Automation Action Types

Common

Extract Field

Find and extract data from the incoming message body or a variable and assign the extracted data to a field name. The extracted data can then be used on any other Automation action setting using %fieldname% replacement (see: Variable Replacements).

Enter a Name for the field.

Helper Message

When creating your first Extract Field action it is a good idea to paste a sample copy of the message body you are extracting data from into the Helper Message box. ThinkAutomation will then highlight the data it will extract for each field as you specify the extraction properties. The Helper text will be saved with the Automation - so you only need to paste it once. Each set of extract field actions with different Extract Field From values can have their own Helper Message text. For Database message source types the Helper Message text will be auto populated when you use the Test query option.

Extract Field From

Select the variable that you want to extract data from. This defaults to %Msg_Body% - which means extract data from the plaintext body of the incoming message. You can change this to %Msg_Subject% to extract from the subject or %Msg_Headers% to extract from the headers etc. You can also select any of your own %variables% to extract data from text created previously in your Automation.

You have four options for setting the field value:

Find & Extract : To find and extract distinct values from the Extract Field From data by looking for markers.
Extract From Json : To extract a specific Json path if the Extract Field From contains Json data.
Extract Using Text Range : To extract a text block from the Extract Field From data at specific left, top, right, bottom character coordinates.
Extract Built-In Variable : To set the field value to a message variable, system variable or Solution constant.

Find & Extract

Select the Find & Extract option to find and extract distinct values from the Extract From data.

Start From Last Extract Point

Normally ThinkAutomation moves the 'extraction point' as it moves through the Extract From value extracting data for each Extract Field action. Disable this option if you want ThinkAutomation to start from the beginning of the data when it looks for this field. Once a field is extracted the extraction point will be set to the end of the extracted data for the next Extract Field action. The next field extraction starts from this point unless you disable this option.

Case Sensitive

By default ThinkAutomation ignores case when it looks for fields. So 'order number' and 'Order Number' will both match when searching for 'Order number'. Enable this option if you want to perform a case sensitive search.

Is Repeating Block

This option sets the field as a repeating block. If set ThinkAutomation will enter a loop and repeat the extraction of this field until it finds the next field to extract (or the end of the message). You can Call another Automation with the results of each block loop to perform further actions/extraction.

Look For

Enter the text that ThinkAutomation should look for when searching the data for this field. This should be the text that is the same for each message and uniquely identifies the field.

Then Look For

Enter an additional text string that ThinkAutomation looks for AFTER it has found the above text. This is optional, but is useful when data is formatted in the message using an unknown number of tabs or spaces. Consider the following line:

Customer code             :  ABC

We would search for 'Customer code' and then ':' because we don't know how many spaces are between 'Customer code' and ':'. The field extraction would then start after the ':'.

In both the Look For and Then Look For entries you can make use of Regular Expressions to assist with searching. You can also use %variable% replacements using Fields/Variables previously extracted or set.

Find Next None-Whitespace

You can set the Look For or Then Look For to a single star '*' - a single star means find the next none-whitespace character.

This can be useful when searching for data. For example, suppose the text contains:

Your serial number is:

     1234-5678

If we wanted to extract the Serial Number we would be to look for 'Your serial number is:' and then look for '*' - which would effectively look for any none whitespace after 'Your serial number is:'.

Find Blank Line

You can set the Look For or Then Look For to '\<BlankLine>' or you can include it, eg: 'Customer: \<BlankLine>'. The \<BlankLine> marker searches for a single blank line. A 'blank line' is LF + LF or CRLF + CRLF. To find multiple blank lines use '\<BlankLine>\<BlankLine>'

Extract From Json

Select the Extract From Json option if the Extract Field From contains Json data. You can easily find and extract a specific Json path. Enter or select the Json Path. If Json sample data has been pasted into the Helper Message then the paths list will be populated automatically.

Note: Paths use JsonPath notation.

Extracting From Json Arrays

If the selected Path is an array then you can extract a single array value or all values. Enable the Extract All Array Values To CSV to extract all array values to a CSV string. For example, consider the following Json:

{ "cars":[ "Ford", "BMW", "Fiat" ] }

Setting the path to 'cars[0]' would extract the single value "Ford". If Extract All Array Values To CSV is enabled then the extracted value would be "Ford,BMW,Fiat".

If the Json array contains no enclosing object (eg: ["Ford","BMW","Fiat"]) then use paths: array[0], array[1] etc.

If the Extract Field From contained:

{
  "cars": [
    {
      "Name": "Ford", 
      "Color": "Green", 
      "Model": "Focus"
    }, 
    {
      "Name": "BMW", 
      "Color": "Blue", 
      "Model": "3 Series"
    }
  ]
}

Setting the path to 'cars' or 'cars[0]' and enabling Extract All Array Values To CSV would extract:

Ford,Green,Focus
BMW,Blue,3 Series

Setting the path to 'cars[0].name' and enabling Extract All Array Values To CSV would extract "Ford,BMW"

Whilst setting the path to 'cars[1].name' and not enabling Extract All Array Values To CSV would extract 'BMW'.

You can use the Parse CSV Line action to further process CSV data.

Extract Using Text Range

Select the Extract Using Text Range option to extract a block of text from the Extract Field From data at specific Left, Top, Right & Bottom character coordinates.

This option is useful where data is always in the same place - but has no specific markers to easily find and extract. An example would be an 'address' block on a invoice/quote etc where the text has been converted from a PDF document.

For example, if the Extract Field From contained:

1                                                                Purchase Order No.   PO0000000051040
2                                                                Date                 1/12/2023
3
4                                                                PURCHASE ORDER
5
6                                                                Ship To:
7         Test Customer Name Inc                                 Test Customer
8         4767 New Broad Street                                  1100 Pontiac Ct
9         Baldwin Park
10        Orlando FL 32814                                       Export              PA           15632-9066
11

If we wanted to extract the customer address we would set the coordinates to: left=9, top=7, right=60, bottom=11. We would extend the right & bottom values to ensure all values are extracted. If the Clean And Trim Blanks option is enabled then the extracted value would have any blank lines above or below removed after extraction and each line trimmed.

When extracting postal address blocks you can use the Extract Address Parts action to then extract specific address data.

When defining the coordinates you can select the text you want to extract in the Helper Message - the coordinates will then be automatically set to the selected range. Ranges can be on a single line or span multiple lines.

Extract Built-In Variable

You can also set the field value to any of the built-in message variables, system variables or solution constants. Select the Extract Built-In Variable option and select the variable to use.

Extracting Data

Click the Extract Data tab to define how ThinkAutomation will extract data for this field once it has found it.

For the Find & Extract option, there are a number of options you can use to extract data (all options start the extraction after the Look For, and optionally Then Look For text):

Until End Of Line

Extract all data up to the end of the line (or the end of the data if there are no more lines).

Until End Of Message

Extract all data up to the end of the data.

Until Any Of These Characters

Extract data until any of the following characters are found. You can then specify a list of characters to search for. If any one of the characters are found then extracting will stop. You can include the following markers:

Marker	Details	Example
`<CR>`	A carriage return character	" ,\<cr>" - look for space, comma or carriage return.
`<LF>`	A line feed character	" :\<lf>" - look for : or line feed.
`<TAB>`	A tab character	" \<tab>" - look for a space or a tab.
`<ESC>`	An escape character	" \<tab>\<esc>\<cr>" - look for a space, tab, esc or carriage return.
`<CRLF>`	A carriage return + line feed	"\<tab>\<crlf>" - look for a tab or carriage return + line feed.
`<NEWLINE>`	Either CRLF or LF	"<newline>" - look for any line ending.
`<BLANKLINE>`	A blank line	" \<blankline>" - look for a space or a blank line.
`<END>`	End of data	" ,\<cr>\<end>" - look for space, comma, carriage return or end of data.

Until These Characters

Extract data until specific words or characters are found. You can then specify characters, words or phases to search for. Extraction will stop when the words are found. Regular expressions permitted. You can use the <BLANKLINE> marker to search up to the next blank line.

Until These Many Characters

You can manually specify a number of characters to extract.

Until End Tag

Select this option if you are extracting HTML or XML tags. If the Look For value is a tag, for example: <mytag> then ThinkAutomation will extract up to the end tag </mytag>. This option will be automatically selected on new fields if you enter a tag in the Look For entry.

Use The Look For Expression

Select this option to extract the field INCLUDING the Look For expression. This is useful when you want to find AND extract using a regular expression. The data would be extracted starting from the Look For value. For example, if the 'Look For is set to the regular expression: [a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+\.[a-zA-Z.]+ (which is the regular expression for an email address) and the Use The Look For Expression option is enabled.. then the first Email address will be found AND extracted. If the Use The Look For Expression is not enabled then the first email address will be found and extraction will start AFTER the end of the email address.

The Extract 'Until' options do not apply if you are using the Extract From Json option.

Clean And Trim Blanks

Enable this option if you want the extracted data to be cleaned and trimmed. This will remove any leading or trailing spaces, tabs and carriage return/line feed/control characters from the field data.

Remove First/Last

You can also select to remove a number of characters from the beginning and end of the extracted data.

Additional Attributes

Select the Attributes tab to define optional additional attributes for the field.

Field Data Type

Select the Field Data Type from the list. After the field is extracted the value will be converted to the appropriate type.

For the Boolean type field the value will be set to 'True' or 'False' only. The field value will be set to 'True' if the extracted data is any of 'true','yes','on','y','1' (case insensitive) and 'False' otherwise.

If the any of the numeric types are selected then the numeric value of the extracted value will be assigned. If the extracted value cannot be converted to a number of the selected data type then no data will be assigned.

For Decimal, Single and Double types you can also set the Decimal Places. The extracted value will be rounded up to the specified number of decimal places. If Decimal Places is zero then no rounding will be applied.

For the Date type the date will be extracted and assigned in yyyy-MM-dd format or yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format for the DateTime type.

If you are using Update A Database Using Extracted Fields action you should select the correct type matching the column in your database.

Max Length

You can optionally specify the maximum allowed field length for the field. ThinkAutomation will truncate the field if the extracted data is greater than the maximum length. Use this option to avoid database errors that will be raised when field data is inserted into your database that is greater than the defined length. This option applies to String and Text field types only. Set to zero if you do not want ThinkAutomation to truncate the field.

Default Value

Enter a value that will be assigned to the field if no data is found or the extracted value is blank.

Case

This option allows you to change the case of extracted value or to apply Word Capitalization.

Validate

In this section you can define validation rules for the extracted field and you can define what action ThinkAutomation should take if the extracted data is invalid.

Select the Validate option to enable validation for this field. Select Cannot Be Blank Or Zero option if the field must be a value (or be non-zero in the case of numeric fields). For numeric fields you can also select a valid Numeric Range. The Must Be In List option allows you to define a list of valid values. In the Choices entry specify the list of valid values for the field.

If Data Is Invalid

Here you specify what ThinkAutomation should do if the extracted field data is invalid. There are two options:

Set Field To Default Value - select this option if you want ThinkAutomation to replace the extracted data with the field's default value (or blank if no default it specified).
Throw Error - select this option if you want ThinkAutomation to cancel execution of the Automation for the current message.

Mapping To Database Columns

If you are going to use the Update A Database Using Extracted Fields action in your Automation, then you can map extracted fields to tables & columns in the database you want to update. ThinkAutomation then builds the database update commands automatically.

You can also use the Update A Database Using Custom SQL action type which allows finer control over database updates.

Select the Database Update tab to map the extracted field to a table & column in your database that you want ThinkAutomation to update.

Enter the Update Table Name that the field will be updated on. This table must already exist in your database. Multiple fields can use different table names if required - but the tables must be part of the same database.

Enter the Update Column Name in the table that the ThinkAutomation field will be mapped to.

Key Field

Enable this option if this field is a Key Field. Key fields allow you to control how your database is updated. If you create one or more key fields, ThinkAutomation will first check if a record exists in your database using the key field values. If a record already exists then the existing record will be UPDATED otherwise a new record will be INSERTED.

Repeating Blocks

Often messages contain repeating sections. Most of the time you need to run a process or update a database for each individual block of the repeating section. ThinkAutomation allows you to do this by defining a field as a Repeating Block. When a field is defined as a repeating block, ThinkAutomation will enter a loop and extract each block of the repeating section in turn. Another Automation can then be called with the value of each block.

For example:

Suppose you receive the following message:

Name     : Howard Williams
Company  : PSL
Order Ref: 1234

Product  : WHO1
Qty      : 1

Product  : WHO2
Qty      : 2

The Product and Qty fields can repeat any number of times depending on what the customer has ordered.

We can define the Product & Qty fields as a single field and set them as a repeating block. The repeating block can then be passed to another Automation for processing on it's own.

We would define the extraction of the above fields as follows:

Name = Extract Field From %Msg_Body% Look For "Name" Then ":"
Company = Extract Field From %Msg_Body% Look For "Company" Then ":"
Order = Extract Field From %Msg_Body% Look For "Order Ref" Then ":"
Block = Extract Field Repeating Block From %MsgBody% Look For "*" Call Process Order Lines

The Name, Company and Order fields we extract by looking for the Name:, Company: and Order Ref: field headers and extract until the end of the line.

For the Block field we set the Look For to '*' - which means start from the next character after the last extract point:

We set the Extract Data option to Until These Characters - and set this to '\<BlankLine>' which means 'the next blank line'.

You then enable the Is Repeating Block option on this field. ThinkAutomation will then repeat the field extraction until it either finds the next field in the extracted fields list or the end of the message.

We then create another Automation. In this case - called 'Process Order Lines'. This Automation will receive each block of the repeating section as a new message. The 'Process Order Lines' Automation can then extract the Product and Qty fields and perform further processing.

When you enable the Is Repeating Block option the Call tab becomes visible on the Extract Field properties.

On the Call tab of the repeating block field we select the Automation to call. The Body Text should be set to the value that you want this Automation to receive for each block. The Body Text should contain the %ExtractedValue% replacement field - this will be replaced with the current block text on each call. You can add additional variable replacements if you also want to pass previously extracted fields. For example:

Name     : %Name%
Company  : %Company%
Order Ref: %Order%
%ExtractedValue%

For each block the 'Process Order Lines' Automation would be called with messages set to:

Name     : Howard Williams
Company  : PSL
Order Ref: 1234
Product  : WHO1
Qty      : 1

and then..

Name     : Howard Williams
Company  : PSL
Order Ref: 1234
Product  : WHO2
Qty      : 2

Set Variable

Create or set a ThinkAutomation variable.

In addition to Extracted Fields you can also make use of Variables in your ThinkAutomation Actions.

A variable is simply a place holder for a specific value.

Many other Actions can return values which can be assigned to variables. In these cases you should create the variable first by simply dragging into the Actions list and giving it a name before using it other Actions.

Each variable must be given a Variable Name. Enter a new variable name to set its initial value, or choose an existing variable or extracted field to change its current value.

You can optionally assign it a Value. The value can be a fixed value or the value of another variable, extracted field or combination (using %variable% replacements).

The variable value can then be used on any other Automation action setting using %variablename% replacement (see: Variable Replacements).

Set Variable Operations

The Operation option allows you to perform an optional additional operation on the Value before it's assigned to the variable. The following operations are available:

Category	Details
No Operation	Just Assign
Case	To Lower Case
Case	To Upper Case
Case	To Word Capitalized
Convert	HTML To Plain Text (see: HTML Parsing Notes)
Convert	HTML To XML (converts HTML to well-formed XML) (see: HTML Parsing Notes)
Convert	HTML To JSON
Convert	HTML To Markdown
Convert	JSON To HTML (converts Json text into a formatted HTML table)
Convert	JSON To CSV (converts Json or Json Array into CSV text)
Convert	JSON To XML
Convert	HTML CSS To Inline Style Attributes
Convert	Markdown To HTML (see: Markdown Notes)
Convert	CSV To HTML Table
Convert	CSV To JSON Array
Convert	CSV To Markdown Table
Convert	Plain Text To HTML
Convert	Reformat Json (reformat, tidy & reindent Json text). (see: Json Notes)
Convert	XML To JSON
Date	Add Days To (if the existing value is a date then adds the days specified in the value to the existing date)
Date	Subtract Days From (if the existing value is a date then subtracts the days specified in the value )
Date	Day Number Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the day part)
Date	Day Of Week Name Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the day name, 'Mon,Tues' etc)
Date	Day Of Week Number Only (0=Sunday, 1=Monday etc)
Date	Hours Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the hours part)
Date	Minutes Only (f the existing value is a datetime then returns the minutes part)
Date	Month Name Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the month name)
Date	Month Number Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the month number)
Date	Seconds Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the seconds part)
Date	Time Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the time part only in hhss format)
Date	Week Number Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the ISO8601 week number)
Date	Year Only (if the existing value is a datetime then returns the year number)
Extract	Alias From Email Address (eg: 'test' from 'test@mydomain.com')
Extract	Name From Email Address (eg: 'Test Name' from "Test Name" \<test@mydomain.com>)
Extract	Domain From Email Address (eg: 'mydomain.com' from 'test@mydomain.com')
Extract	All Email Addresses (returns comma separated list)
Extract	All URLs (returns comma separated list)
Extract	Concepts
Extract	Directory Name Only From Path & Filename (eg: 'C:\Documents\' from 'C:\Documents\mydocument.pdf')
Extract	Filename Only From Path & Filename (eg: 'mydocument.pdf' from 'C:\Documents\mydocument.pdf')
Extract	File Extension From Filename (eg 'pdf' from 'mydocument.pdf')
Extract	Filename Without Extension (eg 'mydocument' from 'mydocument.pdf')
Extract	First Email Address Only
Extract	First Line
Extract	First Phone Number (finds and extracts the first valid phone number in any text)
Extract	First Sentence
Extract	First URL
Extract	First Word
Extract	Last Word
Extract	Header Value (extracts a header value from the incoming message headers - set the value to the header name)
Extract	Keywords (returns comma separated list of words with common words removed)
Extract	Summarized Text
Mask	Mask Credit Card Numbers (replaces any credit card numbers with ***)
Mask	Mask Profanities (replaces any profanity words with ***)
Numeric	Add To (adds the value specified to the current value of the variable)
Numeric	Decrement (subtracts 1 from the current value of the variable)
Numeric	Get Length
Numeric	Get Word Count
Numeric	Get Lines Count (excluding blank lines)
Numeric	Get Numeric Value (converts text containing a number to the number only)
Numeric	Increment (adds 1 to the current value of the variable)
Numeric	Subtract From (subtracts the value specified from current value of the variable)
Numeric	Hex Convert Decimal To Hex
Numeric	Hex Convert Hex To Decimal
String	Add Space Character To End
Create	Global Unique Identifier (Guid - In hex or decimal format)
Create	ObjectId (MongoDB style unique string)
String	Normalize Whitespace (normalizes unicode word and line separators to standard space and line feed characters)
String	Normalize Line Endings (Cr+Lf)
String	Normalize Line Endings (LF Only)
String	Normalize Words (normalizes common English contractions (eg: 'what's' to 'what is') and common abbreviations (eg: hi to hello, Nov to November, ur to your, bday to birthday, 2day to today, plz to please, thx to thanks etc.))
String	Prepend
String	Remove All Whitespace (all spaces and control characters are removed)
String	Remove Invalid Filename Characters
String	Sort Lines Ascending
String	Sort Lines Descending
String	Dedup Lines (removes duplicate lines, case insensitive )
Transform	Base 64 Decode
Transform	Base 64 Encode
Transform	Compress (compresses the value to Base64 encoded text)
Transform	Create MD5 Hash (Hex Encoded)
Transform	Create MD5 Hash (URL Encoded)
Transform	Decompress (decompresses the Base64 encoded value)
Transform	Decrypt (decrypts the Base64 encoded value)
Transform	Encrypt (encrypts the value to Base64 encoded text)
Transform	HTML Entity Decode
Transform	HTML Entity Encode
Transform	Quoted Printable Decode
Transform	Quoted Printable Encode
Transform	SHA256 Hash (Base64 Encoded)
Transform	SHA256 Hash (Url Encoded)
Transform	SHA512 Hash (Base64 Encoded)
Transform	SHA512 Hash (Url Encoded)
Transform	URL Decode
Transform	URL Encode
Transform	JSON Escape (escapes json reserved characters)
Trim	Trim (removes all whitespace, tab, CR and LF characters from the beginning and end of the text only)
Trim	All Whitespace (replaces all whitespace, tab, CR, and LF characters with space characters, and removes extra space's so there are no occurrences of more than one space in a row)
Trim	Blanks (replaces all whitespace, tab, CR and LF characters with spaces characters and trims)
Trim	First And Last Characters (removes the first and last character)
Trim	Blank Lines (All) (removes all blank lines in the text)
Trim	Blank Lines (Repeating Only) (removes repeated blank lines, so the text only contains single blank lines)

If the Append To Existing Value option is enabled then the Value will be appended to the existing value for the variable. Care should be taken using this if the Persist Value option is enabled and the variable value is not cleared at some point within the Automation, to avoid ending up with very large strings.

Solution Global Variables

By default variables are private to the Automation and the currently executing message instance. If the Solution Global option is enabled then the variable instance and current value is global to the Solution. This is useful if you have an Automation that uses the Call Automation action to call another Automation within the same solution. The global variables will be accessible and updatable in the called automation.

You should not use Global variables if you have enabled Concurrent Execution for the Automation. This is because the global variable values may change during Automation execution if multiple messages are executing concurrently. Concurrent execution is disabled by default for new Automations.

Persisted Variables

By default, when an Automation starts processing a message all Automation variables will be reset. If the Persist Value option is enabled then the variable value will be saved by the ThinkAutomation Server between messages processed. For example: If an Automation sets a persisted variable called 'var1' to 'abc' on message 1, when the Automation next executes for message 2 then variable 'var1' will be automatically set to 'abc' before the Automation starts processing. Persisted variables are stored in the Message Store database - so will be persisted even when the ThinkAutomation Server is restarted. Variables will only be persisted if the default value for the variable (the value assigned to it on the first Set action within the Automation) is blank.

Execute Script

Executes custom C# or Visual Basic .NET code. Requires the Professional Edition.

You can create a custom script to execute custom logic. Scripts can be written in C# or Visual Basic .NET. Select the Language to use before you edit your script code. Each Script Action must be given a Script Name.

When your Automation executes a Script action it calls the execute(currentMessage message) method which returns a string. This is the entry point. You can edit the code inside this method and you can add any number of additional methods within the ThinkAutomationScript class. The returned string value from the execute method will be assigned to the Assign Return Value To variable which you can then use in your Automation.

Scripts are compiled by ThinkAutomation when they are executed for the first time. Once compiled, scripts will execute as fast as built-in actions. Scripts will be recompiled if they are changed.

If you want to re-use a script on multiple Automations, you can create a Custom Action.

Example script:

using System;
using System.Text;
using ThinkAutomationCoreClasses.Scripting;

public class ThinkAutomationScript
{
    public string execute(currentMessage message)
    {
        try
        {
            // Action execution code
            // Get automation variable values using message.GetValue("name")
            // Set automation variable values using message.SetValue("name","value")
            message.AddToLog("Returned the subject in lower-case");
            return message.Subject.ToLower();

        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            // Pass the error back to the automation log
            message.AddErrorToLog(e.Message);
            return "";
        }
    }
}

Accessing Automation Variables

Scripts can access and update existing Extracted Fields or Variables. To access a value use:

string name = message.GetValue("name");

Where "name" is an existing Variable or Extracted field name. Values are always returned as strings.

You can drag and drop a variable onto the script editor - it will be converted to: message.GetValue("variablename").

You can also access any of the built-in variables, solution constants, global constants & system variables:

string messageTo = message.GetValue("%Msg_ToWithNames%"); // the enclosing % signs are optional.

To set an existing variable or extracted field use:

message.SetValue("name","value");

Where "name" is an existing variable or extracted field name. The "value" can be any string value.

Accessing Message Properties

The message object contains read-only properties for the currently executing message. For example: message.Subject can be used to access the subject directly. Main properties:

Property Name	Details
MessageId	The id of the incoming message.
MimeText	The full mime text of the incoming message.
Subject	The message subject.
BodyPlainText	The plain text body. If the incoming message is html without a plain text body then this property will return the plain text version of the html (with all tags removed).
BodyPlainTextLastReply	The plain text body with previous replies and quoted text removed.
BodyHTML	The html body.
Dated	The message date (datetime).
From	The from address.
ReplyTo	The reply-to address.
ToAddress	The to address.
CC, BCC	The cc / bcc address.
Size	The message size (integer).
AutomationName	The name of the Automation currently executing.
SolutionName	The name of the Solution containing the Automation.
SolutionEmail	The email address assigned to the Solution.
TempPath	The path to the temporary files folder for the Solution.

Accessing Attachments

The message.Attachments property contains a list of currentMessageAttachment objects for the current message.

currentMessageAttachment Attachment;
foreach (var Attachment in message.Attachments)
{
    string name = Attachment.Name;
    int size = Attachment.Size;
    string contentType = Attachment.ContentType; // for example 'application/pdf'
    string path = Attachment.Location; // this contains the temporary location of the attachment file
}

The Location property of the Attachment object contains the path to the temporary location of the attachment file during Automation execution.

You can also access related items (embedded attachments in email messages) using message.RelatedItems.

Accessing Headers

The message.MessageHeaders property contains a list of currentMessageHeader objects for the current message.

currentMessageHeader Header;
foreach (var Header in message.MessageHeaders)
{
    string hname = Header.Name;   // the header name
    string hvalue = Header.Value; // the header value
}

Adding To The Automation Log

You can add an entry to the Automation Log using:

message.AddToLog("script message");

Handling Exceptions

To add an error to the Automation Log use:

message.AddErrorToLog("A script error occurred");

Inside any methods you create in your script you should always use Try .. Catch blocks to catch any Exceptions and then use the message.AddErrorToLog method to pass details of the error back to the Automation. This will then show any script errors in your Automation log. For example:

static int ordervalue(currentMessage message)
{
    try
    {
        int qty = Convert.ToInt32(message.GetValue("qty"));
        decimal price = Convert.ToDecimal(message.GetValue("price"));
        return qty * price;
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        // Pass the error back to the automation log
        message.AddErrorToLog("Script Error:" & e.Message);
        return 0;
    }
}

.NET References

Scripts can reference other .NET Framework assemblies compatible with .NET Framework 4.7 or higher. Use the References tab to add additional references. You can add any of the .NET framework System assemblies. Any other .NET referenced assembly must be located in the ThinkAutomation program files folder (unless you use a NuGet package - see below).

NuGet Packages

You can also add NuGet packages to scripts. Click the NuGet Packages button to open the NuGet Package Manager. Enter a search term and click the search button to view available packages. Select a package and click the Add Reference button to download & install the package. A reference to the package (and any dependencies) will be added to your script. See: https://www.nuget.org for more information.

Http Helper Class

If you need to make http requests inside your execution code, you can optionally use the helpersHttp class which simplifies the process. See: Using The Http Helper Class for more information.

Validating A Script

Click the Check button to validate that the script compiles and executes successfully. The Error tab will show any script errors, the Output tab will show any output from message.DebugPrint, message.AddToLog or message.AddErrorToLog calls.

Adding To The Output Window

To assist with script development you can add data to the Output window using message.DebugPrint :

message.DebugPrint("test");

Any calls to message.DebugPrint will show in the Output window in the script editor when the Check button is used, and are ignored when the script executes during Automation execution.

Generating Scripts Using ChatGPT

If you have an OpenAI account you can add your OpenAI API key to the ThinkAutomation Server Settings - Integrations - ChatGPT section. This will enable the Ask ChatGPT button on the script editor toolbar.

Click the Ask ChatGPT to open the Generate Script Using ChatGPT window. Enter a description of what you need your script to do. Be specific with your description and what you want it to return. If you need your script to access Automation %variables% use the term 'automation variable'.

For example:

Send an SMS message using the Esendex API. The SMS message is in the automation variable 'SMSMessage'. The recipient phone number is in the automation variable 'PhoneNumber'. Return 'sent' along with the message id if the message is sent successfully, otherwise return the error message and add the error to the error log.

Or

Read the current account balance from Stripe using the Stripe API. Return the balance. The API key is in the automation variable 'StripeAPIKey'.

When mentioning automation variables in your description this can may any %variable%, Extracted Field or Constant.

ThinkAutomation gives ChatGPT information about how scripts work and the objects available.

Examples:

If the message subject contains 'quote', save any PDF attachments to a folder called 'Quotes'. Add the current date & time to the saved file name to ensure its unique. Return the number of attachments saved.

If the message subject contains 'quote' and the automation variable 'IsCustomer' is equal to 'true', create a string in iCalendar text format and return it. Also set the automation variable 'Appointment' to 'set'. The start and end dates should be 30 days from the message date. The summary is the message subject. The organizer is the message to address.

Find all links in the message html and return them one per line with duplicates removed.

Click the Ask ChatGPT button to send the request to ChatGPT. Your script will be displayed. Click OK to add the generated script to the script editor.

Notes:

ChatGPT code generation use useful to get you started and in may cases it can generate a script that can be used with no changes, however it is not foolproof. You should always test the script first. ThinkAutomation instructs ChatGPT to not use external libraries - however it may still do so - in which case these would need to be added as references.

Process Attachments

Save attachments to specific folders on your file system.

Specify the File Mask for the extensions you want to save.

For example: .pdf to save all files with the extension .pdf. Use *.* to save all attachments. You can specify multiple masks separated by commas, for example: 'quote*.pdf, invoice.*.pdf, *.doc'*. You can create multiple Save Attachment Actions in the same Automation if you need to process different file types differently.

In the Save To Folder select the folder on your file system to save the attachments to. This can contain %variable% replacements.

For example: To save all attachments to sub folders based on the senders email address use 'C:\Attachments\%Msg_From%\'.

The directory will be created if it does not exist.

Renaming Attachments

In the Rename Saved Files To entry you can optionally specify a new name for the file. You can use %fieldname% replacements in the Rename to - for example: order%OrderNumber%.csv would rename the attachment order1234.csv if the %OrderNumber% field contained '1234'.

You can use the special field replacement %filename% to use the original file name as part of the renamed file. For example, suppose the incoming attachment was called "orderdata.csv" and the %OrderNumber% field was set to '1234' - renaming to: %filename%No%OrderNumber%.csv would rename the file 'orderdata_No_1234.csv'.

If your rename string doesn't contain a file extension then the original extension will be used. For example: If the attachment is called 'attachment.csv' and you rename it to %OrderNumber% - then the attachment will be renamed '1234.csv' (assuming the %OrderNumber% field has a value of '1234').

You can assign the saved path and file name to a ThinkAutomation variable. Select the variable to assign using the Assign Saved Path To list. Multiple saved attachments will be separated by commas.

