTP server and Email header settings.

TIP: The thumbnail on the right will follow you, so you can easily refer to the Setup window. Click on the thumbnail to make the image larger.

Don’t forget to add a description to your action.

01 – Server type: you can choose what type of SMTP Server you want to use to send your emails:

SMTP: replace the placeholder CaptureBites SMTP Server settings with your own SMTP Server details. The CaptureBites SMTP server is only meant for demo and test purposes, please use your own server settings when the workflow is used in production.

Your SMTP Server settings can be found by contacting your IT department or through your e-mail provider.

SMTP settings for Gmail can be found as step 2 here.

For Office 365, we have a simplified guide where to enable the “Authenticated SMTP” option here. You can find a more detailed overview of the SMTP settings here.

1) Address: enter your email provider’s SMTP server address.

2) User name: the user name is typically your email address. When in doubt, contact your IT department.

3) Password: enter your SMTP server password. This is often the password you use to log into your email system. When in doubt, contact your IT department.

4) Timeout: if you have a slow or erratic internet connection, consider increasing the Timeout setting.

5) Check internet connection: if you only send internal email, which doesn’t require an internet connection, you can disable this option.

6) SSL: SSL (secure socket layer) is a way of encrypting your email data as it travels across the internet. Check with your email provider if they require SSL and enable this option if they do. Gmail, for example, requires SSL.

7) Port: the SMTP Port is often 25 or 587 if you don’t use SSL. Port 465 is typically used in combination with implicit SSL.

Gmail: you can use Gmail’s SMTP Server by signing in to your Gmail account using the “Sign in” button.

Office 365: you can use Ofice 365’s SMTP Server by signing in to your Office 365 account using the “Sign in” button.

02 – Email header: here, you enter the email header information.

1) From: enter the sender’s email address or select a field holding that value.

2) Display name: this is the sender’s “friendly” name. For example, you could send emails as noreply@company.com and use “Please do not reply” as the friendly name. The email address will then be converted into the “friendly” display name at the receiver’s end. You can enter this manually or select a field holding the value.

3) To: you can enter the recipient’s email address manually or select a field holding the value. You can enter multiple email addresses, or the selected field can hold multiple email addresses.

You can optionally specify the display name by separating it with a comma “,”.
For example: jps@customer.com, James P. Sullivan.

You can also specify multiple recipients by separating them with semi-colons “;” or colons “:”. For example: john@customer.com,John Doe;jane@customer.com,Jane Doe.

Some more examples of valid email addresses:
– jps@customer.com
– randallboggs@customer.com:mike.wazowski@customer.com,Mike Wazowksi;jps@customer.com,James P. Sullivan

TIP: You can use a field to hold multiple email addresses at once.

Use the same syntax when you set the field value using a Set Field Value rule in your Extract action preceding the Export to Email action. Then, in the To: field, select the MetaServer field holding your email addresses.

TIP: You can send an email conditionally.

Use a Set Field value rule in an Extract Action preceding the Export to Email action. Then, in the To: field, select your MetaServer field holding your email address (e.g. “Email To”).

If you set the “Email To” field to blank with the Set Field value rule, the email will not be sent. If you set it to 1 or more email addresses, the email will be sent.

4) Cc: with cc recipients you can, for example, import incoming orders and email them to your customers as a confirmation. You can also cc a person in sales administration to fulfill the order. Another example is an “Archive” email address, to archive all outgoing email for later reference.

Press the Edit button next to the Cc box to open its setup window and specify one or more cc email addresses.

5) Subject: you can compose your email subject by combining fixed values, fields and metadata. Click on the drop-down arrow to pick from a list of possible values. You can see an example of your Subject line below the input field.

List of values:

Clear
My text here
{{}}
{ Space }

• Line:

- { Line Separator }

• System:

- Server:
- Operator:
- Current Date:
- Current Time:

• Workflow:

- { Workflow Name }

• Document:

- { Document Unique Id }
- Reject:
- { Document Number }
- { Document Count }
- Page:
- { Document File Size }
- { Document Dominant Language }
- { Document Source }
- { Document File Type }
- { Document PDF Compliance }

• Email:

- Inbox:
- { Email Unique ID }
- { Email Import Condition }
- Date:
- Time:
- From:
- To:
- Cc:
- { Email Subject }
- { Email Body Text }

• Import:

