Send group requests to third-party systems

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F2 Group Request makes it possible to send a group request to systems outside of F2, i.e. third-party systems. A virtual authority must be added to the F2 installation to represent the system outside F2 that is to receive the request.

When a group request is sent, it is received by the virtual authority representing the third-party system. F2 then forwards the group request as an external notification email to the system outside of F2.

From here, the group request can be managed in the external system. When sent back, it is received by the virtual authority which forwards it to the sender authority in F2. For more information about setting up external notification emails, see Administrator.

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Figure 1. Group request to an external system

The option of sending a group request to a third-party system makes it an effective and flexible tool for cooperation between authorities within and outside the F2 organisation. By sending a group request to an external participant’s email address, users in the recipient authority are able to receive and process the group request in e.g. Outlook.

An organisation that does not use F2 can receive group requests from an F2 installation via email. When the non-F2 organisation replies to the group request, the reply is sent as an email rather than a group request.

When the request creator clicks Send, the group request is sent as an email with the record’s documents attached.

Additionally, F2 attaches a request data file to the email. The data file makes the executed group request recognisable as a request reply once returned to the sender authority’s F2.

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Figure 2. Request data file and request as PDF on external notification email

When the email containing the request data file is sent to F2, it is automatically recognised as an answer record. Consequently, the group request log will contain a link to the answer record, while a dedicated menu item for navigating to the group request is added to the answer record itself. For more information about answer records, see Selecting a record as answer to a request.

The data file must be attached to the group request’s reply sent to the sender authority’s F2. Otherwise F2 cannot recognise the reply as a group request.