Overwrite Existing Files

Check this box if ThinkAutomation should overwrite existing files.

Append Key To Filename To Make Files Unique

If this option is selected then ThinkAutomation will append a date and time stamp to the file name (including renamed files) to ensure that the file name is unique. The time stamp is in the format yyyymmddhhmmss_x

For example: order123420120307122033_1.csv

Would be save for file order1234.csv on 7th March 2012 and 12:20:33. The _1 indicates that this is the first attempt at saving using this file name. If a file already existed with the same time stamp (for example, if ThinkAutomation was processing multiple emails very quickly) the counter would be increased until a unique file was found.

Include Inline Attachments

For HTML emails you can also save inline attachments - these would usually be images embedded in the HTML that don't appear as regular attachments.

Further Attachment Processing

Other actions (such as Convert Document, Convert PDF Document, FTP Upload, Azure Blob etc.) allow specific processing of Attachments.

Set Message Store Folder

Assign the current message to a folder in the Message Store.

The Message Store contains copies of each message processed by the Automation. The Message Store can be organized into folders. This action is used to assign the current message to a folder. If no folder is assigned then the message is stored in the root folder for the Automation.

The Current Message Store Folders tree shows all current folders and sub-folders for the Automation. Select one of the folders to assign the current message.

You can also manually specify a path in the Assign Message To Message Store Folder Path entry. This can contain %variable% replacements to dynamically assign folders (Eg: 'Customers\%CustomerName%').

If folders for the specified path do not exist they will be created.

Folders and sub-folders in the path are separated by backslash characters. For example a path of 'Top\Level1\Level2' will create:

Top
   Level1
      Level2

The message will then be assigned to the 'Level2' sub folder.

Folder names can contain letters and numbers only. Each folder name can be up to 100 characters.

You can also create folders and sub-folders whilst viewing the Message Store. Right click a folder and select Create Sub Folder. Existing messages in the Message Store can be moved to other folders by selecting one or more messages in the Message Store. Right-click the selection and select the Move To menu item.

Move Incoming Message

This action can be used where the incoming message is read from an Office 365, Exchange, IMAP or Gmail Message Source. It moves the incoming message to a different folder on the source email account.

This action works with the message currently being processed.

Select the folder to move the current message to from the Move Current Message To Folder list.

This action can be used to conditionally move the current source message to a different folder on the source email account. For example you could choose to move the message to the Deleted Items folder based on variable values or other conditions.

This action can only be used on Automations that are called from an Office 365, Exchange, IMAP or Gmail Message Source.

Data

ThinkAutomation supports native access to the following database types:

Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server Azure
MySQL / Maria DB
SQLite
Oracle
PostgreSQL
DB2
Firebird
Microsoft Access
MongoDB (and Azure Cosmos)

In addition it can also connect to an ODBC DSN and use any OLEDB driver. See: Database Connection Notes.

ThinkAutomation also includes an embedded server-less document database that you can use to store any arbitrary data in Json format and then later query the data using SQL statements. See: Embedded Document DB Notes.

All SQL statements use consistent quoted identifiers - regardless of the database type. Identifiers should be enclosed in double quotes. For example:

SELECT * FROM "Person"."ContactType" WHERE Name = 'xyz'

SQL Parameters

All SQL statements used on database actions allow you to specify parameters.

You can substitute parameters using @parametername in the SQL statement. For example:

SELECT * FROM Person WHERE Id = @Id OR Name = @Name

or

INSERT INTO Customers (Name, CreatedDate) VALUES (@Name, @CreatedDate)

For any parameters you must complete the Parameters grid. Specify the Name, Type & Value for each parameter used. The Name column in the parameters list has a drop down selector that will be auto populated with any @parameter names used in the SQL statement. The Type must match your database column type. Parameter values can be set to fixed values or %variable% replacements (or combination).

Using parameters is recommended over directly specifying %variables% in the SQL statement itself as this correctly sets the value based on its Type and avoids any possible SQL injection attacks.

If you specify %variables% directly inside a SQL statement instead of using parameters you must ensure the value is correctly escaped (ie: single quotes represented by '') and string values enclosed in quotes.

Lookup From A Database

Reads records from a database and assigns returned column values to multiple ThinkAutomation variables.

Select a Database Type to connect to from the list. You must specify a Connection String that ThinkAutomation will use to open the database. Click the ... button to build the connection string. Click the Test button to verify that ThinkAutomation can connect to the database.

Specify the Max Rows to read.

Enter the SQL Statement to use to query records from the database. The SQL Statement can contain Parameters. Eg:

SELECT * FROM Person WHERE Id = @Id

For any Parameters you must complete the Parameters grid. Specify the Name, Type & Value for each parameter used. Parameter values can be set to %variable% replacements. See: SQL Parameters. Click the Test button to verify the query.

Assignments

Column Assignments

You can assign individual column values to ThinkAutomation Variables (optional).

In the Column Assignments grid you can map database columns returned from the query to ThinkAutomation variables.

In the Column Name/Index column specify a database field name or position number from the SELECT statement.

In the Assign Value To column select a ThinkAutomation Variable that you want the database column value assigned to.

If the database query returned multiple rows, then the first row returned will be used for variable assignment. If no rows are returned then assign-to variables will not be assigned.

Optional Assignments

You can assign the row count to a ThinkAutomation variable. Select a variable from the Assign Row Count To list (optional).

Assign All Rows/Columns To A Variable In JSON Format

You can assign all rows/columns returned by the query as JSON text to a ThinkAutomation variable. Select a variable from the Assign Json To list (optional).

Each row returned by the query will be a JSON value. For example:

{
  "PersonId": 1,
  "PersonType": "EM",
  "NameStyle": false,
  "Title": "",
  "FirstName": "Ken",
  "MiddleName": "J",
  "LastName": "Sánchez",
  "Suffix": "",
  "EmailPromotion": 0,
  "AdditionalContactInfo": "",
  "ModifiedDate": "2009-01-07"
}

If the query returned multiple rows then the JSON will be set to an array.

You can then perform other actions on this value - or pass it to another Automation using the Call Automation action. You can use the Convert JSON To Html action to convert the JSON to a HTML table if the data needs to be sent or viewed in human readable format.

Assign All Rows/Columns To A Variable In CSV Format

You can assign all rows/columns returned by the query as CSV text to a ThinkAutomation variable. Select a variable from the Assign CSV To list (optional).

For the JSON/CSV content you can use the Read Or Write Text File action to save the content to a file for use on subsequent actions (Convert Document, Add Attachment to outgoing email etc.).

Converting The CSV To Displayable Format

If you want to use the Database Lookup to lookup multiple rows that you can then return in your Automation for a user to view, you can use the Set Variable action with the Convert CSV To Markdown Table option. Eg:

CSV = Lookup From A Database MySQL on world SELECT * FROM world.country
Markdown = Convert CSV To Markdown Table(%CSV%)
Return %Markdown%

When run in the Studio this will display the table when used via the Send Message option. When used via a Web Form or API Message Source the markdown will be automatically converted to HTML.

Reading Blob Data

If any columns return binary data (data types: blob, binary, varbinary etc) the data will be returned to the variable in Base64 format. If you want to write the base64 data to a file you can use the File Operation action with the Write Binary File From Base64 String operation.

Lookups From The Embedded Document DB

This action can also be used to perform lookups using the Embedded Document DB. Select Embedded Database when selecting the Database Type. See: Embedded Data Store action

Open Database Reader

Opens a connection to a database for use with For.. Each Actions

The Open Database Reader Action opens a connection to a database using a SQL query. The connection remains open during Automation execution. You can then create a For..Each loop to read each row returned by the query.

Enter the Reader Name. This is a unique name for the data reader. A single Automation can open multiple data readers - each having a unique name.

Select a Database Type to connect to from the list. You must specify a Connection String that ThinkAutomation will use to open the database. Click the ... button to build the connection string. Click the Test button to verify that ThinkAutomation can connect to the database.

Enter the SQL Statement to use to query rows from the database. The SQL Statement can contain Parameters. Eg:

SELECT * FROM Person WHERE PersonType = @Type

For any Parameters you must complete the Parameters grid. Specify the Name, Type & Value for each parameter used. Parameter values can be set to %variable% replacements. See: SQL Parameters. Click the Test button to verify the query.

Now create a For..Each Action. Specify the For Each option as Data Reader Row In and select the Reader Name.

You can then select a variable from the Assign Data Row Json To selector to be assigned the current row Json. The current row Json will be set for each record returned from the query. For example:

{
  "PersonId": 1,
  "PersonType": "EM",
  "NameStyle": false,
  "Title": "",
  "FirstName": "Ken",
  "MiddleName": "J",
  "LastName": "Sánchez",
  "Suffix": "",
  "EmailPromotion": 0,
  "AdditionalContactInfo": "",
  "ModifiedDate": "2009-01-07"
}

You can then perform other actions on this value - or pass it to another Automation using the Call Automation action.

The For..Each loop will continue until all rows from the query have been read or an Exit Loop action is used.

The Open Database Reader action is designed for queries that return a small number of rows. For example: To read a list of email addresses from a database and send an email to each. If your query will return many rows consider using the Database message source type instead. You can also use the Set Logging Level action before your For..Each loop. Set the logging level to Minimal so that only errors are logged during the loop. This will improve performance.

A For..Each - Data Reader Row In loop block cannot contain the following actions:

Wait For User Response
Wait For Webhook
Twilio Wait For SMS Reply
Twilio Send SMS Message (where waiting for status is enabled)
Twilio Make A Telephone Call

The reason is that the Automation will exit during the waiting phase of the above Actions (allowing the next message to be processed). The underlying data source for the Open Database Reader action may change during this waiting period causing the loop to become invalid.

Execute A Database Command

Executes a SQL Command or Stored Procedure with optional parameters and returns multiple return values.

This Action allows you to execute a SQL Statement or Stored Procedure. You can pass any number of parameters and assign output parameters to variables.

Select a Database Type to connect to from the list. You must specify a Connection String that ThinkAutomation will use to open the database. Click the ... button to build the connection string. Click the Test button to verify that ThinkAutomation can connect to the database.

Select the Command Type. This is either a SQL Statement or Stored Procedure.

Specify the Command SQL Statement or Stored Procedure Call depending on the command type. You can substitute parameters using @parametername in the SQL Command statement.

Command Parameters

You can pass multiple parameters to your command.

For each parameter in the SQL statement you must specify the Name, Type, Direction & Size. These must match your stored procedure parameters types when using a store procedure, or column types when using a SQL statement. See: SQL Parameters.

For Output Parameters and the Return Value you can specify the variable to Assign Result To.

For Input Parameters you set the Value - this can be fixed or a %variable% replacement.

Blob Data (Saving File Contents)

For parameters with type Blob - if the Value assigned is a file path, then the file contents are read and the binary data is assigned to the Value.

Saving Attachments

If you want to store message attachments to a database you can use a For..Each action to loop on Attachment. Inside the loop set variables for the Filename and Temporary Location values. You can then assign these variables to the relevant database parameter values. See: Example.

Execute Method

Select Non Query if your SQL statement does not return a result set. You can optionally assign the rows affected to a variable selected from the Assign Rows Affected To list.

Select Scalar if your SQL statement returns a result set. The first column of the first row of any results can be optionally be assigned to a variable selected from the Assign Result To list. For example, the SQL statement:

INSERT INTO "Production"."ProductCategory" (Name) VALUES (@Name); 
SELECT scope_identity();

The above SQL Server statement will insert a new record and then return the new identity value. The returned value can be assigned to a variable.

Update A Database Using Custom SQL

Insert or Update a row in a database using custom SQL.

This Action allows you to insert or update a row in a database based on the results of a select statement.

Select a Database Type to connect to from the list. You must specify a Connection String that ThinkAutomation will use to open the database. Click the ... button to build the connection string. Click the Test button to verify that ThinkAutomation can connect to the database.

The Insert tab is used to enter any valid SQL statement. You can also optionally enter statements in the Update and Select tabs.

If a select statement is entered in the Select tab, then the SQL entered in the Update tab is executed if the select returns one or more rows. If no rows are returned then the SQL entered in the Insert tab is executed.

The select, insert & update statements can contain parameters (using @parametername).

You must specify the Name, Type & Value of each parameter used. Parameter values can be assigned to %variable% replacements. See: SQL Parameters.

It is not recommended that you directly specify %variables% in your SQL statements. You should use parameters instead and set the parameter values to each %variable%. This will ensure the database value is set correctly. It is also more secure. If you do use %variables% directly in your SQL statement you must ensure the value is correctly escaped (any single quotes must be replaced with two single ) and string values are enclosed in single quotes.

For the Insert & Update statements you can assign the rows affected to a variable.

Blob Data (Saving File Contents)

For parameters with type Blob - if the Value assigned is a file path, then the file contents are read and the binary data is assigned to the Value.

Saving Attachments

If you want to store message attachments to a database you can use a For..Each action to loop on Attachment. Inside the loop set variables for the Filename and Temporary Location values. You can then assign these variables to the relevant database parameter values. See: Example.

Update A Database Using Extracted Fields

Update a database with fields extracted from the incoming message.

This action can be used to automatically insert or update a record in a database based on the Extract Field actions defined in your Automation. The tables and column names used in the SQL commands are specified on the Database Update tab on each individual Extract Field Action. ThinkAutomation will then create the necessary SQL commands automatically.

Select a Database Type to connect to from the list. You must specify a Connection String that ThinkAutomation will use to open the database. Click the ... button to build the connection string. Click the Test button to verify that ThinkAutomation can connect to the database.

The UPDATE and SELECT commands will only be created if you have defined one or more of your Extracted Fields as Key Fields. ThinkAutomation will then first check if a record exists with the key field values by issuing a SELECT * FROM ... command. It will then execute the UPDATE command if a record is found or the INSERT command otherwise.

You can have only have one Update A Database Using Extracted Fields Action in your Actions List since the SQL statements are automatically created based on your Extract Field actions. If you want to update multiple tables within the same database you can specify different table names against each Extract Field action in the Update Table Name entry - ThinkAutomation will then create separate SQL commands for each separate table being updated. You need to add your Update A Database Using Extracted Fields action below your Extract Field actions to ensure each extracted field has a value.

The result of the update can be assigned to a variable. Select a variable from the Assign Result To list. The variable will receive either 'Inserted','Updated' or an error message if the update failed.

If you need to update multiple separate databases within the same Automation then you can use the Update A Database Using Custom SQL Action. You can have any number of Update A Database Using Custom SQL Actions within your Automation.

Update A Database Using CSV Or Json

This action can be used to automatically insert or update multiple records in a database from CSV or Json text (or file). The column names used in the SQL commands are mapped to CSV columns or Json paths. ThinkAutomation will then create the necessary SQL commands automatically.

Select a Database Type to connect to from the list. You must specify a Connection String that ThinkAutomation will use to open the database. Click the ... button to build the connection string. Click the Test button to verify that ThinkAutomation can connect to the database.

Specify the Table Name to be updated. Click the Get Tables button to read the table names from the database schema. You can then select a table from the Table Name drop-down list.

From the Update Using list, select:

CSV Data - to update using CSV data or a linked file.
JSON Data - to update using JSON data or a linked file.

For CSV data, enable the CSV Has Header Row if the CSV data contains column names in the first line.

For Json data, you can optionally specify the Start At Path (using dot notation).

In the CSV/Json Data Or File Path entry, specify the source CSV or Json data. This can be a %variable% containing the data. You can also specify a file path (or a variable containing a file path). If a file path is used, the file will be read and the contents used for the source data when the Automation executes.

Complete the Column Mappings grid to map database columns to your source data columns.

When the Automation executes all records in the CSV/Json will be inserted or updated in the database. The database update is performed within a single transaction. This means that if one insert or update fails, then the transaction is rolled back and no database changes are made.

The number of inserted and updated database rows can be returned to variables. Select the variables from the Assign Inserted Count To and Assign Updated Count To lists.

Mapping Source Columns To Database Columns

You must map columns from the source data to columns in the database table you want to update. The easiest way to do this is to first paste a sample of your CSV or Json data into the CSV/Json Data editor, then use the Auto Map button. Once you have mapped your columns, replace the CSV/Json Data value with your %variable% that will contain the CSV/Json data or file path.

In the Column Mappings grid, for each source column, specify the Database Column Name, Type, Size and Source Column Name Or Value.

Click the Auto Map Database Columns To Data Columns button to auto-map. This will populate the column selector drop-down lists and also match database column names with source column names. You can then manually match where needed.

The Source Column Name Or Value can either be a column name in your source data or a %variable%. If you use a %variable% then the database column will be assigned the fixed %variable% value for each row inserted/updated.

For the Size value, you can specify the database column size for text data types. If a size is specified then the source data will be trimmed before being assigned to the database column to ensure it fits. Specify zero for no auto-trimming.

Enable the Key option for database columns where you want to update existing database records instead of inserting new. Multiple columns can be set as keys. ThinkAutomation will then first check if a record exists with the key field values by issuing a SELECT * FROM table WHERE keyfield1 = @value [AND keyfield2 = @value] command. It will then execute the UPDATE command if a record is found or the INSERT command otherwise.

CSV Data

For example, suppose we have the follow CSV data:

Index,Organization Id,Name,Website,Founded,Industry,Number of employees
1,FAB0d41d5b5d22c,Ferrell LLC,https://price.net/,1990,Plastics,3498
2,6A7EdDEA9FaDC52,"Mckinney, Riley and Day",http://www.hall-buchanan.info/,2015,Ceramics,4952
3,0bFED1ADAE4bcC1,Hester Ltd,http://sullivan-reed.com/,1971,Public Safety,5287

And a database table:

CREATE TABLE "Customers" (
    "Index" INTEGER,
    "OrganizationId" TEXT,
    "Name"  TEXT,
    "Website" TEXT,
    "Founded" INTEGER,
    "Industry" TEXT,
    "NumberOfEmployees" TEXT,
    PRIMARY KEY("Index")
)

The Automap button would automatically map the CSV columns to the database columns (ignoring case and spaces). The 'Index' could be marked as a key.

When the Automation executes, 3 new records will be inserted. If the Automation was run again with the same CSV data then the 3 records would be updated if they already exist in the table with the same 'Index' value.

Excel Data

If you want to update a database from an Excel spreadsheet you can use the Lookup From Excel action to read a range of cells in CSV format. You can then use the variable containing the CSV text as your source CSV data.

JSON Data

When using Json data instead of CSV, the Json must be a Json array. The objects in the array must all be the same type. Sub-objects are not supported.

For example, the following JSON data could be used for the above database example:

[
  {
    "Index": 1,
    "Organization Id": "FAB0d41d5b5d22c",
    "Name": "Ferrell LLC",
    "Website": "https://price.net/",
    "Founded": 1990,
    "Industry": "Plastics",
    "Number of employees": 3498
  },
  {
    "Index": 2,
    "Organization Id": "6A7EdDEA9FaDC52",
    "Name": "Mckinney, Riley and Day",
    "Website": "http://www.hall-buchanan.info/",
    "Founded": 2015,
    "Industry": "Ceramics",
    "Number of employees": 4952
  },
  {
    "Index": 3,
    "Organization Id": "0bFED1ADAE4bcC1",
    "Name": "Hester Ltd",
    "Website": "http://sullivan-reed.com/",
    "Founded": 1971,
    "Industry": "Public Safety",
    "Number of employees": 5287
  }
]

You can use the Start At Path entry to specify an array path within the Json, for example:

{
    "Id": "1234",
    "Customers": [
        {
            "Index": 1,
            "Organization Id": "FAB0d41d5b5d22c",
            "Name": "Ferrell LLC",
            "Website": "https://price.net/",
            "Founded": 1990,
            "Industry": "Plastics",
            "Number of employees": 3498
        },
        {   
            "Index": 2,
            "Organization Id": "6A7EdDEA9FaDC52",
            "Name": "Mckinney, Riley and Day",
            "Website": "http://www.hall-buchanan.info/",
            "Founded": 2015,
            "Industry": "Ceramics",
            "Number of employees": 4952
        },
        {
            "Index": 3,
            "Organization Id": "0bFED1ADAE4bcC1",
            "Name": "Hester Ltd",
            "Website": "http://sullivan-reed.com/",
            "Founded": 1971,
            "Industry": "Public Safety",
            "Number of employees": 5287
        }
    ]
}

If the Start At Path is set to 'Customers', then only the Customers array will be used.

Update MongoDB

Insert, Update or Delete documents in a MongoDB collection. This action can update any local MongoDB, or cloud based MongoDB compatible document databases including Amazon DocumentDB, Azure Cosmos and MongoDB Atlas.

Specify the MongoDB Connection String, Database Name & Collection Name.

Select the Operation:

Insert: To insert a new document.
Upsert: If you want an existing document returned from the Query to be updated. If no document is returned from the Query then a new document will be inserted.
Update: To Update one or more existing documents.
Delete: To delete one or more existing documents.

If Upsert, Update or Delete is selected you must specify the Query Json. See: Query Documents — MongoDB Manual for query syntax. You can use %variable% replacements in the query and document json. If the value is a string then it must be enclosed in quotes. For example:

{ status: "%statuscode%" }

Click the Test Query button to test the connection and query. A maximum of 100 documents will be returned when using the Test option.

Enter Document Json for Insert, Upsert or Update.

If Update or Delete is selected then you can enable All Matching Documents. If enabled then all documents returned from the query will be updated/deleted.

Example Update:

With Query set to:

{ "Name" : { "$gt" : "A" } }

And Document Json set to:

{
    "$set" : {
        "Downloads" : 11
    }
}

If All Matching Documents is enabled this would set the 'Downloads' field to 11 for all documents with 'Name' field greater than 'A'. If All Matching Documents not enabled then the first document found would be updated.

If you want to store a full copy of the incoming message you can use the built-in variable %Msg_Json%. If the incoming message body is already Json (for example, if using the Database message source) then you can set the Document Json to %Msg_Body%.

You can use the Create Json action to create a Json document to insert/update.

You can assign the result of the operation to a variable. Select from the Assign Result To list. For Update/Delete operations the result will be the number of documents affected. For Insert/Upsert operations the result will be the _id of the Inserted/Updated document.

Lookup From A MongoDB Database

Read a document from a MongoDB Collection and assign the Json to a variable. This action can lookup data from any local MongoDB, or cloud based MongoDB compatible document databases including Amazon DocumentDB, Azure Cosmos and MongoDB Atlas.

Enter the MongoDB Connection String, Database Name and Collection Name. Enter the Query json and optionally the Projection and Sort json. Click the Test button to test the connection and query.

You can use %variable% replacements in the query. For example:

{ "_id": { "$eq": "%OrderNumber%" } }

See: Query Documents — MongoDB Manual for query syntax.

Select the variable to assign the returned document(s) to from the Assign To list.

The Json can be returned as either:

MongoDB Relaxed Extended - returns Json as stored in MongoDB. This will include additional objects for date, long, objectid etc.
Standard - returns standard Json.

Select from the Json Output Mode list.

You can then use Extract Field Actions (with the extract Json path option) to extract individual fields from the document.

Embedded Data Store

Insert, Update and Query data using the embedded document DB. ThinkAutomation includes an embedded server-less document database that you can use to store any arbitrary data in Json format and then later query the data using SQL statements. The Embedded Data Store makes it easy to store and retrieve data in your Automations without having to configure a database. See: Embedded Document DB Notes.

If you only need to store single values against a key (key/value pairs) then you can use the Embedded Value Store action which provides simple storage and retrieval of key/value pairs.

Database Name

Any number of separate databases can be created. Database names can contain letters or numbers only. You can use a %variable% replacement for the database name (all none alpha numeric characters will be removed during execution). Databases are global to the ThinkAutomation instance (IE: The same database can be used on all Solutions/Automations). A database is automatically created when it is first accessed.

Password

A database can be optionally assigned a password. If a password is specified then the database file will be encrypted with AES encryption. You cannot change a database password after it has been created.

Collection Name

A database can contain multiple collections. A 'collection' is similar to a 'table' in a traditional database. Collection names can contain letters or numbers only. You can use a %variable% replacement for the collection name (all none alpha numeric characters will be removed during execution).

Operations:

Insert

Inserts a new document into the specified database/collection. Specify the Document Json. This can contain %variable% replacements - or be a single %variable% containing Json created from a previous action. If you are using the Database Message Reader then you can use %Msg_Body% since this will already contain Json read from the source database.

If you want to easily store all extracted field values you can use the %Msg_ExtractedFieldsJson% built-in variable. This will return a Json document containing each extracted field name & value.

Each document must have an '_id' field containing a unique id. This field will be added automatically with a unique value if it is not included in the Json. If an '_id' field is included in the Json and its value is not blank then the existing document will be updated if it exists, otherwise a new document will be inserted (upsert).

The '_id' field is automatically indexed. The unique id will be returned after the insert. Select the variable to receive the new Id from the Assign _id To list.

The Ensure Indexed entry allows you to optionally define one or more fields as additional indexes (separated by commas). This will enable faster queries. For example, suppose we want to insert the following:

{
    "isbn": "123-456-222",
    "author": {
        "lastname": "Doe",
        "firstname": "Jane"
    },
    "editor": {
        "lastname": "Smith",
        "firstname": "Jane"
    },
    "title": "The Ultimate Database Study Guide",
    "category": [
        "Non-Fiction",
        "Technology"
    ]
}

We could set the Ensure Indexed entry to 'isbn,author.lastname'. This will ensure both the "isbn" and "author.lastname" fields are indexed.

Update

Replaces an existing document. The Document Json should contain the new document. The Where _id Equals should be set to the _id of the document to replace. The Assign _id To variable will receive the _id - or be set to blank if the existing document was not found.

You can also use the SQL operation to update specific fields, for example:

UPDATE books SET editor.firstname = 'Jane', editor.lastname = 'Doe' WHERE isbn = '123-456-222'

Delete

Deletes an existing document. The Where _id Equals should be set to the _id of the document to delete. The Assign _id To variable will receive the _id - or be set to blank if the existing document was not found.

Get

Retrieves a single document. The Where _id Equals should be set to the _id of the document to retrieve. The Assign _id To variable will receive the document Json - or be set to blank if the existing document was not found.

SQL

You can execute SQL statements against a Database. SELECT, UPDATE & DELETE can be used. The Collection Name entry is not required when using the SQL option, since the collection name will be specified in the SQL statement itself.

You can use SELECT * FROM {collectionname} to return full documents, or SELECT FieldName,FieldName2... FROM {collectionname} to return only specific fields.

Parameters can also be used. For example:

SELECT _id,title,isbn,author.lastname FROM books WHERE author.lastname = @Name
ORDER BY author.lastname LIMIT 10

If a @parameter is specified in the SQL statement then you must set its type and value in the Parameters grid. Parameter values can be set to %variable% replacement values.

When using a SELECT statement the returned documents can be returned as Json or CSV. If returning Json then a Json array will be returned if the SELECT statement returns more than 1 document.

When using an UPDATE or DELETE statement then returned value will be the number of documents affected.

Select the variable to receive the results from the Assign To list. The results can be returned as Json, CSV (without headers) or CSV (with headers).

You can also use the regular Lookup From A Database action to perform a lookup using the Embedded Document DB. This action allows specific column values to be assigned to variables. The Update A Database Using Extracted Fields action can also be used to update (insert or update) the Embedded database.

Drop Collection

Deletes all documents in the specified Database / Collection.

The Assign To variable will receive the dropped collection name or blank if the collection does not exist.

Drop Database

Deletes the specified Database.

The Assign To variable will receive the dropped database name or blank if the database does not exist.

Embedded Value Store

Get, Set and Delete from a dictionary of key/value pairs using the embedded document database. This action enables you to store any number of key/value pairs against a Collection Name. Values can later be retrieved by their key. You can store any sort of text data for the value. Keys can be any text, up to 1024 characters. For example: You could use a collection called 'subscribed' and use email addresses as keys - with the value set to Yes or No. Then do a simple lookup in any of your Automations to see if an email address is subscribed to a newsletter.

Collection Name

Key/value pairs are contained within a Collection. Multiple collections can be used. Collection names can contain letters or numbers only. Key/value pair collections are global to the ThinkAutomation instance (IE: The same collection can be used on all Solutions/Automations).

Operations:

Set

Add or update a key/value pair within the Collection. Specify the Key and Value (both can contain %variable% replacements). If the key already exists then its value will be updated, otherwise a new key/value pair will be created. The Assign To variable will receive the key value (or blank if an error occurred). You can use the Add Now button to manually add key/value pairs.

You can optionally set an Expires After value in seconds. If an expires after value is specified then any Get operation with the same key will return a blank value if the value was set or updated more than the Expires After seconds ago. This is useful when implementing caching. Leave at zero for never expire.

Get

Retrieve an existing value. Specify the Key. The Assign To variable will receive the value - or be set to blank if key does not exist (or has expired).

Delete

Delete an existing value. Specify the Key to delete. The Assign To variable will receive the key value - or blank if the key does not exist. You can use the Delete Now button to manually delete keys.

Drop

Removes all key/value pairs from the specified Collection Name. The Assign To variable will receive the collection name - or blank if the collection does not exist. You can use the Drop Now button to manually drop the collection (all key/value pairs in the collection will be deleted).

Get All

Get all key/value pairs in the specified Collection Name. You can specify a Limit to limit the number of key/value pairs returned. You can also Sort by Key or Value. You can Return Keys, Values or both (in CSV format). The Assign To variable will receive the returned keys/values (one per line). You can use the returned data in a For Each.. Line In loop if you need to perform actions on each value returned.

Get Count

Get the total number of keys for the specified Collection Name. The Assign To variable will receive the count.

Find

This operation allows you to return all Keys, Values or both where the keys Starts With, Ends With or Contains the specified Where Key text. You can specify a Limit to limit the number of key/value pairs returned. You can also Sort by Key or Value. You can Return Keys, Values or both (in CSV format). The Assign To variable will receive the returned keys/values (one per line). You can use the returned data in a For Each.. Line In loop if you need to perform actions on each value returned.

Embedded Files Store

Save, get and delete files using the embedded document DB. ThinkAutomation includes an embedded server-less document database that you can use to store and retrieve files. See: Embedded Document DB Notes.

Database Name

Any number of separate databases can be created. Database names can contain letters or numbers only. You can use a %variable% replacement for the database name (all none alpha numeric characters will be removed during execution). Databases are global to the ThinkAutomation instance (IE: The same database can be used on all Solutions/Automations). A database is automatically created when it is first accessed.

Password

A database can be optionally assigned a password. If a password is specified then the database file will be encrypted with AES encryption. You cannot change a database password after it has been created.

