Overview
Acclamare supports the sending of outbound emails via SMTP. SMTP is the standard by which emails are transmitted, regardless of whether you are using Outlook, GMail, Yahoo, Thunderbird, Exchange or any other email client application. You will configure Acclamare with the SMTP settings appropriate for your email provider.
Acclamare uses a built-in SMTP client provided by Microsoft within the Visual Studio development environment. Acclamare itself has zero email logic per se. Acclamare treats an email exactly the same as a print job of fax job. When a user requests to print/fax/email, Acclamare makes a call to the SSRS server to produce a PDF of the specific form, and then Acclamare takes that PDF form and hands it off to the applicable routine (i.e. printer, fax, or SMTP email client). All email settings are set within the User Maintenance screen.
Options to Consider in Advance
In that Acclamare emails are being transmitted directly via SMTP, they are bypassing your email client application. Emails sent from Acclamare will not be appear in your email client "Sent" folder. If you desire to have a record or log of these sent emails, there two options to consider.
The first option is to assign a static "BCC" email address to Acclamare outbound documents. This can be a general email account that is simply being used to record copies of sent emails. Each user's email client can be configured to access this email account for the purpose of reviewing sent emails. Assigning of a static BCC is performed in the global Document Control interface. For each document type, you can assign one or more BCC addresses.
The second option is to use a SMTP service provider such as SMTP2Go or MailJet. SMTP2Go is a preferred providers due to it's simplicity of setup, cost, and user interface. Depending upon the volume of outbound emails, the cost of such service can be free for up to 2,000 per month or approximately $15 per month for up to 20,000 emails per month. With these service providers, you will continue to use your existing email account and the service tracks the outbound emails. Not only are the sent emails logged, but you will also be able to see when the email was delivered, whether the email was opened by the recipient, and detailed bounce/reject information.
Acclamare Setup
Email settings can be configured via the Command Center within the User Maintenance grid or directly from the Acclamare Client interface for each user. Below is shown the Client interface which is accessed via File Maintenance > My User Account .
Address: This is the address that will be sent as the "Reply To" address for the sent email. If the recipient chooses to reply to your email, it is to this address that the reply will be sent.
Your Name: This is the name that will appear in the sent header. This is optional.
Server: This is the Outgoing/SMTP server that is used by your email provider. If you will be using a SMTP Service Provider (as in this example), the service provider will provide you the server address.
Port: Your email or SMTP service provider will instruct you of the value to be assigned here. Don't forget to open this port on your domain or router firewall.
Account: This is the sign-in account authorized to send outgoing emails. Most commonly this is your email address.
Password: This is the password associated to the above sending Account.
Is Exchange: Checkmark this box if you will be using your in-house Exchange server.
Use SSL: Checkmark this box if your email provider requires SSL.
Note on using SPF and DKIM
Many email filtering systems will check the SPF record to help guard against email "spoofing" and such emails may be blocked from arriving into the recipients inbox. If you plan to use and SMTP Service Provider it is very important that you configure the SPF and DKIM files on your email host. This will insure that your emails will not be rejected by the recipients email filters. SMTPGo and MailJet will provide you with these setting values.