Processing emails or attachments to folders is easy with the Mail Attachment Downloader PRO Client and PRO Server products.
The feature table on the PRO page provides all functionality available within the product. This post dives into many of those PRO functions to help you automate mundane workflows in your business away. You can click through each of these functions being highlighted here to then dive into those functions in more detail.
Global Filters and Phases
A key function of PRO functionality is the concept of Global Filters. Global filters lets you configure one or more rules to run every time an email or attachment in an email is processed.
The program runs through every rule (top down) for every email (if Save as .eml checkbox in the rule is checked) and every attachment. When a rule matches an email or an attachment, the email or attachment is saved, data is extracted using extraction rules and then actions in that rule are run.
Each rule has four phases:
- The search phase defines criteria that tells the program whether or not to run this rule.
- The extract phase enables you to extract data from the email or attachment and also transform that data as needed.
- The save phase saves the file based on the supplied templated filename and folder. You can also use extracted information in the path giving you full control with the directories or filename of the saved file.
- And the process phase enables you to run many different actions to automate the workflow.
For more on this, refer to:
- A more detailed overview of Global Filters and phases
- Learn how to setup Global Filters:
Global Filters: A complete walkthrough - Learn to troubleshoot rules when your rule isn’t working:
Enable and learn how to use rule tracing. - Other troubleshooting tips:
Our knowledge base has answers
Rule Tracing How-To: Troubleshoot rules like a PRO
Troubleshooting Global filters has never been easier. Use Rule Tracing like a PRO to troubleshoot why your global rule filter did not work the way you thought it would.
If you still have questions or issues, see instructions here for contacting support.
Mail server connection setup tips
Links below will help guide you with mail server settings setup.
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- Setup your mail server connection: Recommended settings for some popular email offerings such as Office365, Exchange or Google
- Use modern auth: Use modern authentication for Exchange, Office365 and Google
Still having connectivity or authentication problems? Here are a few tips:
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- Firewall or some antivirus can often prevent the program from directly connecting or authenticating with mail servers. We do not have guidance here for every firewall or antivirus vendor, so check with their documentation and/or contact your IT support to get past this.
- Search our Knowledge Base for connectivity issues and how to solve them (eg. adding proxy settings in the program)
License activation or moving licenses
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- PRO license activation problems: Search our Knowledge Base for activation tips.
- Moving license: Moving license from one system or account to another is easy. Just uninstall the program from the old system and move to the new one. You should be able to use the program on both the old and new systems for a short-period (~ a day).
Running for multiple accounts
This blog post explores how you can setup the program to run for multiple accounts simultaneously. This feature is only available in the PRO editions.
READ THIS
https://gearmage.com/blog/multiple-email-accounts-via-rules/
PDF tips: Save emails or attachments as PDF
With the ability to convert emails to over 50+ formats, saving emails or emails with attachments in a single file or to different formats is a breeze with PRO Server. Note that PRO Client does NOT support converting to multiple formats.
READ THIS
https://gearmage.com/blog/convert-email-attachments-to-pdf/
Extract data like the Invoice number from an email
You can extract any data using the extraction wizard from the email or body and then use that in the saved filename format.
READ THIS
https://gearmage.com/blog/extract-data-emails-attachments/
Save extracted data to a database
Saving extracted data or files to a database could never be easier with the PRO Server.
READ THIS
https://gearmage.com/blog/save-emails-and-attachments-to-a-database/
Nest rules and actions like a PRO
You can nest both rules and chain/nest actions so one is run after the other with the PRO Server.
- Nest actions (see below)
For example, unzip an email attachment, then run some other actions on the extracted data.
READ THIS
https://gearmage.com/blog/email-actions-unzip-convert-pdf-run-script/
- Nest rules (see below)
Nesting rules can help with reusing rules so you don’t have to repeat the same condition across many rules.
Nesting email rules and actions
Further reading
Some interesting how-to links and posts for further exploration:
- Save excel/csv from emails to a database
- How email rules work in-depth
Contact us
Contact us if you have any questions, suggestions about the functionality described in this article.