Managing email template configuration

To support sending marketing emails for your store, use the Management Center to configure outbound and inbound email activity accounts.

The inbound account is used to retrieve information about emails that cannot be delivered. This information is used for reporting purposes. When you configure the inbound account, you can set an option to Retry soft bounces from e-mail activities. As a result, the marketing services can attempt to resend these emails later.

Before you begin

Note: This version of the email template configutaion only applies to the new Management Center.

Open Management Center tools.
Enter your login credentials for the Management Center and sign in.
In the Management Center, navigate to Administration > System Administration > Email Configurations. The Email Configurations List page opens.

About this task

This document provides steps to configure Email within the Management Center. An overview of the email configurations list:

The list of email configurations for a selected store is displayed on the email configuration list. If there is no email configuration, the Getting Started icon is displayed.

Key Features: Search by name: Enter the account name in the search field to quickly find a specific email. The list updates as you type.
Filter: You can select the store and email configuration type (either inbound or outbound) from the drop-down arrow in the Filter column.
Note: Filters can be removed by clicking the Clear Filters button.
Columns: You can choose the columns shown on the email configuration landing page. Click the Columns name and select the check box for the columns you want to have listed on the page.
Refresh: The Refresh icon is available on the page to refresh the page and view the latest updates.

Email Configuration Table Columns

Store: Name of the store for which you want to configure the email.
Type: The email configuration type, either inbound or outbound.
Description: Description added while configuring the email account.

Pagination

You can update the number of results shown on each page. From the landing page, click the drop-down beside Results per page shown at the bottom right of the page.

Actions

Duplicate : Create a copy of the selected email configuration.
Edit : Modify the values within the selected email account.
Delete : Remove the selected email configuration.

View email configuration

Procedure

To view the email configuration:

On the email configuration page, enter the name of the email configuration in the Search field. The email configuration is listed on the email configuration landing page.
Click on the email configuration name, the View Email configuration page opens. You can view the following information related to the email configuration:
1. General properties
  - Store
  - Type
  - Name
  - Description
  - Actions
2. Settings
  - Email server
  - Email address
  - Account
  - Port
  - Commerce Host
  - Retry Strategy
  - Maximum number of retries
  - Retry interval (minutes)
  Note: You see different columns depending on the type of the email configuration, either inbound or outbound.

Create email configuration

Procedure

Click Create Email Configuration to create a new email configuration.
Select the Email Configuration Type from the drop-down list.
Select the Store for which you want to create the email configuration.

Note: The combination of Email Configuration Type and Store must be unique to the system. You cannot create more than one configuration with the same combination.

If you select Outbound email configuration type, complete the following fields on the Outbound email activity account:

Option	Description
Name	Type a name for the account, for example, `OutboundEmailAccount`.
Description	Type a brief description for the account. Note: This field is optional.
Email server	Type the host name of the SMTP server to connect with.
Email address	Type the email address of the outbound account, for example, `YourOutboundMailName`@`YourHostName`.
Account	Type the email account to use on the SMTP server. This entry acts as a user ID to connect to the server.
Password	Enter the password for the account.
Port	Enter the port number on the SMTP host that accepts SMTP requests. The default is 25.
Commerce host	Enter the fully qualified host name of the Transaction server. Important: The fully qualified host name is the host name that is combined with the domain name. For example, if the host name is `system1` and the domain is `mydomain.com`, the fully qualified host name is `system1.mydomain.com`. This requirement also applies when you configure the Commerce host field for inbound accounts. For HCL Commerce Developer, use the host name `localhost`.
Delivery start time	Enter the time at which the account begins mailing pending email activities. The date and time are based on the current system time for the computer where Transaction server is installed. For the Hours field, valid values are `0` to `23` (use the 24-hour clock).

If you select Inbound email configuration type, complete the following fields for the Inbound email activity account:

Option	Description
Name	Type a name for the account, for example, `InboundEmailAccount`.
Description	Type a brief description for the account. Note: This field is optional.
Email server	Type the host name of the POP3 server to connect with.
Email address	Type the email address of the inbound account, for example, `YourInboundMailName`@`YourHostName`.
Account	Type the email account to use on the POP3 server. This entry acts as a user ID to connect to the server.
Password	Enter the password for the account.
Port	Enter the port number on the POP3 host that accepts POP3 requests. The default is 110.
Commerce host	Enter the fully qualified host name of the Transaction server. This name is for the computer that retrieves email that is associated with the email activity. Important: The fully qualified host name is the host name that is combined with the domain name. For example, if the host name is `system1` and the domain is `mydomain.com`, the fully qualified host name is `system1.mydomain.com`. For HCL Commerce Developer, use the hostname `localhost`.
Retry soft bounces from e-mail activities	Select this option to configure the automatic resending of the email to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. If you select this option, the following options display: Number of times to retry soft bounce recipients Select the number of times that you want to resend email activities to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. Interval time between delivery and subsequent retry attempts Enter the time, in hours and minutes, between the initial send time, and each subsequent attempt.
Extract bounce information only. Do not retry soft bounces	Select this option to prevent the automatic resending of the email to addresses that experience soft bounce-backs. If you select this option, the following options display: Length of time after delivery to extract bounce information Enter the time, in hours and minutes, between the initial send time, and the time when bounce information is extracted from the database. This extract happens only one time. Setting this time to an hour or more should be sufficient to capture the relevant data because any bounce information should be returned quickly from the destination email servers. Keep in mind that there is some minimal load placed on the server to extract this information. Therefore, you might want to defer the extract until such time that this database activity has minimal impact on the server.

Click Finish to save the email configuration.

Results

The email configuration is created successfully and is now available on the landing page.

Edit email configuration

Procedure

Choose one of the following methods to edit the email configuration:
- From the View Email Configuration page:
  1. Click on the desired configuration name.
  2. On the View Email Configuration page, click the Edit button.
- From the email configuration listing page:
  1. Click the Edit icon from the Actions menu.
The Edit Email Configuration page opens.
Edit the email configuration information according to your requirements.

Note: You cannot edit the store name and configuration type.
Click the Save button to save the changes.

Remember: The Cancel button closes the page without saving your changes.
The following confirmation message is displayed on the screen:
Email configuration "abc" updated successfully.

Delete email configuration

Procedure

To delete the email configuration:

On the Email Configuration List page, click the Delete icon from the Actions menu to delete the email configuration.
In the Delete window, click the Yes, Continue button to confirm the deletion.

Note: If you click the No, Cancel button, you will be redirected to the email configuration listing page without deleting the email configuration.
The following confirmation message appears on the screen:
"abc" has been deleted successfully.
You can delete more than one email configuration at a time by performing bulk deletion. Select the check box beside the Name heading to select all the list or select the check box in front of all the names you wish to delete. Click the `Delete All button that pops up on the screen. A confirmation dialog will appear for multiple deletes. Click Yes, Continue to proceed with the bulk deletion.

Duplicating email configuration

Procedure

To create a duplicate email configuration:

On the Email Configuration List page, click the Duplicate icon from the Actions menu to create a duplicate email configuration.
Provide the Name of the duplicated email configuration and select Store.

Note: If the file name is ABC, by default, the name of the duplicate file is "Copy of ABC".
In the duplicate email configuration window, click the Duplicate button to confirm the duplication.
The following confirmation message appears on the screen:
Duplicate email configuration created successfully.
Note: If you are on the Edit Email Configuration page, you can update the details after getting the Duplicate email configuration created successfully message. You can update the details and click the Save button, or update no changes and click the Save button. You can see the duplicate email configuration on the Email Configurations List page.