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Email Inbound Connector

Start ScriptRunner Actions by Email

ScriptRunner Mailbox

For automation via email, ScriptRunner requires a separate mailbox on your mail server. ScriptRunner’s authentication and communication with the mailbox is done using the standard IMAP protocol. Cascaded security mechanisms ensure that only authorized emails can start an Action.

Legacy Systems

Many legacy systems have no means to communicate via REST Web Services. However, they often have the possibility to embed and send structured information in emails. In order not to miss automation, you can use the Email Inbound Connector.

Applications

In most applications, sending emails is part of the usual scope of functions. You can use this to make it a part of your automation. User actions send an email and start a scheduled action on ScriptRunner. For example, the creation of a user account can be triggered from an HR application.

Automate via Email with the Email Inbound Connector

Automation with the Email Inbound Connector is simple: The calling instance in these scenarios is an email client, e.g. as part of an application or source system.

When an email arrives in the dedicated ScriptRunner mailbox, the Email Inbound Connector accesses it and checks the sender address. If it is valid, the connector extracts the transferred data from the email.

The system then checks whether the action may be started by the connector. If this is the case, the parameters are passed to the action and it is started.

In the script of the action you can provide additional functions to give a direct feedback to the calling system. In this way you can give results and feedback to the application or store them in an application database.

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Structured email for data transmission

To start and process an Action, the corresponding data must be transferred to ScriptRunner via email. The structure and content of the email follows a certain structure and has been deliberately kept simple. Emails and parts of the body that do not follow this structure are ignored.

The email body contains

  • SRXAction = name of the Action to be started
  • SRXReason = message for the report and the individual parameter-value pairs on a separate line

The parameter names result from the script assigned to the Action. You can use the corresponding variables of the source system to fill the parameter values.

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