Inbound email action processing
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- UpdatedAug 1, 2024
- 6 minutes to read
- Xanadu
- Notifications
The system determines which inbound actions to run by comparing the inbound email type and inbound action conditions to the incoming email message. Certain properties are available to set the reply and forwarding prefixes in the email subject lines that your instance recognizes when processing inbound emails.
The system follows this processing flow to determine whether to run an inbound action.

- The incoming email type matches the inbound action Type.
- If present, the watermark or record number refers to a record in the Target table.
- The inbound action Conditions evaluates to true.
If any of these criteria are not met, the system skips the current inbound action and evaluates the next active inbound action. The system processes inbound actions from the lowest to highest Order value. If the inbound action has Stop processing enabled, the system updates the State of the email record to Processed after running the inbound action Script.
The following video shows how an inbound action condition prevents an incident from being created.
Prefixes recognized in email subject lines
- Email reply prefixes
- When no watermark is present or the In-Reply-To email header is present, the instance
recognizes email containing a prefix from the
glide.email.reply_subject_prefix property as reply email. You can use
this property to set non-standard reply prefixes in your email system.
Property Description glide.email.reply_subject_prefix Specifies the comma-separated list of prefixes in the subject line that identify an email reply. - Type: string
- Default value: re:,aw:,r:,Accepted:,Tentative:,Declined:
Note: The case of the reply prefix in the email, for example RE:, must exactly match the case of the prefixes defined in this property. If, for example, an email contains the Re: prefix and only RE: is defined in the property, the email will not be recognized as a reply. Therefore, it is a best practice to define multiple versions of the prefix, including mixed-case versions, such as RE:, Re:, and so on. - Email forward prefixes
- Emails with certain prefixes trigger the forward type of inbound email action. The instance
recognizes any email whose subject line contains a prefix from the
glide.email.forward_subject_prefix property as forwarded email. Emails
with these prefixes trigger inbound email actions of the type forward. Use this property to
set non-standard forward prefixes in your email system or you want email forwards to behave
like replies. If the value of the system property is empty, then the system reverts to using
the values fw: and fwd:.
Property Description glide.email.forward_subject_prefix Specifies the list of prefixes (comma-separated) in the subject line that identify a forwarded email. - Type: string
- Default value: fw:,fwd:
- Location: Add to the System Properties [sys_properties] table
Note: Prefixes are case insensitive. - Email forwards as replies
- Properties are available to force inbound actions to process forwarded mail as replied
mail. These properties control the subject prefix that the inbound actions use.These properties cause the Update Incident inbound action to process all forwarded and replied-to mail.
Property Value needed glide.email.reply_subject_prefix re:,Re:,RE:,aw:,r:,fw:,fwd:,Fwd:,FWD: glide.email.forward_subject_prefix [any text that is not a forward prefix] Note: The glide.email.forward_subject_prefix property must contain some text so that the forwarded email can be processed as a Reply. It can be any text except a forward prefix (that is, fw:,fwd:,Fwd:,FWD:).
Matching a sender email address to a user
The instance matches a senders email address to an active user in the User [sys_user] table using inbound actions.
When processing an email, the instance sets the current user to the user whose email address
matches email.from. Inbound actions can then reference that current user.
For example, the base system inbound action Create Incident sets the
caller_id of the incident to the value returned by
gs.getUserID()
.
If multiple users have the same email address, the instance first searches for an active user with the email address. The instance does not match inactive users.
Matching watermarks in the Subject line or Body
The following examples illustrate how the instance matches randomized watermarks in an email subject line or body.
Subject Line or Body Contents | Matching Results |
---|---|
Ref:MSG0000008_ aLJc130zDhCVuh3spXmt | The instance recognizes this string as a watermark and searches the Email Watermarks [sys_watermark] table for a record with the number MSG0000008_ aLJc130zDhCVuh3spXmt. If this watermark exists, the instance matches the email to the associated record. If this watermark does not exist, the system processes inbound email messages as described in Criteria for matching email to inbound actions. |
Ref:MSGWTR0000008_wfLLz42IxCgUvG2JlYnh | The instance recognizes this string as a watermark and searches the Email Watermarks [sys_watermark] table for a record with the number MSGWTR0000008_wfLLz42IxCgUvG2JlYnh. If this watermark exists, the instance matches the email to the associated record. If this watermark does not exist, the system processes inbound email messages as described in Criteria for matching email to inbound actions. |
Matching record numbers in the Subject line or Body
The following examples illustrate how the instance matches record numbers in the subject line of an email to an existing record when no watermark is present.