Message Outbounds (Email)

Owned by Ryan Clifton
Last updated: Nov 17, 2023 by Denny Miller
4 min read

Summary

Outbound message connections allow emails to be sent from the app. This will allow you to send notifications to the relevant users when an issue has been updated. Note: This will require a Notification mapping to be configured.

Default connection

The first outbound message connection you create will be set as the default. Once you have more connections, you can select which one is the default. The default outbound message connection is used to notify your JEMH Cloud profiles' forward users when there is a problem during email processing.

Creating a New Message Outbound connection

  1. Navigate to JEMH Cloud > Messaging > Message Outbounds

  2. Click the Create button. You’ll now see the outbound message connection creation screen.

  3. First, enter a name to differentiate the connection from any others you may have.

  4. Choose the type of the connection to make. Some types come built-in, including ones using OAuth authentication.

  5. If you are unsure which type to choose, selecting SMTP will offer you some presets for popular email services. Alternatively, you can manually enter your mail servers SMTP connection settings (hostname, port, SSL/TLS). Current Presets are:

    1. Custom

    2. Gmail

    3. Yahoo

    4. Outlook.com

    5. Office 365

    6. Mailtrap.io

       

  6. Once you are sure you have entered the settings and credentials required for your outbound mail server, use the test configuration button to verify the configuration. Once verified you can then save the form using the submit button.

    1. You will see a similar message to the following if the test was successful:

Using Google with OAuth

It is also possible to create a OAuth Outbound Mail Server connection with Gmail. This is done by pressing Sign in with Google and then selecting the Gmail account for JEMHC to use. For more info see: https://thepluginpeople.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/JEMHC/pages/3762159681

Using Microsoft with OAuth

It is also possible to create a OAuth Outbound Mail Server connection with Microsoft. This is done by pressing Sign in with Microsoft and then selecting the Microsoft account for JEMHC to use. For more info see: https://thepluginpeople.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/JEMHC/pages/3763699713

Mail Connection Actions

Once the Outbound Mail connection is created there are some actions that will allow you to test, edit or delete the connection. The current actions are:

Ping

This is used to test the connection. This will display whether the connection was successful and any issues that may have occurred. Below is the outcome of a successful test.

Edit

This will open the Outbound Mail Connection configuration, allowing you to make changes to the configuration.

Copy

This will create another Outbound Mail Connection that is an exact copy of this Mail connection.

Delete

This will remove the Outbound Mail Connection from JEMHC, meaning that no notifications will be sent using this Mail Connection.

 

Configuring Connection to allow Non-Deliverable replies (NDR) by not adding the ‘Precedence: bulk’ header

Please check your mail client requires this behaviour and that you need to remove this header.

Doing so can cause your mail client to assume that multiple mails to multiple recipients are unintentional, and could be viewed as spam, potentially blocking the outgoing mailbox.

When an Outbound connection is used to send to an non-deliverable address, the mail account should receive an NDR reply. However, not all Mail clients can do this when the Precedence: bulk header is set on the outgoing mail.

It is important to understand if you need this enabled for your mail client, so please ensure you confirm how your outbound mail client processes NDR replies, importantly if they are ignored when the mail is marked with Precedence: bulk (For example, if you are using a Microsoft Graph connection, NDR replies will be ignored unless this setting is enabled).