Collection Name

A database can contain multiple collections. A 'collection' is similar to a 'table' in a traditional database. Collection names can contain letters or numbers only. You can use a %variable% replacement for the collection name (all none alpha numeric characters will be removed during execution).

Operations

Save

Save files to the database. You can specify specific local files or a %variable% containing a file path obtained from a previous action. You can also Include Incoming Attachments. For attachments you can specify a Mask (eg: *.pdf).

The Path In Database entry allows you to define a path within the database (similar to directories) where the files will be saved. This allows you to organize files within the database. You can use %variable% replacements in the path. For example: /Documents/%Msg_FromEmail%/

The Assign To variable will receive the saved file information.

Get

Read a previously saved file from the database and save it to a specified folder.

Specify the Path In Database for the file. For example: /Documents/Pdfs/Document1.pdf

Specify the Save To Local Folder path where the file should be saved. If Delete saved copy after message is processed is enabled then the saved file will be deleted after the Automation has completed for the current message. The file held in the database is not deleted - only the saved copy. This is useful if you need to access a file during an Automation (for example, to attach it to an outgoing message) but do not need it afterwards.

The Assign To variable will receive the local saved path (or blank if the file was not found in the database).

Delete

Delete a previously uploaded file from the database.Specify the Path In Database for the file. For example: /Documents/Pdfs/Document1.pdf

The Assign To variable will receive the deleted file path (or blank if the file was not found in the database).

Get Info

Gets file information for a previously saved file. The file itself is not read from the database.

Specify the Path In Database for the file. For example: /Documents/Pdfs/Document1.pdf

The Assign To variable will receive the file information (or blank if the file was not found in the database).

Get List

Gets a list of file information for a specified path.

Specify the Path In Database for the files. For example: /Documents/Pdfs/ - will return all documents starting with '/Documents/Pdfs/'. You can also use wildcards, for example: /Documents/Pdfs/Quotes*.pdf.

The file list can be returned as Json or CSV.

Drop Collection

Deletes all files in the specified Database / Collection.

The Assign To variable will receive the dropped collection name or blank if the collection does not exist.

File Information Format

The Save, Get Info and Get List operations return file information the following format:

{
  "DatabaseName": "Attachments",
  "CollectionName": "Files",
  "Id": "$/Documents/Pdfs/Document1.pdf",
  "Size": 116601,
  "UploadDate": "2021-09-16T08:35:32.34+01:00",
  "MimeType": "application/pdf"
}

A Json array will be returned for multiple files.

You can include the File Information %variable% in your Automation Return value. If the Automation has been executed from the Studio or Desktop Connector Send Message form then any File Information json will be automatically converted to clickable links. This will allow the user to save and view the file.

Get List CSV Option

The Get List operation can also return the list as CSV text, for example:

DatabaseName,CollectionName,Id,Size,UploadDate,MimeType
FilesStore,quotes,$/Documents/Quotes/Quote15.pdf,79467,2022-02-07 13:52:29,application/pdf
FilesStore,quotes,$/Documents/Quotes/Quote16.pdf,79467,2022-02-07 13:57:23,application/pdf
FilesStore,quotes,$/Documents/Quotes/Quote17.pdf,79468,2022-02-07 13:57:41,application/pdf

You could use the Set Variable action with the Convert CSV To Markdown Table if you wanted to include the list in the Automation return value to display a table.

Embedded Knowledge Store

Update, Get, Search and Delete from a knowledge base store using embedded document database. This action enables you to store any number of knowledge base articles against a Collection Name. Articles can later be retrieved by their title, or you can search and retrieve the top x most relevant articles for any search text.

This action is useful when used with the Ask AI action. When a user asks a question, you can search the knowledge base to provide context to the asked question. The AI will then be able to answer organization specific questions based on private data.

You could also use this action to lookup knowledge base articles in response to incoming emails when sending automated responses etc.

Collection Name

Articles are contained within a Collection. Multiple collections can be used. Collection names can contain letters or numbers only. Article collections are global to the ThinkAutomation instance (IE: The same collection can be used on all Solutions/Automations). A collection can contain any number of articles - however it is recommended to keep articles per collection below 5000.

Operations:

Update

Add or update a knowledge base article within the Collection. Specify the Article Title, Tag and Article Text (these can contain %variable% replacements). If the title already exists then it's article text will be updated, otherwise a new article will be created. The Tag is optional.

The Assign To variable will receive the number of articles updated (or blank if an error occurred). You can use the Update Now button to manually add/update articles.

Update: Importing Document Files

You can optionally specify a Import Document File for the Update operation. This is a path to a document file (Word, PDF, HTML, Markdown, RTF, Email EML,Outlook MSG, Text or Excel files). If a file is specified the contents will be read, converted to plain text and added to the article text. When importing a document, the file name will be used as the Article Title if no title is specified.

Note: Imported documents will be split into pages and a separate article will be added for each page.

Update: Special Handling Of Markdown Files

When importing Markdown files (.md extension), the Markdown text will be split into articles based on # Headings (up to 4 levels) and the title of each article will be the full heading for all levels (eg: Main Heading, Heading Level 2, Heading Level 3).

Note: This operation may take several minutes when importing large documents with many pages, or large Markdown files. You can use the Knowledge Store Browser option to manually import documents into your Knowledge Store.

Update: Add Embeddings

This option is used to include embeddings with the article record. Embeddings are a list of numbers (a 'vector') that are used to measure the relatedness of text strings. This enables a much more accurate list of relevant articles when doing a search. If you are using the Embedded Knowledge Store action in conjunction with an AI then you should enable this option. Enter your Open AI API Key or OptimaGPT API Key (or specify a global OpenAI/OptimaGPT API Key in the Server Settings - AI section).

When using OpenAI, adding embeddings is not expensive (you could add embeddings for 1000 articles for less than $0.25).

If you do not add embeddings then the Search operation will only do a keyword match based search rather than a semantic .

Delete

Delete an existing article. Specify the Article Title to delete. The Assign To variable will receive the title value - or blank if the title does not exist. You can use the Delete Now button to manually delete articles.

Search

Search the Knowledge Base for relevant articles based on the Search For text. You can return the Top x most relevant articles - in relevance order. The Relevancy Threshold setting controls the relevancy level. Articles below the relevancy % will not be included. This value defaults to 75%.

Enable the Add Embeddings option if you added embeddings when the article was created. When this option is enabled then embeddings are obtained for the Search For text and then used to perform a semantic search of stored articles. This will provide a much more accurate list of relevant articles.

When using with AI you can specify the Max Tokens and Max Characters that should be returned in the search. This will prevent your requests from going over the token limit.

In the Return As list select either Text or Json. Specify Json if you are searching for articles to add as context for the Ask AI action. The Assign To variable will be set to the returned articles.

You can optionally assign the top (most relevant) title and tag to variables, select from the Assign Top Title and Assign Top Tag to lists.

You can also perform a Knowledge Base search on the Ask AI action itself when adding context to a conversation.

Get

Retrieve an existing article. Specify the Article Title. The Assign To variable will receive the article text - or be set to blank if article does not exist. You can use this option to lookup a specific article. In the Return As list select either Text or Json. Specify Json if you are looking up an article to add as context for the Ask AI action. The Assign To variable will be set to the returned article.

List

Get a list of all article titles in the specified Collection Name. The Assign To variable will receive the returned titles (one per line). You can use the returned data in a For Each.. Line In loop if you need to perform actions on each value returned.

Drop

Removes all articles from the specified Collection Name. The Assign To variable will receive the collection name - or blank if the collection does not exist. You can use the Drop Now button to manually drop the collection (all articles in the collection will be deleted).

Manual Import And Editing

Click the Browse Knowledge Store button to open the Knowledge Store Browser. Here you can view articles for each collection. You can edit, add & delete articles. You can also test Searches and import multiple files & documents. You can also access the Knowledge Store Browser from the Studio - File menu.

You can also use the Web Spider action if you want to import an entire web site into your Knowledge Store.

Tips For Using With AI

Ensure the Add Embeddings option is enabled when adding articles to the Knowledge Store.

If you are building a Knowledge Store in order to provide context to an AI conversation you should ensure each article text is less than approximately 10000 characters. It is better to have lots of specific knowledge store articles than a few long ones (when importing files & documents into your Knowledge Store, these will be split into pages automatically - ensuring no single article text is > 10000 characters - or thereabouts).

If you have thousands of articles it is better to split them in to separate Collections based on some category. This will provide better performance during searches. For example, suppose you want to have a Chatbot that provides product information. You could ask for the product name at the start of the chat (using the Subject field). Then use this to lookup from the relevant Knowledge Base collection during the chat.

If you are adding product support type articles, or frequently asked questions, each article should be a question and answer, for example:

I have forgotten my password, what can I do?

Answer:
Click the forgot password link in the control panel 'Account' menu. This will ask for an email address. Provided the email address is registered on our system, a reset password email will be sent. Click the link in the email to reset your password.

There may be occasions where you need to ensure a specific article is added to the context instead of relying on a search. For, example: If a specific keyword or combination of keywords exist in the incoming message. You can use the Get operation to lookup a specific article via it's title, and add this as context after adding context using a search. The context wont be added twice if the article was already included in the search.

If you want to add data related context for AI (for example, customer accounts/order information) - and the data is available via a Database/CRM etc, then you don't need to add this to the Knowledge Store. Instead, lookup the customer information via their email address from your database and add the context directly.

Using The Tag Value

The Tag is an optional text string you can add to articles. You can return the top tag when performing a Knowledge Store search. This can be useful if you want to perform specific actions within your Automation based on the tag value.

For example: Suppose you have several articles relating to 'service status'. You could add the tag 'service status' to each of these. When a search is performed, if the top tag returned is 'service status' your Automation could lookup your service status and add this as context.

General Tips For Building A Knowledge Store

You can use separate Automations to update the Knowledge Store. For example: You could use an Email message source to read emails from a specific 'knowledgebase' mailbox. Any emails coming into this mailbox could update the Knowledge Store - using the %Msg_Subject% as the title and the %Msg_Body% as the article text. You can then simply send/forward emails to that email address to add/update the Knowledge Store. Or you could use the File Pickup message source to monitor a folder - and simply add files/documents to the folder that you want adding to the knowledge store.

Full Text Search

This action enables you to store any number of text records against a Collection Name. Each record is saved with a key value. Full text searches can then be performed against the collection. Matching keys and/or text will be returned sorted by search rank. The full text database uses a full text index, allowing for fast retrieval against a large number of records.

Collection Name

Key/text pairs are contained within a Collection. Multiple collections can be used. Collection names can contain letters or numbers only. Key/text pair collections are global to the ThinkAutomation instance (IE: The same collection can be used on all Solutions/Automations).

Operations:

Set

Add a key/text pair within the Collection. Specify the Key and Text (both can contain %variable% replacements). The Assign To variable will receive the key value (or blank if an error occurred). You can use the Add Now button to manually add key/text pairs.

Search

This operation allows you to perform a full text search. Specify the search text in the Search For entry. This can be a %variable%.

The search for text can be multiple words or phrases and can contain boolean operators. Examples:

Search Text	Results
pricing quote	Searches for any text containing 'pricing' and 'quote' anywhere in the text.
"pricing quote"	Searches for any text containing the phrase 'pricing quote'.
pricing + quote	Searches for any text containing the phrase 'pricing quote'.
quot*	Searches for any text beginning with 'quot'.
pricing NOT quote	Searches for any text containing 'pricing' and not 'quote'.
pricing OR quote	Searches for any text containing 'pricing' OR 'quote'.
pricing AND (quote OR quotation)	Searches for any text containing pricing and either quote or quotation.

From the Return list, select:

Keys : to only return the keys
Text : to only return the text
Keys, Text : to return both

If text or keys+text is selected, then you can enable the Highlight Matched Text option. If this option is enabled then matched words in the returned text will be enclosed in <b> and </b> tags.

From the Return As list, select:

Text : to return text. If 'text' or 'keys, text' is selected for the Return type, then each record will be separated by a single line '---'. When only returning keys, then each key will be returned on a separate line.
Json : to return Json data.

The Limit entry is used to specify the maximum number of records to return.

Records will be returned in rank order, with the closest matches being returned first.

The Assign To variable will receive the returned results. Use the Test button to test searches.

Delete

This operation will delete a full text record. Specify the Key to delete. The Assign To value will contain the deleted key, or blank if no record was deleted.

Drop

This operation will delete the entire collection.

Update Excel File

Update a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet file.

Enter or select the Excel File Name to update. Optionally enter the Worksheet Name to update. If no worksheet is specified then the first worksheet in the Excel file will be updated.

ThinkAutomation will create the file if it does not already exist. Excel does not need to be installed on the ThinkAutomation computer for this Action to work.

Select the Operation:

Add New Row

Add a new row to the worksheet.

If the Automatically Add A New Row Using Extracted Fields option is selected, then a new row will be automatically added with a column for each Extract Field action.

The spreadsheet will be in the following format:

ExtractedField1	ExtractedField2	ExtractedField3
Value	Value	Value

If the worksheet contains no rows then a header line will be created with each extracted field name.

The data line will be added to the existing data lines with each extracted field value.

If Automatically Add A New Row Using Extracted Fields option is not selected then you must specify the Value and Header for each column number. Specify each Column Number that you want to add (starting from column 1). Then specify its Value and Header. The value can be a fixed value or %variable% replacement (or combination). You can skip columns (eg: Add columns 1,3 & 5). The Header will only be used if the worksheet contains no existing rows.

Update Specific Cells

Select the Update Specific Cells option to update specific cells within a worksheet. You can then specify specific cell references (eg: A1, B4, E23 etc) and the value to assign each cell. The value can be a fixed value or %variable% replacement (or combination).

Insert CSV Data

This option enables you to insert CSV data into a worksheet. In the Insert A Cell Reference enter the cell reference where the inserted rows can columns should start. If this entry is blank then the data will be inserted starting at the last row used in the existing worksheet (or at the first row for a blank spreadsheet).

If the Shift Rows Below Down option is enabled then any rows below the specified Insert At Cell Reference will be shifted down to make room for the inserted rows (does not apply if no Insert At Cell Reference specified or if the spreadsheet is blank).

Specify your CSV data in the CSV Data Or File Path entry. This can be a %variable% replacement containing CSV data or a file path. If a file path is used then the CSV data is read from the file.

Enable the Has Column Headers option if the CSV data contains column headers.

Enable the Insert Headers option if you want the CSV column headers to be inserted in the spreadsheet.

If you simply want to convert a CSV file into an Excel Document you can use the Convert Document action.

Recalculate

Enable the Recalculate option if you want ThinkAutomation to recalculate all formulas in the Excel file after any updates. Normally you would not need to enable this option (since Excel itself will recalculate when the file is opened). However, if you make use of the Excel file in subsequent actions and any updated cells are used in formulas then you should enable this option to ensure the Excel file is fully updated before its saved.

Password

Enter a Password if you are updating an existing Excel file that is password protected. If you are creating a new Excel File then it will be saved with the password (optional). Note: Updating a password protected Excel file is slower.

Lookup From Excel

Read specific cell and cell range values from an Excel compatible spreadsheet file and assign returned values to multiple ThinkAutomation variables.

Enter or select the Excel File Name to read. You can optionally specify a Password if the Excel file is password protected.

In the Cell Assignments grid you can list one or more Cell References to read from the Excel file. For each you can specify the Worksheet. If the Worksheet is blank then the first worksheet will be used. In the Assign To column specify the ThinkAutomation variable to receive the value of the specified cell reference.

Cell References can be a single cell (eg: B12), a cell range or a Named Range/Named Cell. In Excel you can define a Name for a range or cell so that if rows/columns are inserted before it, the 'Name' still references the existing cells even though their row/column references may have changed. This is useful if you need to read a total cell where new rows are added regularly.

Cell Reference Examples
B12	Returns the single cell value for cell B12.
A1:C3	Range that includes cells from top-left cell A1 to the bottom-right cell C3.
B3:F`{last}`	Range that includes cells from top-left cell B3 to the last row bottom-right cell F
A:A	Range that includes the entire column A.
A:C	Range that includes the entire columns from A to C.
1:1	Range that includes the entire row 1.
1:3	Range that includes the entire rows from 1 to 3.
3:`{last}`	Range that includes the entire rows from 3 to the last row in the sheet.

Cell Ranges To CSV Text

When a cell reference is specified that returns multiple cells, the data will be returned as CSV text, with the number of rows and columns depending on the selected range (without column headers, unless the range itself starts with the column headers).

You can use the {last} marker in ranges to use the highest available row number.

Enable the Compress CSV option if you want to remove any blank rows and columns from any CSV data extracted from cell ranges.

Counter

Update a counter value for any name/value pair and optional period.

This action can be used to update a counter value that is stored by the ThinkAutomation Server. After updating the counter the new counter value can be returned to a variable.

Enter the Counter Name. The name is limited to 50 characters and will be truncated if longer.

Enter the Counted Value. This entry is optional. If a Value is specified then a separate counter will be maintained for each unique name/value pair. The Value can contain %variable% replacements.

Counters are shared within a Solution. So if a counter on two Automations within the same Solution update the same name/value pair then the same counter will be used.

Period

Counters can be maintained per :

Period	Details
Static	No period
Day	The month day number (1-31)
Day Of Week	The day of week (0-6, 0=Sunday, 1=Monday etc)
Year And Month	The year and month (2022 01, 2021 02 etc)
Year	The year
Month	The month number (1-12)
Year And Week Number	The year and week number (0-52) (Iso8601)
Hour	The hour (0-23)
Minute	The minute (0-59)

The period date is based on the message date %Msg_Date%

If a period is selected then a new counter is created for each unique period. A Static counter has no period.

Operation

You can Increment, Decrement, Get or Set a counter. If Set is selected then you can specify a value.

When a message is processed, ThinkAutomation will lookup the unique name/value pair. A new counter will be created if the name/value pair does not exist.

Any arbitrary data can be counted. For example:

Aim	Usage
Messages by day of week	Leave Value blank and set the Period to Day Of Week.
Messages received by email address per year/month	Set the Value to %Msg_FromEmail% and the Period to Year And Month.
Messages by any extracted field or variable value (payment types, currencies etc)	Set the Value to a %variable% and any select a Period.
Orders by company name per year	Set the Value to a %variable% holding a company name and the Period to Year.
Outgoing emails sent by email address per month	Set the Value to the variable containing the receiver address and the Period to month.

The counted Value has a maximum size of 250 characters. Values larger than this will be truncated before being counted.

Select a variable to receive the updated counter value from the Assign Counter Value To list.

Getting All Counter Values

You can return all counter values for a given counter name/value using the Get All operation. This will return all periods currently counted. The Get All operation returns the data in CSV format to a variable. If no Value is specified then all values/periods will be returned.

You can use the Set Variable action with the Convert CSV To Markdown Table operation to convert the CSV data to a Markdown table if you want to create an Automation to quickly return and view counter values.

Viewing Counters Using The Studio

Counters can be viewed using the ThinkAutomation Studio. Open the Solution properties page and click the Counters tab. You can clear a counter using the Clear button.

Outgoing

Send Email

Send an outgoing email message.

Emails can be sent immediately or you can Schedule Send on future dates. Email messages can be sent in plaintext, Markdown and/or HTML format. You can add attachments and you have the option of including the incoming attachments.

Enter the From & To addresses and Subject. The Reply To, CC & BCC are optional. The To, CC and BCC entries can contain multiple addresses separated with commas, semi-colons or line breaks.

If you want to send the email to the sender of the incoming message set the To address to the %Msg_From% built-in variable.

The To address should contain the recipient name and email address where possible. This will reduce the likelihood of the recipient mail server marking the email as spam. The format is: name \<email>. For example: Howard Williams \<howard.williams@somecompany.com>. You can use %variable% replacements for both parts. The %Msg_From% will already contain both name & email parts if the sender supplied them.

Adding an Unsubscribe link to your emails will also reduce likelihood of the email being marked as spam. You can create a Web Form message source with an unsubscribe form to process unsubscribes and then include the Web Form URL as a link in outgoing emails.

Sending To Multiple Recipients

The To address can contain multiple recipients separated by commas, semi-colons or line breaks. The receiver of the email will see all addresses in the 'To' address on the email they receive. If you want to send the same email to multiple recipients without each receiver seeing the other recipients you can use a For..Each loop, looping on Comma Separated Values In or Lines In. Inside the loop, use the Send Email action and assign the To address to the variable containing the individual email address. Each email will then be sent separately with a single 'To' address.

Attachments

You can attach files to outgoing messages. You can also include attachments from the incoming message.

To add attachments - click the ... button on the Attach box to add local files. You can also use %variable% replacements in the Attach box to include files created by other actions.

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to automatically add any incoming attachments with the outgoing email. This will be in addition to any other attachments you add.

Enable the Include Incoming Inline Attachments option to attach incoming inline attachments. Inline attachments are images and other types of file that are included in the body of the incoming email. If this option is enabled then ThinkAutomation will add the inline attachments as regular attachments to the outgoing message.

Message

For the body of the email click the Message tab to enter the message text. Click the HTML tab to compose the HTML portion (you can use either or both). When the email is sent it will include both plaintext and HTML. If HTML is specified, but no plaintext, then ThinkAutomation will automatically create the plaintext portion of the email from the HTML. Both the Message and HTML can contain %variable% replacements.

Using Pre-Prepared HTML

If you have created a %variable% containing HTML (for example using the Wrap HTML action) you can use this on the Message tab. If the %variable% content of the Message tab is HTML (contains <html> and <body> tags) and the HTML tab content is blank, then ThinkAutomation assumes you want to send HTML content.

Markdown

You can use Markdown in the Message tab text. The Markdown will be converted to HTML when the email is sent. To use Markdown to HTML conversion - ensure that the HTML tab content is blank. You can disable the Markdown to HTML conversion by unchecking the Convert Markdown To HTML When Email Is Sent option. See: Markdown Notes.

External Content For HTML

For HTML content you also have the option of using an External File or URL For HTML. If an external file or URL is specified then this will be read and used for the HTML content. When using an External File or URL then you also have the option to Embed Images. If Embed Images is enabled then any external images used in the HTML will be downloaded and embedded. Not all email clients will display embedded images - so you should test this option before using.

If the Convert CSS To Inline Styles option is enabled then any stylesheets in the HTML will be converted to inline style attributes. This provides better email client compatibility.

Scheduling Messages

Email messages can be sent on future dates using Scheduled Send option.

For example, suppose you have an Automation that responds to a sales order email. The Automation sends the customer a 'thank you' email when the order is received. You could then use the Scheduled Email option to send a follow up email in 30 days time to see how the customer is getting on with their new product.

Any number of scheduled email responses can be setup. ThinkAutomation saves the email in the Message Store database along with the scheduled date and time that the message should be delivered.

Enable the Scheduled Send option and specify either Send After n Days or Minutes, or Send On A Specified Date/Time and enter the date/time to send the email.

Send Option

If you are not using the Scheduled Send option you can select one of the Send Options:

Add To Outbox Queue - the email is added to the outbox queue and will be sent by the ThinkAutomation Server as a separate process (with automatic retries for any temporary failures). The Automation will not wait for the email to be sent. Your Automation will execute faster with this option. This is the default option.
Send The Email Immediately - the email is sent immediately and the Automation will wait for the result. The result can be returned to a variable from the Assign Result To list. The result will be 'success', 'retry' or a fail reason. If your outgoing email server returns a temporary failure, then the result will be 'retry' and the email will be added to the outbox queue to be retried later.
Do Not Send The Email - the email is not sent. The mime text can be returned to a variable (see below).

Assign Mime Text To

You can also optionally assign the MIME text (EML) created for the outgoing email to a variable. This is useful if you want to save the mime text to a folder for an external mail server to pickup, or use a custom action or script to actually send the message. If the Do Not Send The Email send option is selected, then ThinkAutomation will not send the email itself - it will just assign the resulting mime text to the specified variable.

Send Via

By default outgoing emails are sent using the Email Sending options specified in the Server Settings. You can optionally specify email sending options on a per outgoing email basis. This is useful when you want to route specific outgoing emails via specific mail servers. For example, suppose you have two mail servers, one located in the USA and one in the UK. You could choose to send emails via the USA or UK server based on some condition.

Click the Send Via tab to specify the Send Via options.

Each of the Send Via options can use %fieldname% replacements. This allows you to conditionally set the Send Via options.

Send Signed

You can optionally digitally sign the outgoing email. A digital signature is a unique identifier that validates the authenticity of a person’s outgoing email messages and assures recipients they have come from that person, as opposed to a cybercriminal or unknown sender. Unlike a simple electronic signature, digital signatures cannot be replaced or altered, thus giving recipients peace of mind that the contents of the incoming message are safe before opening it.

Select the Send Signed tab and enable the Send Signed option. You must then select a certificate to use for the signing. Click the Select Certificate button. You can choose a certificate imported into the Windows Machine certificate store, or select a PFX file. Only certificates that have been obtained from an independent certificate authority and are valid for email signing should be used.

The Send Signed option is not available when using SendGrid to send outgoing messages.

Send Test Email

The Send Test Email button will send the current message immediately, regardless of the Schedule or Send Option. The email will be sent using any Send Via settings. Change the To address if you want to send a test message to yourself.

Remove Scheduled Outgoing Message

Removes any pending scheduled emails for a given recipient.

This action can be used to cancel the sending of any scheduled emails. This could be used for example on an 'Unsubscribe' Automation.

Specify the recipient email address in the Remove Scheduled Message To entry.

The From can be blank - or if completed, only messages from the given address will be deleted.

You can remove only messages matching a Subject - or leave blank for all.

The number of scheduled messages removed can be assigned to a variable. Select the variable from the Assign Number Remove To list.

Forward Original Message

Forwards the incoming message to new recipients.

Specify the From and To addresses. The Subject can be changed - if you wish to use the incoming subject set it to %Msg_Subject% (or 'FW: %Msg_Subject%').

You can add additional attachments and Drop Incoming Attachments.

Wait For User Response

Waits for a user response before proceeding with the remaining actions for the Automation.

This action can be used to provide a human validation response in the form of a unique web form that must be completed before the Automation continues. This can be used to gather additional information from a user. ThinkAutomation will pause execution of the Actions for the current message until a user completes the web form. It will move on to process the next message whilst waiting for the validation of a previous one. A single Automation can contain multiple Wait For User Response actions. The web form can optionally contain Survey Fields. If any survey fields are specified then the user must complete the form before validating the message. The results of the Survey Fields are passed back to the Automation and can be used in subsequent actions

For each Wait For User Response request ThinkAutomation creates a unique Validation URL. You must send an email or SMS containing the %Msg_ValidationUrl% variable replacement to someone. When the recipient receives this email they click the URL to validate the message. Once validated the remaining actions setup on the Automation are then executed for that specific message. Validation URLs are secured using a one-way hash, so a user could not validate the wrong message by manually changing the URL.

You can either use a separate Send Email or Send SMS Action to send you own message containing the %Msg_ValidationUrl% variable (send before the Wait For User Response action itself) or enable the Send Request Via Email option to include the email sending within the Wait For User Response action itself. You can customize the email content. The Body text must contain %Msg_ValidationUrl% somewhere.

The Send Request Via Studio & Client Users option will send the validation request to any users running the ThinkAutomation Studio or ThinkAutomation Desktop Connector. Studio and Desktop Connector users can complete the validation request from there. You can specify specific Usernames or leave this blank to send to any ThinkAutomation Studio or Desktop Connector users (connected to your ThinkAutomation Server instance).

Show Accept Buttons

If this option is enabled then the validation page will show Accept & Not Accept buttons below the validation page message. The user must click the Accept button to validate the message. If the Do Not Accept button is clicked then the message is rejected and the Timeout/Not Accepted Action performed. If this option is not enabled then the user only needs to click the Validation URL to validate the message (unless survey fields are used - see below). You should adjust the Validation Page Message accordingly.

Continue On Timeout

If this option is enabled then the Automation will continue if the validate request has not been completed before time timeout. The Assign Result To variable will be set to 'expired'.

Max Wait Time (Mins)

This is the maximum number of minutes that ThinkAutomation should wait for the validation. It defaults to 2880 (48 hours).

Assign Result To

Select the variable to receive the validation result. This will be 'true', 'false' or 'expired'. Within your Automation you can then perform conditional actions based on the result.

Survey Fields

In addition to displaying a message, ThinkAutomation can optionally show a form containing any number of input fields. If any fields are specified then the user must complete the form before validating the message. The results of the form are passed back to the Automation and can be used in subsequent actions. Click Add to add a new input field.

Enter a Name and Label Text. You can also optionally specify Help Text that will display in a smaller font below the input field.

The Field Type can be:

Text
Number (numeric only)
Date
Boolean (check box)
HTML Editor (a full featured HTML editor - returns HTML)
Email (only a valid email address allowed)
URL (only a valid URL allowed)
Telephone
Password
Decimal
Currency
Time
Range
Label (displays the label text only - does not return a value)

For text field types you can specify the Max Length. The Max Lines option allows you to define the maximum lines.

The Attributes tab allows you to specify a default value, change case & validation rules. Enable the Validate option. When the web user completes the form they will not be able to submit it until all of the fields pass validation.

If you want the user to select possible values from a list, select the Must Be In List option and then enter the Choices. For example to show a list box showing 'Yes', 'No' & 'Not Sure', set the Field Type to 'Text', enable the Validate option, select the Must Be In List option and add Choices of 'Yes', 'No' and 'Not Sure'. The default value of the select list will be set to the Default Value entry.

You can arrange the order of fields on the form using the Up & Down buttons.

Assigning A Survey Field Value To A ThinkAutomation Variable

You must then select a ThinkAutomation variable to assign the entered value to. Select the variable from the Assign Value To list. Once a message is validated and the Automation continues execution, you will be able to make use of input values in subsequent actions.

A simple example would be a single field that asks 'Add customer %Name% to CRM?' - with a Y/N choice. The value can be assigned to a Variable called '%AddCRM%'. After the Wait For User Response Action you can add a conditional Action: 'If %AddCRM% Is Equal To Y Then ....'

The Wait For Used Response web page uses the ThinkAutomation Web API hosted in Azure, so it will work without requiring any local setup.

Send Appointment

Creates an appointment in any iCalendar compatible Calendar Server, sends an iCalendar compatible appointment request as an email attachment or saves the appointment to a file which can be attached to an email on a subsequent action.

iCalendar is used and supported by a large number of products, including Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Lotus Notes, Yahoo Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and others.

The Send As drop down has three options:

Send Directly To An iCalendar Server: This option allows you to post directly to an iCalendar Server using the CalDav protocol. You need to specify the URL of the server to post to. This URL will depend on the Calendar Server you are using.

For Google Calendars use: https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/{googlemailaddress}/events/ - and use your Google user name/password.

