Hints for designing Request forms for use with email importing

For creating questions from email arriving at each email address monitored by RefTracker using the Systems>Batch process menu>Data import/export>Email importing screen, you can define a different Request form for use with each email address.  In this way things known about the question or client because of the email address used to receive the request, can be included as default values. Here are some important hints about forms for use with email importing:

1. Request forms used with email importing are generally set to be unavailable for both client and staff use (as they are only used by the RefTracker system itself). They can be Requester service, Internal task or KB forms!
2. All attachments to incoming emails will be turned to Question attachments in RefTracker.  There is no need to include the Attach files special field for this purpose.
3. Always consider the applicability of sending a Confirmation email on arrival of questions via email importing – we recommend that Confirmation emails are turned off in forms used for email importing. On most occasions it is inappropriate to send a Confirmation email – for example when the email was created from an SMS to email import process. Anyone sending an email already has a record of the request they sent you in their copy of that email, so it is just not necessary to send confirmation emails in this scenario.  More importantly, you WILL receive spam into email addresses monitored by RefTracker (even when spam filters are in place, as are provided for Altarama’s hosted customers), and you do not want to be sending confirmation emails back to spammers! 
4. A form for email importing should:
   – default the Response method to email
   – include the Client email field – it will be automatically populated by the import email process
   – include the cc:all field – it will be automatically populated by the email import process, but only email addresses that fit into the first 2000 characters in order to prevent long cc: list as might be provided by bulk mailouts
   – include the Client name field – it will be automatically populated with the client’s name as defined in their email client, if one is defined.
   – include the Subject line field (preferably immediately above the Question field) – it will be automatically populated by the Subject line of the imported email
   – as with all Request forms the Question field is mandatory. The imported email’s body will be automatically placed in the Question field so it is a good idea to label is “email body”. 
   – Priority should not be included unless you specifically want to override the priority with which the imported email was sent (see the Priority code table for more details).
   – any attachments will also be automatically imported
   – any embedded images will be imported as embedded images, and will show in RefTracker as a thumbnail, in the position/s where each individual image was provided by the imported email.  Click on the thumbnail to see the image in the full size it was provided in the email.
5. Including all of these fields will also ensure that they can be easily changed by using the Change screen, if you need to do that. 
   You only need to include any other fields in your template if you specifically want them to appear in places like the Details tab and Change screen. 
   Here is an example form layout for email importing. In this example Priority has been added and set to High to alert staff to questions that come in by email – a preference on the part of this example organisation.

• This example also includes a mandatory Matter number field and a Mandatory field that asks if the matter number has been completed.  Mandatory fields like this, that cannot be completed by the automatic email import process, result in the question created by this import being marked as “Incomplete”, as indicated by a construction icon  near the question number.   The “Incomplete” status will result in the staff member working on this question being taken to the Change screen where the missing mandatory information will be highlighted.  When that missing information is provided the “Incomplete” status will be removed.  The question can be worked on while it is in the “Incomplete” status.
  So, this is a way that you can ensure that staff check newly arrived questions, and of the staff member being reminded that the question is still incomplete, when they use the Answer, Third party, Change, Copy or Close without client contact screens, until the information is provided.
• If you use the Dynamic Lookups module, you can define a post population lookup based on the client email address that will automatically add other client contact information to the question as it is created. For full details of how to setup a request form for using Dynamic lookups with email importing, see the Dynamic Lookups manual

Hints for answer email importing

When you have an answer email importing address set up recording answers in RefTracker, saving answers and recording statistics for work done directly through email is much easier, and this may trigger ideas as to new workflows you can use, or other services that you can capture in RefTracker and report on.
If you are not already using answer email importing and would like to do so, and we recommend that you do, contact your RefTracker support representative to have an answer email importing account set up for you (for in-house customers we will need to work with your IT department to do this).
The Request form specified for use with Answer email importing needs to be set up correctly for this purpose, in that it is used for creating the new question, and recording an answer for it, when an External answer email is imported in this way. 
 
The Request form associated with the Answer email importing address should be one that will provide the right results for your answer email importing.  It can be the same Request form that you use for New question email importing, but be sure that any arrival notification emails are turned off, and the External answer action parameter is appropriately set in Edit options, Processing options tab.  Setting External answer action to “Review always” will ensure that the question created is placed in “External answer review” status and checked by staff.  The Confirmation and Notification emails should also be turned off.

Note when testing this function: When testing this you must use client email address/es that are not already in use for RefTracker staff members (in the System>Users full screen) or RefTracker monitored email addresses (in System>Batch process menu>Data import export>Email importing).