Integration with email services by the IMAP/SMTP protocol

In Creatio, you can receive emails from email service providers that support the IMAP/SMTP protocol, for example, the Gmail email service.

Attention

This integration requires preliminary setup of the synchronization service in Creatio on-site. Learn more in the “Set up Exchange Listener synchronization service” article.

After you configure the list of email providers, users will be able to send and receive email messages directly from Creatio UI. The list of providers is used when setting up individual mailboxes.

Read more about setting up personal mailboxes in the “Configuring email accounts in Creatio” and “Email account individual settings” articles.

Note

To set up connection parameters for email providers, a user must have the permission to run the [Access to “Access rights” workspace] (CanManageAdministration) system operation.
Learn more about using system operations in the “System operation permissions” article.

Additional options for the integration of Gmail

For email accounts with a Gmail domain name, register the application in GSuite. Such registration enables passwordless OAuth authentication and is required for syncing the Google calendar and contacts with Creatio activities and contacts. Detailed instructions are available in the “Registering the application to synchronize with Google” article.

For security reasons, we recommend enabling two-factor authentication for Gmail accounts and using app passwords to access your mail. Read more in the Google Help Center. 

To test this functionality, you can turn on “less secure app access” in your Gmail account as a temporary solution. Read more in the Google Help Center.

Setting up the IMAP/SMTP email service provider

You can add an IMAP/SMTP email service provider using several methods.

Method 1. Adding the IMAP/SMTP provider from the [Email] tab of the communication panel

1.In the communication panel, click to open the [Email] tab.

2.Click and select the [New email account] action (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Adding a new email account

 

Note

You can also add a new email account by selecting [Go to mailbox settings actions] under  and clicking [New] on the page that opens.

3.Enter the email address in the displayed [New email account] window, and click [Next].

4.Click the [Add New Server] button.

Note

Add the domains of a new provider to the [Email providers domains] lookup to have Creatio automatically identify this email provider in the future. As a result, users will not have to specify the mail provider manually when setting up an email account.

5.On the opened page, click [Add] (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Adding a new email provider

 

6.On the page that opens, select “IMAP” in the [Service type] field.

7.Enter two required parameters: the “Inbound mail server (IMAP)” in the “imap@domain.com” format and the “Outgoing mail server (SMTP)” in the smtp@domain.com format (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 Setting up the IMAP/SMTP email service provider

 

8.The rest of the IMAP/SMTP server settings will be populated automatically. You can change them by selecting the needed option from the drop-down list to configure the mail server port and the security parameters.

Set the inbound mail server port:

•Select “143” to use the port without encryption.

•Select “993” to use the port for a secure connection.

Set the security parameters of the inbound mail server:

•Select “SSL/TLS” to use the standard data security protocol.

•Select “STARTTLS” to use the common protocol extension.

•Select “None” to disable the inbound mail data security.

Set the outgoing mail server port:

•Select “587” to use the port without encryption.

•Select “455” to use the port for a secure connection.

Set the security parameters of the outgoing mail server:

•Select “SSL/TLS” to use the standard data security protocol.

•Select “None” to disable the outgoing mail data security.

9.Specify additional settings.

Set up the mailbox login format:

•Select the [Use manual entry] option if users enter their email address and username.

•Select the [Use email address] option if the full email address is used as a login (for instance, “example@google.com”).

•Select the [Use mailbox name] option if the part of the email address before “@” is used as a username. For example, the “test” will be a login for “test@google.com” email address.

Set up the authentication method:

•Select “Basic” for the basic authentication using the user name and password with Base64 encryption.

•Select “OAuth 2.0” to restrict the service access to protected user resources without the need to pass the login and password. Populate the [Application (client) ID] and [Client secret] required fields. [Application (client) ID] is generated by the authentication server of the mail service. The documentation and API may refer to the application ID as “Product ID.” [Client secret] – a secret key generated by the authentication server. The documentation and API may refer to the client secret as “Product key.”

10.Save the settings by clicking [Apply].

As a result, system users will be able to use the mailboxes of this provider to send and receive email messages.

Method 2. Adding the IMAP/SMTP provider from the user profile

1.Open the user profile page by clicking the [Profile] image button on the main page of the application.

2.Click [Email accounts] (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 Opening the email accounts

 

3.Click [New] in the opened window.

4.To complete the setup, perform steps 3–10, described above in Method 1.

Note

To delete a mail server, delete all its mailboxes (email accounts) first.

See also

•Working with emails

•How to set up a personal mailbox