You may need to specify a User Name and Password and Authentication mode if the iCalendar Server requires a login first. Login to your iCalendar Server to obtain the iCal address.

Send To An Email Recipient: With this option you specify an email address. The appointment will be sent as an attachment with the .ics extension. Most Calendar applications will import this directly when the recipient opens the attachment.
Save To File: Saves the Appointment to a local file with an .ics extension. You can then use this as an attachment on other Send Email actions.

All remaining text fields can use %variable% replacements.

You must specify the Attendees as email addresses. Multiple addresses can be separated by commas.

The Categories, Location, Subject & Description fields are optional.

The Organizer must be specified as an email address.

The Start Date/Time and End Date/Time can use %variable% replacements if required. If a Start/End Date is given as a %variable% replacement then the variable contents must be able to be interpreted as a date.

Send Slack Message

Send a message and/or files to a Slack channel. Slack is a messaging and collaboration platform. See: https://slack.com for more information.

Before you can use this action you must first authorize ThinkAutomation to connect to Slack. Click the Connect button and enter your Slack username/password. You will then be asked if you want to allow ThinkAutomation to be able to post messages to Slack.

Once connected your team name & domain will be shown

You can post messages and/or upload files to any of your team channels that the authorized user has access to.

Posting A Message

Enter the Send Message text you want to post. Leave this blank if you only want to upload files.

Uploading Files

Expand the Select Files box and enter or select the file you want to upload. This can be a single file or a comma separated list. %variable% replacements can also be used if you want to upload files created from previous actions. You can also optionally Include Incoming Attachments. Enter the Mask for the attachment types to upload (eg: *.pdf).

If the Post The Message From The Authenticated User option is enabled then the post will be from the Slack user you connected with, otherwise the post will show as from a bot called ThinkAutomation.

Select the channel you want to post the message/files to from the Post To Channel drop down - this will list all the channels available to your team.

You can assign the result of the post to a variable. Select from the Assign Response To dropdown. If the post was successful the response will be 'Ok'. Otherwise it will contain an error message.

Send Tweet

Send a Tweet to Twitter or reply to an incoming Tweet.

Before you can use this action you must first authorize ThinkAutomation to connect to Twitter. Click the Connect button and enter your Twitter username/password. You will then be asked if you want to allow ThinkAutomation to be able to post Tweets to Twitter. Tweets will be sent on behalf of the this user.

Enter the Send Tweet test. This can contain %variable% replacements. Twitter limits Tweets to 280 characters. ThinkAutomation will truncate the message if required.

If the incoming Message Source type is Twitter you can reply to the current message. Enable the Reply To Incoming Tweet option. For example: You could create a Twitter Message Source to monitor your @mentions for your own Twitter account. Any Tweets with 'great/good service' etc you could automate a 'Thank you' reply.

ThinkAutomation uses the new Twitter Version 2 API. The Send Tweet text can be set to the Json body for more complex Tweets. See: POST /2/tweets | Docs | Twitter Developer Platform

Documents

Create Document

Create a document using the built-in Word Processor and save the document in various formats.

The Document Editor emulates Microsoft Word. You can format the document as you would with Word using fonts, tables, headers/footers etc. You can load an existing document file using the File - Open option. Once you save the Action the document data will be saved with your Automation (the original file will remain unchanged).

Inserting Variables

Variables can be dragged and dropped onto the document (or type the %variablename% directly in the document). These will be replaced when the Automation executes. Any formatting applied to the %variable% will be preserved when the value is replaced.

Save As

From the Save As Format list select the type of file to save when the Automation Executes. The document can be saved as:

PDF
DOCX (Microsoft Word)
ODT (Open Document)
TXT (Text File)
RTF (Rich Text File)
HTML
MHT
EPub

When the Automation executes, the document template will be used to create a file in the above format. All %variables% in the document will be replaced.

If PDF format is selected then you can specify a Password. The recipient of the PDF file will need the password to open it.

If HTML format is selected then the following options are available:

Use Inline Styles - select this option to use Inline CSS instead of a style section. This option should be used if you will use the HTML on outgoing emails.
Embed Images - select this option to specify whether images should be embedded into the HTML or stored externally. Embedded images in the HTML document are stored in base64 encoding. This option should be used if you will use the HTML on outgoing emails.

Specify the Save To folder - click the ... button to select a local file or use %Root% to save it in the default ThinkAutomation location.

Enter a File Name to save the document as (the extension will be added automatically based on the Save As Format if it is not specified).

If Ensure Unique File Name is enabled then ThinkAutomation will add a timestamp to the filename to ensure it is unique.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action, or to use the html file as the body of an outgoing email), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

You can assign the saved path & filename to a variable by selecting the variable from the Assign Path To list. You can then use this variable in the Attachments entry on Send Email actions or in any other way.

Enter the Document Name. This shows in the actions list and Automation log. If a File Name is not specified then the document name will be used. For PDF exports the PDF document properties 'title' will be set to the document name.

Default Document Template

When creating a new document, ThinkAutomation will look for the Microsoft Word document DefaultDocument.docx in the ThinkAutomation program files folder. If this file exists it will be loaded and all the styles available in the document can then be used in the new document.

Create Spreadsheet

Create an Excel compatible spreadsheet using the built-in Spreadsheet Editor. Automation %variables% can be assigned to cells when the Automation executes. Spreadsheet formulas are then recalculated. The resulting spreadsheet can then be saved in various formats and you can read cell values back into Automation %variables%. You can use this Action to create formatted Invoices, Quotations etc. that can then be saved and emailed.

The Spreadsheet Editor emulates Microsoft Excel. You can format the spreadsheet as you would with Excel using formulas, charts, images, borders, fonts etc. You can load an existing Excel file using the File - Open option. Once you save the Action the spreadsheet data will be saved with your Automation (the original file will remain unchanged).

Inserting Variables

Spreadsheet cells can contain Automation %variables%. When the Automation executes these will be replaced with their values.

There are two ways to embed %variables%.

Drag and drop a variable from the Variables List onto any cell or edit a cell and include one or more %variables% inside any text. It is assumed these variables are not used in formulas.
Add a Cell Assignment. You would use this method if the cell is used in a formula. Select a cell in the Spreadsheet and click the Add button from the Before Calculation Assign Variables To Cells list. The Assign Cell form will be displayed. Enter a value or select a %variable% from the Assign From list. You can enter a value in the spreadsheet cell itself as a placeholder to allow you to see formatting/formula results etc. When the Automation executes the cell value will be replaced and all formulas re-calculated. You can create any number of Cell Assignments.

Saving The Spreadsheet (optional)

Enable the Export File option.

From the Save As Format list select the type of file to save when the Automation Executes. The spreadsheet can be saved as:

Excel File
CSV File
PDF Document
HTML File

When the Automation executes, the spreadsheet template will be used to create a file in the above format. All %variables% and Cell Assignments in the spreadsheet will be replaced and formulas re-calculated.

If Excel or PDF format is selected then you can optionally specify a Password. The recipient of the file will need the password to open it.

Specify the Save To folder - click the ... button to select a local file or use %Root% to save it in the default ThinkAutomation location.

Enter a File Name to save the spreadsheet as (the extension will be added automatically based on the Save As Format).

If Ensure Unique File Name is enabled then ThinkAutomation will add a timestamp to the filename to ensure it is unique within the Save To Folder.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the spreadsheet as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

You can assign the saved path & filename to a variable by selecting the variable from the Assign Saved File Path To list. You can then use this variable in the Attachments entry on Send Email actions or in any other way.

Reading Back Cell Values

After all Cell Assignments have been made and formulas re-calculated you can optionally read cell values back and assign to Automation %variables%.

For example, you could create a quotation spreadsheet that adds %qty% and %price% variables and then read back the 'total' cell to a %variable% which you can then use further in the Automation.

Select a cell in the Spreadsheet and click the Add button from the After Calculation Assign Cells To Variables list. The Assign Cell form will be displayed. Select a %variable% from the Assign To list. You can create any number of Variable Assignments.

Assign CSV Data

You can optionally assign the spreadsheet data in CSV format to a variable. Select the variable from the Assign CSV Data To list. Enable the Use Formatted Values For CSV if you want to return data as it has been formatted, otherwise unformatted data is used.

This option is useful if you want to use the Spreadsheet action to simply create a table of data that you can then use further in the Automation. For example, you may want to include a table in an outgoing email. Use the Spreadsheet action to create your table and assign the CSV data to a variable. Then use the Set Variable action with the Convert CSV To Markdown Table operation and include the Markdown table in your outgoing email body.

Convert Document

Converts a Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PDF, Open Document, Richtext, Text, Markdown Text, CSV or HTML, file to various formats.

The document to convert can be a local file (or a file saved from a previous action) or incoming Attachments.

Select a Document To Convert - this can be any local file or a %variable% replacement. You can specify multiple documents if required, separated by commas (any file paths that contain commas must be enclosed in quotes).

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to convert attached documents matching the Matching Mask. Enter *.* to convert all supported attachments.

Select the Convert To type. You can convert to the following formats:

PDF
DOCX (Microsoft Word)
ODT (Open Document)
XLSX (Microsoft Excel)
XPS
HTML
TXT
CSV
Images (PNG, GIF, BMP, JPEG, TIFF)

When converting PDF to image files, each page in the PDF document will be converted to a separate image file. The page number will be added to the filename, eg: document_1.tiff, document_2.tiff.

When converting to Excel, the document to convert can be CSV, XLS or text only.

In the Rename Converted Files To entry you can optionally specify a new name for the converted file. You can use %fieldname% replacements - for example: order%OrderNumber%.pdf would rename the attachment order1234.pdf if the %OrderNumber% field contained '1234'.

You can use the special variable replacement %filename% to use the original file name as part of the renamed file. For example, suppose the document to convert was called "orderdata.docx" and the %OrderNumber% variable was set to '1234' - renaming to: %filename%-%OrderNumber%.pdf would rename the file 'orderdata-1234.pdf'.

If your rename string doesn't contain a file extension then the Convert To type extension will be used.

In the Save To Path entry, enter or select the local folder to save the converted document to. If no Save To Path is specified then the converted files will be saved in the same folder as the file being converted.

If the converted file already exists it will be overwritten.

You can assign the saved path & filename(s) to a variable by selecting the variable from the Assign Filename(s) To list. You can then use this variable in the Attachments entry on Send Email actions or in any other way.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

Converting HTML To PDF Or Word Formats

Converting HTML files to other formats will only work if the HTML contains absolute links (image files, stylesheets etc), and the those links are accessible. If you want to convert an online web page to PDF you can use the Save As PDF action instead - which allows any URL to be rendered to PDF.

You can also use the HTTP Get action to get HTML from a URL with Convert option set to Convert Relative Links To Absolute Links. Save the HTML to a file using the Read Or Write Text File action and then convert this.

Markdown text files ('.md') will be converted to HTML first before being converted to the Convert To file type.

Convert Document To Text

This action enables you to parse and extract text data from Word, PDF, Open Document, Excel, RichText, Markdown and HTML attachments or local document files. Documents are converted to plain text which is then assigned to a variable. This action can also extract PDF form data.

Select a Document To Convert - this can be any local file or a %variable% replacement. You can specify multiple documents if required, separated by commas (any file paths that contain commas must be enclosed in quotes).

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to convert attached documents matching the Matching Mask. Enter *.* to convert all supported attachments.

Select the variable to receive the plain text from the Assign To list.

The document(s) will be converted to plain text. Excel files will be converted to CSV text. Markdown documents will be converted to HTML first and then the HTML converted to plain text.

If multiple files are converted within the same action then the extracted text from each file will be appended to the returned text.

PDF Extract Form Data

Enable the PDF Extract Form Data option to extract only form data from PDF files. If enabled then form data only will be extracted in the following format:

{form field Name}: {value}
{form field name}: {value}
...

Enable the Return PDF Form Data As Json option to return the form data as Json text.

PDF Text Extract Mode

When converting PDF documents to text you have a number of options:

Keep Positioning Method 1 : Some positioning will be retained.
Keep Positioning Method 2: Same as above but using a different extraction method. This may provide a more accurate plaintext representation of the PDF document in some cases.
Keep Reading Order Method 1 : The text will be extracted in reading order - with no positioning indentation.
Keep Reading Order Method 2 : Same as above but using a different extraction method.
Extract To CSV : Extracts each text element to CSV text with columns: Page, Bounds (left,top,right,bottom), Text, Font, Size, Weight, RGB. The CSV will contain a row for each text element.

Enable the Remove Repeated Blank Lines option if you need repeated blank lines removed from the text. This option is useful in cases where there is differing amounts of blank space in the PDF document which your extraction rules do not need.

You can then use the text in other actions - or use Extract Field actions to parse & extract data from the text.

To test the text extraction select or enter a document and click the Test button. The results will be displayed. Click the Copy button to copy the extracted text to the clipboard. You can then paste this into the Extract Field Helper Message if you need to extract data from the text.

Convert Image To Text Using OCR

Converts image files or image attachments to text using optical character recognition (OCR) and assigns the extracted text to a variable. This action can also extract images from PDF files and the convert these images to text.

Select a Image To Convert - this can be any local file or a %variable% replacement. You can specify multiple files if required, separated by commas (any file paths that contain commas must be enclosed in quotes).

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to convert attached images matching the Matching Mask. Enter *.* to convert all supported attachments (png, bmp, gif, tiff, jpeg, pdf).

The Language defaults to 'eng' (English). You can specify a different three letter language code. You can download additional language packages from https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata. These should be copied to the Tesseract tessdata folder.

The Output Type can be text, xml or CSV. If the Preserve Layout option is enabled then space padding is preserved.

If multiple images are converted within the same action then the extracted text from each image will be appended to the returned text.

Select the variable to receive the plain text from the Assign To list.

To test the text extraction select or enter an image file and click the Test button. The results will be displayed.

You can also use the Ask AI action with the 'Ask AI To Respond To A Prompt With An Image' operation to perform OCR on images.

This action uses the open source Tesseract OCR library. Tesseract is not installed by default with the ThinkAutomation setup. If Tesseract is not installed the Install Tesseract button will be visible.

Convert PDF Document

Converts PDF files or attachments to various image formats, html or text.

Select a PDF Document To Convert - this can be any local PDF file or a %variable% replacement. You can specify multiple documents if required, separated by commas (any file paths that contain commas must be enclosed in quotes).

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to convert attached documents matching the Matching Mask. Enter *.* to convert all PDF attachments.

From the Convert To list, select the type of file to convert the PDF document(s) to.

You can specify a Page Range to convert. Leave this entry blank to convert all pages in the document. Or specify a single page, a range (eg: 1-10) or a comma separated list of pages (eg: 1,3,5).

PDF To Image Conversion

PDF files can be converted to the following image formats: PNG, GIF, BMP, JPEG and TIFF.

For image conversion you can optionally specify the Width and Height. Leave both as zero to leave the size unchanged. If only one of the Width or Height is specified, then the specified dimension will be respected and the other dimension will be calculated so that the original aspect ratio is maintained.

For Image conversion you can specify the Resolution. Larger resolutions will result in bigger converted files and increase conversion time.

For Image conversion enable the Color option if you want full color images created. Otherwise the images will be Grey-scale.

PDF To TIFF Conversion

For conversion to TIFF image files you can enable the TIFF Multi-Frame option. If this is enabled then all pages will be converted to separate frames within the same image file.

You can also specify the TIFF Compression format. Supported compression formats are: Zip, Lzw, Rle, Ccitt3, Ccitt4 and None. Set to 'Default' for the best possible compression.

Converted files will have the same name as the original but with the new file extension. For image files, each page in the PDF document will be converted to a separate image file. The page number will be added to the filename, eg: document_1.tiff, document_2.tiff. You can rename the converted file by entering the new filename in the Rename Converted Files To entry. Use the field replacement %filename% to include the original file.

Specify the folder to save the converted files to in the Save To Path entry.

You can assign the full path & file name to a ThinkAutomation variable to use on subsequent actions (for example, if you wanted to attach the file to an outgoing message). Select from the Assign Filename(s) To list. Multiple files will be separated by commas. You can use this variable on the attachments entry of outgoing emails if you wanted to send the converted files via email.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

Append To PDF Document

Append document content or any text to a PDF document.

Enter or select the PDF File To Append To. This can be a %variable%. If the existing PDF file does not exist it will be created.

Appending Other Documents

You can append other documents and attachments. Supports PDF, Word, Excel, Richtext, OpenDoc, HTML, Text and Markdown files.

Select a Append Documents - this can be any local document file or a %variable% replacement. You can specify multiple documents if required, separated by commas (any file paths that contain commas must be enclosed in quotes).

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to append attached documents matching the Matching Mask. Enter *.* to append all supported document types.

Appending Custom Text

In the Append Content entry, you can specify any text to append. This can contain %variable% replacements. You can use plaintext, Markdown or HTML.

You can append Documents or Text Content, or both.

The updated PDF file can be saved with a new name. Specify the Rename Appended File To.

The updated PDF file can be saved to a different location. Specify the Save To Path.

If the original file is not renamed or not saved to a new location then the original PDF file will be updated.

The updated file name can be returned to a variable selected from the Assign Filename To list.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

Convert PowerPoint Document

Converts PowerPoint files or attachments to various image formats or PDF.

Select a PowerPoint Document To Convert - this can be any local PowerPoint file or a %variable% replacement. You can specify multiple documents if required, separated by commas (any file paths that contain commas must be enclosed in quotes).

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to convert attached documents matching the Matching Mask. Enter *.* to convert all PowerPoint attachments.

From the Convert To list, select the type of file to convert the PowerPoint document(s) to.

PowerPoint To Image Conversion

PowerPoint files can be converted to the following image formats: PNG, GIF, BMP, JPEG, TIFF, WMP and SVG.

You can specify a Slide Range to convert. Leave this entry blank to convert all slides in the document. Or specify a single slide, a range (eg: 1-10) or a comma separated list of slides (eg: 1,3,5).

For image conversion you can optionally specify the Width and Height. Leave both as zero to leave the size unchanged. If only one of the Width or Height is specified, then the specified dimension will be respected and the other dimension will be calculated so that the original aspect ratio is maintained.

For Image conversion you can specify the Resolution. Larger resolutions will result in bigger converted files and increase conversion time.

For Image conversion enable the Color option if you want full color images created. Otherwise the images will be Grey-scale.

PowerPoint To TIFF Conversion

For conversion to TIFF image files you can enable the TIFF Multi-Frame option. If this is enabled then all slides will be converted to separate frames within the same image file.

You can also specify the TIFF Compression format. Supported compression formats are: Zip, Lzw, Rle, Ccitt3, Ccitt4 and None. Set to 'Default' for the best possible compression.

Converted files will have the same name as the original but with the new file extension. For image files, each slide in the PowerPoint document will be converted to a separate image file. The page number will be added to the filename, eg: document_1.tiff, document_2.tiff. You can rename the converted file by entering the new filename in the Rename Converted Files To entry. Use the field replacement %filename% to include the original file.

Specify the folder to save the converted files to in the Save To Path entry.

You can assign the full path & file name to a ThinkAutomation variable to use on subsequent actions (for example, if you wanted to attach the file to an outgoing message). Select from the Assign Filename(s) To list. Multiple files will be separated by commas. You can use this variable on the attachments entry of outgoing emails if you wanted to send the converted files via email.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

Sign PDF Document

Adds a digital signature to a PDF document.

Select a Sign PDF Document - this can be any local PDF file or a %variable% replacement. You can specify multiple documents if required, separated by commas (any file paths that contain commas must be enclosed in quotes).

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments option to sign attached documents matching the Matching Mask. Enter *.* to sign all PDF attachments.

You must then select a Certificate. This can be either an existing certificate stored in the Windows Certificate Store (specify the Common Name - ThinkAutomation will search for a certificate matching the Common name.) or a PFX file (you must also specify the PFX Password).

Optionally specify a Timestamp URL (eg: http://timestamp.digicert.com) if you want the signature to include a timestamp.

Signature Box

Enable the Show Signature Box option to add a visual signature box to the PDF. If this option is disabled then the PDF will still be digitally signed, but will have no visual signature box.

The signature box can be added to the first or last page. Select from the Add To Page list. It will be positioned on the page using the Placement (eg: top/left, or bottom/middle).

You can optionally add an Image (for example, a green tick mark) and set the Image Placement & Image Opacity.

You can specify up to 3 lines of text to add to the signature box. The text can contain %variable% replacements.

Saving Signed Documents

Signed PDF documents by default will have the same name as the original. You can rename the signed PDF document by entering the new filename in the Rename Signed Files To entry. Use the field replacement %filename% to include the original file.

Specify the folder to save the signed documents to in the Save To Path entry.

You can assign the full path & file name to a ThinkAutomation variable to use on subsequent actions (for example, if you wanted to attach the document to an outgoing message). Select from the Assign Filename(s) To list. Multiple documents will be separated by commas. You can use this variable on the attachments entry of outgoing emails if you wanted to send the signed documents via email.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

Save As PDF

Renders the incoming message, an image file or any HTML content/file or URL as a PDF document.

From the Render list, select:

Render Incoming Message

To render in the incoming message. This will render the incoming message body as it would appear in a web browser - including all images.

Render HTML Content, File or URL

To render any HTML content/file or URL. Enter the file path or full URL to the web page you want to save as a PDF (or a %variable% containing a file path or URL). You can also specify a %variable% containing raw HTML instead of a filename if you want to use HTML content generated earlier in your Automation.

Render Image File

To render an image file. Enter or select the file path of an image file or a (%variable% containing an image file). You can use PNG, JPEG, BMP, Webp, TIFF & GIF images. The image will be embedded inside HTML and the HTML will then be converted to a PDF. Enable the Centered option to center the image horizontally on the page. Enable the Border option to show the image within a rounded border.

Select the Page Size, Orientation & Margin.

You can also enter an open Password. Users opening the PDF must enter this password before they can view the content.

Enter the File Name and select the Save To folder. You can use %variable% replacements in the file name. A '.pdf' extension will be added if required.

If Ensure Unique File Name is enabled then ThinkAutomation will add a timestamp to the file name to ensure it is unique within the Save To folder.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the document in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action, or to use the html file as the body of an outgoing email), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

If Generate Table Of Contents Using H1-H6 Tags option is enabled then a table of contents will be generated using HTML heading tags (H1-H6) and inserted into the start of the document.

Enable the Print Created Document option if you want ThinkAutomation to print the PDF file after it is created. You can select the Printer to use.

You can assign the full save path & file name to a ThinkAutomation variable to use on subsequent actions (for example, if you wanted to attach the file to an outgoing message). Select from the Assign To list.

Header/Footer

You can also add Header & Footer text. The header/footer text can be plain text, HTML or Markdown. This will be rendered at the top & bottom of the page. You can also enter the Header/Footer Height in pixels. For the footer you can enable the Add Page Numbering option to add a centered Page x of y block below the footer text.

Page Breaks

The page breaks in the generated PDF document can be controlled using the following CSS properties:

page-break-before: always style forces a page break in the PDF before the element.
page-break-after: always style forces a page break after the element.
page-break-inside: avoid style will ensure a page break does not occur inside the element if possible.

Word Merge

Performs a mail merge on a Microsoft Word document or Word Attachments and saves the merged document as a new file.

This action takes a Word Document and replaces all the mail-merge fields in the document with ThinkAutomation variable values. The resulting merged document is then saved.

Specify the Word File or select Merge Word Attachments and enter a File Mask to use any Word Documents attached to the message.

In the Save Merged Document To enter the new name for the merged document. You can use the special %filename% replacement to use the original file name in part of the new filename. If no name is specified then the original document will be saved.

In the Save To Path specify the folder to save the new document in.

The merged document path & filename can be assigned to a ThinkAutomation variable. Select the variable to use from the Assign Filename(s) To list.

Select Delete After Message Is Processed if you want ThinkAutomation to delete the file after it has finished executing all actions for the current message.

You must then map the Word Document Merge Fields to ThinkAutomation fields/variables. Click the Get Fields From Word Doc to extract mail merge fields from any Word Document. You can also just type them in the list.

Specify each mail Merge Field and the Value to assign the field to. This can be a fixed value or any ThinkAutomation Field, Variable or Built-in Variable.

Print

Prints the incoming message, a report of extracted fields, document attachments or a specific file.

Enable the Print The Incoming Message option to print the incoming message.

Enable the Print Extracted Fields option to print a table showing extracted field names and values.

Enable the Print PDF Attachments option if you want ThinkAutomation to print PDF file attachments.

Enable the Print Document Attachments option if you want ThinkAutomation to print any Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML or Text documents.

You can also a specify Print File. This can be any PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML or text file or a %variable% containing a file path.

You can pre-select the printer to use from the Printer list. This can be a %variable% replacement if you need to conditionally select a printer in a previous action.

If you select a network printer the ThinkAutomation service may not have permission to print to it. This is because the ThinkAutomation service runs under the SYSTEM account by default and the SYSTEM account cannot access any network resources. Configure the ThinkAutomation Message Processor service to run under a different user.

Run A Report

Creates a report using a pre-defined report template. Reports can be printed, and/or exported to various formats, including PDF, HTML, Rich text and Excel. Exported reports can be attached to outgoing emails.

Enter a Report Name.

Click the Edit Report to start the Report Designer

Using The Report Designer

ThinkAutomation includes a report designer that allows you to create custom report templates. Reports can use ThinkAutomation variable data and link to external data sources.

The Extracted Fields/Variables and built-in variables will be listed in the report designer Explorer pane - Fields List. You can drag any of these onto the report designer surface.

After you have dragged a field to the designer, click it to edit its properties in the Properties Toolbox. You can change colors, alignment, borders, fonts etc. You should also re-size the field so that it will fit the data contents. (Note: If the 'Can Grow' property is set to True then the field height will grow automatically based on the field content).

You can also drag other objects onto the report (Labels, Images, Text Boxes, Charts etc). External data sources can be added using the Add Data Source button.

Click Save in the report designer to save the template.

Click Report Designer End-User Documentation to view detailed report designer documentation.

Enable the Export Report option to export the report at run time. Select the file format from the Export Format list. Available types are:

PDF
DOCX (Microsoft Word)
XLSX (Microsoft Excel)
PNG, JPEG
TXT, RTF
HTML
MHT

Use the Assign Export Filename To list to select a ThinkAutomation Variable to assign the exported file name to. You can then use this %fieldname% on other Actions - such as the Send Email action to add the exported report as an attachment.

Enable the Print option to also print the report.

Office 365

Get Or Update Contact

Get or add/update a Contact record for an Office 365 Account.

Click the Sign In button to sign-in to Office 365.

Enter the Email Address for the Contact record. Select the Update option if you want to add/update a contact record, otherwise the contact will be retrieved using the email address specified.

In the Map To Extracted Fields grid map your ThinkAutomation variables to the Exchange Contact fields. Against each Exchange contact field select the relevant ThinkAutomation Variable.

If updating then ThinkAutomation will first lookup an existing contact using the Email Address. If an existing contact is found then the contact is updated, otherwise a new contact record is created. If not updating then ThinkAutomation will lookup the contact using the email address and then if found, assign the contact fields to the mapped ThinkAutomation variables.

Create Appointment

Creates an appointment for an Office 365 Account.

Click the Sign In button to sign-in to Office 365.

You must then specify the Appointment Settings.

The Attendees field must use email addresses.

If %variable% replacements are used for the Start Date/Time or End Date/Time then you need to ensure that the fields contain valid dates or times.

Update Incoming Message

Set flags and/or modify the subject on the incoming Office 365 source message.

This action works with the message currently being processed.

Enter a comma separated list of Categories to assign to the message. Leave blank for no change.

Set Focused - set if the message appears in the 'Focused' or 'Other' view.

Set Importance - set the Importance for the message.

Set Mark As Read - set the 'read' status for the message.

Set Follow Up Flag - set the follow up status for the message.

If Follow Up Flag is set to Flagged, enter the number of Days if you want the follow-up flag to be set for the current message. The Days entry can use %variable% replacements. It should be set to a numeric value representing the number of days from today.

Modifying The Subject

You can modify the message subject by entering a value in the Subject entry. You can use %variable% replacements, for example to append '(processed)' you would set the Subject to %Msg_Subject% (processed). If this entry is blank then the subject is not changed.

This action can only be used on Automations that are called from an Office 365 Message Source.

Get User Presence

Get current presence information (availability and activity) for one or more users. This action reads presence information for Microsoft Teams users.

Click the Sign In button to sign-in to Office 365.

In the User Names entry enter one or more Office 365 user names that you want to read presence information for. This will usually be the user's login email address. Separate multiple users with commas or one per line. Up to 260 users can be specified per request.

Enable Return Only Presence option if you only want to return current presence, otherwise the username, displayname, current presence and current activity is returned (for each user).

Return As

The result can be returned as CSV, Markdown table or JSON.

For example:

CSV

Username,DisplayName,Availability,Activity
howard@parkersoftware.com,Howard Williams,BusyIdle,Busy
benjamin.wilshaw@parkersoftware.com,Benjamin Wilshaw,Available,Available
liam.dobbs@parkersoftware.com,Liam Dobbs,Offline,Offline

Markdown

+--------------------------------------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+
| Username                                   | Display Name      | Availability | Activity  |
+============================================+===================+==============+===========+
| mailto:howard@parkersoftware.com           | Howard Williams   | BusyIdle     | Busy      |
+--------------------------------------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+
| mailto:benjamin.wilshaw@parkersoftware.com | Benjamin Wilshaw  | Available    | Available |
+--------------------------------------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+
| mailto:liam.dobbs@parkersoftware.com       | Liam Dobbs        | Offline      | Offline   |
+--------------------------------------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+

JSON

[
  {
    "Username": "howard@parkersoftware.com",
    "DisplayName": "Howard Williams",
    "Availability": "BusyIdle",
    "Activity": "Busy"
  },
  {
    "Username": "benjamin.wilshaw@parkersoftware.com",
    "DisplayName": "Benjamin Wilshaw",
    "Availability": "Available",
    "Activity": "Available"
  },
  {
    "Username": "liam.dobbs@parkersoftware.com",
    "DisplayName": "Liam Dobbs",
    "Availability": "Offline",
    "Activity": "Offline"
  }
]

If you enable Return Only Presence and Return As CSV and get the presence for a single user then a single text value will be returned with that users current presence only.

The presence (Availability) will be one of: Available, AvailableIdle, Away, BeRightBack, Busy, BusyIdle, DoNotDisturb, Offline, PresenceUnknown.

The Activity will be one of: Available, Away, BeRightBack, Busy, DoNotDisturb, InACall, InAConferenceCall, Inactive, InAMeeting, Offline, OffWork, OutOfOffice, PresenceUnknown, Presenting, UrgentInterruptionsOnly.

