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Understanding Email Collaboration

The Email Collaboration Framework (EMC) allows applications to send, receive, and process emails with interactive content. You can send an HTML form to a user, and they do not need to log into their system to perform tasks.

This diagram shows the email collaboration flow:

Image: Email Collaboration flow

Diagram showing the email collaboration flow.

Email Collaboration flow
  1. A system event triggers PeopleSoft PeopleCode, which creates a collaborative email and sends it to a user.

  2. The user who receives the email takes appropriate action and clicks Submit.

  3. The user's submission is sent to an email account that is designated for holding responses.

  4. An application engine program runs on a configured interval, polling the repository for new emails.

    It processes the emails and publishes them as service operations.

  5. The service operation runs, allowing the implementing application to process the data in a known and supported format.

Email Collaboration Support Matrix

This table covers the general email clients supported for email collaboration.

Client

Inline Support

Attachment Support

Enhanced Attachment Support

Outlook 2003

Note: Outlook 2003 uses Internet Explorer to render the HTML message.

Y

Y

Y

Outlook 2007

Note: Outlook 2007 uses an internal tool to render the HTML. The actionable fields (buttons, check boxes, and so on) are rendered as text.

N

Y

Y

Lotus Note

Y

Y

Y

Thunderbird

Y

Y

Y

Hotmail

Note: The HTML actions are controlled by the Hotmail Client. Since Hotmail is a web client, they circumvent the form submission calls that are in the HTML client. The user may be required to download the attachment prior to opening.

N

Y

Y

Gmail

Note: Similar to Hotmail.

N

Y

Y

Yahoo

Note: Similar to Hotmail.

N

Y

Y

Internet Explorer (IE)

Note: Internet Explorer is listed because it responds differently based on the version of Outlook. IE 7 does not support the basic attachment when used with Outlook 2007. The email is created, but the body is not populated. If using IE 6, there is no issue.

N

Y

Y

FireFox

Note: Listed to compare to Internet Explorer. No issues have been reported with the way the email is populated using either attachment type.

N

Y

Y

Setting Up Email Collaboration

To set up email collaboration, you need to:

  • Set up the PSFT_EMC_GETMAIL node.

  • Create Integration Broker message.

  • Create Integration Broker service operation.

  • Define EMC forms, EMC Layout and fields mapping.

  • Update an Approval Process notification option.

  • Schedule the application engine program EOAWEMC.