- Date:
  - { Import Date, System }
  - { Import Date, DDMMYYYY }
  - { Import Date, DD }/{ Import Date, MM }/{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, DD }-{ Import Date, MM }-{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, MMDDYYY }
  - { Import Date, MM }/{ Import Date, DD }/{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, MM }-{ Import Date, DD }-{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date,YYYYMMDD }
  - { Import Date, YYYY }/{ Import Date, MM }/{ Import Date, DD }
  - { Import Date, YYYY }-{ Import Date, MM }-{ Import Date, DD }
  - { Import Date, JJJ }
  - { Import Date, YYJJJ }
  - { Import Date, DD }
  - { Import Date, DDD }
  - { Import Date, MM }
  - { Import Date, MMM }
  - { Import Date, YY }
  - { Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, W }
  - { Import Date, WW }
- Time:
  - { Import Date, System }
  - { Import Date, HHmmss }
  - { Import Time, HH }:{ Import Time, mm }:{ Import Time, ss }
  - { Import Date, HHmmsstt }
  - { Import Time, HH }:{ Import Time, mm }:{ Import Time, ss }:{ Import Time, tt }
  - { Import Time, HH }
  - { Import Time, hh }
  - { Import Time, ss }
  - { Import Time, tt }
- File:
  - { Import File Page Count }
  - { Import File Full Path and Name }
  - { Import File Full Name }
  - { Import File Name }
  - { Import File Extension }
  - { Import File Root }
  - { Import File Full Path }
  - { Import File Subfolder }
  - Subfolder level (1-10):

• Export:

- Date:
- Time:

• Creation:

Fields
Field labels
Field confidence levels
Field line counts

03 – Request a read receipt: enable this option to send a read receipt to the sender once the email has been opened by the recipient.

04 – Test: enter your email address in the “To” input field as the recipient and press the “Test” button to check your connection. You will receive an email confirming that the connection is successful. Don’t forget to change it back to the correct recipient after testing.

03 Export to Email - Setup - Attachments

Use the attachments tab to specify your email’s attachments’ settings.

Don't forget to add a description to your action.

01 - File Source: press the dropdown button to specify the source of your files.

By default, Processed PDF is selected. This means that the output will be a PDF, no matter what the original imported file type was.

- PDF/TIF/JPG/PNG attachment: refers to the original PDF, TIF, JPG or PNG files that were imported with an Import Email action.

- Excel / Word attachment*: refers to Excel or Word files that were imported with an Import Email action.

- Original Body PDF: refers to the email body converted to PDF format.

- Email PDF: refers to the complete imported email, including all its attachments, converted to PDF format.

- Email EML: refers to the complete imported email including all its attachments in EML format.

- Email MSG: refers to the complete imported email including all its attachments in MSG format.

- Imported PDF/TIF/JPG/PNG*: refers to the original PDF, TIF, JPG or PNG files that were imported with an Import from Folder action.

- Imported Excel / Word: refers to the original Excel or Word files that were imported by with an Import from Folder action.

- Processed PDF: refers to the PDF after every prior action. For example, if you've applied a Scale Page(s) action before exporting to a folder, it will export the scaled PDF.

- Processed TIF: refers to the TIF version of an imported document or attachment converted to TIF with a Convert to Multipage TIF action.

- Processed JPG: refers to the JPG version of an imported document or attachment convert to JPG with a Convert to JPG action.

NOTE: Technically any imported file format such as TIF, JPG and PNG are internally converted to PDF first. So, if you want to separate an imported multipage TIF file and export the separated TIF files, you need to add a Convert to Multipage TIF action before exporting. In the export action, select "Processed TIF" as the File Source.

* = To import Excel or Word documents, you'll need to have a license of the “Import Office Documents” module.

1) Labels: you can change the labels of each file source if you want to use them later as metadata values in your settings.

02 – Attach files: enable this option if you want to attach image or email files (as specified in the File Source) to your email.

1) File name: compose your attachment file name by combining fixed values, fields and metadata. Click on the drop-down arrow to pick from a list of possible values. You can see an example of your file name below the input field.

03 – Attach index file: enable this option if you want to attach an index file to your email.

1) File name: compose your attachment index file name by combining fixed values, fields and metadata. Click on the drop-down arrow to pick from a list of possible values. You can see an example of your index file name below the input field.

01 Index file - Setup

To set up the format and content of your index file attachment, press the “…” button next to the File name’s input box.

The index file setup window opens. Below is an example of a CSV index file. In this case, it holds every extracted field value.

02 – Encoding: specify the required encoding method.

03 – Header, Content & Footer: you can freely define the header, body and footer of your index file by combining fixed words, fields and metadata.

List of values:

Clear
My text here
{{}}
{ Space }