Select the variable to receive the results from the Assign To list.

Send Teams Message

Sends a message to a Microsoft Teams channel on behalf of an Office 365 user.

Click the Sign In button to sign-in to Office 365. This is the user that the message will be sent from.

The Teams and Channels for the user will then be listed. Select the Team and then the Channel within the team to send a message to.

Enter the Message text.

The message text can contain Markdown. If Markdown is used it will be converted to HTML before being sent.

Create Outlook MSG File

Saves the current message or a variable containing EML (mime) text as a Microsoft Outlook compatible MSG file to a folder on your file system.

Select the Save To folder and enter a File Name. The .msg file extension will be added automatically if not specified. If Ensure Unique File Name is enabled then ThinkAutomation will add a timestamp to the filename to ensure it is unique within the Save To folder.

Saving The Current Inc Message

From the Create Outlook MSG File Using list select Current Message. The currently executing message will then be saved as an Outlook MSG file (regardless of it's source type).

Saving EML (Mime) Text

This option will convert EML text to Outlook MSG format. From the Create Outlook MSG File Using list select Mime Text. You must then select a %variable% containing EML (mime) text created earlier.

If you want to create EML text, you can use the Send Email action to create a custom email message. Enable the Dont Send Just Assign Mime option and select a %variable% from the Assign Mime Text To list to save the mime text to. You can then use this variable on this action to create an Outlook MSG file based on the custom email.

You can assign the saved path & filename to a variable by selecting the variable from the Assign Saved File Path To list.

General

Text Operation

Perform various operations on text.

The From value can be any text or %variable% replacement or combination.

Select the Text Operation Type:

OperationType	Details
Trim: All Whitespace	All Whitespace (replaces all tab, CR, and LF characters, with space characters, and removes extra space's so there are no occurrences of more than one space in a row).
Trim: Blanks	Blanks (removes all CR/LF/tab characters and trims).
Trim: End	Trims the last Length characters.
Trim: Start	Trims the first Length characters.
Trim: Start & End	Trims the first and last Length characters.
Get: Index Of	Returns the start position of Look For value in the From value (1 based). The Look for can be a regular expression or %variable% replacement.
Get: Left	Get the last Length characters.
Get: Right	Get the first Length characters.
Get: SubString	Get Length characters starting at Start Position. If Start Position is not a number then the value of Start Position will be searched in the From value - and the search position will be used (if found).
Get: Length	Returns the character length of the From value.
Extract: JSON Path	Get a specific Json Path value from Json text specified in the From valu
Extract: Regex	Get one or all matches of the Regex Pattern.
Replace: Regex	Replace one or more Regex Pattern matches with a replace pattern.
Set: Format	Returns a formatted value of the From value. The Format can be any .NET format. For example: 'The delivery date is {0:d}' would return 'The delivery date is 1/1/2021' if From contained a date value.
Mask: Inside	Replaces Length characters starting from Start Position with * characters.
Mask: Profanity	Replaces all profanity words with * characters.
Mask: Credit Card Numbers	Replaces all Credit Card numbers with * characters.
Convert: To Lower Case	Returns the From value as lower case.
Convert: To Upper Case	Returns the From value as upper case.
Convert: To Word Capitalized	Returns the From value as Word Capitalized.
Convert: CamelCase To Words	Returns the From value as words extracted from Camel Case. Eg: customerName would return 'Customer Name'
Convert: HTML To PlainText	Returns the plain text version of any HTML text. (see: HTML Parsing Notes)
Convert: HTML To XML	Returns the well formed XML version of any HTML text. (see: HTML Parsing Notes)
Convert: HTML To Json	Converts HTML to XML and then converts the XML to Json. (see: HTML Parsing Notes)
Convert: HTML To Markdown	Converts HTML to Markdown.
Convert: Markdown To HTML	Converts Markdown to HTML.
Convert: CSV To HTML Table	Converts CSV text into a HTML table.
Convert: CSV To Markdown Table	Converts CSV text into a Markdown table.
Convert: CSV To Json Array	Converts CSV text into a Json array.
Convert: Json To CSV	Converts Json/Json Array text into CSV text with headers.
Convert: XML To Json	Converts XML text into Json.

The 'Sub String' and 'Get Index Of' use 1 based index positions. 'Get Index Of' will return 0 if the Look For value is not found.

The Preview will show a preview of the operation. This is useful to check how the operation will work. The preview however will not show if the From text is a %variable% replacement (since the value will not be known until the Automation executes).

Select the variable to receive the result from the Assign To list.

HTML Conversion Notes

For the Text Operation action, when converting HTML to plain text, Markdown, JSON or XML there are a number of additional options:

Suppress Links : If enabled then links will be removed before conversion.
Suppress Images : If enabled then images will be removed before conversion.
Drop Tags : You can enter a comma separated list of tags to remove from the HTML before conversion. This can be useful for removing navigation blocks and footers, if you only need the page content (eg: <nav> and <footer> tags). Specify tag names (without enclosing < and > characters, eg: nav,footer)
Drop Tags With Class/Id Names : You can enter a comma separated list of class and/or id names. Any tags with matching class or ID names will be removed from the HTML before conversion.

Regular Expression Extract

For the Text Operation action, the Extract: Regex operation allows you to extract data from the From entry based on a regular expression in the Regex Pattern entry. If All Matches is enabled then all matches are returned (one per line).

For example if the From text is set to:

Product Code Quantity
------------ --------
A1234        1

And the Regex Pattern is set to ''A[0-9]{4}'' - which means any text starting with 'A' followed by 4 numbers (0-9). Then the returned text would be 'A1234'.

Regular Expression Replace

For the Text Operation action, the Replace: Regex operation allows you to search for regular expression patterns and then perform a replacement on the matches. The replace pattern can contain substitutions.

For example if the From text is set to:

Phone Number: 4075452119

And Regex Pattern is set to "(?(\d{3}))?[\s-]?(\d{3})-?(\d{4})" and the Replace With set to "($1) $2-$3". Then the returned text would be "Phone Number: (407) 545-2119".

Date Operation

Perform various operations on dates.

Select the Date Operation Type:

OperationType	Details
Get Date	Extract the date from any text or variable and return it to another variable in a predefined format. Enable the Convert To UTC option to convert the date to UTC.
Get Time	Extract just the time from any text or variable and return it to another variable in a predefined format.
Get Date and Time	Extract the date and time from any text or variable and return it to another variable in a predefined format.
Get Interval	Calculates an Interval between a From and To date and returns the value to a variable. The Interval can be Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years. The interval can be returned as a number or duration text. Select from the Interval Format option. If Short Duration is selected then for interval will be returned as hhss format. Long Duration will return as x Hours, x Minutes, x Seconds (depending on the Interval type).
Add To	Adds an interval Value to an existing date/time extracted from any text or variable and returns the new date time to a variable in a predefined format.
Subtract From	Subtracts an interval Value to an existing date/time extracted from any text or variable and returns the new date time to a variable in a predefined format.
Get Date and Time From Unix Timestamp	Get the date and time from a Unix timestamp. A Unix timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds since 1st Jan 1970.
Get Unix Timestamp From Date and Time.	Gets the Unix timestamp from a date.
Get Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second	Get a specific date part from any date/time.

Select the variable to receive the result from the Assign To Variable list.

When extracting and formatting dates you can select the Locale. This will default to the system locale.

Formatting

You can use this action to change the format of an existing date %variable% or extract a specific part of a datetime and assign it to a different variable. Use the Get Date and Time operation. Set the From to the variable containing the date. Enter or select the required Format. Select the same variable from the Assign To Variable list if you want to update the existing variable.

See: Custom date and time format strings | Microsoft Docs for available Format strings.

File Operation

Create new folders, copy, move, rename, check exists, delete files and get file information.

Use this Action to create new folders or to copy, move, check if files exists, rename & delete files and get file information. You can also use this action to generate an SHA256 hash (checksum) for any file.

Select the Operation Type:

Create Folder
Copy File
Move File
Delete File
Rename File
Check If File/Folder Exists
Get SHA256 Hash For File
Get File Size
Get File Date
Get File Version
Read File To Base64 String
Write Binary File From Base64 String
Append To Filename
Prefix Filename
Get Folder Contents

Depending on the Operation Type enter the Folder, File Name, To Folder & To File Name.

You can assign the result to a variable. Select from the Assign To Variable list. The variable will be set to the new folder and file name depending on the Operation Type. For example, for the Create Folder operation the variable will be assigned to the new folder name. For the Copy operation the variable will be assigned the full path & file name of the new file. If the operation fails the variable will be assigned a blank string and the error will be shown in the log. The Check If File/Folder Exists operation will return the file/folder path is the file/folder exists, otherwise blank.

The Append To Filename and Prefix Filename operations allow you to append text or prefix text to existing file names. For example: If the Append Text is set to 'abc' and the processed filename was 'order.pdf' then the existing file will be renamed to 'orderabc.pdf'.

The Copy, Move, Delete, Append To Filename & Prefix Filename operations allow the File Name to contain wildcards. If using wildcards enable the Match Files Using Wildcards option. The File Name can contain * and ? wildcard characters. When using wildcards, if multiple files are processed then the Assign To Variable will contain a list of files processed separated by commas.

For the Copy operation you can specify the To File Name (when not using wildcards). You can specify a different destination file name. If this entry is blank the original file name will be used.

For the Copy operation you can enable the Overwrite Existing option if you want existing files in the destination folder to be overwritten. If this option is not enabled and an existing file already exists then an error will raised.

The Get File Version operation returns file information in the following format:

File:             D:\ThinkAutomation\Setup Files\ThinkAutomation.exe
InternalName:     ThinkAutomation
OriginalFilename: ThinkAutomation.exe
FileVersion:      5.0.240.2
FileDescription:  ThinkAutomation Installer
Product:          ThinkAutomation
ProductVersion:   5.0.240.2
Debug:            True
Patched:          False
PreRelease:       False
PrivateBuild:     False
SpecialBuild:     False
Language:         English (United Kingdom)

For the Create Folder operation the complete folder structure will be created if any levels do not exist. If the full folder already exists the Assign to variable will be assigned the existing folder name and no error will be reported. An error will only be reported for the Create Folder operation if the creation of a new folder fails.

The Get Folder Contents operation returns a list of files in the specified Folder and Mask. The list will be assigned to the Assign To variable with each file separated by a comma. The full path and filenames are returned. You can use the For Each.. Comma Separated Value In action to loop through the list of files.

If you are access folder/files on your network you will need to change the user name that the ThinkAutomation Message Processor Service runs under.

List Operation

Create and update a list. This action enables you to create a generic list of values. You can then add to the list, delete, sort & search. You can then read single values or all values further in your Automation. Any number of separate lists can be created - with each list referenced by its name.

Each list must be given a Name. You cannot use the name of an existing %variable% as a list name. If you want to update the same list further in your Automation you would use the same name. Lists can contain any number of items (based on available memory).

Select the List Operation:

Create

Create a new list. A list must be created before any other operations can be used. If you re-create an existing list all existing items will be removed.

Specify the Of Type - this can be text, number or date. The Of Type setting determines how the list is sorted if you use the Sort operation.

Enable the Unique option to only allow unique values to be added to the list. If Unique is enabled then duplicate values cannot be added (an error will not be raised when duplicate values are added).

You can optionally initialize the created list with one or more Values. Values can contain %variables%.

You can also optionally add values contained in the Load From entry. A value will be added for each line contained in the %variable% specified.

Append

Append one or more values to the end of an existing list. Enter one or more Values to append. Values can contain %variables%.

Insert

Insert one or more values to an existing list. Specify the Index position where you want the values to be inserted. Index positions start at 1. If no index value is specified then the values will be inserted at the start of the list. The Index value can be a %variable%.

Delete

Delete a value at the specified Index position (starting at 1).

Get Value

Get a value at the specified Index position (starting at 1). The item value can be assigned to a %variable% from the Assign To list.

Get All Values

Get all values in the list and assign to the Assign To variable. The Return As defines how the list will be returned to the Assign To variable:

Text : The list is returned as text with each value on a separate line.
Json Array : The list is returned as a Json array.
Markdown Table : The list is returned as a Markdown table.
CSV : The list is returned as a CSV line with values separated by commas and quoted if required.
HTML List : The list will be returned as a HTML unordered or ordered list.

Sort Ascending

Sort the list in ascending order.

Sort Descending

Sort the list in descending order.

Search For

Searches the list for a matching value (case insensitive) and assigns the index number to the Assign To variable (or blank if no match was found). Enter the value to search in the Search For entry.

Individual list values can be any text of any size. If the Of Type is set to number then the expected values should be numeric. If the Of Type is set to Date then the values should be dates or date+time. The date values are stored in yyyy-mm-dd hhss format so they can be sorted.

The List Operation action has many uses. It can be used to create Json arrays. Where you add separate Json blocks or values to a list and then use the Get All operation with the Return As set to Json Array.

You can use the For Each action to loop through values in a list.

You can use a list name as a %variable% replacement. This will replace the %listname% with all values in the list (one per line).

Math

Executes mathematical formulas and returns the result to a variable.

Enter the Formula text. The formula can contain %variable% replacements.

Select the variable to receive the result from the Assign To list.

Formulas can be as simple as %Price% * %Amount% which would return the value held in %Price% multiplied by the value held in %Amount%.

Click the Validate button to check the formula.

The following mathematical operations are supported:

Addition: +
Subtraction: -
Multiplication: *
Division: /
Modulo: %
Exponentiation: ^
Negation: !

Standard Functions:

Function	Arguments	Description
sum	sum(A1, ..., An)	Total
roundup	roundup(A1,Digits)	Rounds up decimal to specified digits
sin	sin(A1)	Sine
cos	cos(A1)	Cosine
asin	asin(A1)	Arcsine
acos	acos(A1)	Arccosine
tan	tan(A1)	Tangent
cot	cot(A1)	Cotangent
atan	atan(A1)	Arctangent
acot	acot(A1)	Arccotangent
loge	loge(A1)	Natural Logarithm
log10	log10(A1)	Common Logarithm
logn	logn(A1, A2)	Logarithm
sqrt	sqrt(A1)	Square Root
if	if(A1, A2, A3)	If Function
max	max(A1, ..., An)	Maximum
min	min(A1, ..., An)	Minimum
avg	avg(A1, ..., An)	Average
median	median(A1, ..., An)	Median
round	round(A1)	Round
random	random()	Random

For more complex calculations you can use the Create Spreadsheet action. The Create Spreadsheet action allows you to assign %variables% to cells and then read-back cell values to %variables% after all formulas have been re-calculated.

Encryption

Encrypts or Decrypts text or files using AES encryption and returns the encrypted/decrypted text/filename to a variable.

This action is used both to encrypt and decrypt text or files. Select the Encrypt or Decrypt options.

Encrypting

To encrypt text select the Encrypt option and enter the text or file to encrypt.

When encrypting text you must specify the Encoding method to use. This can be hex, base64 or URL. The default is base64.

To encrypt a file select the Encrypt File tab and select the File Path & File Name. Select the Save To Path to save the encrypted file to. Optionally enter a Save To Filename. If no filename is specified then the original file name will be used but with an '.aes' extension. You can use %variable% replacements for the file path & names - this enables you to use it with the For..Each action if you wanted to encrypt attachments.

You must specify a Key Length and Secret Key. The key length can be 256, 192 or 128. These are bit sizes. The secret key length must be 32 characters for 256 bit keys, 24 characters for 192 bit keys or 16 characters for 128 bit keys. You can use %variable% replacements for the secret key - however this must convert to the correct key length when the message is processed.

The encrypted text/file path can be returned to a variable. Select from the Assign Encrypted File To list.

Decrypting

To decrypt text select the Decrypt option and enter the text or file to decrypt. The text must be encoded using the same encoding method used to encrypt (base64, hex or URL). You must also specify the Encoding method.

To decrypt a file select the Decrypt File tab and select the File Path & File Name. Select the Save To Folder to save the decrypted file to and enter the Save To File Name.

You must specify a Key Length and Secret Key. The key length can be 256, 192 or 128. These are bit sizes. The secret key length must be 32 characters for 256 bit keys, 24 characters for 192 bit keys or 16 characters for 128 bit keys. You can use %variable% replacements for the secret key - however this must convert to the correct key length when the message is processed.

The decrypted text/file path can be returned to a variable. Select from the Assign Decrypted File To list.

Compression

Creates Zip compatible compressed archive files for attachments or files/folders. Can also be used to unzip files.

This action is used both to zip and unzip files.

Compressing Files/Attachments

To create a Zip file select Compress.

Select the Zip File Path to save the Zip file to and enter the Zip File Name. You can use %variable% replacements here. If a %variable% replacement is used for the Zip File Name (for example %msg_subject%) it will first be converted into a valid file name. If no extension exists then .zip will be used.

Enable Create New if you want a new zip file creating. If this option is not selected and an existing Zip file already exists then the new files will be added to it.

Optionally specify a Password if you want to password protect the Zip file.

Enable the Zip Attachments option if you want to compress files attached to the incoming message. You can specify a File Mask if you want to only compress files of a certain type (eg: *.pdf).

Select the local Folder and File Mask for other files you want to add to the Zip file.

The File Mask entry can contain multiple masks, separated by commas (eg: *.pdf, ThisDoc.docx, *.xlsx).

The Exclusions entry can contain filenames and masks that you want to exclude from the zip file. Separate multiple with commas.

Enable the Delete Zip After Message Is Processed option if you want ThinkAutomation to delete the Zip file after the Automation has finished executing actions for the current message. This is useful if you are creating a Zip file to send with an outgoing message and the Zip file is not needed to be kept afterward's.

Select the variable that you want the Zip file path to be assigned to from the Assign To list. You can then use this on further actions - for example on the Attach entry of outgoing messages.

Decompressing

To unzip and existing Zip file select Decompress.

Select the Zip File Path and Zip File Name.

Specify a Password if the Zip file is password protected.

Enter a File Mask for the files you want unzipped - or specify *.* for all files.

The Exclusions entry can contain filenames and masks that you want to exclude from being unzipped. Separate multiple with commas.

Select the Unzip To Folder for the folder where you want the unzipped files placed.

Enable the Delete Unzipped Files After Message Is Processed option if you want ThinkAutomation to delete the unzipped files after the Automation has finished processing actions for the current message.

The unzipped files list can be returned to a variable. Select the variable from the Assign Unzipped Files To list. This will be a comma separated list of files with their full path.

Create Hash

Generate a hash for any text/variable.

Enter the Text To Hash and specify the Hash Algorithm.

The resulting hash can be encoded in various formats (the default is Base64).

Select the variable to assign the hash to from the Assign Hash To list.

Set Message Store Flag

Assigns a Flag to the current message.

ThinkAutomation stores a copy of each processed message in the Message Store. You can assign a Flag number to the message stored in the Message Store. When viewing the Message Store you can filter by Flag.

In the Set Incoming Message Flag Number To entry, enter the flag number to assign to the current message. You can use a %variable% replacement to conditionally set a flag value based on previous actions.

You can setup any number of Flag values using the Server Settings - Message Store Flags option.

Message Store Operation

ThinkAutomation stores a copy of each processed message in the Message Store. This action can be used to read an email 'conversation'. This action can also be used to drop the current message, to pause/resume message sources and to perform a message store search.

A conversation is a list of messages in date order (newest first), between two email addresses (either from/to or to/from) where the subject is the same (ignoring any 'FW:' or 'RE:' prefixes). ThinkAutomation maintains a 'conversationid' index in the Message Store which provides fast conversation lookup.

Select the Message Store Operation:

Get Current Conversation

This operation returns the conversation for the currently executing message.

Get Another Conversation

This operation returns the conversation between two specified email addresses with the same specified subject.

Specify the Between Email Address and And Email Address.

Specify the For Subject.

You can specify the Maximum Items and Maximum Age (Days).

The message store will be searched for all messages where the From and To addresses match either of the Between email addresses and have the same subject (any 'FW:' or 'RE:' subject prefixes will be ignored). Only messages processed within the same Solution will be searched.

In the Return As list select one of:

Markdown : A single markdown text string is returned containing all messages.
Json : A Json array in the following format:

{ 
    "Conversation": [
      {
          "Id": "64918ec290ca1b3ae8d9286c",
          "FromName": "Test",
          "ToName": "ThinkAutomation",
          "Dated": "2023-06-20T11:34:26",
          "Message": "Hello",
          "Attachments": ""
        },
        {
          "Id": "64918ec290ca1b3ae8d9286d",
          "FromName": "ThinkAutomation",
          "ToName": "Test",
          "Dated": "2023-06-20T11:56:12",
          "Message": "Hi There!",
          "Attachments": ""
        }
    ]
}

CSV : CSV text in the following format:

Id,FromName,ToName,Dated,Message,Attachments
64918ec290ca1b3ae8d9286c,Test,ThinkAutomation,2023-06-20 11:34:26,Hello,
64918ec290ca1b3ae8d9286d,ThinkAutomation,Test,2023-06-20 11:56:12,Hello There!,

HTML: HTML text in the following format:

<div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;">
  <div style="display:flex;justify-content:flex-start;margin-bottom:5px;">
    <div style="border:1px solid #dee2e6;border-radius:6px;max-width:70%;padding:5px;">
      <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:3px;font-size:11px;color:#595c5f;">Test @ 20/06/2023 11:34</p>
     Hello
    </div>
  </div>
  <div style="display:flex;justify-content:flex-end;margin-bottom:5px;">
    <div style="border:1px solid #dee2e6;border-radius:6px;max-width:70%;padding:5px;">
      <p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:3px;font-size:11px;color:#595c5f;">ThinkAutomation @ 20/06/2023 11:56</p>
      Hello There!
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Select the variable to receive the results from the Assign To list. The result will be blank if there are no messages.

You can use this action if you need to display or send a transcript of a conversation between two email addresses with the same subject.

Getting A Conversation For Web Chat Form Messages.

Enable the Is Web Chat option if you want to read messages saved via the Web Chat message source. For messages saved via a web chat message source, the 'bot' reply is saved to the Automation Return value rather than being a separate message store message. If you enable this option the Automation Return value for each message will be added as the 'reply' message.

Drop Message

This operation will flag the currently executing message to be deleted from the message store database after the Automation completes.

Drop Current Conversation

This operation will delete all previous message store messages where the from/to or to/from email addresses and subject match the currently executing message. The current message will not be deleted. The Assign To variable will receive the number of messages deleted.

Drop Another Conversation

This operation deletes all previous message store messages between two email addresses with the same subject. Specify the Between Email Address and And Email Address. Specify the For Subject. The current message will not be deleted. The Assign To variable will receive the number of messages deleted.

Pause Or Resume Message Source

This operation can be used to pause or resume any Message Source within the same Solution. Select the Message Source from the list, this must be within the same Solution as the Automation. The Pause/Resume Message Source operations can be used to conditionally pause/resume Message Sources in addition to any Schedule assigned to the Message Source.

Get Message Source Status

This operation can be used to check the status of any Message Source within the same Solution. Select the Message Source from the list, this must be within the same Solution as the Automation. Select the variable to receive the status from the Assign Status To list. The status returned will be one of: 'Active', 'Disabled', 'Paused' or 'Missing' (if the Message Source has been deleted).

Search Message Store

This operation can be used to search the Message Store for any messages within the same Solution. A list of matching messages will be returned. The search results can be returned as a HTML table, allowing you to setup a message archive search system in conjunction with a Web Form.

You can then specify one or more search values. All search values can contain %variable% replacements.

You can search any or all of the following (if multiple search values are used then ALL must match):

Subject, From Address, To Address, Keywords Or Attachment Names Containing - specify a value to search against subject, from/to addresses or attachment names (leave blank for all). You can use space or the + operator to search for multiple terms (eg: sales+order would return items containing 'sales' AND 'order'). If a search term itself contains a + character then you should enclose it in double quotes. This parameter can be used to use a single search term for subject, keywords, from/to, attachment names.
Subject Containing - specify a value to search against the subject (leave blank for all).
From Address Containing - specify a value to search against the 'from' address (leave blank for all).
To Address Containing - specify a value to search against the 'to' address (leave blank for all).
Automation Return Value Containing - specify a value to search against the automation return value (leave blank for all).
OR Message Ids In - specify a %variable% containing a list of Message Ids. This can be used in conjunction with the Full Text Search action in order to perform a full text search on message body text. You would update a full text search collection using the incoming email body on a separate automation.

The message store will be searched for all messages matching the above. Only messages processed within the same Solution will be searched.

You can also optionally specify the From Date and To Date. These can also be %variable% replacements. If no dates are specified then all messages are searched.

If the Distinct option is enabled, then only messages with unique From/To/Subject and size are returned.

You can specify a Message Source - if you only want to search messages received by a specific Message Source. If no Message Source is specified in the all messages within the Solution will be searched (except the Message Source of the search Automation itself).

You can specify the Maximum Items and Maximum Age (Days).

The URL returned in the results is a link to view the full message in a browser. Enable the Always Use Local Links option to return local links. If this option is not enabled then the message links will be public (served via the API Gateway).

In the Return As list select one of:

Markdown : A single markdown text string is returned containing all messages.
Json : A Json array in the following format:

{
  "Items": [
    {
      "Id": "66de9057c937df0bf66395ae",
      "From": "someone@test.com",
      "To": "myname@mydomain.com",
      "Dated": "2024-09-09T06:06:15",
      "Importance": "N",
      "Subject": "Test Message",
      "Size": 6345,
      "Attachments": "Document.pdf",
      "ReturnValue": "test",
      "Url": "https://api.thinkautomation.com/xxx/viewmessage?id=xxx"
    },
    {
      "Id": "66de9025c937df0bf6639583",
      "From": "someone@test.com",
      "To": "myname@mydomain.com",
      "Dated": "2024-09-09T06:05:25",
      "Importance": "N",
      "Subject": "Another Test Message",
      "Size": 3435,
      "Attachments": "",
      "ReturnValue": "test",
      "Url": "https://api.thinkautomation.com/xxx/viewmessage?id=xxx"
    }
  ]
}

CSV : CSV text in the following format:

Id,From,To,Dated,Importance,Subject,Size,Attachments,ReturnValue,Url

HTML Table: HTML text in the following format:

<table id='taMessages'>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th id='taMC1'>View</th>
      <th id='taMC2'>&#x1f4ce;</th> <!--attachment icon-->
      <th id='taMC3'>From</th>
      <th id='taMC4'>To</th>
      <th id='taMC5'>Date</th>
      <th id='taMC6'>&#x2757;</th>  <!--important icon-->
      <th id='taMC7'>Size</th>
      <th id='taMC8'>Subject</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td><a href='https://api.thinkautomation.com/xxx/viewmessage?id=xxx' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>View</a></td>
      <td>&#x1f4ce;</td>
      <td>from@test.com</td>
      <td>to@test.com</td>
      <td>09/09/2024 07:06</td>
      <td></td>
      <td>10.9KB</td>
      <td>Test Subject/td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

HTML Table (Bootstrap) : Same as the HTML Table option but with Bootstrap styles added.

Select the variable to receive the results from the Assign To list. The result will be blank if there are no messages.

You can use this action if you need to process or display the results of a Message Store search. The Url property of the returned results is a link to view the message detail (body).

Set Logging Level

Set the logging detail level for the current message.

This action can be used to change the level of logging for the currently executing message. This is useful if you have many actions, or actions that loop and you want to reduce the number of log entries to improve performance. Setting the logging level to 'Minimal' will cause only errors to be logged.

Any Comment actions that have the Show In Log option enabled will always be logged, regardless of the current logging level.

For fast running Automations, or Automations that generate many log entries, you should use the Set Logging Level action to set the logging level to 'minimal' once you have completed debugging your Automation. This will significantly increase performance.

It can also be used to increase the logging level whilst debugging a specific Automation.

You can change the logging level multiple times during an Automation.

The logging level will revert back to the default once the Automation has completed executing actions for the current message.

You can set the default logging level for all Automations using the Server Settings - Logging option.

Create Passcode

Creates a random Passcode and assigns the value to a variable.

This action can be used to generate a random passcode. The passcode can then be sent by email (via the Wait For User Response or Send Email actions) or by SMS (via the Twilio Send SMS Message and Twilio Wait For SMS Reply actions) in order to implement two-factor authentication or to check that a given email address or mobile phone number is valid.

Select the Passcode Type. This can be:

Letters (a-z)
Letters & Numbers (a-z,0-9)
Letters, Numbers & Special Characters (a-z,0-9, ~!@#$%^&*_-+=|(){}[]:;<>?/)
Numbers Only (0-9)
Random Word and Numbers
Two Random Words and Numbers

Enable Include Upper Case to also include (A-Z) characters if Numbers only is not used.

Enter the Number Of Characters. This can be between 3 & 99.

Select the variable to assign the passcode to from the Assign To list.

The Passcode generated will be random containing no repeating characters. The Passcode is not guaranteed to be universally unique.

For the Random Word and Two Random Words options the passcode will consist of one or two random words (English) followed by numbers (based on the Number Of Characters entry). For example: 'Glove2085' - if the number of characters was set to 4. If the Include Upper Case option is enabled then the first character of the random word will be in upper case.

Find and Replace

Finds and replaces text in any ThinkAutomation variable and returns the result to the same or different variable.

Enter the text to find in the Replace entry. You can make use of %variable% replacements.

Enter the text to replace with in the With entry. Again you can use %variable% replacements. Note: The With value can be blank if you wish to just remove the Replace value.

In the In list - select the field to use for the replacement. This can be any of your extracted fields/variables.

By default the text search will start at the beginning of the text. Enter a Start At Character value if you want to start the search from a specific character position.

Enable Replace All Occurrences if you want all occurrences of the Replace text to be replaced.

Enable Case Sensitive Search if the find should be case sensitive.

You must then select variable to assign the replaced text to from the Assign Result To list. By default the same variable that you select in the In selection will be used.

You can also perform regular expression replacements using the Text Operation action.

Read Or Write Text File

Saves data to any text file and/or reads the contents of the file into a variable. This action can be used to save text or %variables% to a text file, or read the contents of a text file and assign the contents to a %variable%.

The File Path must contain a path & filename of the text file to write to/read from.

Writing

On the Write To File tab you can define the text that you want to write to the file. The file will be created if it does not already exist. All directories contained in the path will be created if they do not exist.

Select the file Format. This can be ASCII, Unicode or UTF-8 (default).

Select the Line Terminator that will be appended to the text written to the file.

Enter the Content that you want to write to the file. This can contain %variable% replacements.

If the Append To File option is enabled then the new text will be added to the end of any existing text file.

If the Make Backup option is enabled the existing file will be copied to the same file name with a .BAK file first.

