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Sending Email Messages Using an External Email Client in Siebel Open UI

This topic describes using the Send Email command when you are running Siebel Email Response in Siebel Open UI mode and want to send an email using the default email client as defined by your operating system. For more information about selecting an external email client, see Specifying Preferences for Outbound Communications. For more information about setting user preferences for using third-party email clients, see Preference Settings for Outbound Communications.

The invocation of the default email client is done through the use of a mailto URL. Mailto URLs have the following characteristics:

• They do not provide a mechanism to pass HTML to the email client. Only plain text email templates work with the defined External Email Client.
• They do not allow for attachments to be passed to the email client. If attachments are required, then the user must manually attach them after the email client opens.

To send email messages using an External Email Client

1. Select a record or set of records in the Siebel application.

   NOTE:  Users must generally select a single record before invoking Send Email when using templates for which field substitution is performed. If they select multiple records, then selected generic recipients are drawn from all the selected records. However, field substitution applies only to the first selected record, and a single email message is sent to all recipients.

2. Perform one of the following steps:
   • From the application-level menu, choose File, then Send Email.
   • Press F9.
   • Click to the right of Initiate Work Item on the communications toolbar, then click Send Email, or click Initiate Work Item when Send Email is the displayed ToolTip text.

     For more information about initiating work items, see Siebel CTI Administration Guide.

3. In the Recipient or Template dialog box, perform the following steps:
   1. If the Recipient field is shown, then specify the recipient or specify no recipient yet.

      NOTE:  Whether the Recipient field appears depends on the kind of data that currently has the focus when you choose the Send Email command.

      If the current record is a person, such as a contact or employee, then the Recipient field does not appear.

      If the current record is some other entity, such as a service request or opportunity, then the Recipient field appears if recipients are configured for that object. The type of recipients varies by object, such as the contacts associated with the current service request or the employees associated with an opportunity.

   2. If necessary, click Change Language or Locale to change the language or locale, as necessary.

      Setting the language and locale changes the list of available templates to those associated with the language and locale you specify.

   3. From the Message Template field, choose the name of a communications template to insert into the message body.

      The listed templates are subject to filtering that is based on several factors, including channel, language, locale, and whether the template is HTML or plain text. For more information, see Visibility and Access for Templates.

      NOTE:  If the current record type (business component) has a default template associated with it, then you do not need to specify a template. If you specify a template, then its text is appended to the default template text in the email message. Consult your administrator, or verify the software behavior to see whether a default template is configured.

   4. In the Recipient or Template dialog box, click OK to continue to the email message window for the external email client.
4. In the external email client, complete the following steps:
   1. For the To, Cc, or Bcc fields, perform one or more of the following steps:
      • Verify any recipients that were automatically inserted in previous steps.
      • Specify any additional recipient email addresses from the email directories available through your email client program.
   2. Optionally, verify or enter text for the subject line. Text might be automatically inserted into the subject line when you select a template.
   3. Optionally, enter and format free-form text to modify or add to the template text.
   4. Optionally, specify operating system files as attachments to the email message.
   5. Optionally, check the spelling for your message, according to the support of your email client program.
   6. Send the message, or cancel the message if you decide not to send the email message.

      NOTE:  After the mailto URL is invoked and the external mail client opens, there is no feedback to the Siebel application as to whether the email was modified, sent, or cancelled. Siebel Email Response does not update the Siebel activity record in the Siebel database with user changes.