This step helps you access email by opening a folder on the email server and presenting it in the tree. The opened folder is represented in the application tree and as a table in the Recorder View. For each message, the table lists the following properties as columns:
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From: Sender in the format John Doe <j.doe@organization.com>
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Subject: Subject line of the message.
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Received: Date when the message was received, in the format 2021-12-13T15:27:33+01:00 (ISO-8601)
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Size: Size of the message in bytes.
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Has Attachment: Whether the message has one or more attachments.
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Is read: Whether the message is marked as read.
The tree and the table with messages do not reflect changes made to the email folder that can occur after the step is executed, such as moving or deleting a message.
Properties
- Application action: Open email folder
- This action connects to an email server and opens the selected email folder.
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- Application name
- Provide a name for the application.
Assign different application names to applications in a robot to avoid errors.
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- Protocol
- Select the email protocol used to connect to the email server: Select from "imap", "pop3," and their secure variants "imaps," "imap+tls," and "pop3s." The option "imap+tls" is for email servers requiring opportunistic TLS.
- Email server
- Specify the name or address of the email server.
- Email server port (optional)
- Specify a port number of the email server. If not provided, the standard port of the selected protocol is used.
- Account name and Password
- Enter credentials to log in to the email server.
- Path in mailbox (optional)
- The name of the folder to open on the email server. It may be in the form of a path for a nested folder, in
which case the elements in the path must be separated with slashes. To open the folder where the incoming email is stored, do not
provide any path or name.
Examples: Junk E-Mail, Subscriptions/Mailing lists.
Leave this field blank when using the POP3 or POP3S protocols, as POP3 does not support folders.
The opened folder is represented in the application tree. A folder can contain zero or more messages. Each message has an "der_index" property that indicates its place in the folder. Indexes start at 1 and are consecutive.
- Application action: Close email folder
- This application action closes the application.
- Component actions
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The following component actions are provided.
- Copy message and Move message (for IMAP and IMAPS protocols)
- The actions copy or move the selected message to the specified target folder. The availability of the actions depends on whether the email server supports the copy and move operations.
- Mark message as read (for IMAP and IMAPs protocols)
- This action flags a message as read or unread. Select the check box Is read to mark the message as read, or clear the check box to mark the message as unread.
- Get message content
- This action returns a string value containing the message and headers in RFC 822 format.
- Delete message
- This action removes an email message.
- POP3 or POP3S protocol restrictions
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- No folder support. The folder name on the "Open email folder" action must be empty or "INBOX."
- Some POP3 servers do not reflect changes made through the POP3 connection on other interfaces. For example, when a robot deletes a message from a Gmail account using the POP3 protocol, the web browser interface may continue to show that message. For the robot, the message is deleted.
- The Delete Message step marks a message for deletion, but it stays on the server until the application is closed.
- Most POP3 servers delete messages once they have been downloaded.
- The "read" or "unread" flag cannot be set.