Email Receive Connector

The Email Receive connector supports retrieving messages from an IMAP mail server.

Key Capabilities

IMAP-based email polling with OAuth 2.0 support for modern providers
Advanced filtering with IMAP RFC compliant search filters
Support for downloading full messages or attachments only
Configurable message retention and deletion policies

Overview

The Email Receive connector provides a simple way to automate the process of receiving emails. The connector connects to an IMAP server and polls a specified mailbox for new messages to process. By default the connector only receives messages that have not yet been processed, and it supports additional IMAP filters. The connector supports receiving entire messages in EML format or only downloading attachments on the emails being processed.

OAuth 2.0 configuration for Outlook and Gmail mail servers are the two most common connection configurations made in the Email Receive connector. You can access additional guides and resources for these two mail servers in the CData Community. See Using OAuth 2.0 in the Email Send and Receive Connectors.

Connector Configuration

This section contains all of the configurable connector properties.

Settings Tab

Email Receive Configuration

Settings related to establishing the connection.

Establish a Connection

To allow to receive emails, you must first establish an Email Receive connection. Once established, connections can be shared across multiple Email Receive connectors. There are several ways to establish this connection:

Add an Email Receive connector to your flow. Then use the Connection dropdown to select an existing connection or click Create to add a new connection.
Open the Settings page, then open the Connections tab. Click Add, select Email Receive, and click Next.
If you create the connection this way, you must still select it from the Connection dropdown on the connector.

Complete the following properties:

Setting	Description
Host	The hostname or IP address of the IMAP server.
Port	The port on which to connect to the IMAP server. Typical values include 143 and 993.
TLS Type	The method used to negotiate SSL/TLS when connecting to the server: STARTTLS: A plain text connection is established. Afterwards, SSL/TLS can be started with an explicit command. SSL/TLS: Negotiation occurs immediately without first establishing a plain text connection. None (Plain Text): A plain text connection is established, and no SSL/TLS is used.
User	The username to login to the IMAP server.
Authentication Mechanism	The type of authentication to use to login to the server. The options vary based on your choice.
Password	(Basic and NTLM) The password to the IMAP server.
Auth URL	(OAuth 2.0) The authorization URL for the service. This is the URL you are directed to when clicking the Connect button to log in and grant permission to the application.
Access Token URL	(OAuth 2.0) The URL to the access token.
Client Id	(OAuth 2.0) The client Id assigned when you registered for OAuth.
Client Secret	(OAuth 2.0) The secret assigned when you registered for OAuth.
Scope	(OAuth 2.0) A list of scopes that the application should have access to.
Callback URL	(OAuth 2.0) The URL where the service you connect to returns tokens to provide access. Services often require you to whitelist the URLs that are allowed, so this is the value to use when configuring the application registration with your service.

The following settings are required to establish a network-level connection to the IMAP server:

Host
Port
TLS Type

Once network-level connectivity has been established, the following settings are required to access the messages stored on the IMAP server:

User
Password or OAuth 2.0 authentication credentials
Mailbox

Use the Add and Test button to verify that the connector can reach the server.

Download

Settings related to processing messages.

Setting	Description
Mailbox	The IMAP mailbox to poll for messages.
Only process new messages	Check this to only process new messages. This is usually controlled by tracking the UID of downloaded messages. If the UID values become invalid, the connector falls back to using the timestamp of the last processed message or the Days to Search setting if no messages have been processed.
Days to Search	The number of days to search for messages. If Only process new messages is checked, this value is only used if the connector cannot search by UID or the timestamp of the last processed message.
Additional Search Filters	Supply an IMAP RFC compliant search filter to append to the query that is automatically built based on the New Messages and Days to Search settings.
Download Type	Choose to download full messages in EML format or only email attachments.
Delete Emails	Check this to delete successfully downloaded messages from the mailbox.
Expunge After Delete	Check this to permanently delete successfully downloaded emails from the mailbox. Warning: The server might permanently delete (expunge) messages immediately, making them unrecoverable.

Advanced Tab

Advanced Settings

Settings not included in the previous categories.

Setting	Description
IMAP Headers	A comma-delimited list of headers from the IMAP message that should be promoted as metadata in the downloaded file.
Incoming Server Public Certificate	The public key certificate used to verify the identity of a TLS/SSL server. If the target server uses TLS/SSL, set this field to the certificate that identifies the server. If the server’s certificate is not available, you can leave this setting blank to allow the underlying OS/JVM to perform certificate validation, or set it to `Any Certificate` to implicitly trust the server’s identity.
Command Timeout (seconds)	The command execution timeout duration in seconds.
TLS Enabled Protocols	The list of TLS/SSL protocols supported when establishing outgoing connections. Best practice is to only use TLS protocols. SSL v2 and SSL v3 are considered vulnerable and should only be used if your partner does not support higher versions. Keep in mind that TLS v1.3 is not universally adopted, and might be refused if the destination server does not support it.
Local File Scheme	A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.

Proxy Settings

Logging

Miscellaneous

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.

