Emails can be sent from  Agiloft automatically behind the scenes or manually as needed. It is common for most outgoing system emails to be automatically sent behind the scenes when certain criteria are met, using rules. For example, you could use a rule to send a notification email when a contract changes status, or when a user is assigned to a record. Administrators can find more information about automating emails in Notification Actions.

Emails that are sent from  Agiloft are saved and organized, so you can find past communications based on the records or people they involve. For example, you might be working on a contract record and use the email icon to send it to a colleague to ask for more information. Emailing the record from inside  Agiloft allows you to link directly to the record and also makes it easy to see all emails related to the record in the future. For more information about viewing past correspondence, see Viewing Past Emails.

When you send an email from  Agiloft, you can create it from scratch or use an email template. Email templates are configured by administrators for each table. You can also save your own email templates if you have the necessary permissions, so you can reuse emails you send frequently that may not be useful for others. For information about managing email templates, see Email Templates.

The  Agiloft email client allows you to make use of some of the most powerful features of the system, such as templates, formulas with variables, searches, the Text editor, linked records, file attachments, hyperlinks, and table fields. Permission to create emails and email templates, and to publish templates to other users, is granted for each table.

Send an Email

To send emails outside of automated workflows, users can manually send new messages from several places:

• Within a record, click the Email icon, or click New on the Emails tab if the Emails tab is configured for the table.
• In the table view, select one or multiple records. Then use the Email drop-down in the action bar to select Send Email or the name of an existing email template. There might not be any email templates listed if there are no templates for the table or if they aren't marked Active for your team, or if you don't have permission to use email templates.
• In the Communications tab of the left pane, select New > New Email.

After you use one of these options to manually begin an email, you can always insert an email template from inside the email editor by selecting Insert > Populate from template. This option lets you select any email template you have permission to use, even if it isn't marked Active.

Insert email template text

Create an Email Template

Email templates use the same content editor tools as standalone emails. Follow these steps to create a template instead of a standalone email.

1. In the table view, select the Email icon and then choose Manage Templates. This opens a list of email templates for the table.
2. Click New to open the Email window.
3. Select the Heading tab and:
   1. Enter the Template Name.
   2. Add a Description.
   3. Select whether the template is visible for users with permission to view published templates.
   4. Select the teams for which the template is active.
4. If necessary, select the Options tab to configure additional options.
5. Select the Message tab to reopen the email editor. Create the email template using any of the features described in this topic.
6. Click Finish to save the template. It will be added to the list of available email templates.

For more information about managing email templates, see Email Templates.

Email Editor

The main part of the Email window is an HTML Text editor that allows you to create, edit, and format text and insert pictures, hyperlinks, and even tables into the email. The HTML drop-down allows you to create emails in the following ways:

• As HTML, via the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) elements around the window.
• As HTML directly from source. This removes the WYSIWYG elements from the top of the window and processes the HTML markup. 
• As plain text. This removes the WYSIWYG elements from the top of the window, and it doesn't process any HTML markup. 
  

Recipients and Senders

The fields for adding recipients, senders, CCs, and BCCs are above the subject line of the email. To change the default From and To options, hover over the arrow and select one of the email addresses from the list. 

From address

The Reply-to option allows you to define a different address to use when someone responds to the sent email. For example, you might show a team email as the From address, but have the reply sent directly to your email address. You can also use this option in conjunction with inbound email settings to take action based on the response. For more information about receiving emails and email responses, see Creating and Updating Records by Email.

Select Recipients

1. Select the Recipients drop-down next to the To field to see the options to search for or add email addresses. 
2. To send the email to a system-defined address:
   1. Select the search type, such as Users and Teams.
   2. Click the look-up icon to locate the address. 
   3. Select and import the address into the list of recipients. 
3. To send the email to an address that is not in the system:
   1. Select Addresses.
   2. Enter the email addresses in a comma-separated list. 

You can use multiple search options for one email. Whenever possible, it is better to send email to a person defined in the system, rather than manually typing their email address. This allows users to see all the information they have permission to see, whereas adding a user's email address manually gives them access only to information guests can see.

Select CC and BCC Recipients

1. Hover over To to open a drop-down, then select CC or BCC.

2. Choose the recipients as above.

   If you include dynamic content in an email, such as attaching table fields, the system automatically evaluates the permissions for each recipient you've selected. This requires sending the email to each recipient individually, which means CCs or BCCs do not appear as such, and instead receive the email with only their address on the To line.

Automatic Recordkeeping

When an email is sent, the system automatically stores a record of the email in the Communications table and populates the record with the sender, recipient, and linked record information, if available.

Example email record

• The From Login and From Company fields are automatically mapped from:
  • The sender's user record, if the email was sent by a user
  • The sending information configured for the rule or outbound address, if the email was sent by a rule
• The To Login and To Company fields are automatically compared to the contacts in the system. If any matches are found, the contact information is mapped to the email.
• The linked record is mapped to the Background Details tab of the email record, if the email was sent from a record in a table. Linked record identifiers are built by saving the table name and record ID and combining them into a Linked Record hyperlink.
  Link to Approval record 353

If the email is sent from the Communications tab instead of a record, the email can be found in the user's sent email list and in the contact record of the recipient.

Formulas in Emails

Formulas can be used in the email subject line and body to include information about the record, recipient, and more. To add a formula, position the cursor where you want to insert text and do one of the following:

• Select Insert > Variables
  
• Click Formula Help and click the formula or variable you want to enter
• Manually enter the formula as text into the header or body

Formulas can enable you to populate emails with data from the knowledgebase. For example, in the Support Case email template, formulas are used to populate...

