Concepts

System Mailbox

The System Mailbox receives and stores email for you to collect and then read. In some cases it also keeps a copy of any sent emails. This mailbox is an external to ActionStep and can be provided by any email provider that supports POP3 (Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook365/Exchange, your ISP etc.). Think of this mailbox as a post office or letter box - ActionStep collects all mail from this Mailbox to deliver to the relevant email users / actions / matters etc. within the ActionStep system. This mailbox can be either a single address (example.address@email.com) or a catchall address (*@email.com). Actionstep does not provide Mailbox hosting but we can recommend providers if you need help.

Collecting Email

ActionStep collects emails from the System Mailbox using the POP3 protocol to connect to the email server* (eg pop.gmail.com, pop3.live.com, pop3.xtra.co.nz etc.). By default ActionStep collects ALL messages waiting in the Inbox folder of the System Mailbox. When the messages are collected they are deleted from the Mailbox. ActionStep then delivers the email to the relevant locations within the system.

 A username and password are required for this connection – usually the same details you would use to log into this mailbox from the Internet.

Sending Email

All outgoing email from ActionStep leaves the local system via an SMTP server (eg smtp.gmail.com, smtp.hotmail.com, smtp.xtra.co.nz etc.). This server can either be provided by the same service that provides the Mailbox or you can use the ActionStep SMTP servers.

Email Settings

Go to Workflow Admin > Email > Email Preferences (or Email Settings via the Initial Setup Wizard):

Mail Setup

Mailbox Type

Choose between the single address mailbox or a catch-all mailbox.

Fallback Address

Emails that are incomplete, invalid or otherwise unreadable are delivered to this address. The Fallback Address should not be on the same domain (@yourdomain.com) as the catchall address as both addresses will clash.

Default Sender

This is the email address of the mailbox on your domain that ActionStep connects to and downloads messages from. This is also the address that recipients will see as the FROM address when you send messages from within ActionStep, unless you override the From option in your email settings or when composing a message. Note that automatic email messages sent from ActionStep will always show this address as the From address.

POP/POP3 (Incoming) Settings

Common POP Settings

A drop down list of common settings for reference.

Server Address

The address of the server where your Mailbox is stored. Your email provider can give you these details.

Username

The username you use to connect to your Mailbox.

Password

The password you use to connect to your Mailbox.

Check POP Settings

Once all details are entered this button tests that the system can connect to your Mailbox with the provided credentials. If the button turns green your settings are correct and you will be able to collect email from your Mailbox. If the button turns red, you are missing something or the credentials you have provided are not correct.

SMTP (Outgoing) Settings

Common Settings

A drop down list of common settings for reference.

Server Address

The address of your SMTP server. When using the ActionStep SMTP servers the server address will be set to 'localhost'. All other fields will be populated automatically. You can proceed to the Check SMTP Settings button.

Server Port

SMTP Server Port. ActionStep does not allow connections on port 25 to your SMTP server due to security and spam-related issues. Most providers offer alternative ports to use but if yours doesn't please use the ActionStep Servers in the Common Settings drop down box.

Authentication Type

Your email provider supplies this.

Username

The username you use to connect to the SMTP server – supplied by your email provider.

Password

The password you use to connect to the SMTP server – supplied by your email provider.

Check SMTP Settings

Once all details are entered this button tests that the system can connect to your SMTP server with the provided credentials. If the button turns green your settings are correct and you will be able to send email from ActionStep. If the button turns red you are missing something or the credentials you have provided are not correct.

Advanced Settings

Catch-all Header

This sets the Delivered-To field in all incoming emails from a catch-all mailbox. This should only be used if you are having issues with catch-all emails. See your IT provider before changing this.

Internal Routing

This setting tells the system to ignore the external (SMTP) email servers if delivering to an internal address. It is recommended that this is set to Route Internal Emails Directly (skip SMTP) to speed up delivery and save potential load on the SMTP servers.

Other SMTP Notes

You can either use the ActionStep SMTP servers or your own, but we recommend that you use the ActionStep SMTP servers (localhost) and update your SPF settings (see below). Using localhost is a lot easier than configuring your own mail servers for open-relay, etc.

 If you use your own, make sure that your server does not re-write the headers when sending the messages, otherwise you may lose some of the reply-to address information, which could mean that the reply does not come back to ActionStep correctly. You will also need to allow send-on-behalf-of for the account used to connect to the SMTP server.

For example, let's say we are connecting to matters@abc.com to send a message from Action ID 1234. ActionStep will specify the sender as a1243@abc.com. If the SMTP server objects to this, it may re-write the headers to say the message comes from matters@abc.com and thus when the reply is received ActionStep will not know where to place it and will put it into the Unassigned mailbox.

Email Aliases

Here you can setup the email aliases and their corresponding users within ActionStep:

Spam Filter Settings

If you use ActionStep's SMTP servers to send mail then you need to register these IP addresses in the SPF settings of your DNS configuration to prevent the messages being marked as spam. Update your SPF or Sender-ID record to include the following directives:

v=spf1 a mx ptr include:_spf.actionstep.com ~all

If you already have an existing SPF record, simply amend it with:

include:_spf.actionstep.com

Alternatively you can use your own SMTP server by adding it to the email configuration in ActionStep Admin (recommended).

 Email Size Limits

The mail size limit will depend on the route that the message takes through the Internet and the capabilities of the mail servers on each end. Most mail servers will handle messages up to 10MB and, even though ActionStep can handle larger messages, our recommendation is to stay within this limit to avoid unpredictable results. This applies to email sent from, and received into, ActionStep.

Setting Up a Wildcard Mailbox on Gmail / Google Apps

To setup a wildcard / catch-all address:

• Log in to your control panel.
• From the Service settings drop-down menu, select Email.
• Standard Edition Administrators: In the Catch-all address section, select the Forward the mail to: radio button..
• Non-Standard Edition Administrators: In the Email Routing section, select the Route to catch-all address: radio button.
• Enter the email address to which the mail should be forwarded. You must choose an email address on your domain.
• Click Save changes to activate the new address.

To disable your catch-all address:

• Log in to your control panel.
• From the Service settings drop-down menu, select Email.
• Standard Edition Administrators: In the Catch-all address section, select the Discard the email radio button.
• Non-Standard Edition Administrators: In the Email routing section, select the Discard radio button.
• Click Save changes to apply your selection.