Creating Your First Message Source And Automation
A default Solution will have been created. The Solution Name will be the Company Name you used during registration. This Solution will be selected by default when you login to the Studio for the first time.
A Message Source defines how ThinkAutomation will receive messages to process. You can create any number of Message Sources to receive messages from various sources. Each Message Source is connected to an Automation. When a message is received the message content is passed to the assigned Automation for processing. Individual Message Sources can be enabled/disabled or paused.
When you login to the ThinkAutomation Studio for the first time, the New Message Source Wizard will be shown:
Enter the Message Source Name and click Next >
You must now select the Message Source type. Options for each of the various message source types are detailed in the main ThinkAutomation help document.
In this example, we will choose Office 365.This Message Source type will read emails from any Office 365 account. As each new email is received an Automation will be executed.
Click the Sign In button to sign-in to Office 365. Select a folder from the Read Messages From Folder list.
You can optionally Move Processed Messages To Folder and Delete Processed Messages.
The Only Messages option enables you to only process messages since a given date and from specific From Addresses. Leave these entries as is to process all messages.
Click Next >
Message Source Schedule
The Message Source Schedule defines how often ThinkAutomation connects and retrieves new messages:
It defaults to every 2 minutes. Some Message Source types (File Pickup, Web Form, Teams, Twilio, SMTP, & API) do not require a schedule since any new message received via these methods will be processed immediately.
Click Next >
Select Automation
When a message is received by the Message Source the message content is passed to an Automation for processing.
When you create a new Message Source you can select an existing Automation to create a new one:
If (New Automation) is selected in the Select Automation list then a new blank Automation will be created when the new Message Source is saved.
Click Next >
The Message Source is now ready to be saved. Click Finish.
The new Message Source and Automation will then appear in the Explorer:
When a new Message Source is saved it will be disabled by default. This is so that you can complete your Automation steps before messages are received.
The Explorer shows Message Sources and Automations within the Solution. Double click either to edit, or select and click Edit on the ribbon.
Editing The Automation
In the Explorer - Automations section, double click the new Automation to open the Automation editor:
An Automation can contain any number of Actions. Each of the actions are optional. You can run one or more of the actions depending on your requirements. You can add multiple instances of each action type - so for example, you can send multiple Outgoing emails by adding multiple Send Email actions.
You can drag Actions from the Actions toolbox over to the Automation to start building out your Automation steps. You can also just start typing the Action name. Refer to the ThinkAutomation Help document (click the ? button on the title bar) for further details.
When you add an action the corresponding property page for the action type will be displayed. To edit an existing action double-click it or press ENTER.
When editing an action property page, each action property that accepts text data can include %variable% replacements. Drag a %variable% from the variables list on to the property or type the %variable% name. These %variable% holders will be replaced with the Extracted Field, Variable, Built-In Field or Constant value when the Automation executes.
When a Message is processed the actions will be executed in the order they appear in the Actions list. You can re-order actions using Move Up/Move Down buttons.
You can create If [else] End If or Select Case blocks to conditionally execute blocks of Actions and you can assign a Condition to each action.
When you have completed your Automation, click the Save & Close button.
Testing The Automation
During Automation development you can test your Automation without enabling the Message Source. Click the Send Message button on the Automation actions list toolbar. Enter the message text and click Send. You can also drop files onto the send message textbox. Any .eml or .msg files will be converted to emails and sent. Any text files will be converted to message text. Any other sort of files will be added as attachments and sent.
The test message will be processed immediately. The Results and Automation Log will be displayed along with any errors and Comment action values.
Use the Comment & Return actions to provide feedback. Comments can include %variable% replacements, so if you need to see the value of a variable - simply add a Comment action containing the %variablename%.
The Automation return value will also be displayed if you have added any Return actions.
Enabling The Message Source
When you have completed and tested your Automation you can enable the Message Source to start processing actual messages.
Select the Message Source in the Explorer, right-click and choose Enable.
Messages will then start to be received and processed. You can also disable any Message Source to pause processing.
Viewing The Message Store & Process Logs
Click the Message Store tab on the ribbon.
A list of Automations will be shown for the currently selected Solution. Select an Automation to view processed messages. Double-click any message to view the detail (along with the Automation log).
Closing The Studio
You can exit the ThinkAutomation Studio at any time. ThinkAutomation will continue to process messages in the background for any enabled Message Sources.