Setting	Description
Receive	Whether the connector should automatically poll the remote mailbox for messages to download.
Interval	The interval between automatic download attempts.
Minutes Past the Hour	The minutes offset for an hourly schedule. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Hourly. For example, if this value is set to 5, the automation service downloads at 1:05, 2:05, 3:05, etc.
Time	The time of day that the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Day	The day on which the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Weekly or Monthly.
Minutes	The number of minutes to wait before attempting the download. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Minute.
Cron Expression	A five-position string representing a cron expression that determines when the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Advanced.

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Transactions Tab

This tab lists all messages associated with the connector. Use the search bar to find specific messages, or click the funnel icon to apply a filter. You can filter by tracked headers, time, and/or status.

Receiving Emails

If Receive Automation is enabled, the Email Receive connector automatically polls the configured IMAP mailbox for messages to download. By default, the connector only receives messages it has not already downloaded. The first time the connector receives messages, use the Days to Search setting in the Download configuration section to specify the range of messages to download. Messages can also be manually retrieved by clicking the Receive button on the Transactions tab of the connector. The Download Type setting determines whether full messages or just message attachments are downloaded. Downloaded files are placed in the Output Folder or passed along to the next connector in the flow. When Download Type is set to Attachments, the connector adds two headers to each message:

EmailReceive-Attachment-Index: The attachment number for each attachment
EmailReceive-Attachment-Count: The total number of attachments on the email

The IMAP Search Filter setting allows for further customization of the range of messages to retrieve. This field accepts standard IMAP protocol filters and only downloads messages that match the configured filters. The following filters are supported:

Filter	Description
`<message set>`	Messages with message sequence numbers corresponding to the specified message sequence number set.
ALL	All messages in the mailbox: this is the default initial key for AND-ing.
ANSWERED	Messages with the `\Answered` flag set.
BCC `<string>`	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure’s BCC field.
BEFORE `<date>`	Messages whose internal date is earlier than the specified date.
BODY `<string>`	Messages that contain the specified string in the body of the message.
CC `<string>`	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure’s CC field.
DELETED	Messages with the `\Deleted` flag set.
DRAFT	Messages with the `\Draft` flag set.
FLAGGED	Messages with the `\Flagged` flag set.
FROM `<string>`	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure’s FROM field.
HEADER `<field-name> <string>`	Messages that have a header with the specified field-name (as defined in [RFC-822]) and that contain the specified string in the [RFC-822] field-body.
KEYWORD `<flag>`	Messages with the specified keyword set.
LARGER `<n>`	Messages with an RFC822.SIZE larger than the specified number of octets.
NEW	Messages that have the `\Recent` flag set but not the `\Seen` flag. This is functionally equivalent to “(RECENT UNSEEN)”.
NOT `<search-key>`	Messages that do not match the specified search key.
OLD	Messages that do not have the `\Recent` flag set. This is functionally equivalent to “NOT RECENT” (as opposed to “NOT NEW”).
ON `<date>`	Messages whose internal date is within the specified date.
OR `<search-key1> <search-key2>`	Messages that match either search key.
RECENT	Messages that have the `\Recent` flag set.
SEEN	Messages that have the `\Seen` flag set.
SENTBEFORE `<date>`	Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is earlier than the specified date.
SENTON `<date>`	Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is within the specified date.
SENTSINCE `<date>`	Messages whose [RFC-822] Date: header is within or later than the specified date.
SINCE `<date>`	Messages whose internal date is within or later than the specified date.
SMALLER `<n>`	Messages with an RFC822.SIZE smaller than the specified number of octets.
SUBJECT `<string>`	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure’s SUBJECT field.
TEXT `<string>`	Messages that contain the specified string in the header or body of the message.
TO `<string>`	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope structure’s TO field.
UID `<message set>`	Messages with unique identifiers corresponding to the specified unique identifier set.
UNANSWERED	Messages that do not have the `\Answered` flag set.
UNDELETED	Messages that do not have the `\Deleted` flag set.
UNDRAFT	Messages that do not have the `\Draft` flag set.
UNFLAGGED	Messages that do not have the `\Flagged` flag set.
UNKEYWORD `<flag>`	Messages that do not have the specified keyword set.
UNSEEN	Messages that do not have the `\Seen` flag set.

Getting Started

Flows

EDI Trading Partner Management Console

Connectors

Mapping

Admin API

How-To Guides

Scripting

Software License and Third-Party Copyrights

Key Capabilities

Overview

Connector Configuration

Settings Tab

Email Receive Configuration

Establish a Connection

Download

Advanced Tab

Advanced Settings

Proxy Settings

Logging

Miscellaneous

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Transactions Tab

Receiving Emails

Search Filters

Macros

Examples

​Key Capabilities

​Overview

​Connector Configuration

​Settings Tab

​Email Receive Configuration

​Establish a Connection

​Download

​Advanced Tab

​Advanced Settings

​Proxy Settings

​Logging

​Miscellaneous

​Automation Tab

​Automation Settings

​Alerts Tab

​SLAs Tab

​Transactions Tab

​Receiving Emails

​Search Filters

​Macros

​Examples

Key Capabilities

Overview

Connector Configuration

Settings Tab

Email Receive Configuration

Establish a Connection

Download

Advanced Tab

Advanced Settings

Proxy Settings

Logging

Miscellaneous

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Transactions Tab

Receiving Emails

Search Filters

Macros

Examples