Description
Intuiface supports two methods for sending emails from within your interactive experience. Both support the attachment of one or more images, videos, audio files and documents or snapshots of annotated images and scenes.
Method One: Hosted
This is a free email service provided by Intuiface.
You can customize the following fields:
- From: the email address that will appear in the From field
- From Name: name that will be displayed in the From field of an email reader;
- Reply-To: one or more email addresses that will be addressed when a person replies to the Intuiface email;
- Reply-To Name: name for each Reply-To email address in the field mentioned above;
Additional information:
- Attachment size is limited to 5MB.
- Exclusive to the Essential plan: At the very end of the email, the following sentence is inserted: Sent from an interactive experience built using Intuiface. This sentence cannot be changed.
- HTTPS Port 443 is used to send email requests to the Intuiface email server.
NOTE: Email content and attachments are not saved on Intuiface servers. Only recipient email addresses and mail subjects are logged and this information is only retained for 15 days to facilitate potential Support issues.
Method Two: Configurable (Windows only)
You can use any SMTP server. No Intuiface signature is appended to emails. No attachment size limitation (it defaults to 10MB but you can change this). You must be in possession of the 28-day Trial or of a Platform Premier or Enterprise plan to use this option.
Player simply reflects the tier used to create the experience it's running. (Whether or not that particular Composer license is still active is irrelevant to Player. It only matters that the Composer license was active at the time the experience in Player was published.)
Adding Email Support to Your Experience
To use either email method in an experience, add the appropriate interface to your experience:
The Hosted version is ready for use out of the box. The Configurable version requires entry - via the Properties panel - of information specific to your email server. Remember, only Platform Premier or Enterprise plans customers can use the Configurable method.
Preparing for Use of the Configurable Email Option
Fill out all fields in the Properties panel for the Configurable Email IA. This information will be applied to all emails sent by Intuiface.
The Configurable email option requires use of ports 25 or 587. Make sure one of those ports are open for use by Intuiface. For secure email, Intuiface uses TLS via port 587.
NOTE:
- Office 365 works properly with TLS via port 587
- Use of SSL via port 465 is not supported.
Using a Gmail SMTP server without "two-step verification"
If using Gmail without two-step verification, it is no more possible to use google SMTP server to send email as stated in this google blog. Please activate "2-Step Verification on your Google Account" and follow the procedure below.
Using a Gmail SMTP server with "two-step verification"
To send an email using a Gmail account with two-step verification, you must generate an app password for use in Intuiface:
- Visit your App passwords page. You may be asked to sign into your Google account.
- At the bottom, choose Other for the "Select app" option and type in Intuiface. (You can type any text you wish, just use something to remind you that this password is being used in Intuiface.)
- Click the "Generate" button. A password is generated.
- Copy the password and click on the "Done" button
- Paste this password into the "Password" property of the Configurable Email interface assets used in your Intuiface experiences. NOTE: Be sure the value of the "Username" property is associated with the email address used to generate the password.
Google documentation about how to generate an app password is here.
Creating an Email without Attachments
Each email interface asset has a Send action with configurable To, Subject and Body fields. Complete these fields as your needs require. You can use HTML mark-up in the Body field. Then simply call this Send action using one or more triggers you select.
If using the Configurable Email IA, values such as 'Reply-to Address' and 'Reply-to Name' are derived from the properties set for it. See this section for a look at all available properties.
Creating an Email with Attachments
You can attach images, videos, audio files and documents to emails. You can also attach annotated images and scenes.
The steps for creating an email with attachments are identical to those followed for emails without attachments, discussed here. The difference comes from the use of the sharing queue.
To email attachments, you must add them to the sharing queue. Every item in the sharing queue is automatically attached to every email sent by Intuiface. In fact, if there are items in the sharing queue, it is not possible to send an email without attachments.
There are two ways to add Image, Video, Audio, and Document assets into the sharing queue:
- Enable the Show sharing button property in the Tools section of the More Properties panel for the asset you may want to email.
By touching this button in a running experience, the asset is added to the sharing queue.
NOTE: Annotated images and scenes are added to the sharing queue by using the Snapshot button in the Drawing Tool. After annotating your images, click the snapshot button (see image below). A copy - the snapshot - is created. Press the Sharing button on this copy. - Call the "Add in sharing queue" action of the Asset. You can call this action using any Intuiface trigger. A parameter of this action is the specification of which sharing queue to use.
NOTE: Use the "Remove from sharing queue" trigger to remove this particular asset from a specified sharing queue.
Creating an email body using multiple inputs
If you have several inputs for the email body, such as multiple form fields, you can use the Text Manipulation Interface Asset and its various methods.
Basic example using the Concatenate action
To build a simple email body comprised of raw text, use the Concatenate action of the Text Manipulation Interface Asset. Call the "Concatenate" action as many times as needed, either binding the action's "New text" parameter to input taken from the scene or adding fixed text like separators. For example, you can use <br/>
to create a line break.