On the Read From File tab you can select a ThinkAutomation variable that you want to assign the text file contents to. The file will be read again after any text is written to it.

Reading Only

Select the Read From File tab and then select the %variable% to assign the text file contents to.

If nothing is specified in the Content entry then the file is only read.

Tokenize

Gets a list of comma separated tokens (words) for any text.

Enter the Text/HTML to tokenize. If the text is HTML then the HTML will be converted to plain text first.

Options:

Remove Common Words : Remove all common words (and, the, a etc.) from the tokens list.
Remove Email Addresses & Urls : Removes any email addresses and URLs from the tokens list.
Include Numeric Tokens : Include tokens containing numbers and dates in the tokens list.
Normalize : Normalizes common contractions (eg: 'what's' to 'what is') and common abbreviations (eg: hi to hello, nov to november, ur to your, bday to birthday, 2day to today, plz to please, thx to thanks etc.)
Stem Words : Reduces words to their root form (English only). For example: the words 'ask','asking' and 'asked' would all stem to 'ask'.
Unique : Duplicates are removed from the tokens list.
Include Count : The frequency is appended to each token (if unique enabled).
Sort By : None, frequency, word (if unique enabled).
Top : Return the top x words if sorted (if unique enabled).

The tokens can be assigned to a variable. Tokens are returned as a comma separated string.

Extract Address Parts

Parses a postal address block and extracts specific parts (Company Name, Address Line 1, Address Line2, State, Zip/Postcode, Country).

In the Extract Address From enter the address or a %variable% containing an address.

You can then assign Company Name, Address Line 1, Address Line 2, State, Zip/Postcode and Country to variables.

You can also assign the normalized address block to a variable from the Assign Address To list. The normalized address will include above parts, one per line. US state abbreviations will be expanded.

This action will attempt to locate the country/state using the zip/postcode if no state/country is specified in the incoming address. This currently supports UK, USA, Canada & Ireland postcodes.

Postcodes for European countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands) will be extracted if the address contains the country name.

This action is useful where an address block has been extracted from a document using the Extract Field action with the Extract Using Text Range option.

You can test the address extraction by pasting an address into the Extract Address From entry and clicking the Test button.

Extract Email Signature

Parses contact and company information from email signature footers.

ThinkAutomation will parse the email text and extract the footer block. From this it attempts to extract the following:

Name
Known As
Title
Company Name
Address
Company Number
VAT Number
Email
Phone
Mobile Phone
Other Phone Numbers
Web Address
Unsubscribe Link
Privacy Policy Link
Social Links
Other Links
Footer Text
Pre-Signature Text (the body text before the signature part)

In the Assign Signature Info grid, select the Property name and the variable you want to assign the value to.

The complete signature block Json can also be assigned. Select from the Assign Json To list.

For example, consider the following email text:

Hi,

Please find attached the report you requested.

Kind regards,
Clare 
Senior Accountant
p: +44 (0)330 0882 943 | US (800) 680 7712
e: clare.rowley@parkersoftware.com
w: https://www.parkersoftware.com

https://www.whoson.com
https://www.thinkautomation.com

This email is from Parker Software Ltd. 
Victoria Business Park, Prospect Way, Knypersley, Staffordshire, ST8 7PL.
Registered in England & Wales No. 4525820.

The email signature would be extracted as:

{
  "FirstName": "Clare",
  "LastName": "",
  "Name": "Clare",
  "KnownAs": "",
  "Title": "Senior Accountant",
  "Company": "Parker Software Ltd",
  "Address": [
    "Victoria Business Park",
    "Prospect Way",
    "Knypersley",
    "Staffordshire"
  ],
  "State": "England",
  "StateCode": "",
  "PostCode": "ST8 7PL",
  "Country": "United Kingdom",
  "CompanyNumber": "4525820",
  "VatNumber": "",
  "EmailFrom": "stephen@parkersoft.co.uk",
  "Email": "clare.rowley@parkersoftware.com",
  "Phone": "+44 0 330 0882 943",
  "MobilePhone": "",
  "OtherPhoneNumbers": [
    "800 680 7712"
  ],
  "WebAddress": "https://www.parkersoftware.com",
  "UnsubscribeLink": "",
  "PrivacyPolicyLink": "",
  "GoogleMapsLink": "",
  "SocialLinks": null,
  "OtherLinks": [
    "https://www.parkersoftware.com",
    "https://www.whoson.com",
    "https://www.thinkautomation.com"
  ],
  "Text": "Clare\r\nSenior Accountant\r\np: +44 (0)330 0882 943 | US (800) 680 7712\r\ne: clare.rowley@parkersoftware.com\r\nw: https://www.parkersoftware.com\r\nhttps://www.whoson.com\r\nhttps://www.thinkautomation.com\r\nThis email is from Parker Software Ltd.\r\nVictoria Business Park, Prospect Way, Knypersley, Staffordshire, ST8 7PL.\r\nRegistered in England and Wales No. 4525820.\r\n",
  "PreSignatureText": "Hi,\r\n\r\nPlease find attached the report you requested.\r\n\r\nKind regards,\r\nClare \r\n"
}

The above Json can also be referenced directly using the %Msg_SignatureJson% built-in variable without using this action.

The amount of information extracted will depend on the email footer (if any). This action can be used on any type of email, however the accuracy will be better for non-marketing type emails. Currently only English text is supported.

Text To Speech

Uses the Windows speech synthesizer to convert text to a WAV file containing a spoken version of the text.

Enter the Text To Speak. This can contain %variable% replacements.

Select the Voice. This list will be populated by Speech language packs installed on your system. You can install more language packs in your Windows settings. After selecting a Voice, click the Test button to hear how the text will sound.

Select or enter the Save To path where the created wav file should be saved.

Enter the WAV File Name. This can contain %variable% replacements. The .wav extension will be added if necessary.

If the Ensure Unique File Name option is selected then ThinkAutomation will append a unique timestamp to the filename to ensure it is unique within the Save To path.

If Delete File After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the wav file in the Automation (for example, to send the file as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

You can assign the saved path & filename to a variable by selecting the variable from the Assign Saved File Path To list. You can then use this variable in the Attachments entry on Send Email actions or in any other way.

Network

DNS Lookup

Performs a DNS Lookup and assigns the returned data to a variable.

In the Lookup entry enter an IP Address or Hostname. If an email address is used ThinkAutomation will automatically use the domain part (the section after the @ sign).

Select the DNS Record Type to lookup. Here you can select any valid DNS type.

The DNS Server entry allows you to specify a specific DNS server IP address to use for the lookup. Leave blank to use the system default.

You must then select the variable to assign the result to by selecting from the Assign Result To list. If the lookup fails - the variable will be set to Error: {description}.

Results will be returned as FieldName: Value format. The fields returned depend on the DNS Record Type.

For example, an MX lookup of test@google.com would return:

PREFERENCE: 50
EXCHANGE: alt4.aspmx.l.google.com

If the lookup fails an error is returned:

Error: 3 Name error

This Action is useful for validating email addresses. If an error is not returned then the email address has a valid MX record.

Ping

Pings any network/internet host and assigns the response time to a variable.

Enter the Ping host. This can be an IP address, Host Name, Domain name, URL or Email Address. The host name will first be resolved to its IP address before the Ping starts.

Select the variable that the Response Time will be assigned to. You can also assign the Response Host (IP Address).

If the Ping fails or a timeout occurs the Response Time will be blank and an error will show in the log.

Execute Secure Shell Command

Executes a command on a remote SSH Server. Most UNIX/Linux/Mac machines include an SSH Server. The output of the command can be returned to a variable.

Enter the Host Name IP Address or host name of the server you want to execute the command on.

Enter the Port. This defaults to 22. If no port is specified then the default will be used.

Enter the remote User Name & Password. This user must be allowed to execute remote commands on the host system.

Enter the Command Text to execute.

All entries can use %variable% replacements.

The result of the command can be returned to a variable. Specify the variable from the Assign Response To list.

Any errors generated by the command can also be returned to a variable. Select from the Assign Errors To list.

Showing A Notification On A Mac

The following command will display a notification on a Mac computer:

osascript -e 'display notification "Processed Message %msg_subject%" with title "ThinkAutomation" subtitle "%AccountName%" sound name "Default" '

Speaking Text On A Mac

The following command will speak the given text on a Mac computer:

say "you have received a new message from Think Automation!"

To enable the Remote SSH server on a Mac, use System Preferences - Sharing. Enable the 'Remote Login' option.

CRM

ThinkAutomation can read and update entities in the following CRM systems: Microsoft Dynamics (Online), Salesforce, Zoho CRM & Sugar CRM. See: CRM Connection Notes for specific CRM connection details.

Get CRM Entity

Performs a query against a CRM system to lookup a single entity and assign entity values to variables.

Click Connect to connect to a CRM system. Currently ThinkAutomation can connect to:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Online)
Salesforce
Sugar CRM
Zoho CRM

See: CRM Connection Notes for specific CRM connection details.

Once connected select the Entity Type to query.

You then create Query Conditions to lookup an entity of the Entity Type specified. The query can contain %variable% replacements. You can create multiple query conditions, for example: FirstName Equal To %Name% AND Email Contains %Company%.

The query will return the first record that matches the query conditions.

In the Assign Returned Entity Values To Variables list, select each CRM entity value that you want to assign to a ThinkAutomation Variable. If the query returns no entity then the selected ThinkAutomation variables will be set to blank values.

Update CRM Entity

Creates or updates entities in a CRM system,

Click Connect to connect to a CRM system. Currently ThinkAutomation can connect to:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Online)
Salesforce
Sugar CRM
Zoho CRM

See: CRM Connection Notes for specific CRM connection details.

Select Create New Entity, Update Existing Entity or Delete Existing Entity from the Action To Take selector.

Select the Entity Type to update.

When updating or deleting existing entities, you must specify the Entity ID To Update - this can be a ThinkAutomation variable that has received an Id from a previous Get CRM Entity action.

In the Update Entity Fields grid you map Entity fields to ThinkAutomation variables. Each field for the selected Entity Type will be listed. In the Set Value To column enter a value or select a ThinkAutomation variable to assign to the field. ThinkAutomation will automatically convert the value to the correct data type when updating your CRM. If the Entity field has a maximum length then the value will be truncated if required. The Required column shows if the Entity Field is marked as a required field in the CRM system. You should ensure that required fields are assigned a value to prevent updates from being rejected.

The updated entity Id can be returned to a ThinkAutomation variable. Select from the Assign Entity ID To list. When creating a new entity, the new id will be returned. When updating or deleting an existing entity, the same id passed with the Entity ID To Update entry will be returned - or blank if the existing entity could not be found.

Query CRM Entities

Perform a generic query to read one or more CRM entities as Json text, CSV or Markdown.

Click Connect to connect to a CRM system. Currently ThinkAutomation can connect to:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Online)
Salesforce
Sugar CRM
Zoho CRM

See: CRM Connection Notes for specific CRM connection details.

Select the Entity Type to query from the SELECT FROM list.

You can then select one or more columns to return from the Columns list or leave blank to select all columns.

You then create a WHERE clause to lookup entities of the Entity Type specified. The query can use %variable% replacements. You can create multiple query conditions, for example: FirstName Equal To %Name% AND Email Contains %Company%.

The query will return all records that match the query conditions - up to the Limit value.

In the ORDER BY list you can optionally select one or more columns to order the results by.

The results can be returned as either a Json Array text, CSV text or Markdown table text. Select the type from the Return As list.

Select the variable to receive the results from the Assign To list.

You can also optionally assign the number of records returned from the Assign Count To list.

For example:

Using Salesforce, entity type Contact, we could select the columns: FirstName, Email, LastName, & Title. With a WHERE clause of Email Contains 'test' and a Limit of 2 records. The json returned would be:

{
  "Contact": [
    {
      "FirstName": "Howard",
      "Email": "test@mycompamy.com",
      "LastName": "Williams",
      "Title": "Director"
    },
    {
      "FirstName": "Joe",
      "Email": "joe@testemail.com",
      "LastName": "Bloggs",
      "Title": null
    }
  ]
}

If the Return As was set to CSV then the returned text would be:

Howard,test@mycompany.com,Williams,Director
Joe,joe@testemail.com,Bloggs,,

You can use the CSV option with the For..Each line action - to loop through each CSV line, along with the Parse CSV Line action to get specific values (for example, to read a CRM for Contact records and send an email to each email address returned).

For CSV you also have the option to Include CSV Headers Line. If this is enabled then the returned CSV text will contain the field name headers line.

The the Return As was set to Markdown then a Markdown table will be returned. You can use the Set action to convert this markdown to html if required.

If no records are returned the Assign To variable will be set to blank text.

Xero

Xero is a cloud based accounting system. See: https://www.xero.com

Xero Contact

Get, update or create Xero contact records and add notes or attachments to existing contacts.

Click the Sign In button to sign-in to your Xero account. Select the Xero Company to use from your available companies.

Select the Operation to perform:

Get Contact

From the Where - Field select to lookup a contact by either: Name, ContactID, EmailAddress or AccountNumber. Enter the lookup value. The lookup value can contain %variable% replacements.

In the Assign Fields grid you can map Xero contact fields to ThinkAutomation variables. Select a Contact Field and corresponding ThinkAutomation variable from the Assign To drop down.

Click the Test button to perform a test lookup.

You can also optionally return the full Xero contact record in Json format to a variable. Select from the Assign Contact Json to list.

You can assign the Xero Contact ID to a variable. Select from the Assign Contact ID To list.

If a contact is not found then the ThinkAutomation variables will be set to blank values.

Create Contact

In the Assign Fields grid, select each Xero contact field to assign a value to. In the Assign From column enter a value to assign to the contact field or select a ThinkAutomation variable.

The Name Contact Field is required when creating new contacts.

You can also optionally return the full Xero new contact record in Json format to a variable. Select from the Assign Contact Json to list.

You can assign the new Xero Contact ID to a variable. Select from the Assign Contact ID To list.

Update Contact

From the Where - Field select to lookup a contact by either: Name, ContactID, EmailAddress or AccountNumber. Enter the lookup value. The lookup value can contain %variable% replacements.

In the Assign Fields grid, select each Xero contact field to assign a value to. In the Assign From column enter a value to assign to the contact field or select a ThinkAutomation variable.

When updating a contact - you only need to select the Xero contact fields that you want to change.

Add Note

This operation adds a new text note to an existing Xero contact.

From the Where - Field select to lookup a contact by either: Name, ContactID, EmailAddress or AccountNumber. Enter the lookup value. The lookup value can contain %variable% replacements.

Enter the Note text. This can contain %variable% replacements. Xero allows notes of up to 250 characters. The text will be truncated if longer.

Add Attachment

This operation uploads a file which is added as an attachment to a Xero contact. Xero allows up to 10 attachments per contact. Attachments must be less than 3mb each.

From the Where - Field select to lookup a contact by either: Name, ContactID, EmailAddress or AccountNumber. Enter the lookup value. The lookup value can contain %variable% replacements.

In the File To Upload entry, select or enter the full path for the file to upload. You can use %variable% replacements here if you want to upload a file created from another action.

If the file name already exists for a contact it will be overwritten.

You can return the Xero URL to the file. Select from the Assign URL To list.

More Xero actions are available from the Custom Action Library.

Web

HTTP Get

Reads a http resource using HTTP GET or a local file path and assigns the returned HTML to a variable.

Use this Action to read any http resource (web page) or a local html file. Specify the URL Or File Path To Get (including any query string).

If the web resource requires authentication then specify the Authentication method and optionally a User Name/Password or an OAuth Auth Token retrieved from a previous OAuth SignIn action. Does not apply if reading from a local file path. You can also use Amazon AWS Signed Request authentication for signing AWS requests.

Optionally specify any Query String Parameters and Custom Headers to add to the request. Query string parameters can either be specified in the URL itself or in the Query String Parameters grid. If you specify query string parameters in the grid any %variable% replacements will be automatically URL encoded.

You can also optionally specify to Add To Local Cache. If this option is enabled, ThinkAutomation will maintain a local cached copy of the content. You can specify the number of Minutes the content should remain cached. If the same URL is requested again within this period it will be read from the cache.

You can specify the Connection Timeout (in seconds). This is the number of seconds to wait for the initial connection. The Response Timeout is the number of seconds to wait for a response after the connection has been made.

The Convert Returned Content To option enables you to convert the http response content. Options are:

Nothing : The response is returned as is.
Convert HTML To Plain Text : Removes all HTML tags and returns only readable text.
Convert HTML To Markdown : Converts the HTML to Markdown text. Images will be removed. The tags <nav> and <footer> will also be removed before conversion. If you need finer control over HTML to Markdown conversion, leave the HTML as is and use the Text Operation action.
Convert HTML To XML : Converts the HTML to well-formed XML allowing easier parsing.
Convert HTML To XML (Drop Formatting) : Converts the HTML to XML and drops all formatting tags, styles, images, scripts etc. This allows easier parsing of specific text elements. See: HTML To XML.
Convert HTML To Json (Drop Formatting) : Converts HTML To Json and drops all formatting tags, styles, images, scripts etc. This allows easier parsing of specific text elements. See: HTML To Json.
Convert XML To Json : Converts XML to Json. Useful if the HTTP response is XML format and you need to work with Json.
Convert CSS To Inline Styles : Moves all CSS styles sheets to inline style attributes. This enables the HTML to be sent via email as most email clients only support inline styles.
Convert Relative Links To Absolute Links : Converts all relative links to absolute links. For example, if requesting a URL from http://www.mysite.com: <img src="image.png"> becomes <img src="http://www.mysite.com/image.png">
Convert CSS To Inline And Relative Links To Absolute : Performs both above operations.

The returned content can then be assigned to a variable. Select from the Assign Content To list. You can then make use of the returned content in subsequent Actions.

You can optionally assign any HTML <title> tag to a variable. Select from the Assign Title To list. If the returned content is not HTML or has no <title> tag the variable will be set to blank.

You can optionally assign any <meta description='xxx'> description tag to a variable. Select from the Assign Description To list. If the returned content is not HTML or has no description tag then the variable will be set to blank.

Response Status

The HTTP response status code & response headers can also optionally be assigned to variables.

The status code will be the HTTP response status (200, 404 etc). A status code of <100 indicates a connection error (eg: 2 = 'DNS lookup failed', 3 = 'DNS lookup timeout', 6 = 'Connect timeout'). The error details will be added to the log.

If the Throw Error On HTTP Errors option is enabled then the Automation will log an error if the HTTP status is an error status (404, 500 etc). If this option is not enabled then an error will not be raised (the status will still be logged). This is useful if the purpose of your Automation is to check for HTTP errors. Note: Connection errors will always throw an error.

HTTP Post

Post data to a web resource using HTTP POST/PUT/PATCH or DELETE.

Specify the Post To URL of the http resource to post to.

Note: If you use %variable% replacements inside the URL - the variable values must be URL Encoded.

If the web resource requires authentication then specify the Authentication method and optionally a User Name/Password or an OAuth Auth Token retrieved from a previous OAuth SignIn action.

Select the Post Type you wish to perform. This can be:

Regular POST - for posting form field values.
Json POST - for posting Json data.
Json PUT - for posting Json data using a HTTP PUT instead of POST.
Json PATCH - for posting Json patch data.
Custom - for performing custom HTTP Posts using data you specify.
Stream Binary File - for binary POST/PUT of files.
HTTP DELETE - for sending delete requests.

For regular Posts you can specify any number of Names and Values. The Values can be fixed or %fieldname% replacements or combinations of both. You can also specify a Type of Text (the default) or File (see Uploading Files below).

For JSON POST or PUT you must specify the JSON Text.

For Custom Posts you must specify the Custom data. This would be the body of the postdata - not the headers.

For all post types you can specify any Query String Parameters. These can either be specified in the URL itself or in the Query String Parameters grid. If you specify query string parameters in the grid any %variable% replacements will be automatically URL encoded.

For all post types you can specify any Custom Headers. Multiple header names & value pairs can be specified. Any existing HTTP headers will be replaced if you use a standard header.

You can specify the Connection Timeout (in seconds). This is the number of seconds to wait for the initial connection. The Response Timeout is the number of seconds to wait for a response after the post has been made.

The HTTP response status code, response headers & response body can also optionally be assigned to variables.

Uploading Files

You can upload files in two ways. Using the Regular Post option, or the Stream Binary File option. The choice will depend on the end point you are posting to.

Using the Regular Post option you can specify the Type as File against a specific form Post Value. The Value should then be a local file path (or a %variable% pointing to a file path). If the Name is not specified then the file name will be used. Adding files to a regular post will result in a POST content-type of 'multipart/form-data'.

Using the Stream Binary File option you specify a File Path. The file content will be posted and the content-type will be set based on the file extension.

Response Status

The HTTP response status code & response headers can also optionally be assigned to variables.

The status code will be the HTTP response status (200, 404 etc). A status code of <100 indicates a connection error (eg: 2 = 'DNS lookup failed', 3 = 'DNS lookup timeout', 6 = 'Connect timeout'). The error details will be added to the log.

If the Throw Error On HTTP Errors option is enabled then the Automation will log an error if the HTTP status is an error status (404, 500 etc). If this option is not enabled then an error will not be raised (the status will still be logged). This is useful if the purpose of your Automation is to check for HTTP errors. Note: Connection errors will always throw an error.

Download File

Download a file via HTTP from any URL.

Enter the URL To Download. This can be any HTTP or HTTPS URL that points to a downloadable file.

If the web resource requires authentication then specify the Authentication method and optionally a User Name/Password or an OAuth Auth Token retrieved from a previous OAuth SignIn action.

Optionally specify any Query String Parameters and Custom Headers to add to the request.

You can specify the Connection Timeout (in seconds). This is the number of seconds to wait for the initial connection. The Response Timeout is the number of seconds to wait for the file to be downloaded after the connection has been made.

Enter or select the Save To Folder. This is the folder on your file system that you want the downloaded file to be saved in.

Optionally enter a Use Filename. If no filename is specified then the filename will be extracted from the URL.

Enable the Make Filename Unique option to append a unique number to the filename if a file already exists in the selected folder with the same name.

Once the file is downloaded the resulting full path/filename will be assigned to the variable selected from the Assign Returned File Path To list.

You can then use this variable to perform other actions such as adding the file as an attachment to outgoing emails.

The Automation will raise an error if the download fails for any reason.

Sign in to an OAuth endpoint to obtain an authorization token.

This action can be used to obtain an authorization token from an OAuth enabled web API. The token can then be used on subsequent HTTP GET or POST actions.

Select the Type. This can be one of the ThinkAutomation connected app types, or Generic.

Enter the Name. This is simply an identifier to show in your Automation actions list. Any text can be used.

Generic OAuth

For generic OAuth you must then supply the Authorization Endpoint, Token Endpoint, Client ID, Client Secret and Scope. These settings depend on the API you want to use. Consult the API documentation for the service you want to use to obtain the correct values.

The Additional Options tab provides some additional options that your OAuth provider may require.

Some OAuth providers can provide additional parameters in the redirect request that is sent back to ThinkAutomation. One such case is for QuickBooks, which returns a realmId parameter. For these cases you can specify parameter names in the Extract Custom Redirect URL Parameters grid. In the Assign To column specify the ThinkAutomation variable to receive each parameter value. You can then use this value on subsequent actions.

Click the Sign In button to begin the sign in process. A browser session will be started to complete the sign in.

Select a variable to receive the authorization token from the Assign Authorization To list.

On any subsequent HTTP GET, HTTP POST or Read JSON Document actions you can then set the Authentication method to OAuth and then Auth Token to the variable value selected above.

ThinkAutomation will automatically refresh the authorization token when it expires.

As with all other Action settings, the Client ID and Client Secret are stored securely in the ThinkAutomation metadata database.

Cloud Storage

Download, Upload or Delete files using various cloud storage providers.

Select the Provider:

Amazon S3
Google Drive
Google Cloud Storage
Microsoft OneDrive
IBM Cloud Object Storage
Wasabi
DigitalOcean Spaces
Linode
Azure Blob
Azure File

Depending on the provider, click the Sign In button or enter your Access Key and Secret Key (Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, IBM, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces & Linode will also need the Region) and click the Connect button to connect.

You can create Global or Solution constants for your Access Key/Secret Keys so they can be used on multiple actions.

Select Upload, Download or Delete from the Operation selector.

Downloading

In the Remote Files navigator you can navigate folders and files. Double-click a file to add it to the Download Files entry. Multiple files can be downloaded within the same action. Separate each file with a comma.

You can also specify the Downloaded Files directly by entering the paths (or use %variable% replacements). Each file must specify the full path (beginning with /). For S3 compatible providers (Amazon S3, Wasabi, IBM, DigitalOcean, Linode) the Bucket Name must be the first part of the path (Eg: /bucketname/docs/quote1.pdf).

Wildcards

Download paths can contain wildcards (Eg: /myfiles/docs/*.pdf). Each file in the folder matching the mask will be downloaded. You can specify multiple download masks separated by commas (Eg: /myfiles/docs/*.pdf, /myfiles/docs/*.docx)

Specify the Save To folder where you want the downloaded files saved to.

The Assign To variable will receive the local path/filename where the file(s) have been downloaded to. Multiple files will be separated by commas.

Uploading

In the Remote Files navigator you can navigate folders and files. Select the folder where you want to upload files to.

You can optionally specify an Append To Remote Path folder. If a path is specified here then files will be uploaded to Remote Path + Append To Remote Path. For example: If you selected a remote path of '/Documents/' and the Append To Remote Path was set to 'Attachments\PDF' then files will be uploaded to '/Documents/Attachments/PDF'. You can use %variables% in the Append To Remote Path entry.

In the Upload Files entry enter or select the local files to upload (use %variable% replacements if required). Multiple files should be separated by commas.

You also have the option of uploading Attachments. Select the Include Incoming Attachments option and specify the Mask.

The Assign To variable be receive the remote path names for the uploaded files(s). Multiple files will be separated by commas.

Deleting

In the Remote Files navigator you can navigate folders and files. Double-click a file to add it to the Delete Files entry. Multiple files can be downloaded within the same action. Separate each file with a comma.

You can also specify the Delete Files directly by entering the paths (or use %variable% replacements). Each file must specify the full path (beginning with /). For S3 compatible providers (Amazon S3, Wasabi, IBM, DigitalOcean, Linode) the Bucket Name must be the first part of the path (Eg: /bucketname/docs/quote1.pdf).

Wildcards

Delete paths can contain wildcards (Eg: /myfiles/docs/*.pdf). Each file in the folder matching the mask will be deleted. You can specify multiple delete masks separated by commas (Eg: /myfiles/docs/*.pdf, /myfiles/docs/*.docx.

The Assign To variable will receive the remote path/filename for each deleted file. Multiple files will be separated by commas.

Wait For Webhook

Pauses execution of the Automation until a webhook callback is made from a 3rd party web service.

This action can be used to integrate with external web API's. Each processed message has a unique callback URL. This is available via the %Msg_WebCallbackUrl% built-in variable.

If you pass this variable via any HTTP Get or HTTP Post actions to a 3rd party API that offers a webhook response, then you can use this action to pause execution of the current message until the webhook response is received. You can then assign any of the parameters passed back with the webhook to variables in your Automation.

Enter the Name. The name shows in the actions list - but is not used otherwise.

Specify the Maximum Wait in minutes. If a response is not received before this time the Automation will continue.

You can send a response to the webhook call. Specify the Response Type and Response Data. This is optional and will depend on the 3rd party API.

The Request Parameter Assignments grid can be used to map parameters sent by the webhook to fields & variables in your Automation.

To use this action you would first use the HTTP Get or HTTP Post actions to make a request to the 3rd party web API. As part of the request you would include the %Msg_WebCallbackUrl% variable. This will tell the API the URL to use to make the webhook callback. Consult the API documentation for the parameter name to use.

After the HTTP Get/Post action you would add a Wait For Webhook action to pause execution until the webhook callback is received.

Call A Soap Web Service

Executes a SOAP or .NET Web Service and returns the results to ThinkAutomation variables.

Method URI (Namespace)

This is the namespace of the web service. You can find the namespace by viewing the Web Service Definition (WSDL). For .NET Web Services view the .asmx page and click the Service Description link. The namespace will be shown in the targetNamespace element. .NET Web Services have a default namespace of http://tempuri.org. You should change this before making your web services public.

Method Name

This is the name of the method you want to call. You can view a list of available methods provided by the web service by viewing the asmx file.

Action URI

This defaults to the Method URI/Method name.

URL (asmx)

Enter the full public URL to the asmx page. You can use a secure address (https://) if required.

If your web services require a login before being accessed enter the User Name & Password and the Authentication type.

You must specify a value for all of the Parameters that the web service method expects. Enter the parameter Name and Value. For the value you can use %variable% replacements.

Assign Returned Value To

You can assign the returned value to a ThinkAutomation variable. Select the variable from the drop down list. If the web service returns a single value then this will be assigned to the variable. If the web service returns a complex data type - such as a DataSet - then then entire XML response will be assigned.

Output Parameters

If the web service returns output parameters then you can assign individual parameter values to ThinkAutomation fields or variables. If a parameter name specified is not returned as an output parameter then ThinkAutomation will scan the returned XML and extract the specified parameter name as a tag and assign to the tag value to the ThinkAutomation variable.

Check SSL Certificate

Checks the validity and expiry date for the SSL certificate used on any host/URL.

This action can be used to monitor the SSL certificates used on your web sites. For example, your Automation could send a notification email or SMS when a certificate is about to expire.

Specify the Host Name. This would normally be the root web address, eg: thinkautomation.com. If you specify a full URL then the host name will be extracted. Use %variable% replacements if required. Specify the Port. This would normally be 443.

You can specify the Connection Timeout (in seconds). This is the number of seconds to wait for the initial connection.

In the Expiry Days entry, specify the number of days before the certificate expiry date where the status should be set to 'expiring'.

Select the variable to receive the certificate status from the Assign Certificate Status to list. The status will be set to valid, invalid, expired, expiring, none or an error message:

valid - the certificate is valid and not about to expire within the Expiry Days.
invalid - the certificate is invalid.
expired - the certificate has expired.
expiring - the certificate is about to expire (within the Expiry Days).
none - no certificates.
error: {message} - if the host cannot be reached.

If the host cannot be reached, then the status will be set to 'error: {error description}' (eg: 'error: DNS lookup failed').

Select the variable to receive the expiry date from the Assign Expiry Date To list.

