General

This article will demonstrate how to configure File Processor as an auto-responder to emails. When receiving an email it will automatically reply with an email containing an attachment.

Example situation:

• In a store or shop, users could send an email to brochure@myshop.com and automatically receive the brochure or promotion as a PDF file in their mailbox.
• You have an event and users can receive the flyer with additional information when sending an email to event@mycompany.com.

In our scenario, when a customer sends us an email, we will send them the brochure, so that they can already have a look at it while waiting:

Configuration

1. Create a new channel and call it Automatic brochure reply
2. Set a periodic scheduling of 2 minutes.
3. For [Input] we will use Email. Configure the email connection via the Connection-tab.
   This might look similar to this:
   
4. For the Options-tab we only monitor the INBOX and select the option Only the e-mail for data to return.
   
5. Skip [Input Filter].
   This can be configured to accept only emails with a specific email address or from a specific domain. We will not configure a filter in this scenario.
6. Skip [Conversion].
7. For [Output] we will select Email.
8. Fill in the Connection settings so that you can send emails.
   This might look similar to this:
   
9. Select the Options-tab.
10. Fill in a Body text, with some information for the customer.

Dear customer, 

Please find attached more information about…
...

11. Select the attachment, in our scenario this would be brochure.pdf.
12. For the To: field, click [Add] and select [Property (Parameter)].
    If you already configured a field, you can double-click it to edit.
13. We need to send an email reply. So we need the address from the From-field of the original email.
    Therefor select option From for Property:.
14. Click the [Add] button and select the Regex option.
    We will use a regular expression (regex) to filter out the email address.
15. In our scenario we are using this regular expression: (["].*["][ ]?)?([<](.*[@].*[.].*)[>])$

This regular expression is a bit complicated as we receive "John Peeters" <john@customer.com> as From-name from our email server instead of only the email address. It is very likely that you create a different regular expression.

16. Your [Output] should look similar to this:
    
    
17. For the [Post-Action] we will first set the email as Mark as read and next use Delete email:
    
    Now you can start the File Processor and test your configuration.

Testing the scenario

As a customer in the store, I'm sending an email to the address as shown in the store. (this can be an empty email):

A few moments later I'm receiving the email with the attachment included!