Don't forget to 1) use the "Overwrite original text" option for the "Concatenate" action so you can combine multiple values using the same interface asset, and 2) call the "Clear" action of the Text Manipulation Interface Asset after sending the email so you can prepare for a new email.
You can click on this link to download the sample described above
HTML example with the Replace action
To build a nicer email, you can:
- Create an HTML body and put it in a hidden text on the scene. Use some placeholders as
{EMAIL}
in the HTML to make it easy to replace afterward. - Bind the Original text property of the Text Manipulation on this hidden text.
- Call the Replace action to replace the placeholders with inputs coming from the scene or any data source such as an Excel file.
Advanced example using a custom JavaScript Interface Asset
The Shopping List Interface Asset used in the DIY SHopping Catalog sample is not only handling the business logic rules of a shopping cart but also generates the proper email body based on the selected items.
Download the sample and have a look at the JavaScript file named ShoppingCart.js
to see how it works.
Working in offline environments
For Premier and Enterprise-level accounts, on all supported platforms, Intuiface Composer and Player will cache emails on the local device if no Internet connection is present. This applies to both the hosted and configurable email options.
Reattempts to send cached emails are made every 30 seconds and there is no limit on the number of attempts. As long as storage space remains on the device, an increasing number of emails - with or without attachments - will be cached in anticipation of an Internet connection.
No configuration steps are required for email caching. It works automatically.
For Essential-level accounts, a single attempt is made to send an email. If the attempt fails - e.g. due to an absent Internet connection - a reattempt will not occur.
Sending an email to multiple recipients
You have two options for sending an email to multiple recipients:
- add all the recipients' email addresses in the To parameter of the Send action, separating them with a comma
,
or semicolon;
OR - call the Send action once per recipient, using a single email address in the To parameter field for each email.
The second method enables you to send a different email to each person with potentially different subject and/or body content.
NOTE: Currently, Share via email does not support CC or BCC fields.
More About Sharing Queues
Each sharing interface asset - email, file system, USB drive - has its own sharing queue. However, the above methods will add assets and asset snapshots to all sharing queues at the same time. To add an asset to a specific sharing queue, call that asset's Add in sharing queue action and specify which queue you are targeting.
If you would like to see the sharing queue as items are added/removed and even automate the Send action, add the Share via Email data template we've built for you by double-clicking the interface asset in the Interface Asset panel.
This data template illustrates what is possible with the Share via Email interface asset; you are not required to use its design or even to use it at all. The image on the right of the template simply illustrates placement of the sharing button.
Properties, Triggers & Actions
Properties
Common properties for Share via Email - Hosted and Share via Email - Configurable
- Sharing storage unit: Unit used for the size of the sharing queue
Specific properties of Share via Email - Configurable
- SMTP Server
- SMTP Port
- Username: Login of the SMTP user account
- Password: Password of the SMTP user account
- From address: Mail address of the sender (if supported by the SMTP server; for example, this field is not available in Gmail)
- From name: 'Displayed name for the sender of the email (if supported by the SMTP server; for example, this field is not available in Gmail)
- Reply-to address: Email address for reply-to
- Reply-to name: Displayed name for the reply-to address
- Maximum attachment size (MB)
The properties below are read-only, meaning you can only access them through binding.
- Item count: number of items in the sharing queue
- Total queue size: total size of the items in the sharing queue.
Triggers
Common triggers for Share via Email - Hosted and Share via Email - Configurable
- Email error: Raised when an attempt to send the email fails. Contains the following read-only parameters
- Error message
- Email is too big: Raised when the attachments of the email exceed the maximum size.
- Email sent: Raised when the email is successfully sent.
Sharing queue
Common triggers for Share via Email - Hosted and Share via Email - Configurable
- Sharing queue cleared: Raised when sharing queue selection is cleared.
- Sharing queue item added: Raised when an item has been added to the sharing queue.
- Sharing queue item removed: Raised when an item has been added to the sharing queue.
Actions
Share via Email - Hosted / Configurable
- Send: send an email. Contains the following parameters:
- To: target of the email
- Subject: Subject of the email
- Body: Body of the email
Sharing queue
- Add item to sharing queue: Add the item referenced by the following URI to the sharing queue.
- URI: the local path of the item to add to the sharing queue.
- Clear sharing queue: Clear the sharing queue of all items.
- Remove item from sharing queue: Remove the item referenced by the following URI from the sharing queue.
- URI: the local path of the item to add to the sharing queue.
Limitations
- Sending E-mails with distant attachments is not supported. The attachment resources must be locally present on the device. Use Interface Asset - Shopping List instead.
- Sharing Button will not be visible for assets nested in Collections. Collection-detached items (using tap-to open behavior) will display a sharing button.
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