Understanding email-based work processing
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Email-based work processing lets work managers approve, disapprove, or take another action using an email response.
In PRPC versions prior to V6.2SP2, Directed Web Access lets you send an email message to inform an approver that a request item is awaiting an action. The approver logs into the application, locates the item, then selects and submits an action, optionally with a note, for the request item.
Email-based work processing lets the approver bypass these steps, allowing the approver to respond to an email that contains the appropriate flow action links to handle the request item. The response is received, validated, and processed by the application server so that a new work item is created and routed to a user or workbasket. For step-by-step instructions for an example, see PDN article 26435 How to configure email-based work processing.
Use the Email Wizard to generate service rules configured with the service activity pyCreateAndManageWorkFromEmail when you select Receive and email and create/manage a work object. This activity captures and validates the incoming email by checking for a valid work object ID in the subject line and a value of true on the allowCreateWork input parameter. After validation, a new work item is created for the incoming email and work item processing is delegated to the agent pyProcessEmailRequest. Configure the flow to route the new work item to a worklist or workbasket.
The class Work-ProcessEmail, mapped to the pc_work_processemail table in the PegaRULES database, contains the following rules:
The following rules apply to Work-:
Most of these correspondence rules are used for email processing failures. Save and customize in your application work class and RuleSet.
| Correspondence rules | |
|---|---|
| Work-.pzEmailActions | Sends the correspondence with flow action links. |
| Work-.pyTaskAlreadyProcessed | Sends failure notification if assignment is already processed. |
| Work-.pyMissingMandatoryData | Sends failure notification if incoming mail does not contain a mandatory note for a specific action, such as a reason for a Reject action. |
| Work-.pyTaskUnderProcessing | Sends failure notification if multiple actions on the same assignment are requested in parallel. |
| Work-.pyEmailApprovalRequestFailure | Sends failure notification if an agent fails to process the work item after a specified number of attempts. |
The instance Work-ProcessEmail maps Work-ProcessEmail class to the pc_work_processemail table. This table is used for recording the status of asynchronous processing of incoming emails. This table is similar to pc_work, with the following additional columns:
| pc_work-processemail table | |
|---|---|
| pyItemID | Stores the work item ID extracted from incoming email |
| pyAssignmentID | Stores the assignment ID (parsed from the subject line) on which the action is to be taken |
| pyRetryCount | Stores the number of attempts the agent can use before sending a failure email if the work item is locked by another user |
| pyItemClass | Stores the class name of the flow to process |
| pyEmailFrom | Stores the approver email ID |
| pyActionRequested | Stores the action requested for the assignment |
| pyOperatorID | Stores the operator ID the corresponds to the approver email ID |
| pyStatusMessage | Stores the status of the work item, such as a success or failure message |
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correspondence, database table |
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About Email Account data instances
Help — Email Accelerator Email Wizard |
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Atlas — Email Account Instances |