The complete certificate chain can also be assigned to a variable in Json format:

[
  {
    "subject": "CN=mydomain.com",
    "issuer": "C=US, O=DigiCert Inc, OU=www.digicert.com, CN=RapidSSL TLS RSA CA G1",
    "validFrom": "2023-11-02T00:00:00",
    "validTo": "2024-11-01T23:59:59",
    "usage": "serverAuth,clientAuth",
    "root": false
  },
  {
    "subject": "C=US, O=DigiCert Inc, OU=www.digicert.com, CN=RapidSSL TLS RSA CA G1",
    "issuer": "C=US, O=DigiCert Inc, OU=www.digicert.com, CN=DigiCert Global Root G2",
    "validFrom": "2017-11-02T12:24:33",
    "validTo": "2027-11-02T12:24:33",
    "usage": "serverAuth,clientAuth",
    "root": false
  },
  {
    "subject": "C=US, O=DigiCert Inc, OU=www.digicert.com, CN=DigiCert Global Root G2",
    "issuer": "C=US, O=DigiCert Inc, OU=www.digicert.com, CN=DigiCert Global Root G2",
    "validFrom": "2013-08-01T12:00:00",
    "validTo": "2038-01-15T12:00:00",
    "usage": "",
    "root": true
  }
]

Select the variable to receive the Json from the Assign Json to list. This is optional, but allows you to examine the certificate chain further in your Automation.

FTP Upload

Uploads files or attachments to an FTP or SFTP server.

First select FTP or SFTP.

Enter your FTP/STFP Host, User Name & Password.

Click the Connect button to connect to your FTP/SFTP Server.

For FTP servers: You may need to uncheck the Passive Mode option if your FTP server doesn't support passive mode. You can select the Secure Mode of 'Auth TLS', 'SSL' & 'None' if your FTP server requires a secure connection.

You can then select a Remote Path to upload your files to.

Instead of selecting a remote path you can specify a path in the Force Remote Path To entry. You can manually enter a path or use a %variable% (or combination). Enable the Create If Missing option if the path should be created on the remote sever if it does not exist.

Syncing A Local Folder

To sync a local folder, select the folder in the Sync From Local Folder entry. Enable Include Sub Folders to include all sub-folders. Enter any Sync Masks. This is a comma separated list of file masks to include in the Sync Folder upload. For example: "*.html,*.css" would only upload files with html or css extensions. Leave blank or set to *.* for all file types. Enable the Skip Upload If Existing File Is The Same Size & Date option to only upload new/updated files during the folder sync.

Uploading Individual Files

The Upload Local Files can be used to select individual local files to upload. Multiple files can be added, separated by commas. You can use %variable% replacements for filenames if required.

Uploading Attachments

To upload attachments enable the Include Incoming Attachments option and specify the Attachment Mask.

In all upload cases the Skip Upload If Existing File Is The Same Size & Date option can be enabled to prevent files that already exist in the Remote Path from being uploaded again if the file size and date are the same.

Enable the Show Progress In Log option to add log entries to show the progress of the upload.

The number of files uploaded can be returned to a variable. Select the variable from the Assign Results To list.

FTP Download

Download files from an FTP or SFTP server.

First select FTP or SFTP.

Enter your FTP Host, User Name & Password.

Click the Connect button to connect to your FTP Server. You may need to uncheck the Passive Mode option if your FTP server doesn't support passive mode.

You can select the Secure Mode of 'Auth TLS', 'SSL' & 'None' if your FTP server requires a secure connection.

You can then select a Remote Path to download files from.

Download Or Sync

From the Download Or Sync option select:

Download Files

Select or enter the Remote File Or Mask to download. You can specify a remote file or a mask (eg: *.pdf)

Select the Save To folder to save the downloaded files to.

If Delete Downloaded Files After Message Is Processed is enabled then ThinkAutomation will remove the file when the Automation completes for the current message. This is useful if you wish to use the file in the Automation (for example, to send the document as an attachment with the Send Email action), but do not need to keep a local copy afterwards.

The Assign Downloaded Files To variable will receive a comma separated list of local file paths.

Sync Local Folder

This option allows you to synchronize a remote path to a local folder (and optionally all sub folders). All new and changed files in the specified remote path will be downloaded to the specified local folder.

To sync a local folder, select the local folder in the Local Folder entry. Enable Include Sub Folders to include all sub-folders. Enter any Sync Masks. This is a comma separated list of file masks to include in the Sync Folder download. For example: "*.html,*.css" would only sync files with html or css extensions. Leave blank or set to *.* for all file types.

When the Automation executes, the Remote Path will be scanned and compared to the Local Folder. Any missing files, newer files or files with size differences will be downloaded. Any new remote sub folders will be created in the local folder (if the Include Sub Folders option is enabled).

The Assign Downloaded Files To variable will receive a comma separated list of local file paths for all new/changed files downloaded for the current sync. If no new or changed files are downloaded then the assign to variable will be blank.

Get Browser Info

Extracts browser name, version & operating system information from a User Agent string.

Specify a user agent or %variable% in the Get Browser Info For User Agent entry.

You can the select variables to receive:

Browser Name
Version
Operating System
Is Mobile (true or false)
Is Spider (true or false)

This Action is useful when receiving messages via the API - from web forms, or web requests. It allows you to obtain browser information for the user making the request.

For API received messages the originating user-agent is added to the Message Headers. You can extract this using the Set Variable action with the Extract Header Value operation and the Value set to User-Agent.

Wrap HTML

Wraps text content inside HTML tags to create a viewable HTML page. This action is useful if you have content that you have created earlier in your Automation that you then want to wrap inside a HTML page. The resulting HTML can then be used for outgoing emails, API responses or for any other purpose.

Specify the Content To Wrap. This can contain %variable% replacements. You can use Markdown to easily render tables etc. The Markdown will be converted to HTML before being wrapped. You can also specify HTML directly (HTML should not include the body tags). You should not use HTML and Markdown combined.

You can also specify a Title, Header and Footer. These are optional. The Header and Footer can contain Markdown or HTML.

Styling

On the Style tab you can specify various styling options:

None - no styling will be added.
Default - a simple stylesheet will be added (you can edit the default stylesheet in the Server Settings).
Bootstrap - the page will use Bootstrap styles.

You can also specify the page Background and Foreground colors and optionally a Header Image URL.

You can optionally specify your own Style Sheet Path Or URL. If a file path is used then the file will be read and added to the page. If a URL is specified then a link to it will be added.

If the Convert CSS To Inline option is enabled then any stylesheets to will be converted to inline style attributes and the stylesheets removed. This enables the HTML to be sent via email as most email clients only support inline styles (this option cannot be used if you select the Bootstrap style option).

Meta Tags

Click the Meta Tags tab to add any Meta Tags (description, keywords, author etc). Tag values can use %variable% replacements.

Click the Preview button to preview the results.

Select the variable to receive the new HTML from the Assign To list.

Example:

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" value="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta name="description" value="Test Page">
    <meta name="author" value="Parker Software">
    <title>Title</title>
  </head>
  <body style="color:#262626">
    <div class="container">
      <div>
        <h2>Title</h2>
        <div class="header">
          <p>Header</p>
        </div>
        <div id="ta_mainDiv">
          Hello World
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="footer">Footer</div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

The above example uses no styling. If you wanted to create your own stylesheet then you would create classes for h2 and the header & footer classes. The class ta_mainDiv will contain the wrapped content.

Web Spider

Crawls (spider's) a URL and returns a list of all URLs found. The list can either be returned as a text with one URL per line or as CSV or Json containing each URL, Title, Description and Keywords.

The Web Spider Action only crawls the specified URL. It does not crawl outbound links.

Specify the URL to spider.

Specify any Avoid Patterns (separated by semi colons). Adds wildcard patterns to prevent spidering matching URLs. For example, if "*/assets/*" is added, then any URL containing "/assets/" is not spidered. The "*" character matches zero or more of any character.

Set the Maximum URLs that you want to spider for the site.

Enable the Chop Querystrings to remove the ?query portion from any URLs. This can be done to avoid auto-generated content.

The Web Spider Action will check any robots.txt file. It will not download pages denied by robots.txt

The Return As option can be set to:

URLs one per line

For example:

https://www.testsite.com/
https://www.testsite.com/page2.htm

CSV Containing URL, Title, Description, Keywords

For example:

URL,Title,Description,Keywords
https://www.testsite.com/,Title1,Test Description 1,"keyword1,keyword2"
https://www.testsite.com/page2.htm,Title 2,Test Description 2,"keyword1,keyword2"

JSON Array Containing, URL, Title, Description, Keywords

For example:

[
  {
    "URL": "https://www.testsite.com/",
    "Title": "Title 1",
    "Description": "Test Description 1",
    "Keywords": "keyword1,keyword2"
  },
  {
    "URL": "https://www.testsite.com/page2",
    "Title": "Title 2",
    "Description": "Test Description 2",
    "Keywords": "keyword1,keyword2"
  }
]

Select the variable to receive the results from the Assign To list.

You can also assign a list of outbound links found across all URLs spidered. Select the variable to receive outbound links from the Assign Outbound Links to list. Outbound links are returned as a text string with one link per line.

This Action is useful when you need to load content for an entire site - for example: If loading a site to add to a Knowledge Store. You could first spider a site and then use the For..Each.. Line In action to loop through the site adding each page content to a Knowledge Store Collection, using the page title as the article titles. For example:

// add site to knowledge store
URL =
URLS =
Title =
Content =
URLS = Web Spider URL https://www.mysite.com Avoid *.js;*/assets/*
For Each Line In %URLS% [Assign To URL]
   Content = HTTP Get From %URL% Convert To Markdown [Assign Title To: Title]
   If %Title% Is Not Blank Then
      Embedded Knowledge Store MyKnowledgeBase Update Title = %Title% %Content%
   End If
Next Loop

Note: This action may take several minutes for large sites.

Json

Create JSON

Create Json text and assign variables to each Json element. The resulting Json text can be assigned to a variable for use on subsequent actions.

You first need to enter or paste valid Json text in the Enter Or Paste Json Here To Parse entry. You need to obtain the Json schema that you want to update and copy/paste into this entry. Then click the Parse > button.

The Json will be parsed and all elements will be listed in a tree structure.

Select each line in the tree in turn. The Selected XPath, Element and Type will be shown as you select each entry.

In the Set To Value entry enter or specify the data that you want to be assigned to the selected entry. Fields/Variables can be specified here. Then click the Update button. The updated Json will be shown in the Preview Result view. Repeat for each element that you want to update.

In the Assign Json To list select the variable you want to resulting Json assigned to. If the Compact option is enabled then the Json will be returned in compact format, otherwise it will be formatted and indented.

When the message is processed each element in the Json will be assigned the value you specify and the resulting Json assigned to the specified variable.

This Json can then be used on other actions by referencing this variable.

You can also use the Update Json and Set Variable actions to manually create Json. The Set variable text can contain %variable% replacements. When ThinkAutomation replaces values during Automation execution it checks if the value is being replaced inside Json - and if so the replaced value will be Json 'escaped'. See: Json Notes.

Update JSON

Update Json text. Create or update multiple Json paths within Json text and return the updated Json to a variable.

In the Existing Json entry, enter any valid json text or use a %variable% replacement containing Json. If this entry is blank a new Json document will be created.

You can now use the Set Paths grid to update specific Json paths. If the specified path already exists, it's value will be updated with the value in the Set To column. If the path does not exist it will be added.

Note: Paths are JsonPath format which uses dot notation and array indexes starting at zero (eg: name.Department). This differs from the Create Json and Read Json Document actions which use XPath notation.

The Set To column can contain fixed value or %variable% replacement or combination.

The Type column can be used to force the Json type at the specified path. If the Type is set to Auto or blank then the type will be automatically chosen based on the Set To value.

For example, suppose we have the following Json:

{
    "Name": "",
    "StartDate": "",
    "Age": 0,
    "Started": true,
    "Department": {
      "Name": "",
      "Manager": ""
    }
}

If the Set Paths are set to:

Path	Value	Type
Name	Nathan Walters	String
StartDate	%Msg_Date%	DateTime
Age	30	Number
Department.Name	Marketing	String
Department.Manager	Howard Williams	String

The resulting Json would be returned as:

{
  "Name": "Nathan Walters",
  "StartDate": "2021-10-11T15:52:36Z",
  "Age": 30,
  "Started": true,
  "Department": {
    "Name": "Sales",
    "Manager": "Howard Williams"
  }
}

If the Existing Json was blank it would be returned as:

{
  "Name": "Nathan Walters",
  "StartDate": "2021-10-11T15:56:53Z",
  "Age": 30,
  "Department": {
    "Name": "Sales",
    "Manager": "Howard Williams"
  }
}

Since all the paths are new - and so all the Set Paths will be added.

Paths use dot notation to reference nested objects. You can also use [index] to reference specific array items (eg: object.nestedobject.array[1].value). Index numbers start at zero.

Paths are case sensitive.

Removing Paths

You can also use this action to remove paths from existing Json. In the Remove Paths grid enter the paths that you want to remove.

To remove individual array items the path must end with the index enclosed in square brackets (eg: object.array[1]). Array indexes start at zero. When removing multiple array items from the same array the index will change after each deletion. So to remove the first two array items you would set the Remove Paths to:

object.array[0] ' after this deletion the second item will be move to 0
object.array[0] ' so we need to delete zero again

Assign To

Select the variable to receive the updated Json from the Assign To list. If the Compact option is enabled then the Json will be returned in compact format, otherwise it will be formatted and indented.

Read JSON Document

Parses a Json formatted document from any URL or text/variable and assigns element values to variables.

Parsing Json From Web Responses

Select the Get Json From URL tab to read a Json document from a URL.

Enter the Json Document URL to read. This can be a secure HTTPS URL if required.

If the web resource requires authentication then specify the Authentication method and optionally a User Name/Password or an OAuth Auth Token retrieved from a previous OAuth SignIn action.

The HTTP status code can be assigned to a variable from the Assign Status Code To list.

The full Json text returned from the URL can be assigned to a variable. Select from the Assign Returned JSON To list.

You can also map specific path values to ThinkAutomation variables by entering the Full Path and selecting the variable from the Assign Value To column.

The Full Path entries used when extracting specific attributes can contain %variable% replacements.

Note: The paths used are XPath notation.

Click the Test button to parse the response from current URL or text. This results will be shown in the tree. Click each node to expand the child nodes. The Selected Path & Selected Value entries will show the value for the currently selected Path. You can copy/paste the Selected Path into the Assign grid.

Parsing Json Text

You can also specify any Json text directly instead of reading from a URL. This can be a variable from a previous action. Select the Json Text tab.

Enter or paste the Json text or specify a %fieldname%. When developing your Automation you can paste some sample Json text into the Json Text entry & click Test to parse and view the paths. Then remove the sample Json text or replace it with a %variable% replacement.

Convert JSON To HTML

Converts any Json text to a HTML table.

This action is useful when you read Json data from a database, web resource or web API etc., and you need to easily convert the content to readable HTML. The HTML can then be included on outgoing emails or used as a return value for webform Message Sources.

In the Json editor, enter or paste the Json text, or use a %variable% replacement for Json created from an earlier action.

The Preview window will show a preview of the HTML created. The Json will be converted to a HTML table. Sub-objects/arrays etc will be converted into nested tables.

You can optionally add a Title which will appear above the table.

Enable the Convert Property Names option to convert camelCase property names into separate words. For example: customerName will appear as Customer Name.

If the Return Full Page option is enabled then the returned HTML will include html, body, head tags. Otherwise only the table html will be returned. This is useful if you are embedding the table into an existing HTML document.

If the Use Default Styles option is enabled then the table will have a default style sheet applied.

You can also optionally add any custom CSS (eg: body {background-color: lightblue;}).

Select the ThinkAutomation variable to receive the HTML from the Assign Html To list.

Example:

The following Json:

{
    "Name": "ABC Limited",
    "EmailAddress": "a.dutchess@abclimited.com",
    "Address": {
        "AddressType": "POBOX",
        "AddressLine1": "P O Box 123",
        "City": "Wellington",
        "PostalCode": "6011",
        "AttentionTo": "Andrea"
    },
    "Currency": "NZD"
}

Would be converted to:

<table>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td><b>Name</b></td>
        <td>
          ABC Limited
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td><b>Email Address</b></td>
        <td>
          <a href='mailto:a.dutchess@abclimited.com' target='_blank'>a.dutchess@abclimited.com</a>
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td><b>Address</b></td>
        <td>
          <table>
            <thead>
              <tr>
                <th>Address Type</th>
                <th>Address Line1</th>
                <th>City</th>
                <th>Postal Code</th>
                <th>Attention To</th>
              </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
              <tr>
                <td>POBOX</td>
                <td>P O Box 123</td>
                <td>Wellington</td>
                <td>6011</td>
                <td>Andrea</td>
              </tr>
            </tbody>
          </table>
        </td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td><b>Currency</b></td>
        <td>
          NZD
        </td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>

CSV

Update CSV

Create or update a comma separated values (CSV) file or CSV data.

You can either update a CSV File or a variable containing CSV data.

Enter or select the CSV File Name to update. This is the full path and filename of the CSV file you want to update. This is optional. If no file name is specified then the created CSV data will be assigned to the variable selected from the Assign To list.

ThinkAutomation will create the path and file if it does not already exist. Column names will be written to the header line of the new file (unless the Don't Add Field Header Line When Creating option is enabled).

Select the file Format of the CSV file. This can be ASCII, Unicode or UTF-8 (default).

Select the Column Delimiter. This is normally a comma, but can be any character. You can select select a | (pipe) character, semi-colon or TAB from the drop down.

Select the Line Terminator. This can be CRLF (Carriage Return/Line Feed), LF (Line Feed Only). CRLF is the default.

Select Don't Add Field Header Line When Creating if you want the CSV data to contain data lines only. By default, when the CSV file is first created the first line will contain the column headers.

Use Custom Columns List

By default ThinkAutomation will create CSV data with a column for each Extract Field action in your Automation. Enable Use Custom Columns List to specify a list of %variables% to include in each column. You can also specify the column header names.

Optionally select a variable from the Assign CSV Data To list to receive the updated CSV data.

Read CSV

Read a CSV file or %variable% containing CSV data and assign the CSV data to a variable.

This action allows you to read a CSV file (or a %variable% containing CSV data). You can optionally delete columns from then returned CSV data and sort by a column. The column delimiter character and line endings will be automatically detected when the CSV is loaded. However the returned CSV data will always use a comma as the delimiter. Any date & datetime values will be automatically normalized to date format yyyy-MM-dd HHss in the returned CSV data.

Specify the CSV File Name or Variable. This field can contain a file path (or %variable% containing a file path) or a %variable% containing CSV data.

Enable the Has Header Row if the CSV data contains column headers on the first row.

Deleting Columns

You can optionally delete columns from the returned CSV data. Specify a comma separated list of column header names, or column numbers (starting at 1). The source CSV file/data is not changed - this setting only affects the CSV data that is returned.

Deleting Last Rows

You can optionally delete the last x rows from the returned CSV data. Specify the number of rows to remove in the Delete Last Rows entry. For example, if this is set to 2 then the last 2 rows will be removed (before any sorting). This can be useful if you have extracted the CSV data from an Excel file (using the Lookup From Excel action) and the CSV data contains additional summary rows at the end. The source CSV file/data is not changed.

Sorting

You can sort the returned CSV data by a column. Specify the column header name or column number (starting at 1) in the Return Sorted By Column entry. You can select to sort Ascending or Descending. If you use column number here then the number relates to the new CSV columns after any columns have been deleted.

Return Top Rows

You can choose to only return the first x rows (after any sorting). Leave this entry at zero for all rows.

Return Header Row

Disable this setting if you do not want the column header row included in the returned CSV data.

Select the %variable% to receive the CSV data from the Assign CSV Data To list.

Parse CSV Line

Extract values from comma separated text.

Select the CSV value to parse from the Parse CSV Line In list.

In the Column Assignments grid, for each column you want to extract enter the Column Number and select the Assign Value To variable to receive the column value.

Column numbers are 1 based.

This action will correctly handle quoted values.

This action is useful when used with the For..Each loop, looping on Line. This enables you to read a CSV file (or Attachment) and loop on each line. Inside the loop use this action to parse each CSV line.

Convert CSV To HTML

Converts any CSV text to a HTML table.

This action is useful when you read CSV data from a database lookup and you need to easily convert the content to readable HTML. The HTML can then be included on outgoing emails or used as a return value for webform Message Sources.

In the CSV editor, enter or paste the CSV text, or use a %variable% replacement for CSV data created from an earlier action.

The Preview window will show a preview of the HTML created. The CSV will be converted to a HTML table.

You can optionally add a Title which will appear above the table.

If the Return Full Page option is enabled then the returned HTML will include html, body, head tags. Otherwise only the table html will be returned. This is useful if you are embedding the table into an existing HTML document.

If the Use Default Styles option is enabled then the table will have a default style sheet applied.

You can also optionally add any custom CSS (eg: body {background-color: lightblue;}).

Enable the Add Bootstrap Classes to add Bootstrap class names to the table. You can then enable other Bootstrap classes: Bordered, Hoverable, Responsive, Small & Striped Rows. You can also select the Bootstrap Color.

Select the ThinkAutomation variable to receive the HTML from the Assign Html To list.

Example:

The following CSV:

year,color,country,food
2001,red,France,cheese
2005,blue,"United States",hamburger
2008,green,Italy,pasta

Would be converted to:

<table>
  <col style="width:15.38%" />
  <col style="width:17.95%" />
  <col style="width:38.46%" />
  <col style="width:28.21%" />
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th style="text-align: right;">Year</th>
      <th>Color</th>
      <th>Country</th>
      <th>Food</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align: right;">2001</td>
      <td>red</td>
      <td>France</td>
      <td>cheese</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align: right;">2005</td>
      <td>blue</td>
      <td>United States</td>
      <td>hamburger</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align: right;">2008</td>
      <td>green</td>
      <td>Italy</td>
      <td>pasta</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Location

Translate

Translates text from one language to another and returns the result to a variable.

Enter or select the From Language. If blank the language will be automatically detected (if possible).

Enter or select the To Language. This is required.

Enter the Text To Translate. This is limited to 10000 characters.

Enable Is HTML if the text will contain HTML tags. Passing the built-in variable %msg_html% would pass the entire HTML of the incoming message.

Enable Preserve Layout In Plaintext if you are passing none HTML (for example, the %msg_body% field contains the plain-text version of the incoming message). If this option is enabled then any carriage return/line feed characters and any white space will be preserved. Otherwise all control characters and white space is removed from the text before translation.

Select the variable you want the translated text assigned to from the Assign Translated Text To dropdown.

Translation requires a Translation account. This is configured in the Server Settings - Translation.

You can also use the Ask AI action to translate any text. Simply send a prompt such as:

Please translate the following to French:
%Msg_Body%

You can send any ThinkAutomation variable(s) with the prompt.

Detect Language

Detects the language for any text and returns the language code to a variable.

Enter the Text To Detect. This field is limited to 10000 characters.

Select the variable you want the language code assigned to from the Assign Language Code To Variable list.

Translation requires a Translation account. This is configured in the Server Settings - Translation.

You can also use the Ask AI action to detect the language of any text. Simply send a prompt such as:

What language is this?
%Msg_Body%

Just return the language ISO 2 letter code.

You can send any ThinkAutomation variable(s) with the prompt.

Speak Text

Returns a URL of a WAV or MP3 file containing spoken text in the desired language. This action is designed to translate and then speak text in a different language. If you simply want to convert text to speech, use the Text To Speech action - which performs the conversion locally and does not require a Translation account.

Enter the Text To Speak. This is limited to 2000 characters.

Enter or select the Speak In Language. This can be the same as the input language if you just want to speak the text as is.

Select the Sound File Format (WAV or MP3).

Select the variable you want the URL to be assigned to from the Assign Sound File URL To Variable list.

You can use the Download Action if you want to download the file to your system.

Translation requires a Translation account. This is configured in the Server Settings - Translation.

GeoIP Lookup

Performs a Geo IP lookup for any IP address, domain name, email address or URL. The Geo IP lookup returns the City, Region & Country for any IP address. Also returns the Organization name.

In the Lookup field enter any text or %variable%. If the field contains an IP address then this will be used. If no IP address is found then the first email address will be used. If no email address then the first URL. If an email address/domain name is used then ThinkAutomation will first perform a reverse DNS lookup to find the IP address and then use that to do the Geo IP lookup.

You can then assign the Country, Region, City & Organization to variables.

This action is useful for validating customer details - for instance you can check that the GeoIP Country of the customers email address matches the country they specify on an order form.

This Action is also useful when receiving messages via the API - from web forms, or web requests. It allows you to obtain Geo IP information for the user making the request.

For API received messages the remote host (IP Address) is added to the Message Headers. You can access this using the built-in variable %Msg_FromIP%.

This Action uses ThinkAutomation's own GeoIP database installed locally. This is updated on a regular basis.

Country Lookup

Finds country information by country name, country code (2 or 3 letter) or country telephone dial code.

In the Lookup field any text or %variable%. You can search by country name, country code (ISO 3166 2 or 3 letter), dial code or country name in French.

You can then assign the Country Name, Two Letter Code, Three Letter Code, Country Dial Code, Dial Prefix, Currency Code and French Name to variables.

If no country is found then the variables will be assigned blank values. However an error will be thrown if the search text is blank.

This action is useful for validating customer details - for example if you only have a telephone number with the country code you can find the country (eg: searching for '44' or '+44' will return 'United Kingdom') or for finding the currency code when you only have the country name/code etc.

Twilio

Twilio Make A Telephone Call

This action enables you to call any telephone number. Once answered, ThinkAutomation can speak custom text to the receiver and/or connect the call to another number.

Makes an outbound voice call using the Twilio API. Twilio is a cloud-based telephony provider.

See: https://www.twilio.com for more information.

Before using this action you need to create a Twilio Account. Once you have created an account, login and select Dashboard. Select Show API Credentials - this will display the Account SID and Account Token. Enter these into ThinkAutomation Server Settings - Twilio Tab.

You must specify the From Twilio Number. This is the phone number that will be displayed on the receivers phone. In your Twilio Account you can create a new phone number, or you can verify one of your existing phone numbers with Twilio. Once verified it can be used as the From Number.

Enter the phone number to call in the Call Number entry. This must be the full international number. You can use the Normalize Phone Number action to correctly format a phone number for a given country.

Select the Ring For (Seconds). This defaults to 30 seconds. If the call is not answered within this time the call will be closed.

On Call Answer

Once the receiver has answered the call you can choose to:

Say Text

This will read the specified text to the receiver. You can specify up to 4096 characters. The text can include %variable% replacements.

Say In Voice/Language

The Say In Voice option allows you to select a voice (Woman, Man or Alice). The Say In Language can be used to select the language for the text being read. The Woman/Man voice can use languages: English US, English UK, French, German, Spanish or Italian. The Alice voice has a choice for more languages.

Play Audio File URL

You can also have an audio file played to the receiver. Specify the URL to the audio file to be played.

Hang Up If Machine Answers

Enable this option if the call should be stopped if an answering machine or voice mail system picks up the call.

Record Call

Enable this option if you want the call to be recorded. The URL of the recording can be returned to a ThinkAutomation field or variable on completion of the call.

Connect Call To

Enable this option if you want the call to be connected to another number once it has been answered and the Say Text/Play Audio has completed (if any). Specify the Connect To Number. This other number will then be called and the two calls connected. If you do not use the call connect then the call will end once the Say Text/Play Audio has completed.

On Call Completion

Once the call has ended the Call Duration, Call Status and Recording URL can be returned to ThinkAutomation variables.

The Call Status will be one of: completed, busy, failed or no-answer

Automation Processing

When ThinkAutomation starts the call the message processing for the current message will pause until the call completes (or fails). Other messages will be processed whilst the call is active. Once the call is complete the remaining actions in the Automation will execute.

Phone Number Formats

All phone numbers must include the country code preceded by + so 800 680 7712 would be +18006807712. For UK numbers the first 0 of the number is omitted. For example 01782 822577 would be +441782822577. ThinkAutomation will remove any spaces and add the + sign itself if required. Use the Normalize Phone Number Action to correctly format a phone number.

Twilio Send SMS Message

Sends an SMS text message to any phone using the Twilio API. Twilio is a cloud-based telephony provider.

See: https://www.twilio.com for more information.

Before using this action you need to create a Twilio Account. Once you have created an account, login and select Dashboard. Select Show API Credentials - this will display the Account SID and Account Token. Enter these into ThinkAutomation Server Settings - Twilio tab.

From Twilio Number Or Messaging Service SID

Messages can be sent from a specific Twilio Number. This is the phone number that will be displayed on the receivers phone. In your Twilio Account you can create a new phone number, or you can verify one of your existing phone numbers with Twilio. Once verified it can be used as the from number.

You can also specify a Messaging Service SID. In your Twilio Console you can create Messaging Services. The From number will then be automatically selected when the message is sent based on rules you define.

Enter the To number and Message Body.

The To number must include the country code.

You can also specify a Media URL if you want to send a Multi-Media Message (MMS). You can specify a URL to a Gif, Png or Jpeg image. This will be rendered on the receivers phone. The image must be less than 5mb.

MMS messages are only supported for USA and Canada numbers. Regular text messages can be sent to any number in the world.

Waiting For Delivery Status

Once the message is sent the sent status can be assigned to a ThinkAutomation variable. This status will be set to 'delivered' if the message has been successfully sent. Otherwise it will be set to 'undelivered', or 'failed: {error message}' for failed messages. If you assign the status to a variable then ThinkAutomation will wait until the SMS has been sent (or failed) before assigning the status and proceeding with the remaining actions for the Automation. Automations will still execute on other messages during this waiting phase (normally only a few seconds). ThinkAutomation will wait for up to 3 minutes for the status.

Waiting for delivery status requires the Web API to be enabled.

If you want to use the Wait For SMS Reply action to wait for a reply to this message you should always check the Assign Status To variable and only wait for the response if the sent status is 'delivered'. This ensures that the message has been sent before you start waiting for a response.

Automation Processing

When ThinkAutomation sends the text message the message processing for the current ThinkAutomation message will pause until the SMS text is sent (or fails). Other messages will be processed during this time. Once the SMS message has been sent the remaining actions in the Automation will execute.

Phone Number Formats

All phone numbers must include the country code preceded by + so 800 680 7712 would be +18006807712. For UK numbers the first 0 of the number is omitted. For example 01782 822577 would be +441782822577. ThinkAutomation will remove any spaces and add the + sign itself if required. Use the Normalize Phone Number Action to correctly format a phone number.

Twilio Wait For SMS Reply

This Action will wait to receive an SMS text message from a specific number. Normally this action would be used to wait for a response to a previously sent SMS message.

Set the From Number to the number you want to wait to receive a message from. Leave this blank to use the number from the last Twilio SMS Message action.

