Using Connect action for Email

Use the Connect action to establish a connection with an email server. This is the first action you must use to automate an email-related task.

Prerequisites

You can use OAuth 2.0 to authenticate with the email server for email automation. Based on your email service provider, perform the relevant steps:

Outlook/Office 365
- If you use Client credentials flow authentication mode, then perform the following steps:
  1. Log in to the Microsoft Azure portal.
  2. Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform to obtain the client ID and tenant ID. See Register an application.
  3. Add a Client secret. See Add a client secret.
  4. Based on which mail server you connect to, perform the relevant steps:
    - IMAP/POP3
      Add the POP and IMAP permissions to your AAD application . See Authenticate an IMAP, POP or SMTP connection using OAuth.
    - EWS
      - Configure for app-only authentication. See Configure for app-only authentication.
      - Configure an application access policy and limit the scope of application permissions. See Configure application access policy.
- If you use the Authorization code with PKCE authentication mode, then perform the following steps:
Gmail
To authorize your application with Gmail using the Authorization code with PKCE authentication method, perform the following steps:
Note:
- Client Credentials flow does not support Gmail.
- The Client Credentials and Authorization code with PKCE authentication modes do not support Yahoo and MSN mail servers.

Important: If you want to use both the authentication mode (Client credentials and Authorization code with PKCE), you must register on two separate applications.

Note: When you connect to an Exchange Web Services server, multi-factor authentication (MFA) must be disabled, including in all organizational level security policies where MFA might be enabled. If multi-factor is not disabled completely, users can encounter connection or authorization errors. However, if you still want to use MFA, review the information in this article (be aware that a successful connection is not guaranteed:

Multi-factor authentication for Azure EWS (A-people login required)

This action enables you to provide the email server credentials and details, and associate this information with a session name. Use this same session name for the other Email actions, so you only have to provide the server information once.

Procedure

To establish a connection with an email server, follow these steps:

In the Actions palette, double-click or drag the Connect action from the Email package.
Enter a session name.
In the Outlook,Email server, or EWS option, specify whether you want to establish a connection with Microsoft Outlook or a mail server.
When you establish a connection with Microsoft Outlook, email messages are processed from the shared mailbox. Ensure that you have set up the shared mailbox in your Outlook application.
Note:
- This feature is supported only for Outlook.
- You can select only one mailbox from the list of mailboxes in the shared mailbox.
- The meeting invitation is not read in Outlook because the bot does not select calendar invites as email objects. This feature is not currently supported.
- If you have selected the Outlook option, you do not need to provide any additional details.
- If you have selected the Email server option, complete the following fields:
  Note: For information about the host and port to be used for the various mail servers, see Email server settings.
  - Use secure connection (SSL/TLS): Select this option if you want to use a secure connection with the mail server.
  - Host: Enter the name of the mail server.
    Note: This field is not case-sensitive.
  - Port: Enter the port number of the server.
  - Protocol: Select either IMAP or POP3 protocol.
  - Authentication mode: Choose from the following authentication modes:
    - Basic: Uses the username and password.
    - OAuth2 – Authorization code with PKCE: See Microsoft identity platform and OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow
    - OAuth2 – Client credentials: See Microsoft identity platform and the OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow
    Depending on the authentication mode that you selected, you must specify the details in the following fields as applicable.
    - Username: Enter the username that you want to use to access the mail server.
      For example, john.smith@myCompanyName.com
    - Password: Enter the password for the username you provided.
    - For Client ID, Tenant ID, Redirect URI, and Client secret fields, enter the information that is provided for your account on your Azure portal.
    - Email provider: Select your email service provider from the drop-down list.
      
      Outlook/Office365
      If you select this option, then provide the Tenant ID.
      
      Gmail
    For Username, Password, Tenant ID, Client ID, and Client secret fields, choose from Credential, Variable, or Insecure string tab:
- If you have selected the EWS option, complete the following fields:
Click Save.

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