• The recipient name - $end_user_name
• The ticket ID and summary - $id, $summary
• The ticket notes - $additional_notes_latest
• Other ticket details such as Date Created, Customer Name, Status, Priority, Type of Issue, and Description. 

In some configurations, you might use a formula to insert text that itself includes a formula. For example, you might include $resolution_text in a Service Request email template, but the Resolution field might also include $working_hours_to_close. If you need to use email templates that insert nested variables, you can configure your KB to resolve both layers of variables by setting the iterative_email_body_formula_resolver global variable to Yes.

Table Fields in Emails

1. To insert fields from the table and record into the email, open the Include Fields window by either:
   • Selecting Insert > Fields from <Table Name>
   • Clicking the link at the bottom of the Email window, next to Fields Included
     Attachments and Fields Included
2. Select Yes to Include fields from <Table Name>, then choose whether to insert the fields as inline text or as an attached file. If the fields are inserted as inline text, they appear below the text body.
3. Select which fields to include, and whether to only include fields that have some content. Note that fields must be included on the layout in order to attach them to an email.
4. Click Finish.

File Attachments 

Files can be attached to emails manually, or you can select File with Versioning fields in the record to include. Since versioning is not needed for emails, it is disabled in the field. Follow the steps in the Table Fields in Emails section to include file fields.

Attach Past Communications

It's possible to import any email in the Communications table into the current message. To do this:

1. Select Insert > Message to import. The Communications table opens in a dialog box. 
2. Locate the relevant message and click Import/Replace.

This inserts the message content as HTML text into the Email editor. You can add other email body content and edit your draft before sending the email.

Hyperlinks in Emails

Use hyperlinks to allow email recipients to open a record directly from the email. This makes it easy for recipients to approve or reject changes, add notes, answer questions, review details, locate past correspondence, and much more, without manually logging in to the system and navigating to the record.

To insert a hyperlink to the current record:

1. Select Insert > Include a hyperlink to edit the <Table Name>.
2. In the Hyperlink window, enter the hyperlink text.
3. Select whether to edit or view the record when the link is clicked. If you make the link view-only, users with the necessary permission can still click Edit to make changes to the record.
   • If the record opens for editing, select the browser redirect behavior when the user clicks Finish or Cancel. You can set specific redirect addresses here, or control the default Finish and Cancel URLs with the Exit URL and Cancel URL global variables.
   • If the record opens for viewing only, select the redirect behavior when the record is closed. The default redirect address for closing a record is also controlled by the Exit URL global variable.
4. Alternatively, you can configure the hyperlink to automatically populate a field without requiring the user to view or edit the record at all. With this option, the user can be redirected to a different URL. For example, you might redirect the user to a page that shows a confirmation for their action.
5.  Select the Start and Expiration times of the hyperlink. You can use:
   
   • No start or expiration time. If you do not specify an expiration date here, the value in the Hotlink Age or Email Marketing's URL Age global variable determines the default expiration date.
   • An exact date and time.
   • A calculation of the time created plus a defined number.

You can enable SSO from hyperlinks in emails after you complete the steps in the Single Sign-on topic. If a user encounters an error while attempting to access  Agiloft through a hyperlink, they are brought to the URL defined in the Error URL global variable.

In addition to these configurable record hyperlinks, hyperlinks can be added manually, either by clicking the link icon in the WYSIWYG editor or by editing the source HTML. Read the Hyperlinks topics to learn more about their syntax and functionality.

URL Encryption

Hyperlinks sent from within  Agiloft messages are automatically encrypted, so it is not possible to use them to obtain user login details; hotlinks are also designed to always require users to provide their credentials after clicking the link, either with their login and password information or with single sign-on. In addition, if you use the Hyperlink Syntax and Examples to manually construct a link for  Agiloft, you can go to Setup > Access > Automatic Login Hotlinks to encrypt any hyperlink, so that you can share that encrypted link with users. For more information, see Encryption keys.

Email Options

Clicking Options at the top of the Email window opens some additional settings for the email:

• CC one copy of the email to Users. This is primarily used in email templates as a way to always include a person or team as a CC when other users send the template.
• Collate Results. This option appears when multiple records are selected. If the same user is selected as a recipient for more than one of the records, choosing Yes will collate all the results and send them as a single email, rather than as multiple emails.
• Include encrypted ID in subject line. This enables the system to parse responses so that the correct record can be updated.
• Enable field parsing for replies. See Email Parsing for more information.
• Include Hidden Code for Truncating replies. This inserts a hidden code into the email so responses can be truncated. The system will strip the original email message identified by the code, preventing overly long email threads.
• Email marketing options. These options only appear if Email Marketing is enabled for a table. 

Send Emails in Bulk

You can send the same template email to several records at once, each with the details from the selected record. The sent email will be linked to each record, appearing in the Email tab and in History.

1. In the table view, select the records in the list.
   Record list with three records selected
2. In the email drop-down, select the template name or Send Email.
   
3. Make any changes desired in the email editor.
4. Select the To and From contacts for the email. You can use linked fields to automatically select a certain user based on the record information, such as the Assigned Person or Created By user. To send emails to additional recipients, hover over To and select CC or BCC.

Email Automation

While it is possible to create and send emails manually, emails are frequently sent as part of a rule, an action, a workflow, or a schedule. Automated emails will generally use a template with formulas to populate the entire email based on the relevant system information. Automated emails can serve many varied purposes.

Automated emails can be set up in the following ways:

• The Reports wizard contains a Schedule tab where you can decide the frequency of the report, whether to distribute the report by email or by writing it to the disk, and the email addresses it should be sent to.
• The Action type Notification Action can be used with action buttons or rules.