Set the Wait For to the number of seconds you want to wait for. If a message is not received after this time then the message text will be blank and Automation execution will continue. The maximum value for this is 9999 seconds (166 Minutes).

Set the Assign Message Text to a variable that you want to reply text to be set to.

When this action executes, ThinkAutomation will pause execution of the current Automation Message execution until the reply is received (or the timeout seconds has elapsed). Other ThinkAutomation messages will be processed during this waiting period. When the reply is received the remaining Automation actions for the current message will be executed.

You can have multiple send/wait for reply actions within a single Automation, allowing you to construct automated SMS text conversations and performing different actions based on the reply results.

Normalize Phone Number

Formats a phone number for international or domestic use.

Takes any phone number and adds or removes the international dialing code for the specified country. It also removes any spaces, dashes or parenthesis.

Specify the Phone Number. This can be a field or variable. The first phone number found in the text specified will be used.

Specify the Country Code/Name. This can also be a variable. You can use the full country name eg: United Kingdom, or the country code, eg: GB

Enable the Make International option to return the full international phone number. Otherwise the domestic number will be returned.

Select the variable to assign the result to from the Assign To list.

This action is useful when using the Twilio actions, or for normalizing phone numbers before being recorded in a database.

International phone numbers will be returned in the format:

+{countrycode}{number}

Eg:

(407) 488 2019 for United States becomes: +14074882019

01782-822577 for United Kingdom becomes: +441782822577

Eg for domestic numbers:

+44 1782 822577 for United Kingdom becomes: 01782822577

If the country specified does not exist then the phone number will be returned blank.

AI

Actions for integrating with ChatGPT, Grok or OptimaGPT and for using the built-in Sentiment Analyzer.

Train, Score & Classify messages for sentiment using the built-in Sentiment Analyzer. The ThinkAutomation Sentiment Analyzer does not use any 3rd party API's and so is free to use with any number of messages.

Ask AI

Send a prompt to OpenAI ChatGPT, xAI Grok or a local OptimaGPT server, and assign the response to a variable. You can send single one-off prompts or prompts that are part of a conversation. The ThinkAutomation Ask AI action enables you to automate AI requests and then use the response further in your Automation.

Before you can use this action you must create an account with OpenAI or xAI, or install a local OptimaGPT server. To create an OpenAI account, go to OpenAI and click the Get Started link to create an account. On your account page select API Keys and generate a new secret key. Make a note of this key as it is only displayed once. This is your OpenAI API Key.

See OptimaGPT if you prefer to use an on-premises or private-cloud AI server.

From the AI Type list, select the AI type to use:

OpenAI ChatGPT : Select to use ChatGPT
Parker Software OptimaGPT Local AI Server : Select to use a local OptimaGPT server
xAI Grok : Select to use Grok

Specify the Operation:

Ask AI To Respond To A Prompt
Add Context To A Conversation
Clear Conversation Context
Ask AI To Respond To A Prompt With An Image

Ask AI To Respond To A Prompt

The System Message is optional. This can help to set the behavior of the assistant. For example: 'You are a helpful assistant'.

The Prompt is the text you want a response to.

Examples:

What category is the email below? Is it sales, marketing, support or spam?  
Respond with 'sales', 'marketing', 'support' or 'spam' only.  
If it is a support email and it appears to be urgent, respond with 'support:urgent'.  

Subject: %Msg_Subject%  
%Msg_Digest%  

Response: sales

Extract the name and mailing address from this email: 

Dear Kelly, 

It was great to talk to you at the seminar. I thought Jane's talk was quite good.  
Thank you for the book. Here's my address 2111 Ash Lane, Crestview CA 92002  

Best,  

Maya

Response:  
Name: Maya  
Mailing Address: 2111 Ash Lane, Crestview CA 92002

I am flying from Manchester (UK) to Orlando.  
What are the airport codes? Respond with just the codes separated by comma.   

Response:  
MAN,MCO

Prompts have a limit of approximately 30000 words (depending on the Model).

Tip: When using AI to analyze incoming emails, you can use the %Msg_Digest% built-in variable instead of %Msg_Body%. The %Msg_Digest% variable contains the last reply text only, with all blank lines and extra whitespace removed. It is also trimmed to the first 750 characters. This is usually enough to categorize the text and will ensure the prompt does not exceed the token limit.

Tip: If you want to use AI to automatically respond to incoming emails you should use the %Msg_LastReplyBody% built-in variable instead of the %Msg_Body%. The %Msg_LastReplyBody% variable contains only the current reply, without any quoted text & previous replies. This ensures only the current message and not the entire email thread is sent.

ChatGPT Model

The Open AI Model entry allows you to select the OpenAI Model to use. You can select from:

gpt-4o-mini (max tokens 128000)
gpt-3.5-turbo-16k (max tokens 16384)
gpt-3.5-turbo (max tokens 4096)
gpt-4 (max tokens 8192)
Or your own fine-tuned model name

See the OpenAI documentation for details about the different models. GPT-4o-mini is the default and works for most scenarios.

Response

Specify the variable to receive the response from the Assign Response To list.

You can also optionally assign the number of tokens used for the prompt/response. Select the variable to receive the tokens used from the Assign Used Token Count To list. OpenAI charges are based on tokens used.

Moderation

If the Requires Moderation option is enabled then the prompt text will be validated against the OpenAI or xAI moderation endpoint before being sent. This ensures that the prompt text complies with usage policies. This no-cost check takes some additional time. You should enable this option if you will be sending any public-generated content (for example, from a public facing chat bot or public receiving email responder). It ensures that no prompt text can be sent that violates OpenAI/xAI usage policies.

Conversations

You can optionally specify a Conversation Id. This is useful if multiple AI requests will be made and you want to include previous prompts/responses for context, or if you want to add your own context prior to asking ChatGPT for a response.

The Conversation Id can be any text. For example, setting it to %Msg_FromEmail% will link any requests for the same incoming email address. The built-in variable %Msg_ConversationId% can be used for the Conversation Id. This is a hash of the from/to addresses and subject.

The Max Conversation Lines entry controls the maximum number of previous prompts/response pairs that are included with each request. For example, if the Max Conversation Lines is set to 25 then the last (most recent) 25 prompt/response pairs will be sent prior to the current prompt. As the conversation grows, the oldest items will be removed to prevent the total prompt text going over the Open AI token limit.

Conversations are shared by all Automations within a Solution and conversation lines older than 48 hours are removed.

For example:

Suppose you send 'What is the capital city of France?' in one prompt and receive a response. If you then send another separate prompt of 'What is the population?' with the same conversation id then you will receive a correct response about the population of Paris because the AI already knows the context. This would work across multiple Automation executions for up to 48 hours, as long as the conversation id is the same.

Add Context To A Conversation

You can add context to a conversation. Context is used to help the AI give the correct answer to a question based on the context you have provided. This can be static text, or you can search articles related to the incoming message from the Embedded Knowledge Store and add the most relevant articles. Using the Ask AI action along with the Add Context operations enables you to create bots that can answer business specific questions - even when the AI itself has no knowledge of the subject matter.

Lookup Context From Knowledge Store

Using the Embedded Knowledge Store enables you to add text and documents (PDF, Word, HTML etc) as articles to a Knowledge Store collection. You can then search the knowledge store using the incoming message as the Search Text. This will return the Top x most relevant articles from the specified Knowledge Store Collection.

The Relevancy Threshold setting controls the relevancy level. Articles below the relevancy % will not be included. This value defaults to 75%.

The Return Max Tokens entry should be set to a value lower than the maximum tokens that the AI model supports (see above). It is recommended to keep this at approximately 50% of the model maximum. For example, if you will be using the gpt-3.5-turbo-16k model, then this allows 16384 tokens, so the Return Max Tokens entry should be no higher than 8192. This will ensure that there is enough tokens remaining for the prompt text and the AI response itself.

The returned articles will each be added as context, allowing the AI to use this information when responding to the incoming message.

If you want to add a specific article from a Knowledge Store collection, rather than relying on a search (for example, based on specific keywords found in the incoming message), use the Embedded Knowledge Store action to lookup a specific article (using the Get operation). Set the Return As to Json, assign the returned article to a %variable%, then add this variable to the Add Static Context tab.

Top Title/Tag

You can optionally assign the Top Title and/or Top Tag to variables. The first (most relevant) article Title and Tag will be assigned. This can be used further in your Automation. For example: Suppose we have a number of articles relating to 'pricing' or 'quotes' or 'sales'. We could tag all of these with a 'sales' tag. At the end of the Automation we could check the Top Tag %variable%. If this is equal to 'sales' we could send an email to the sales team informing them that someone has asked something sales related - we could send the question and AI response with this email.

Add Static Context

You can also add Static Context. This can be any text (which can contain %variable% replacements). This can be used to provide default context, for example:

You are a very enthusiastic representative working at {your company}. 
Given the following sections from our documentation, answer the user's question using only that information, outputted in markdown format. 

If you are unsure and the answer is not explicitly written in the documentation, say "Sorry, I don't know how to help with that."

You should always add some default context, this should be used to tell the AI who and what it is and how it should respond. You can also provide some general information about your business.

For email responder bots you can use default context such as:

Your name is '{bot name}' and you are a very enthusiastic representative working at {your company} answering emails. Given the provided sections from our documentation, answer the question using only that information, outputted in markdown format.

If an answer cannot be found in the information provided, respond with 'I cannot help with that' only.  
Do not try and answer the question if the information is not provided.  

Add a friendly greeting and sign off message to your response. Your email address is '{bot email address}'.

My email address is %Msg_FromEmail%

This tells the AI that it's responding to emails and to include a greeting and sign off message with its response.

If the Required option is enabled then the context text will remain in the conversation. This option can be used to ensure that the default or important context is always part of the conversation.

You could also lookup static context via a database or web lookup. For example: If the customer provides an email at the start of the chat, or you are responding to incoming emails, you could lookup customer & accounting/order information and add this to the context in case the customer asks about outstanding orders. Or you could lookup current service status if the user wants live status information.

Regardless of how the context is added, the same context wont be added to a conversation if the conversation already has it. So you can add standard context (for example, general information about your business) along with searched for context within your Automation prior to asking the AI for a response.

You can add multiple Ask AI - Add Context To A Conversation actions in your Automation prior to the Ask AI - Ask AI To Respond To A Prompt action.

For example: Suppose you have a company chat bot on your website using the Web Chat message source. A user asks 'What are the benefits of widgets, and can you tell me the current price?'. You first add default context, you then do a knowledge base search with the Search Text set to the incoming question. This adds the most relevant articles relating to widgets to the conversation as context. If the incoming message contains 'widgets', you could then do a database lookup to get the current price for Widgets and add 'The current price for Widgets is %Price%' as static context. AI will then be able to answer the user's questions from the context you provided.

The context itself does not appear in the chat, it is only added to the prompt sent to the AI to provide context to help the AI answer that specific question. The benefit of this is that you can use the standard AI models without training - and you can provide up to date context by keeping your local knowledge base updated or looking up context from your own database. It allows you to quickly create working bots, maintain up-to-date information, and harness the full potential of AI while maintaining control over their data and data privacy.

Note: ChatGPT has a limit of 128,000 tokens per request. Typically a token corresponds to about 4 characters of text. Prompt text includes any context added and the response from ChatGPT itself. ThinkAutomation automatically removes older context to ensure the token limit is not exceeded. If you add too much context, some of it may not be included.

Adding Tabular Context

You can add tabular context to a conversation. A user can then ask questions relating to the data.

For example, you could lookup invoices for a customer (based on the email address provided) from a database and return the data in CSV format:

invoice_number,invoice_date,product,amount_due
INV-2023351,2023-01-05,Plain Widgets,1500.00
INV-2023387,2023-01-10,Orange Niblets,2500.00
INV-2023421,2023-01-15,Flat Widgets,1800.00
INV-2023479,2023-01-20,Flat Widgets,3500.00
INV-2023521,2023-01-25,Round Niblets,1200.00

You would assign the CSV data to a %variable% and then add Static Context:

Given the following list of invoices in CSV format for the user, answer questions about this data. The 'amount_due' column gives the outstanding balance for the invoice in dollars.

%CSVData%

The chat user could then ask questions such as:

What is the date of my most recent invoice? or Can you show me a list of my invoices?

When adding context as tabular data, you need to proceed the data with a clear instruction of what the data is. You would need to experiment with the prompt text to ensure the AI responds correctly.

Clear Conversation Context

This operation will clear any Context added to a conversation. Specify the Conversation Id.

Ask AI To Respond To A Prompt With An Image

This operation can be used to ask a question about an image. The image can be a local file or a URL. The System Message is optional. This can help to set the behavior of the assistant. For example: 'You are a helpful assistant'.

The Prompt is the text is the question you want to ask about the provided image.

In the Image Path Or URL entry, specify a local file path or URL for the image. You can use %variable% replacements. The following image types are supported: PNG, JPEG, WEBP & GIF.

Select the variable to receive the response from the Assign Response To list.

Examples:

You can ask general questions about the image, such as 'What is in this image?' or 'Is this image an animal?'. You can also perform OCR, for example: 'Convert the image to text.' or 'The image is a receipt. What is the total paid and the tax?'.

Note: The OpenAI Vision API is currently in preview.

OpenAI Rate Limits

Your OpenAI account will set a rate limit for the maximum requests per minute. The Open AI API Key - Rate Limit Retries setting determines how many times ThinkAutomation will retry the request if a rate limit error is returned. It will automatically increase the wait time for each retry. The default wait period is 30 seconds. If the request still fails after the retries then an error will be raised.

If your Ask AI action is timing out then your OpenAI account may be rate limited. You can increase the rate limit by adding pre-payment funds to your OpenAI account. This will move your account to then next usage tier. For example, adding a $50 pre-payment will move your account to usage tier 2 - which will have a higher rate limit and faster responses. See: OpenAI Rate Limits for more information.

AI Use Cases

Using AI with ThinkAutomation has many uses. Other than being a regular chat bot that has knowledge of many subjects, you can use it to:

Create a Chat Bot using the Web Chat Message Source type that can answer specific questions about your business by adding private context using the Embedded Knowledge Store.
Provide automated responses to incoming emails or SMS messages, utilizing the Embedded Knowledge Store.
Create a Teams Message Source type so that Microsoft Teams users can ask your bot questions.
Create a Chat Bot Automation that uses the API Message Source type. This can be the same type of Automation that you would use for the Web Chat Message Source type - but called via the API. This would allow you to use ThinkAutomation from your own chat web app or external chat apps/products.
Parse unstructured text and extract key information.
Summarize text.
Anonymize text.
Classify text.
Translate text.
Sentiment analysis.
Correct grammar/spelling.
Convert natural language into code (SQL, PowerShell etc).
Ask questions about images or extract text from images.

and much more. See: Examples - OpenAI

Score Sentiment

Performs Sentiment Analysis on any text and returns the Sentiment Score to a variable. The ThinkAutomation Sentiment Analyzer is able to detect if text is either positive or negative in sentiment or any other yes/no, positive/negative construct. You could then use the result to perform specific actions, for example, to send alert emails or SMS texts if an incoming email contains a high negative sentiment score.

Before Sentiment Analysis can work the ThinkAutomation Sentiment Analyzer must be 'trained'. The Sentiment Analyzer accuracy will improve the more it is trained. See: Train Sentiment

In the Get Sentiment Score For entry enter the text you want to analyze. Any text can be entered including %variable% replacements. To analyze the incoming message body set the value to %Msg_Body%.

The Sentiment Class Name is used to categorize the Sentiment Analysis database. For example: "Sales", "Spam" etc. Each class name stores training data separately. Class names are global to your ThinkAutomation instance. For example, a '"Sales" class name would contain the same training data across all of your Solutions.

In the Assign Sentiment Score To list select variable to assign the sentiment analysis score to.

The result will be returned as a number between 1 and 100. 100 being maximum positive sentiment and 1 being maximum negative sentiment. A result of 50 indicates neutral sentiment.

You can optionally also get a list of the most relevant tokens used in the scoring process. Select a field or variable to assign the list to from the Assign Relevant Tokens List To list.

The list is returned as a string. Each token on its own line as:

token=score,count
token=score,count
...

Where score between 1 and 100. Count shows the number of occurrences of the token in the text analyzed. This list shows the tokens that have had the most effect (positive or negative) on the sentiment score.

Sentiment Analysis can be used to classify a message for any construct - not just Positive or Negative sentiment. For example, it could be used to classify a message as a sales inquiry or not. The construct is defined only by the training data. So if you trained the Sentiment Analyzer with 1000 sales inquiries and 1000 non-sales inquiry messages then it could be used to classify incoming messages as sales inquiries and then take appropriate action.

Sentiment Analyzer Control Panel

You can also use the included Sentiment Analyzer Control Panel to add training data and run run tests. See: Sentiment Analyzer Control Panel

This action uses the ThinkAutomation built-in sentiment analyzer - which requires training before it will return accurate scores but is free to use. The online Custom Action library also includes an Azure Sentiment action. This uses the pre-trained Sentiment Analyzer provided by Microsoft Cognitive Services (however this will require an Azure subscription).

You can also use the Ask AI action to perform sentiment analysis.

Train Sentiment

Trains the ThinkAutomation Sentiment Analyzer with positive or negative sentiment text. The ThinkAutomation Sentiment Analyzer should be trained with Positive and Negative sentiment messages to improve sentiment analysis accuracy.

In the Train Sentiment Analyzer With entry enter the text you want to use. This can contain %variable% replacements. To train the incoming message body set the value to %Msg_Body%.

Select Positive, Negative or Add Ignore Words from the Train As drop down.

The Sentiment Class Name is used to categorize the Sentiment Analysis database. For example, you could have "Sales" and "Spam" class names. Each would produce their own specific results. Class names are global to your ThinkAutomation instance. For example, a "Sales" class name would contain the same training data across all of your Solutions.

The number of tokens added to the Sentiment Analysis database can be returned to a variable. Select the variable to use from the Assign Result To list.

Training Process

The Sentiment Analysis accuracy will improve with more training data. The Sentiment Analyzer includes built-in training data for common English positive and negative words. For best results you should also train the Sentiment Analyzer with your own training data. Train roughly equal numbers of Positive and Negative messages. You should where possible use actual positive and negative messages rather than just individual positive/negative keywords.

Ignore Words

In addition to adding positive and negative sentiment messages you can use this action to add 'Ignore Words'. Select Add Ignore Words from the Train As option. The text used will be split into words and each added separately to the Sentiment Database. When Sentiment Analysis is performed any words in the Ignore list wont be used to in the sentiment scoring process. You can add email address, links and any other words/text. The number of unique ignore words added will be returned to the Assign To Variable.

Sentiment Analyzer Control Panel

You can also use the included Sentiment Analyzer Control Panel to add training data and run run tests. See: Sentiment Analyzer Control Panel

Parker Software Professional Services team can assist in creating a training plan. Contact our Professional Services team for more information.

Classify Sentiment

Finds the most relevant class name for any text.

In the Get Sentiment Classification For entry enter the text you want to use. This can contain %variable% replacements. To classify the incoming message body set the value to %Msg_Body%.

This action will score the given text against all class names that you have created training data for. The class name with the score furthest from neutral will be returned.

In the Assign Class Name To list select variable to assign the class name to.

For example: Suppose you have training data for class names 'Sales' & 'Support'. You can use this action to classify a new message as either 'Sales' or 'Support' depending on the class that scores furthest from neutral (IE: The class that ThinkAutomation thinks is the most likely).

Before Classification can work the ThinkAutomation Sentiment Analyzer must be 'trained'. The Sentiment Analyzer accuracy will improve the more it is trained. See: Train Sentiment

You can also use the Ask AI action to classify any text. This will work without training.

Azure

Actions for interacting with Microsoft Azure Table, Blob, Queue, File & Cosmos storage and the Azure Form Recognizer service.

Azure File

Download or Upload files to Azure Storage shares.

Specify your Azure Storage Account Name and Access Key and click the Connect button to connect.

Select the Share that you want to upload to or download from.

Select Upload or Download from the Operation selector.

Downloading

In the Remote Files navigator you can navigate folders and files in the Azure Share. Double-click a file to add it to the Download Files entry. Multiple files can be downloaded within the same action. Separate each file with a comma.

You can also specify the Downloaded Files directly by entering the paths (or use %variable% replacements). Each file must specify the full path (beginning with /).

Specify the Save To folder where you want the downloaded files saved to.

The Assign To variable will receive the local path/filename where the file(s) have been downloaded to. Multiple files will be separated by commas.

Uploading

In the Remote Files navigator you can navigate folders and files in the Azure Share. Select the folder where you want to upload files to.

In the Upload Files entry enter or select the local files to upload (use %variable% replacements if required). Multiple files should be separated by commas.

You also have the option of uploading Attachments. Select the Include Incoming Attachments option and specify the Mask.

The Assign To variable be receive the Azure path names for the uploaded files(s). Multiple files will be separated by commas.

Azure File Get Link

Get URLs to files in an Azure Storage share.

This action can be used to generate a read-only URL to a file in an Azure Share. You can specify the number of minutes that the URL will be active for.

Specify your Azure Storage Account Name and Access Key and click the Connect button to connect.

Select the Share that you want to use.

In the Remote Files navigator you can navigate folders and files in the Azure Share. Double-click a file to add it to the Get Link(s) For Files entry. Multiple URLs can be generated within the same action.

You can also specify the Get Link(s) For Files directly by entering the paths (or use %variable% replacements). Each file must specify the full path (beginning with /). If using this action after the Azure File - Upload action you can use the %variable% previously returned from the Upload - this will then get links to the files just uploaded.

In the Links Valid For Minutes entry, specify the number of minutes that the link is usable for. This defaults to 1440 (24 hours).

In the Links Valid Only For IP Addresses entry you can optionally specify an IP address or range. The link will then only work when requested from the IP. IP ranges should be in the format (for example): 168.1.5.60-168.1.5.70

The Assign Links To variable will receive the URL. If multiple files are used then each URL will be separated with a comma.

You can then send this URL with an outgoing email to give the recipient time-limited access to the file(s).

Azure Cosmos DB

Update or query Json documents from an Azure Cosmos DB.

Specify your Azure Cosmos DB Endpoint and Access Key and click the Connect button to connect.

Enter or select the Database and Container within the selected database.

Enter the Partition Key that you have defined for the Database\Container.

If the database or container do not exist they will be created if the Create option is enabled.

Operation

Insert or Update Document

This option will add a new document or update an existing one.

Set the Document Json to the Json text for the document. If the Json contains an id field then an existing document will be updated if one exists with the same id. If no id field is specified in the Json document the Cosmos will insert a new record and add the id field to the Json stored in the database.

You can build Json using the Create Json action and then set the Document Json to the %variable% name containing the Json, or you can specify it directly.

To store the incoming message you can set the Document Json to %Msg_Json%. The %Msg_Json% built-in variable returns a Json document representing the incoming message (including attachments).

Query Document

This option will query the selected database/container. The returned query results (in Json format) can be assigned to a variable from the Assign To list.

Enter the Query SQL Select Statement, for example:

SELECT *    
FROM Families f    
WHERE f.id = "AndersenFamily"

The SQL statement must be compatible with the Cosmos SQL specifications.

You can use %variable% replacements:

SELECT *    
FROM Families f    
WHERE f.id = "%FamilyId%"

You can also use parameters:

SELECT *    
FROM Families f    
WHERE f.id = @id

If parameters are used you must the assign each parameter name a type and value in the Parameters grid.

When the Automation executes the Json returned from the query will be assigned to the variable specified. If multiple documents are returned the Json will contain an array of documents. If a single document is returned then the Json will be set to the document json.

You can assign the count of documents returned to a variable from the Assign Count To list.

Azure Blob

Read from or write to Azure Blob Storage.

Specify your Azure Storage Account Name and Access Key and click the Connect button to connect.

Select the blob Container to read from or write to.

Select the Operation - Get Blob to read a blob or Put Blob to upload new blobs.

Get

Enter the Blob Name to read. This can contain %variable% replacements.

You can specify a Save To where the Blob will be saved. The saved blob path & name can then be assigned to a variable from the Assign To list.

If no Save To path is specified then the blob data itself will be assigned to the Assign To variable without being saved to a file.

Put

You can Put either Files & Attachments or Blob Data:

Files & Attachments

Enter a Blob Name - this is optional. If no name is specified then the file names will be used.

In the Upload Files entry, specify local files to upload. You can specify multiple files separated by commas. Leave blank to only upload attachments

Enable the Include Incoming Attachments to upload attachments and specify the Matching Mask (eg: *.pdf).

Enable the Ensure Unique option to append a timestamp to the uploaded file names to ensure they are unique. Otherwise any existing blob with the same name will be overwritten.

Enable the Append Filenames To Blob Name option to append uploaded file names to the Blob Name specified. This is only applicable if a Blob Name has been specified. For example: If the Blob Name is set to 'orders' and the attachment '1234.pdf' is uploaded, then the Blob name in your storage account will be set to 'orders1234.pdf'.

Each uploaded Blob is given a unique URL. You can assign the URL to a variable from the Assign Url(s) To list. If multiple files are uploaded then the multiple URL's will be returned, separated by commas.

Blob Data

This option allows you to upload raw blob data. The Blob Name & Blob Data must be specified. Any existing Blob with the same name will be overwritten.

Azure Table

Read from or write to Azure Table Storage.

Specify your Azure Storage Account Name and Access Key and click the Connect button to connect.

Select the Table Name to read from or write to.

Select the Operation - Get Entity to read a table row or Put Entity to write a new table row.

Get

Specify the Partition Key and Row Key for the table entity you want to read. These can contain %variable% replacements.

Once the table entity has been read you can then map entity property names to ThinkAutomation variables. Select the ThinkAutomation variable name from the Assign To list - and then enter or select the table entity property name in the Assign From column.

Put

Specify the Partition Key and Row Key for the new table entity you want to write. These can contain %variable% replacements.

You must then map entity property names to ThinkAutomation variables. Select the ThinkAutomation variable name from the Assign From list. Select the property Type, and then enter or select the table entity property name in the Assign To column.

You can also assign the URL to the newly created Table entity by selecting from the Assign Url To list.

Azure Queue

Get or Add to an Azure Queue.

Specify your Azure Storage Account Name and Access Key and click the Connect button to connect.

Select the Queue Name to use.

Select the Operation - Get Message to take the next message from the queue or Put Message to add to the queue.

Get Message

This will take the next message from the queue. Select the variable to receive the queue message from the Assign To list.

Put Message

This will add a message to the queue. Specify the Message Data.

Azure Form Recognize

Extract text, key-value pairs and tables from documents, forms, receipts, invoices and business cards without manual labelling using the Azure Form Recognizer service. See: Form Recogniser – Automated Data Processing Systems | Microsoft Azure

Specify your Azure Form Recognizer Endpoint and Access Key.

Select the Model. This can be:

Layout - for generic documents.
Invoice - for invoices.
Business Card - for business cards and ID documents.
Receipt - for paper receipts.

Select the Locale/Language.

For the Layout model you can select a Pages range. This can be in the format 1-3, or 1,3,5. Leave blank for all pages.

Select the Analyze File. This can be any local file or a %variable% replacement. The following file types are supported: PDF, BMP, PNG, JPEG or TIF.

Select the variable to receive the result from the Assign Result To list.

System

Execute PowerShell

Executes a Windows PowerShell command or script. Returns the response to a ThinkAutomation variable.

Enter the PowerShell Command or Script or specify PowerShell Script File.

In the PowerShell Command or Script you can either specify the command and it's parameters or you can specify the command only and then provide parameter names, values & types in the Parameters Grid.

Example - Single Command With Parameters

To get the current Windows version. Set the PowerShell Command to Get-ItemProperty and add parameters:

Parameter Name	Value	Type
Path	HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion	String
Name	ReleaseId	String

You can use %variable% replacements for parameter values (or part of).

If you need to pass multiple values to a single parameter, you need to send through a special ThinkAutomation array type. To do this, prefix your parameter value with the word ARRAY: followed by comma-separated values.

This will return:

ReleaseId    : 2009
PSPath       : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT
PSChildName  : CurrentVersion
PSDrive      : HKLM
PSProvider   : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry

Example - Command

You can also execute a PowerShell command/script. Set the Command to:

(Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" -Name ReleaseId).ReleaseId

You can use %variable% replacements inside the Command, eg:

(Get-ItemProperty -Path "%RegKey%" -Name ReleaseId).ReleaseId

Nothing should be specified in the Parameters grid.

The above will return 2009.

Remember to enclose string parameters in quotes.

Wait Max (Seconds)

Specify the maximum seconds to wait for the command or script to execute. If the command or script does not complete within the specified number of seconds then an error will be raised. This setting prevents scripts that do not properly handle timeouts from halting execution of the Automation.

Assign To

Select the variable that you want the Response to be assigned to. The entire PowerShell command response will be assigned to the field/variable.

Testing

You can use the Test button to test the Command/Script. The response will be displayed and also copied to the clipboard.

External Modules

If your PowerShell command or script uses external modules/cmdlets you need to enter the module names in the Import Module Names entry. Separate multiple modules with commas. You can use the module name or path.

In order to be able to run the PowerShell script you need to set an appropriate PowerShell Execution Policy. For guidance on this from Microsoft, see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_execution_policies?view=powershell-6

Run A Program

Execute any Windows program or command with optional parameters. The Output of the program can be assigned to a variable.

Enter the Program Or Command To Run and any Parameters. You can use %fieldname% replacements in both entries.

Run Via

This option defines which process runs the program:

Run Via: Message Processor Service

The Message Processor service itself runs the program. You can optionally specify user Credentials that the program should execute as.

Run Via: ThinkAutomation Studio Or Desktop Connector On Behalf Of The Message Processor Service

The message processor service sends a request to the ThinkAutomation Studio or Desktop Connector to start the program on it's behalf. The Studio/Desktop Connector executes the program and sends the results back to the message processor.

You also have the option to specify a ThinkAutomation User Name if you want the program to be executed by a specific logged in Studio/Desktop connector user (for example a user running the Studio on a remote machine). If no user is specified then the process will be executed by the first running instance of the Studio/Desktop connector.

This option can be used in instances where the program you want to run needs to execute under the security context of the logged in Windows user rather than under the security context of a running service. For example, you may have an AutoIt script that interacts with the user's desktop applications. However for this to work the ThinkAutomation Studio or Desktop Connector applications must be running when the Automation executes.

Redirect Output

Select the Redirect Output if you want to receive the output of the program. The output can then be assigned to a variable selected from the Assign Output To list.

Wait For Exit

Select the Wait For Exit option if you want ThinkAutomation to wait for the program to complete before continuing with the remaining actions on the Automation. You can also specify a Wait Max in milliseconds.