Email Integration for Processes

Since emails are a common form of communication, processes may also interact with them. For example an order process can start when a new order is received via email or an email is sent at the end which contains an invoice. The extension camunda-bpm-mail makes it easy to integrate emails in a process and interact with them.

It provides three connectors which can be used inside a process as service tasks to

• send mails,
• poll mails,
• delete mails.

Using these connectors, you can build a pizza order process which is based on email communication:

First, the process polls the emails with the orders from the server. For each email, it starts the subprocess and creates a user task for making the pizza. When the pizza is made, it sends a confirmation email to the customer and deletes the email with the order.

To build this example, you don’t have to write any additional code for email interaction!

How to use it

The quickest way to get started is to embed the extension in your project:

1. Add the extension as dependency to your POM:

   <dependency>
     <groupId>org.camunda.bpm.extension</groupId>
     <artifactId>camunda-bpm-mail-core</artifactId>
     <version>1.0.0</version>
   </dependency>

2. Create a properties file mail-config.properties which contains the configuration of the mail server. You can find some example configurations on GitHub.
3. Add a connector to your process:
   • Open your process with the Camunda Modeler
   • Select a service task
   • Choose Connector as Implementation in the Properties Panel
   • Switch to the Connector tab and set the id of the connector (e.g., mail-send) – see the Connectors Overview
   • Add input parameters to configure the connector
   • Add output parameters to store the result in a process variable (e.g., polled mails)

   The XML of your service task may look like:

   <bpmn:serviceTask id="ServiceTask_00zf1ut" name="send mail">
     <bpmn:extensionElements>
       <camunda:connector>
         <camunda:inputOutput>
           <camunda:inputParameter name="to">[email protected]</camunda:inputParameter>
           <camunda:inputParameter name="subject">Confirmation</camunda:inputParameter>
           <camunda:inputParameter name="text">Your pizza is on the way!</camunda:inputParameter>
         </camunda:inputOutput>
         <camunda:connectorId>mail-send</camunda:connectorId>
       </camunda:connector>
     </bpmn:extensionElements>
     <!-- ... -->
   </bpmn:serviceTask>

Now, you are ready to run the process!

Additional Information

You can find more information about the connectors and the configuration on GitHub. The repository also contains examples and an another way to react on incoming emails.

Contribute

Contributions in the form of code, bug reports and feature ideas are very welcome and can be made directly in the camunda-bpm-mail repository on GitHub.

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