Managing emails

F2 offers several variants of email integration with commonly used email systems.

Email settings can be configured in F2 on different levels: authority, unit and user. Using the F2 Shared Mailboxes add-on module (documentation available in Danish), it is possible to create and set up shared mailboxes/email addresses for each unit.

This section describes the administrator’s options for setting up emails during installation and during the ongoing work in F2.

Emails for users are set up during the installation of F2.

Setting up mailboxes for authorities and units

This section describes how unit mailboxes are set up for an F2 authority and its units. A unit mailbox is a mailbox that belongs to a unit or authority in F2, for example an HR unit inbox for inquiries regarding HR cases.

Unit mailboxes may be automatically imported into F2 from a shared email address in e.g. Exchange. An administrator can facilitate this from the “Properties for the unit” dialogue.

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Figure 1. The “Units and users” menu item

Click on the Units and users menu item on the “Administrator” tab. Select the relevant unit from the tree structure in the dialogue and click on Properties.

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Figure 2. The “Units and users” dialogue

The “Properties for the unit [name of unit or authority]” dialogue opens as shown below.

setting up unit inbox
Figure 3. Setting up a unit inbox

Fill in the following fields on the “Email settings” tab to create a unit inbox for an authority or a unit:

Field Description

“Account”

Enter the email address for the mailbox in the email system.

“Mail server”

Enter the name of the mail server. The organisation’s IT department will know this.

“Get email”

Tick this box and all incoming emails will automatically be imported from the email server to the unit’s inbox in F2.

“Receive email externally”

Tick this box and all incoming external emails for the unit will be received in an external email system such as Outlook. This includes emails sent to the unit inbox internally in F2.

None of the other communication channels are affected by this choice, which means that e.g. chats, approvals and records sent internally exist only in F2.

“External info mail”

Insert a participant from the unit’s external email here, and they will receive a notification email when the unit receives an email or a request in F2. The participant also receives a notification email if a change is made to a request.

This allows a third party recipient to receive and respond to requests, e.g. using Outlook. The recipient receives an email with the request as a PDF whenever a request is sent or edited. This external notification email also has a data file attached. The data file is how F2 recognises the reply as a group request reply when it is sent.

External notification emails are mainly used in connection with group requests (add-on module). For more information, see Group Request.

The data file must be attached to the response, otherwise F2 will be unable to recognise it as a group request reply.

“Read markings”

Tick this box to hide the number of unread emails in the unit’s inbox next to its name in F2’s main window.

Once the fields are filled in, F2 is able to import emails from the specified email address. Records are automatically created for the imported emails and the specified unit is set as the recipient.

Imported emails are automatically moved to the “Moved to F2” folder. Emails sent to the shared email address are placed in the “Unit inbox” om F2 so everyone in the unit can view them.

When an email is sent from F2, an incoming reply is automatically linked to the original email. The reply is also automatically linked to the case of the original email, just as any following emails will be linked to the case. F2 identifies emails using a unique hidden ID.

By default, email replies are automatically linked to emails sent from F2. An administrator with the “Unit administrator” privilege can change this setting. It is also possible to change the default case association for email replies. This is done on the “Email settings” tab in the “Properties for the unit” dialogue. Open the dialogue by clicking the Units and users menu item on the “Administrator tab”, select an authority and click Properties.

Here, the relevant options are found in the “Identification of email replies” section:

Field Description

”Mark imported email as reply to the original record”

Tick this box to automatically link an email reply to the email sent from F2.

”Assign imported email to case”

Tick this box to link an email reply to the same case as the email sent from F2.

unit properties email replies
Figure 4. Identification of email replies
Linking emails sent to or from F2 systems older than 6.2 is not possible.

Add a suffix to the subject field of external emails

F2 can be set up to link incoming emails that are replies to emails sent from F2. This is done by adding a unique ID to the subject field of an outgoing email. An administrator with the "Unit administrator" privilege can set up the subject field of all outgoing emails to include record ID, case number, or both.

To add a suffix to the subject field of the authority’s outgoing emails, go to the "Email settings" tab in the "Properties for the unit" dialogue. Click on the Units and users menu item on the “Administrator” tab to open the dialogue. Choose an authority from the list and click on Properties.

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Figure 5. Configure the subject field for emails

Tick “Add a suffix to the email subject to identify the original record or case” to use this method to identify emails.

The “Suffix for the subject” field is used to specify the text and values that make up the subject added to outgoing emails.

The following values can be added to the field:

  • Insert “{IdNr}” to add the record ID of the outgoing email to the subject field.

  • Insert “{F2CaseNumber}” to add the case number of the outgoing email to the subject field.

  • Insert “{IdNr}{F2CaseNumber}” to add both the record ID and the case number of the outgoing email to the subject field.

If only “{F2CaseNumber}” has been inserted in the “Suffix for the subject” field, a reply cannot be related to the original email record ID.

Static text can also be inserted in the subject field. This text is added to all outgoing emails together with the record ID or case number. The static text may be an abbreviation of the authority’s name.

For example: “FM – ID No. {IdNr}, case No. {F2CaseNumber}”

The text outside of the curly brackets will be inserted on all outgoing emails. The text inside the curly brackets will be replaced with the relevant record ID and case number.

F2 can be configured to remove the administrator’s option of adding a suffix to outgoing emails. Configurations are performed in cooperation with cBrain.

Set up automatic transfer of replies to F2 emails

It may be desirable to receive replies to emails sent from F2 in F2, while other emails are managed in e.g. Outlook. In this case, Outlook can be configured to automatically place emails that are replies to emails sent from F2 in the “Move to F2” folder. The emails are then transferred to the F2 inbox. This configuration is done in the email system.